Speaker:

Ken Coates, Canada Research Chair, Faculty Member (JSGS), University of Saskatchewan

Abstract:

In the global enthusiasm for MOOCs and other forms of hybrid or technologically mediated learning, concerns have arisen about the very future of the university enterprise. Traditionalists decry the impending loss of faculty-student face to face encounter, even as financial pressures and changing institutional priorities have changed the undergraduate experience dramatically. As is often the case this technological revolutions, the impact of technologically-mediating learning has been seriously oversold and equally underestimated. This presentation reflects on the rhetoric and passions of innovations in the academy and considers the realistic prospects for advanced education in the current political and economic environment.

Dr. Ken Coates is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Raised in the Yukon, with a BA (History) from UBC, MA (History) from Manitoba and PhD (History) from UBC, Ken has worked at universities across the country and in New Zealand. He was the Founding Vice-President (Academic) of the University of Northern British Columbia and held administrative posts at the University of Waikato (New Zealand), University of New Brunswick at Saint John, University of Saskatchewan and University of Waterloo. His co-authored work, Arctic Front, won the Donner Prize in 2009. Dr. Coates is also the former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the University of Waterloo Stratford digital media campus. His current research focuses on the socio-economic impact of technology and its applications in remote and rural regions.

Speaker:

Prof. JiPing Zhang, East China Normal University

Abstract:

Communities of practice have become a new way for people to learn. Social software can be viewed as a tool that supports community interaction. However, what motivates people to join a community of practice needs to be studied. This study focuses on the relationship between social software and communities of practice. A case study focusing on people’s motivation for joining a community is discussed.

Prof. JiPing Zhang is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Raised in the Yukon, with a BA (History) from UBC, MA (History) from Manitoba and PhD (History) from UBC, Ken has worked at universities across the country and in New Zealand. He was the Founding Vice-President (Academic) of the University of Northern British Columbia and held administrative posts at the University of Waikato (New Zealand), University of New Brunswick at Saint John, University of Saskatchewan and University of Waterloo. His co-authored work, Arctic Front, won the Donner Prize in 2009. Dr. Coates is also the former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the University of Waterloo Stratford digital media campus. His current research focuses on the socio-economic impact of technology and its applications in remote and rural regions.

Professor Mohammed Aman (Moderator) | Univeristy of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The Online, the Blended and the Flexible Learning By Any Means Necessary – UW Experience

Learning science informs us that different people learn differently in terms of pace and learning styles and that all students learn best when they are engaged with the learning materials and when they understand and work towards clear learning outcomes, not only in terms of pace but also in terms of pedagogy, format and mode(s) of delivery. Successful experiences with the early efforts of online and distance learning paved the way for more aggressive advancements in this area which led us to other format of learning that married face-to-face learning with online and most recently with a new method of providing flexible degree programs that are not tied to physical location and take into account student assessment, competency-based credit for the bachelor’s degree with no class time required. These and other future changes are contributing factors to democratization of higher education and providing nations with the much needed educated and skilled workforce for national and international development. This presentation will also discuss the University of Wisconsin System’s newly introduced Flexible Degree Option (FDO).

Dr. Mohammed M. Aman is Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies, was Dean of the School from June 1979 – October 2002 and served as the Interim Dean of the School of Education from July 2000 to August 2001. He developed one of the first online Master degree program in 1990s which received the Best 10 Online Program by the US News and Report in 1995. Prior to joining UWM in 1979, Dr. Aman was Dean of the School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University (1976-79); Director of the division of Library and Information Science at St. John’s University in New York (1973-76) where he was on the faculty since 1969.

Author of more than 200 journal articles and book chapters, and several books including Management of Academic Libraries (2010 and 2012); Profiles of Academic Libraries (2010); and a forthcoming book New Directions in the Middle East (Westphalia Press, Washington, DC fall 2013). Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES), and Middle East Media Book Reviews (MEMBR). Consultant on post secondary education; distant learning and Middle East issues.

Marden Paul (Panelist) | University of Toronto

The Importalable MOOC — Can Humans Keep Up?

Years ago, in the early days of portals, I proposed a concept called “Importalability”. The concept was based on the viability of translating an organisational transaction or function into a Web-based service. At the time, academic activities were not considered viable because of bandwidth availability, multi-party conferencing capabilities, computing speed limitations; and that interactive/social tools and inexpensive, pervasive computing devices were not yet invented. MOOCs are now viable within the “importability” framework, but perhaps courses with tens of thousands of students transcend our linear thinking traits. I will discuss MOOCs within importability, linear and exponential thinking, and disruptive affects on traditional education providing models.

Marden Paul is currently Director, Policy, Planning, Governance and Communications in the office of the Chief Information Officer. His responsibilities include strategic planning, forecasting institutional requirements and opportunities for aligning IT in their support, facilitating partnerships amongst IT providers, and developing policies and guidelines for information management. Over the years Marden has introduced and/or collaborated on the implementation of many significant components to the University’s IT and operating environment including: an institutional Web Content Management System, the Blackboard Learning Management System and Portal, expanded Tier 1 computing vendor relationships, the Appropriate Use for Information and Communication Technology guidelines, and many other initiatives.. A U of T graduate and an employee since 1997, Marden has held management positions at Development and University Advancement, Administrative Management Systems, and as Director of Strategic Computing in the Office of the VP and Provost prior to his current role.

Dr. Kam Cheong Li (Panelist) | The Open University of Hong Kong

Providing MOOCs by Hong Kong Institutions ─ Opportunities and Concerns

MOOCs have gained immense, increasing and accelerated attention in just half a decade. In this fast developing context, various educational institutions are seriously exploring whether and how they should offer MOOCs. In deliberating this, opportunities are identified and concerns raised. Institutions could offer MOOCs as a means to realise their educational philosophy, enhance their popularity, and/or market their courses. They also face challenges such as internal resistance to embarking on a completely new mode of educational delivery, the lack of concrete promise for benefits, worries about losing their market as their learning material are accessible free, technical difficulties to overcome in meeting needs of a huge number of students both synchronously and asynchronously, as well as difficulties in handling copyright licenses for their courses and contents. In Hong Kong, a number of institutions have pondered and a small number of them have started the offer of MOOCs, and some are seeking further diversification. A complex set of factors are relevant and they should be carefully examined and appraised. In addition to those mentioned above, there are also territorial factors to assess, which include roles and competitive edge of individual institutions, cultural acceptance of OER, as well as core values of institutional administrators.

Dr Li has been engaged in distance and technology-enhanced education for more than 20 years. He is an active researcher in open education, and is involved in projects developing an open textbook system and MOOCs for the Open University of Hong Kong. He has served a wide range of roles in course provision (including course developer, development team coordinator, course coordinator, instructor and tutor) for study programmes in distance learning, elearning, as well as blended learning modes. He has been in charge of a broad variety of degree programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels delivered with online components. Dr Li has also been contributing to various academic and professional communities. He is Honorary Chair Professor/Visiting Professor of a number of tertiary institutions in China and the United Kingdom, as well as advisor/member of many government and professional committees

Professor Ray Schroeder (Panelist) | University of Illinois at Springfield

MOOCs Maturing and Morphing into Major Players in Higher Education

Massive classes (on the scale of hundreds rather than hundreds of thousands of students) emerged half a dozen years ago.  We have seen a rapid expansion and proliferation of models of MOOCs over the intervening time.  Yet, the question remains, in what ways will MOOCs find a meaningful place in higher education.  How will this powerful massive scale of offering learning opportunities impact higher education as we now know it.  Models are under development that may hold the answer.  The Georgia Tech MOOC-delivered master’s degree in computer science and the worldwide elite university promised by the Minerva Project are two of the examples I will examine.  Meantime, Coursera has hinted at plans to offer entire “curricula” via MOOC in the near future and Udacity leaders are cited as expressing a desire to become a university within five years.  Prospects of a Udacity/Google university are rumored as are the probabilities of a Coursera IPO.  I will project these models and associated possibilities into the next half dozen years of MOOCs in higher education.

Professor Schroeder is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning, Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service. He has numerous national presentations and publications in online and technology-enhanced learning. Ray has published the popular Online Learning Update and Educational Technology blogs for the past decade. Schroeder is an active advocate for inter-institutional collaboration and in cooperation with the Illinois Community College Board has offered a series of online workshops and symposia for community colleges in the state of Illinois. He was a Sloan Consortium Distinguished Scholar in Online Learning 2002-2003, and the recipient of the 2002 Sloan-C award for the “Most Outstanding Achievement in ALN by an Individual.” He was the University of Southern Maine “Visiting Scholar in Online Learning” 2006-2009, and co-founder of the New Century Learning Consortium. Ray was named the inaugural 2010 recipient of the Sloan Consortium’s highest Individual award – the A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award. Schroeder is an inaugural Sloan Consortium Fellow. Recently Ray received the 2011 University of Illinois Distinguished Service Award. Most recently Ray has been named the inaugural Innovation Fellow of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association.

Speaker:

Bebo White, Departmental Associate (Emeritus), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University

Abstract:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have soared in popularity and have been described as the “disruptive innovation” that promises to revolutionize higher education. The head of a new consortium of Harvard and MIT has referred to the concept as “the most important educational technology in 200 years.”  John Hennessy, the President of Stanford University, has been quoted as saying “there’s a tsunami coming.” All agree that there are fundamental changes ahead for higher education and traditional teaching. The early success of MOOCs has, quite naturally, triggered entrepreneurship with companies offering to provide the resources and services for their implementation. A number of these entrepreneurs come from the educational institutions whose “status quo” may most be affected by MOOCs. In this talk and tutorial Bebo will provide an overview of the MOOC phenomenon and a report on the status of MOOCs with their successes and failures. He will also describe how to design and implement a MOOC using his own “Bebo University” (bebouniv.com) as a case study. Ample time will also be provided for a (hopefully spirited) discussion on MOOCs.

ICHL2013 attendees who are interested in the MOOC concept, be it for current application or curiosity, are invited to attend and participate. A gateway to MOOC information and resources can be found on its Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooc).

Professor Bebo White is a Departmental Associate (Emeritus) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the U.S. national laboratory for high-energy physics and basic energy science at Stanford University. Working as a computational physicist, he first became involved with the emerging Web technology while on sabbatical at CERN in 1989. Upon his return he was part of the team that established the first non-European Web site at SLAC (the fifth site in the world). Ever since, his academic research interests have evolved in parallel with Web technology and he has become internationally recognized as a WWW pioneer and visionary. He is often considered to be the “first American Webmaster” and one of the founders of the discipline of Web Engineering. In addition to his work at SLAC, Professor White also holds faculty appointments at several other institutions, is a member of the organizing committees of a number of major conferences series, and is a frequent conference speaker and paper reviewer. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has selected him to be a part of their Distinguished Speaker Program. He is the author (or co-author) of nine books, and over 100 papers and journal articles.