Online Learning Environments

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Online Learning Environments

• An International Analysis
• of Web-based Education
• and
• Strategic Recommendations
• for Decision Makers
• Morten Flate Paulsen
• http//home.nettskolen.com/morten/

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NKI Nettskolen (www.nettskolen.com)

• Online education since 1987
• 2 800 students in 15 countries
• 50 online programs and 180 online courses
• 5 800 course enrollments in 2000
• Individual enrollment every day of the year
• Individual pacing and course progression
• No limits with regard to number of students
• Exams at local schools and Norwegian embassies
• Online students get better grades at exams

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Course enrollments NKI Nettskolen 1987 - 2000

• 2800 students in 15 countries
• 180 online courses
• 90 online tutors

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SPICE (www.nettskolen.com/spice)

• Specialization Program in International Online
  Education
• SPICE 601 Introduction to International Online
  Education
• SPICE 602 Design and Development of Online
  Courses
• SPICE 603 Online Teaching and Learning
• SPICE 604 Administration Systems and Support
  Services
• SPICE 605 International and Comparative Online
  Education

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The CISAER Project (www.nettskolen.com/cisaer)

• Supported by the European Leonardo da Vinci
  program
• International survey and analysis of courses on
  the Internet
• Strategic recommendations
• Based on
• literature reviews,
• catalogue data from 130 institutions in 26
  countries (March 98 - Feb. 99)
• 72 interviews with key persons at these
  institutions (spring 99)
• course analyzes (spring 2000)
• Analysis written spring 2000.

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• PORTALS

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(No Transcript)
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Distribution of the 130 CISAER Institutions
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Global Issues

• Globally, more than 100.000 courses available on
  the Internet
• The survey indicates that institutions in Europe
  (60.8), North America (21.5), and Australia
  (7.7) overwhelmingly outnumbers institutions in
  South America (3.1), Asia (3.1), and Africa
  (0.8).
• Many more entries from North America could be
  included.
• Among 130 catalogue entries, 45.4 were from the
  English language countries USA, UK, Australia,
  Canada, and Ireland.
• There is a steady growth of institutions that
  offer online courses to students in other
  countries, and the analysis presents many
  examples of international collaboration and
  thinking. However, most of the global initiatives
  seem to be experiments and ambitions rather than
  main priorities.

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Most Institutions have few courses and students

• A large number of the institutions offered few
  web courses
• 23.1 had only one web-course
• 46.2 offered less than 5 courses
• Only four institutions had 100 courses or more
• And few online students
• 29.3 of the institutions had 100 or fewer
  students
• Only four institutions had more than 5000
  students.
• From the low course- and enrollment numbers, one
  can infer that much of the activities were
  experimental and not pivotal for the institutions.

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Courses and Institutions

• There was a dominance of web-courses in computer
  and information sciences and in education.
• Web courses covered a very broad range of
  subjects.
• Nearly half of the institutions offered courses
  in only one category and only five offered
  courses in five or more categories.
• None of the surveyed institutions provided enough
  online courses and support services that we would
  characterize them as virtual or online
  universities.
• The survey showed that 60 of the 130
  institutions belonged to the university and
  college sector, 10 to the open university and
  distance education sector, and 9 were classified
  as companies or corporations.

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Administrative systems

• An online college may have to handle
• thousands of students and hundreds of teachers,
• hundreds of courses with many online resources
  and services
• It should also be integrated with
• administrative systems for the dispatch of
  textbooks,
• handling of tuition and examination fees,
• and organization of local examinations.
• This is a major challenge for traditional
  institutions.

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Administrative options

• The simplest is probably to collaborate with an
  institution that already has a functional
  administrative system.
• Another solution, which requires more technical
  competence, is to develop an in-house system.
• The third option is to purchase a standard system
  for online education. These standard systems are
  continuously being improved, but they may still
  need much local adaptation. They may only meet
  some of the administrative needs, and they could
  place some pedagogical limitations on the courses.

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Administrative solutions

• A discouraging, but important observation is that
  a number of institutions did not use the web for
  administrative purposes.
• Outsourcing is an option that did not seem to be
  much used, only one instance was identified.
• Many of the institutions had developed in-house
  solutions in combinations with standard Internet
  software.
• The standard administrative systems that were
  mentioned in the interviews were FirstClass,
  WebCT, and Lotus Notes.

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Some Standard Administrative Systems (LMS)
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Financial Issues

• The tuition fees for web-courses seem to vary
  considerably among institutions and courses.
• Some courses are free and open to everyone.
• Others seem to have full or partial external
  funding.
• Tuition fees seem not to be very different from
  fees in traditional courses.
• The analysis has revealed few, if any, examples
  of institutions with substantial income from
  student fees.
• Likewise, there are few institutions that can
  claim that provision of web-based courses has
  been an economic success, if they disregard
  external research and development grants.

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Teaching Functions

• An analysis of the interviews indicates that the
  tutors at least conduct the following functions
• Organizational functions structure discussions,
  pacing, put forward initiatives
• Social functions monitor groups
• Intellectual functions answer questions, guiding
  students on the Internet
• Assessment functions give feedback to
  assignments, correct submissions

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Course Development Models

• Some institutions have course development teams
• others use the tutor as the sole designer of a
  course.
• The different models have implications for both
  quality control and development time.

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Accreditation

• Degrees, diplomas, certificates, and statements
  of completions were all widely used
• The accreditation seemed to be the same
  independent on whether the course or program is
  offered online or not
• Accreditation could be an important competitive
  advantage
• Collaboration with institutions in other
  countries could result in bilateral accreditation.

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Assessment of Online Course

• Summative assessment was very traditional and
  often had a face-to-face component. Formative
  assessment was more experimental and based on
  online activities.
• Most institutions applied several assessment
  methods in a course or program.
• Tutor assessment was the most common form of
  assessment.
• There were many examples of self-assessment
• Computer assessment was relatively scarce, but we
  found several examples of online quizzes,
  multiple choice tests, and interactive exercises.
• Peer assessment was relatively scarce.

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Enrollment and Progress Flexibility

• The two main models are
• Group enrollment and progress
• Individual enrollment and progress
• The models represent different strategies that
  have important consequences for marketing,
  administrative systems, and pedagogical
  approaches.
• Group enrollment and progression was predominant
• 46 institutions used the group model
• 12 followed the individual model
• 11 institutions offered both models

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Traditional thinking, collaborative learning, or
rigidity?

• The dominance of the group model could come from
  conventional thinking that sustains the semester
  and term system in traditional educational
  systems.
• It is possible that the institutions have a
  well-considered perception that teamwork and
  collaborative learning is hard to achieve with
  individual enrollment and progress.
• One can argue that many students prefer
  individual flexibility and that many institutions
  lack systems, structures, and competence on
  individual enrollment and progression.

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Future Development

• The interest in online education is high, and it
  seems to proliferate rapidly and globally.
• A Canadian competitive analysis shows that the
  primary expansion strategies are more and diverse
  programs, international students, and new and
  niche markets such as corporate training.
• The CISAER interviewees foresaw a future with
  more web-courses, additional online services,
  better quality of the courses, enhanced focus on
  teacher training, further collaborations with
  other institutions, and additional organizational
  consequences.

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Financial Barriers

• The financial barriers are important. The
  analysis showed that few institutions had
  substantial income from student fees. At the same
  time, the cost of development and maintenance
  could be high. In addition, national regulations
  in some countries deny institutions the
  opportunity to charge tuition fees.

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Assessment Barriers

• The interviews testify that there are a number of
  barriers to effective use of online assessment.
  Among them are public and institutional
  regulations, traditions for physical attendance,
  technical limitations, student identification,
  and detection of plagiarized digital material.

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Strategic Recommendations

• 1. Promote international harmonization of
  degrees, certificates, credits, and grades to
  facilitate online mobility of students
• 2. Oppose national regulations that inhibits
  institutions from charging tuition fees
• 3. Focus on cost effective online education
• 4. Develop better systems for administration of
  online education
• 5. Support initiatives for training of online
  teachers, administrators, and instructional
  designers
• 6. Oppose regulations and attitudes that inhibits
  online assessment
• 7. Support further research on online pedagogy
  and didactics
• 8. Develop and implement strategies to reduce
  teacher workload