<\/p>\n
It has been an incredible privilege to participate in this week\u2019s virtual symposium hosted by Royal Roads University. Of all of the presentations I heard, the most intriguing to me were the conversations around the \u2018new to me\u2019 concept of open education.<\/p>\n
As the presentations unfolded the concept of \u2018Open\u2019 was delineated as the different dimensions of Open were explored. Throughout the presentations, I developed an awareness that I was at that very moment, participating in Open, via the unbounded online space of the virtual symposium. After considering all that I had heard, one question stood out; To what degree has open education been found to be beneficial to the learner? It seems to me that educational delivery is undergoing a paradigm shift into openness, though I have yet to be convinced that the benefits of this shift outweigh the risks.<\/p>\n
The speakers who discussed Open, seem to collectively agree that Open is inherently a good thing. For example, Dave Cormier said in his presentation that if you don\u2019t believe that a fundamental piece of Open, open access, is a good thing, then you might be in the wrong profession (2017). However, once I understood that Open exists on a continuum (Childs, 2019), I was left wondering; where on this continuum do the documented and researched gains end? The positive aspects of Open were best identified by the speakers in two areas; by Cormier where he discussed the aspect of \u2018Open to\u2026\u2019 that is; open principles that would make education available to<\/em> more people than before, and to learners who might have otherwise been prohibited (2017). The benefits of open educational resources; cost savings, ability to customize, and being re-useable were outlined by Mary Burgess of BC Campus, and discussed by both Elizabeth Childs and Catherine Cronin \u2013 all experts in the open education field. But when you delve into Open and into the realm of pedagogical models and instructional practice, I question; does the rhizomatic (to use Cormier\u2019s term), dynamic and hard to measure nature of open education have an absolute, positive impact on learning, or does it make learning merely a hopeful possibility?<\/p>\n Evidence produced by research might be a logical means of answering this question. But as Vivan Forssman pointed out when presenting her findings from the 2018 Canadian Survey of Online and Digital Learning, certain results should be interpreted \u2018cautiously\u2019 (Forssman, 2019). She explained that even though 54% of institutions surveyed indicated that they were providing training for Open Educational Practices (OEPs) and Open Educational Resources (OERs), these results might require further examination. The survey respondents might be individuals at the executive level, who may have limited knowledge about the actual curriculum, instruction and resources at the course level, or who may not be fully informed about what open education is in the first place (Forssman, 2019).<\/p>\n Interesting to me, was how Forssman did not offer the same disclaimer on the data when presenting survey results regarding the quality of program outcomes, when comparing on-line delivery with face-to face delivery. Her findings indicated that at least 78% of survey respondents saw online\/blended delivery, as producing leaner outcomes equal to or even superior to the outcomes from face-to-face delivery (Forssman, 2019).<\/p>\n One course I currently facilitate both face-to-face and by online delivery, is a Clinical Skills class for aspiring Medical Office Assistants (MOA). \u00a0The written outcomes of these courses involve acquiring knowledge and developing proficiency in the technical job skills of an MOA. The face-to-face learners spend numerous hours practicing these skills, and are evaluated on their proficiency throughout the course. As the online cohort is not afforded the opportunity to practice, they are not evaluated on their practical skills. Instead, greater weight is allocated to their theory-based exams, and the practical aspect is replaced with being able to recite a given procedure. Course design is undoubtedly a discussion-worthy topic in this scenario. However, in the context of responding to a survey, I ask myself; if the President or VP from our institution was surveyed with the question, \u2018Are the leaner outcomes in on-line delivery less than, equal to or superior to the outcomes of the face-to-face delivery?\u2019 How would they answer? As someone with limited knowledge about the MOA program itself, would they compare the learner\u2019s course grades alone to formulate a response? If they responded that the outcomes were<\/em> equal or greater to, it would be my opinion that their survey response was not accurate, and that indeed the on-line learning outcomes in this instance were deficient.<\/p>\n Where there are questions, and possibilities and hypothesis, this symposium has revealed to me that there will also be like-minded individuals rigorously trying to compose answers and further explore. I\u2019m hopeful and eager to discover more answers, and ask more questions as we continue into Week 2 of this program.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Burgess, M. (2019, April 15). Insights from BC Campus – A Conversation <\/em>[Recorded presentation]. Retrieved from https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1mQS_o-\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C_jO2taghriJfXKDsgfa1fUL0mTDMo2JTGSJc\/edit<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Childs, E. (2019, April 15). Openness and Networked Learning in a MA Degree <\/em>[Recorded Presentation]. Retrieved from https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1mQS_o-\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C_jO2taghriJfXKDsgfa1fUL0mTDMo2JTGSJc\/edit<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cormier, D. (2017, April 18). Intentional messiness of online communities <\/em>[Recorded Presentation]. Retrieved from https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1mQS_o-\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C_jO2taghriJfXKDsgfa1fUL0mTDMo2JTGSJc\/edit<\/a><\/p>\n Cronin, C. (2017, April 20). Open culture, open education, open questions<\/em> [Recorded Presentation]. Retrieved from https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1mQS_o-\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C_jO2taghriJfXKDsgfa1fUL0mTDMo2JTGSJc\/edit<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Forssman, V. (2019, April 17). National Survey Results-Online Education in Canada <\/em>[Recorded \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Presentation]. Retrieved from https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1mQS_o-\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C_jO2taghriJfXKDsgfa1fUL0mTDMo2JTGSJc\/edit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It has been an incredible privilege to participate in this week\u2019s virtual symposium hosted by Royal Roads University. Of all of the presentations I heard, the most intriguing to me were the conversations around the \u2018new to me\u2019 concept… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt521"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}