Socrates Minerva

1
Socrates - Minerva

• PEDAGOGICAL QUALITY OF ODL
• criteria for assessment

Joergen Bang, Aarhus University, Denmark
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Presentation

• Quality assurance on the European agenda
• Focusing on the relation between quality and
  pedagogy
• Quality and the BOLDIC pedagogical model of
  blended learning

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Why focus on quality assurance

• A goal in itself to provide good
  education
• A road to accreditation of courses,
  programmes, educations at other
  institutions and in other countries
• A basis for collaboration among
  institutions/universities

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Bologna 1999

• mobility
• course and curriculum co-operation
• international competitiveness and attractiveness
• broad access to higher education and competence
  development in a context of lifelong learning.
• diversity of courses and programmes, responsive
  to the diversity of needs
• transparency, readable degrees and certificates,
  ECTS
• quality assurance
• international accreditation

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Bergen 2005

• Ministers call upon ENQA through its members,
  in co-operation with EUA, EURASHE and ESIB
• to develop an agreed set of standards, procedures
  and guidelines on quality assurance,
• to explore ways of ensuring an adequate peer
  review system for quality assurance and/or
  accreditation agencies or bodies,
• to report to Ministers of education in Bergen
  2005.

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National quality assurance

• A definition of the responsibilities of the
  bodies and institutions involved
• Evaluation of programmes and institutions,
  including internal assessment, external review,
  participation of students and the publication of
  results
• A system of accreditation, certification and
  comparable procedures
• Guidelines for international participation,
  co-operation and networking

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EUA principles and goals

• PRINCIPLES
• Mutual trust among the main stakeholders
• Respect of diversity of national contexts,
  subject areas and other factors
• Transparency clear architecture and clear
  procedures

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EUA principles and goals

• GOALS
• To strengthen universities capacity to monitor
  their quality internally
• To promote institutional audits and good practice
  in programme evaluations
• To develop a European perspective, i.e. to create
  transparency for mutual recognition

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Pedagogical focus

• "Technology alone does not deliver educational
  success. It only becomes valuable in education if
  learners and teachers can do something useful
  with it. ()
• just having the pipes in place with little or
  no educational software available generates
  disappointment and puts many teachers and
  learners off the online experiences altogether.
  ()
• What is appropriate and works in one culture
  does not necessarily translate to another. ()
  () educational content and e-learning services
  () need to be tailored to local needs and
  cultures.
• (E-Learning. The Partnership Challenge
  (2001),24-25).

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VET-report Nov. 2004

• e-Learning clearly has the potential to
  stimulate learning networks and new forms of
  training organisation. The basic principle of
  good pedagogy remains that the design of the
  whole learning process (possible supported by
  e-learning) is the decisive factor for the
  learners success. Therefore, European countries
  e-learning related measures should not be limited
  to questions of hard- and software, but rather
  focus on the pedagogy and e-learning in work
  processes.
• Achieving the Lisbon goal The contribution of
  vocational education and training (VET),
  Executive Summary, November 4, 2004 (p. 17)

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From technology to pedagogy

• Most people () think that the Internet, itself,
  is the key factor in the success of e-learning.
  However, a vast amount of research provides
  evidence for the proposition that it is not the
  medium (Internet), itself, which is accountable
  for the accomplishment of these promises, but the
  pedagogical design used in conjunction with the
  features of the medium.
• (Rob Koper Modeling units of study from az
  pedagogical perspektive. The pedagogical
  meta-model behind EML, 2001, p.3)

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From learning objects to events

• () a lot of learning does not come from
  knowledge resources at all, but stems from the
  activities of learners solving problems,
  interacting with real devices, interacting in
  their social and work situation. A lot of
  research about learning processes provides
  evidence for this stance that learning doesn't
  come from the provision of knowledge solely, but
  that it is the activities of the learners into
  the learning environment which are accountable
  for the learning.
  
• () the smallest unit providing learning events
  for learners, satisfying one or more interrelated
  learning objectives. This means that a unit of
  study can not be broken down to its component
  parts without loosing its semantic and pragmatic
  meaning and its effectiveness towards the
  attainment of learning objectives.
  (Koper, 2001, p. 3)

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BOLDIC pedagogical tradition

• The five central concepts
• student-centred approach
• communication
• group or teamwork
• active participation
• face-to-face.
• a blended approach

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Learning as construction

DECODING (reception) KNOWLEDGE (reciever)
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Knowledge vs. know-how

DECODING (reception) KNOWLEDGE (reciever)
KNOW HOW
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Blooms Taxonomy

• 1) knowledge
• 2) understanding
• 3) application INSTRUCTIVISM
• 4) analysis
• 5) synthesis
• 6) evaluation CONSTRUCTIVISM

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Dialogue and Learning

• Dialogue offers an opportunity for the learner to
  go beyond the boundaries of the learning material
  though discussions with fellow learners and with
  teachers/tutors.
• Dialogue enhances the learning process by
  stimulating the 'negotiation' with the learning
  material through the formulation of ideas and
  view points

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Open discussion fora

• Discussion fora
• respect the close integration of education in
  everyday life
• take advantages of these differences in
  local/national cultures
• make the differences the starting point for
  exchange of ideas and discussion of viewpoints.

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Acquiring knowledge through dialogue

• open dialogue is a challenge to chauvinism and
  narrowness
• the best of the old qualities from universitas
  litterarum is carried into the digital age.
• new technologies reanimate the old university
  tradition in which dialogue is the proper way to
  acquire knowledge.

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Virtual learning environments

• the challenge is pedagogical rather than
  technological (economical)
• the potentials of ICT are especially their
  ability to support co-operation and collaborative
  learning via the Internet

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Deployment of technology

• the closer ODL methodologies and new technology
  can mesh with standard mainstream teaching
  provision the greater their chance of success
• if new technologies are seen as a means of
  challenging rather than supporting existing
  arrangements then resistance will be the order of
  the day

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Trans-national collaboration

• Communication among students and tutors via
  electronic technologies is an appropriate
  teaching/ learning strategy to deploy in
  trans-national exchange (Virtual mobility)
• Open discussion fora (CMC) enable students
• to expose their knowledge and beliefs to those in
  other national/cultural groups, and to challenge
  one another,
• to transform their understanding of the subject.

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Qualities of virtual seminars

• The virtual seminar model is based on joint
  collaboration on equal terms among European
  academics and institutions,
• rather than on export of already produced courses
  or course units.
• The autonomy of the institutions and the
  characteristics of national curricula are
  respected,
• but also challenged in academic discussions

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Qualities for the learner

• The real beneficiaries of the ODL integration in
  conventional teaching institutions are the
  learners.
• they will obtain a flexibility in the learning
  process, not previously known to them
• they will get access to courses and educational
  materials outside their own institution, not
  previously within their reach
• they will be presented for cross-cultural
  viewpoints and given possibilities to discuss
  these viewpoints with fellow learners from other
  countries.
• In short, they become part of a European learning
  environment.

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• Joergen Bang
• Head of Department
• Department of Information and Media Studies
• Aarhus University
• Denmark
• Tel. [phone]
• E-mail jbang_at_imv.au.dk