The New Media Consortium is an Education Technology group that has tracked the role and trends of technology use in Higher Education for many years. I first became familiar with their work when I began working at the Digital Union in 2005 with a Flash generating template for websites called Pachyderm.
Each year NMC puts out a Horizon Report identifying the technologies that will be implemented soon in Higher Education. NMC staff and advisers from higher eduction categorize the growth of these trends into very near future implementation or burnout, a medium term time frame between two and three years for implementation, and a far view of four to five years before the technology or trend is implemented.
This year the report referenced The Ohio State University in the area of Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative learning, in large part because of the work the Statistics Department has done in developing a high-flex class where students can attend in person, watch class from home, or view recorded video of the class time. The Statistics Project was supported by an impact grant from The Office of Distance Education and eLearning (ODEE).
While thinking about this success, I began to think about the other trends showcased in this report, and considered how Ohio State is doing in other Horizon areas. Discussions with members of the Digital First team are the basis for this overview of The Horizon Report section on Key Trends and how The Ohio State University is responding to these trends.
One to two year adoption or burnout:
Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning: This is the area of the report where the Ohio State Statistics was highlighted. The implementation of lecture capture and live streaming in some colleges and large pool classrooms is beginning to be utilized in other departments, like The College of Medicine, where 40 ~ 50 students watch their daily lecture from a remote location daily. In open materials, like those on iTunes U, the future may bring curated courses bringing together materials from the best courses on a particular subject in the world.
Social Media Use in Learning: We see a continued reluctance on the part of students to bring their class worlds and social worlds together in the same space. For the most part, students seem to reject any tool that brings their established online social presence in contact with a class where the fellow students are not friends or peers beyond the context of that shared class time. In class activities could be scheduled that might foster friendships and possibly real social connections, however students resist having such connections imposed on their spaces.
A better implementation of social learning might be some technology like shared comments in the course reading materials, where students could see other student’s comments, reply, and create a discussion within the community for that course. The Canvas Course Management system has a ‘Facebook-like’ interface that highlights community around a course; as long as the community is being created around the context of course study and isn’t hijacking the student’s personal space this trend could easily spread.
Three to five year adoption or burnout:
The Creator Society: We’re supporting this trend strongly for students and faculty. The first Digital Union was our early attempt to support student and faculty multimedia creation with hands-on assistance from our students. Commitment to this support has allowed the service to grow with 3 Digital Union locations around campus. A second audio recording booth and an advanced video studio will open this fall, and a 4th Digital Union location will open by next winter.
The University WordPress site, U.OSU.EDU is a newly launched venue for students and faculty to create content on a university supported site. Yet another example of faculty support for content creation are the iTunes U and iBook author bootcamps, where faculty receive 2 days of intensive training and support around getting their content into an iTunes course or iBook for their students.
Data-Driven Learning and Assessment: Ohio State University is looking at ways we can utilize the Insights module for Carmen which will track student engagement, assignment completion, and student performance on tests. The information alone will be of no use unless instructors and student advisers can engage students having trouble to determine what support they need, and offer support or tutoring when needed. The university as a whole is also interested in this data in aggregate, so departments can identify courses that drive students to change majors and determine if changing elements within that course or adding supporting material for students prior to taking that course can lead to better success.
Five or more years to adoption:
Agile Approaches to Change: This is a challenge at a school the size of Ohio State; changing direction at a school this size is a little like turning a battleship. University IT Leadership is aware the days of two or three year technology projects where the landscape has changed by the time the project is complete are a thing of the past. New projects to test and implement technologies for campus within ODEE are proceeding on tight timelines, with the hope that we aren’t chasing the wave so much as we move forward. Even with this new philosophy and the One University Framework Plan to reduce redundant services on campus this is a huge change for our campus.
Making Online Learning Natural This is another challenging area of the NMC report. Course Management Systems like Carmen should consider improving the mobile interface view for students and they need to add community tools that faculty and students will use in their courses.
In a future post I’ll talk about the next section of the Horizon report, Challenges Impeding ED Tech Adoption, and how these specifically relate to our work at The Ohio State University.