Academic Research, eLearning Events, Trends
Taking the temperature at ALT 2013 was an interesting day out, and an enjoyable one as well. ALT is both very friendly and very informative even in just 1 day. The event was very well organised and the ALT ethos of sharing best practise was very enjoyable. However the overwhelming topic that attracted most interest and intrigue was the M word….MOOCs! The MOOC momentum in HE is now very common currency and the awaited launch of FutureLearn and the UK Governments simultaneous publication of its literature review on MOOCs were hot topics. The review of MOOCs – imaginatively titles the “Maturing of the MOOCs” led by Stephen Haggard even attracted the attention of Private Eye. The announcement of edX and Google’s role in that MOOC certainly added fuel to the conversational fires. Where next for Google, Course builder, edX and the global war for the education market While there were many views, it was the view of many of my unscientific sampling (and of Stephen Downes the closing key-noter (more later)) that MOOCs were over-hyped, failing to learn from the past and are more than likely going in the wrong direction. The collective wisdom of 20 years of Alt it was felt was not always being listened to by policy makers and decision makers in institutions and in the higher echelons of the education establishment. To be fair, one can see the fear of the UK education establishment and UK Government of the latest US orientated MOOC revolution. Given the recent publication of the UK’s education strategy highlighting the importance of Higher Education in particular to UK PLC it...
eLearning Research and Resources, Learning Platforms, News, Research, Trends
There is a huge amount of noise and numerous newsletters about MOOCs at present and we are seeing considerable interest and equally considerable investment being made into MOOCs. The MOOC list we keep is growing longer and longer, and in a previous blog we predicted the emergence of the corporate MOOC, and we now have a few of them on our list as well. SAP having launched their MOOC earlier this year for example. While we continue to watch MOOCs, and understand the issues and the fear and fascination they are generating across Higher Education and indeed into government policy, MOOCs are not the only exciting development on our radar at present. A report by IBIS Capital into which Learning Light contributed highlights a fundamental issue. The research firstly is showing significant levels of growth are predicted in expenditure across the global education market, and this includes accelerating growth in edtech and e-learning, while also crucially highlighting the accelerating cost of education in the US and European markets. While educationalists debate the pedagogical values of MOOCs, investors are weighing up the financial opportunities of MOOCs it is important to understand the views of the future student market: the financial cost to them of education, and this it is this that politicians are addressing at present. Our first observation is that MOOCs are not the only game in town to address the rising cost of education. It is with this in mind that the recent White House announcement addressing the cost of education and putting forward effective ways of reducing costs to Middle America is so interesting. The Obama initiative...
eLearning Research and Resources, Learning Platforms, News, Trends
A HSJ (Health Service Journal) supplement published recently looking at the Electronic Staff Records (ESR) roll out provided some stunningly encouraging information as how the NHS is using e-learning. The NHS’s ESR project is the world’s biggest programme of its kind, which commenced in 2001 and rolled out in 2008 and it provides almost the whole of the NHS with an integrated human resources, learning management and payroll system, providing data on the 1.4 million employees in the NHS. HSJ reports that this Oracle based system is providing major savings to the NHS in automation of staff transfers, dealings and a wide range of self service functions including: managing leave and absence reporting and recording to the setting up of e-learning courses. In addition there are functions to support and streamline pre-employability checks, appraisals and development and registration status. The HSJ reports how the learning and talent management functionality gives managers the ability to record an appraisal and personnel development plans that can be used to plot competence gaps in individuals and departments. “if an organisation then identifies training courses for its staff, staff can be enrolled on the classes through self- service” explains a senior manager for ESR to HSJ. “Then through learner management and e-learning an organisation could agree a suite of courses they want staff to go on, create a learning path and enrol staff”. Indeed the ESR Employee self- service functionality allows staff to look at the catalogue of learning available and decide or apply for a specific course. This in itself is not unusual LMS functionality, but what is exceptional is the growth in...
