Elearning research and policy

1
E-learning research and policy

• P.Robert-Jan Simons

2
E-learning policies of Dutch institutes for
higher education

• 4 pieces of practice / policy oriented research
• Blended learning and policy
• Implementation of ICT
• How lecturers see ICT
• Implementing a proof of concept

3
Some conclusions

• There is no official policy as to blended
  learning in Dutch institutes for higher education
  
• 1 out of 36 had some form of written policy
• Most of the departments of my university have no
  written e-learning policy either
• The greatest barrier for implementation is the
  lack collective vision on the use of ICT
• 70 of implementations fails
• Three ways to implement
• Project approach
• Policy cycle
• Transformation

4
Conclusions about lecturers and ICT

• More positive about usefulness than ease of use
  of ICT
• Usefulness and ease of use related to factual use
  of ICT
• 5 categories
• No use -
• Orientation 12
• Substitution 33
• Transition 50
• Transformation 5
• No use, Orientation and Substitution Individual
  lecturer
• Substitution Teams of lecturers
• Transformation Organisation

5
Conclusions about Proof of concept and
implementation

• 7 factors important
• Product need, consistency, proximity
• Process management, involvement, guidance,
  communication
• Importance of adequate diagnosis
• Involve practitioners as early as possible
• Use proof of concept as research opportunity
• Distinguish early adopters and laggards
• Successful use creates followers

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How can research play a role in policy if there
is no policy and no vision on the role of ICT?
What role should e-learning research play?

• Written policy vs policy in use
• Investigate policy in use
• Distinguish practice oriented research and policy
  related research
• E-learning research should stimulate institutions
  to start formulating their e-learning policy
• Mirroring feedback what is not there
• Benchmarking how the others do it
• Showing policy possibilities (pretty good
  practices)
• Policies do not only grow out of research and
  theory, they should also be researched as such

7
Discussion continued

• Results of e-learning research should be
  communicated differently
• The social life of information
• Results are only relevant for certain
  practitioners in certain contexts
• Approach target groups directly and
  differentiated
• Use other means besides written reports and
  websites
• Research and theory should also grow from
  practice and policy- in use

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Theory and research
Practice
Inventions
Discoveries
Explanations
Entrepreneurship
Technology
Van Santen, 2003
Design
9
Discussion continued

• Research should become a more integral part of
  practice and policy.
• The knowledge roundabout
• Islands, polders and bridges

10
Knowledge roundabout
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4 key activities at the knowledge roundabout

• Problem articulation
• Identifying, combining and illuminating
  innovation questions in practices
• Knowledge development
• Stimulating collaboration in developing new
  knowledge in practice
• Answering identified questions form practices
  through research
• Knowledge sharing
• Making accessible and distributing available
  answers from one practice to other practices
• Knowledge brokering
• Directing en facilitating knowledge development
  in order to answer priority questions originated
  in practice where knowledge is lacking.

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Islands, polders and bridges
Profilation
Entrepreneurship
Research
Actionresearch
Pioneering
Practising
Creation
Cocreation
Innovation
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Practising

• Leading to tacit knowledge
• Tacit knowledge about pedagogies of e-learning
  arising from and in practical experiences
• Remain tacit and individual most of the time
• Can be researched!

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Research

• Leading to coded explicit knowledge
• Getting to know the results of official
  scientific research
• Informal research and hidden research going on in
  practice (for instance consultants, journalists)
• For instance, comparing different ways to use
  e-learning in different contexts
• Being trained and educated

15
Creation

• Leading to design knowledge (mostly tacit
  knowledge)
• In designing e-learning designers learn about it
• Underestimated way of learning
• Creating policy documents, manuals, materials

16
Profilation
Entrepreneurship
Research
Actionresearch
Pioneering
Practising
Creation
Cocreation
Innovation
17
Action research

• Combining action with research
• Investigating pretty good practices
• Researchers as activists
• Executing research about e-learning in ones own
  practice
• Comparing different e-learning environments with
  different subgroups of students
• Evaluating on the job
• Practitioners as researchers

18
Pioneering

• Trying out new products and environments on the
  basis of new insights acquired through research
  or training
• Pilots in ones own practice small scale
  experiments with small groups of students
• Prototyping
• Design-research / developmental research
  developing theory through the cyclical design of
  products and environments
• For instance designing an environment for
  computer supported collaborative learning

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Cocreation

• Creating new practices in close collaboration
  with end-users
• Practitioners and designers develop networked
  learning
• Designing in ones own practice
• Practitioners develop their own e-learning
• Systematising products developed in practice
• Making ict-products available for others

20
Profilation
Entrepreneurship
Research
Actionresearch
Pioneering
Practising
Creation
Cocreation
Innovation
21
Profilation

• Making tacit knowledge explicit and sharable
• For instance knowledge about how one can use a
  digital portfolio
• Bringing new knowledge to practice (transfer of
  learning)
• For instance using a theory about knowledge
  sharing in practice

22
Entrepreneurship

• Deciding what new products can be developed for
  which markets and target groups on the basis of
  insights acquired
• For instance deciding that there is a market for
  a tool to test knowledge through a pda
• Deciding what one does not know and has thus to
  be researched
• For instance deciding that one needs more
  knowledge about blending f2f and ict learning

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Innovation

• Bringing new products and processes into a
  practice through seduction, green keeping and
  safety strategies
• Seducing lecturers to start using an electronic
  learning environment
• Designing new products on the basis of tacit
  knowledge acquired in practice
• Designing a new electronic learning environment
  based on experiences in practice

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Conclusions

• New ways to communicate about research outcomes
• New ways to do research more policy and practice
  oriented research
• New ways to integrate research and policy the
  knowledge roundabout
• New ways to integrate research and practice
  islands, polders and bridges