Global opportunities for distance learning

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• Global opportunities for distance learning
• Andrew Bollington
• Chief Operating Officer
• March 2012

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The historic role of distance learning
The wife of a professional man of limited income
and the mother of children, the elder of who with
others I was engaged in teaching during part of
the day, I had neither time nor money for
attendance at college classes, but I gladly
availed myself of the first opportunity for
graduation offered by the new Charter, and felt
justified in devoting what leisure I had, which
was chiefly after 10pm, when the children were
asleep, to the work of preparing for
graduation Elizabeth Hills, 1881
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Distance becomes mainstream
New external forces
Consumer IT platforms
cottage industry programmes
Open education resources
Adaptive learning
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New external forces
The sector is facing the most exciting, dramatic
and completely terrifying periodfor at least 30
years.
Paul Marshall, Chief Executive 1994 Group of
smaller research-intensive universities
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New external forces

• Teaching rises in relative importance
• Private investment
• Size matters

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So, we have the technology

• The technology now supports (demands?) production
  capability beyond that of any individual.
• Academic content specialists
• Instructional designers
• Graphic designers
• Audio-visual producers
• Learning technologists

what about the content?
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Open Educational Resources
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Open Educational Resources
Yet, like open source code, OER is free like a
puppy, not free like a beer. Schools and teachers
are challenged in how to find it, sort it for
quality, and integrate it into what they already
do. (InfoTech Research)
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Adaptive testing

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Adaptive instruction
Instruction that changes the lesson, and creates
a learning plan, based on how well a student
understands the digital content
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Global opportunities for distance learning
New external forces
Consumer IT platforms
cottage industry programmes
Open education resources
Adaptive learning