MERLOT '05: The Long-Awaited Breakthrough? notes

Keynote by Sir John Daniel - presentation notes

• Development through learning
• 1. Challenge of making HE available to all
• 2. Can eLearning help?
• 3. Barriers to eLearning
• 4. Partners for a better future
• 1. Challenge of making HE available to all
  
• The major trend: growth in demand
• Demography: 7-8 billion (50% young) in developing world by 2025.
  Discrepancy: Developed APR 40% plus, developing APR 10% plus
• cross-border post-secondary education negligible phenomenon in developing countries, therefore the developing world need home-grown solutions - is eLearning one of them?
• 2. Can e-Learning help?
• C.K. Prahalad: 'the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid' - an APR of 35% would yield 150 million students. Companies with the resources stand to gain.
• The most promosing innovation in eLearning - Open Educaiton Resources (OERs), such as Open Source, open content, etc.
  
• Barriers to sharing courseware:
  
• 'not invented here'
• copyright
• non-digital formats - difficulty sharing, distributing, etc.
• 4 questions:
• Accessible?
• 1. Connectivity?
• 2. OERs available? e.g. MERLOT
• OECD/UNESCO is mapping OER initiatives
• UNESCO-IIEP - FOSS new forum on OERs and open content
• COL - Access to multiple LORs (www.col.org/lor)
  Software = eRIB (Canarie) + pakXchange
• Appropriate?
• Copyright
• Accredited?
• Does eLearning require new QA criteria?
• What can be done at the International level to promote trust and confidence?
• 6 stakeholders: gov'ts, institutions, QA agencies, student associations, professional bodies, qualification recognition agencies
• http://www.unesco.org/education/amq/guidelines
• HE ODL Knowledge Base: www.unesco.org/odl
• Affordable?
• Digital divide -> digital dividend?
• Virtual University for Small States of Commenwealth - potential of eLearning to promote national and regional development: http://www.col.org.virtualu
• 3. Barriers to eLearning - what can we do?
• Interests of gov't in eLearning
• Efficiency
• Effectivness
• Economy
• Roles of gov't
• DON'T operate eLearning programs except for gov't functions
• DO create the right context and frameworks
• Centralized infrastructure
• K-12 curriculum
• facilitate creation of LORs
• advise on LMSs
• accurate info on copyright
• Issues of bandwidth:
• Telecoms legislation and monopolies - developing country institutions can pay over 100 times more for Internet access than in the industrialized world. Telecom companies buying overseas bandwidth and overselling to developing countries. Expensive connectivity handicaps.
  
• little joint buying - institutions should club together to buy bandwidth (cheaper).
  
• poor policy and management - define acceptable use (e.g. what kind of websites can be visited). Maximize benefits day and night (bandwidth demands lower at night, pre-caching resources for future). Extended hours of access.
  
• LMS Evaluation Tool Use Guide (www.col.org/Consultancies/04LMSEvaluation.htm)
• e.g. Canarie has done a great job
• Challenges for us
• 1. How to enhance collaboration?
• Virtual forums (e.g. UNESCO-IIEP)
• Funding collaboration (e.g. Hewlett)
• Linking LORs (learning = common wealth)
• Training in policy and practice
• International collaboration (UNESCO / OECD)
  
• 2. What can we do? How can we bring post-secondary education to the bottom of the pyramid (4 billion people)?