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Session 23
Each presentation is 20 minutes long.
Title: Lessons for Canadian
Universities from American Online Entrepreneurship
Session
Description:
Recent reports on e-learning in
Canadian universities have called for expansion. The 2009 report
on E-Learning in Canada concluded that “While the proportion of
courses delivered online in Canada is one of the highest among
countries studied, research suggests that Canadian
post-secondary institutions have been slower than those in many
other countries to incorporate significant online components
into their programs.” (Canadian Council on Learning, 2009, p.
7). Most universities offer very few on-line options. This
limits access to university education for many Canadians, such
as working parents and people in rural and aboriginal
communities.
In contrast, U.S. universities offer a wide range of online
programs, including for-profit schools (such as the University
of Phoenix), large research-intensive schools (such as the
University of Maryland) and private non-profit schools (such as
DePaul University.) Growth has been steady, and in the fall of
2007 almost 23% of U.S. university students took at least one
online course (Allen & Seaman, 2008).
The result is that virtually
all students’ needs can be met, from obtaining a degree quickly
to high quality instruction that develops critical thinking and
writing skills. Universities follow different models to achieve
these different ends. In the for-profits, courses are developed
and taught using standardized production processes, and
extensive student support ensures successful completion for as
many students as possible. In many not-for-profit schools, the
goal of providing access to a high-quality university education
has led to a craft-oriented model, where individual faculty
develop and teach their own courses. Larger schools that teach
at scale follow a blended model, which respects faculty
intellectual property rights and maximizes rigor while making
use of economies of scale. We argue that Canadian universities
could better serve students by adapting some elements of the
entrepreneurial U.S. models.
Presenters: Beth
Rubin, Susan Prentice
Beth Rubin directs online
learning at the DePaul University’s School for New Learning.
She
has led online learning at both for-profit and not-for-profit
universities in the U.S., and conducts research on factors that
affect itsd success, including perceptions of legitimacy,
organizational policies, learning management systems and
pedagogy.
She earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State University, and
has taught at both Canadian and American universities.
Susan Prentice is Professor of
Sociology at the University of Manitoba. She has a longtime
interest in equity in higher education.
She is co-editor of The
Illusion of Inclusion: Women in Post-secondary Education, and
has written other works on the post-secondary sector.
Her most
recent book, with Martha Friendly, is About Canada: Childcare.
Title: Locally
Relevant Communication Technology: Selecting What Works When
Session
Description:
This presentation draws on my
personal experience over the last 3 years as the Distance
Education Librarian at the University of Manitoba. In that role
I’ve interacted with students at an individual level and in
group settings, in person and remotely. As a result I’ve had the
opportunity to use a variety of communication tools. I wish to
share my experiences with some different types of communication
technology which I have applied in order to improve
accessibility to my students and vice versa. Each of these
technologies is chosen for its suitability under the
circumstances. One of the biggest hurdles remains identifying
and using efficiently the most suitable technology, and often
the most suitable version, to effectively communicate with the
student. In many cases a tool that may seem easy to use at my
end, presents insurmountable hurdles at the other end, -- be it
lack of bandwidth, penetrating firewalls at the work place,
unfamiliarity with the hardware or software, or even efforts to
stay within the limits of copyright law.
Drawing on lessons from development throughout the world, one of
the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that in order to be an
effective instructor in Distance Education, much more attention
needs to be spent on identifying and using technology that is
best suited to the local learning environment. I will refer to
this as ‘locally relevant technology.’
Presenter: Philip
Wolfart
Philip Wolfart has been the Acting Off-Campus Librarian at
the University of Manitoba, since January 2007, and has been at
the Elizabeth Dafoe Library there since 2004. He has over 10
years experience as a Librarian, in various settings. Prior to
working as a Librarian, he taught Geography at the undergraduate
level. He earned a BA. (Hons.) in Geography from Oxford
University, and an M.A. and PhD in Historical Geography from
Queen’s University (Kingston).
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