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A Revolution in Digital Learning: the Opportunities and Challenges of Open Online Education Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Date: 

Thursday, February 20, 2014, 6:00pm to Friday, February 21, 2014, 4:30pm

Location: 

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

A Revolution in Digital Learning: the Opportunities and Challenges of Open Online Education
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Thursday, February 20 and Friday, February 21, 2014 

Program Schedule

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Working Dinner

Session Title: Multiple Perspectives on Open Online Education: Reports from the Field

6:00 PM                 Refreshments and light hors d'oeuvres

6:30 PM                 Welcome and Orientation

Introduction to the goal of the workshop: to identify and further articulate key issues from the faculty perspective around the future of open online education, its relationship to universities and the academy, and through them the rest of the world. The issues and associated questions identified will form the agenda for a national symposium in the fall.

6:45 PM                 Presentations

  1. An overview of distance education and the more recent rise of open online course platforms like edX, Coursera and Udacity.
  2. The institutional aspirations for launching open online courses, and the range of aspirations among faculty who create these courses.
  3. What educational research has revealed so far about the impact of these courses.

7:45 PM                 Break

8:00 PM                 Moderated Discussion

Questions to be considered by all attendees

  1. What fields, disciplines, or possible participants have been left out of this conversation?
  2. What is the role of faculty in the creation and use of online materials?
  3. How do institutional and faculty aspirations either support or contradict each other?
  4. How does educational research inform the potential positive and iterative effect of online learning on what happens in the classroom? 

9:00 PM                 End of session

Friday, February 21, 2014

Panel Presentation and Breakout Discussions, Sheerr Room, Fay House, Radcliffe Institute

8:30 AM                 Continental breakfast and coffee, Sheerr Room

Session 1 Title: The impact of online coursework on the on campus and in class learning environment

9:00 AM                 Introduction to the session

Panel Presentation organized around the following guiding questions:

  1. How has the rise of open online courses catalyzed faculty focus on active learning and the flipped classroom?
  2. How is the learning experience of undergraduate students altered by these changes?
  3. How does this changing environment affect graduate student training as well as junior faculty development?
  4. How does this changing environment alter institutional policies around course credit?

9:30 AM

Breakout Discussions organized around the below issues and linked to the guiding questions tackled by the panel.  Each breakout group will define a framework that presents the most pressing questions as well as suggests the range of perspectives worth bringing to the table. Notes will be taken to form the basis for future symposium sessions.

  1. The opportunities and challenges around integrating online learning with traditional educational and degree-granting programs.
  2. The flipped classroom – the validity of the approach and how to best support effective implementation.
  3. The role of educational research in guiding institutional change and individual classroom and online pedagogy.
  4. The role of online learning or lack thereof in the academic expectations for faculty.

10:30 AM              Break

11:00 AM              Summary of Frameworks and Continued Discussion with the whole group

12:00 Noon         Lunch Break

Session 2 Title:                   The impact of open online courses on the ecosystem of higher education and its place in the world

1:00 PM                 Introduction to the session

Panel Presentation organized around the following guiding questions:

  1. How might this changing environment alter the allocation of resources at institutions of higher education?
  2. How might shifts in hiring shape institutional practices like review and tenure?
  3. How could these factors affect the future of fields, as well as the academy?
  4. How might online education change the audience as well as the role of the university in the world?

1:30 PM

Breakout Discussions organized around the below issues and linked to the guiding questions tackled by the panel.  Each breakout group will define a framework that presents the most pressing questions as well as suggests the range of perspectives worth bringing to the table. Notes will be taken to form the basis for future symposium sessions.

  1. The potential role of online and blended learning in the financial sustainability of higher education.
  2. The changing nature of the academy and scholarship in the online environment.
  3. The changing relationships between academic institutions: which institutions generate online content, and which license online courses to replace faculty.
  4. The new or expanded role of universities in the knowledge economy of the world.

2:30 PM                 Break

3:00 PM                 Summary of Frameworks and Continued Discussion with the whole group

4:00 PM                 Concluding discussion of the fall symposium and end of workshop

4:30 PM                 Adjourn

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