Technology and the
Challenges of moving from
Formal to Informal Learning
E-Learning Russia 3 June 2010
Professor David Vincent
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Strategy & External Affairs
Formal and Informal learning
• The nature of informal learning
• E-Learning and the growth of informal learning
• Building the bridge and how to do it
• 5 challenges of moving between formal and informal
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Informal vs Formal Learning…
• The terms formal and informal learning have nothing to
do with the formality of the learning, but rather with the
direction of who controls the learning objectives and
goals. In a formal learning environment the teacher or
HEI sets the goals and objectives, while informal
learning means the learner sets the goals and objectives
(Cofer, 2000).
The concept of informal learning...
Informal adult learning is taken up for its own intrinsic
value. It encompasses a huge variety of activities: it
could be a dance class at a church hall, a book group at
a local library, cookery skills learnt in a community
centre, a guided visit to a nature reserve or stately
home, researching the National Gallery collection online, writing a Wikipedia entry or taking part in a
volunteer project to record the living history of particular
community.
The Learning Revolution, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, 2009
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A healthy society is a learning
society
Informal adult learning:
• Contributes to the health & well-being of communities
• Builds confidence and adds to personal fulfilment
• Provides a route back into education for the lowskilled or those with a negative experience
• Acts as a stepping stone to further learning,
qualifications and more rewarding work
• In a period of economic downturn helps individuals retrain and re-skill
The Learning Revolution, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, 2009 5
Within, not apart from
• ‘Traditional’ formal Higher Education alone cannot meet
these challenges
• To meet the demands of a rapidly increasing and
diversifying worldwide student population requires
innovative approaches which use e-learning to promote
access to learning and academic programmes
throughout an individual’s lifetime
• Within this HEIs must recognise the important role of
informal learning
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Take The OU
• 250,000 people are currently studying with the OU, nearly all
students are studying part-time
• 10,000 students have disabilities
• A third of UK undergraduate students have entry qualifications
lower than those normally demanded by other UK universities
• 20% of new UK undergraduates live in the 20% most deprived
areas of the country
• About 70% of undergraduates are in full-time employment
• More than 50,000 students are sponsored by their employers
• Most OU courses are available throughout Europe - some
available in many other parts of the world
• More than 25,000 OU students live outside the UK
• The OU is ranked among the top UK universities for the quality of
its teaching
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Revolutionary opportunities
• Apart from our formal learning pedigree, we are also innovators
in informal learning.
• The opportunities:
– Reaching informal learners on a worldwide scale
– Bringing informal learners into formal HE
• OU examples:
– BBC
– OpenLearn
– YouTube, Facebook, iGoogle
– iTunesU
– Second Life
– SocialLearn
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Science at the OU
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OpenLearn
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How is OpenLearn being used?
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Over 17.5m downloads since it started
Over 300,000 visitors a month
90% new to the OU
50% international
OU students and prospective students
Global HE community
Widening participation
Work-based learning
Schools & colleges & prisons
6,000 registrations through site
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YouTube, Facebook, iGoogle
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New Channels to reach learner?
http://podcast.open.ac.uk
With rich / AV content?
http://www.youtube.com/ou
http://itunes.open.ac.uk
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Social Video and YouTube
a community solution
YouTube users can distribute our
videos by embedding them in other
websites, often blogs and social
networks. We can have a
conversation with our viewers via
comments, contests, groups,
asynchronous chat and bulletins.
Viewers can feedback to us by
marking a video as a favourite,
sending us a message, adding our
channel as a friend or subscribing.
Playlists to connect to others
content! Bring your uploaded video
into our playlist
http://www.youtube.com/ou
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iTunesU
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• The iTunes music store,
open 6 years & sold 6 Billion
songs
• 75 Million credit card
accounts
• Powerful mobile synch
• iTunes U. open -2007
June 2008 UKOU + 2 …
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Open University on iTunes U
Over 17.5 million downloads.
Over 1.7 million visitors downloaded files.
Currently averaging over 295,000 downloads a
week.
Over 1 Terabyte each week.
89 % of visitors from outside the UK.
1 in 14 go on to visit the OU website.
OU nearly always featured by Apple, in top 10 and
often top three most popular.
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http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/microsco
pe
S276 Geology
Open University
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Second Life
Building Community in a Virtual World
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SocialLearn
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Beyond social networking…
From:
To:
• people like me
• people who challenge/stretch me
• “friends”
• learning peers/mentors
• informal chat
• learning conversations
• quick facts / info. exchange
• learning journeys/depth
• simplistic numeric ratings
• endorsements and critiques
• tag clouds
• meaningfully connected ideas
• shopping recommendations
• learning recommendations
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Building the Bridge and how to do it
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The Opportunity: The Crisis of the
Formal system
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Formal learning cannot do this:
The Cost of Expansion
The Excluded Classes
The Migrant Populations
The Lost Generations
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5 challenges when moving from
formal to informal learning…
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The student journey
Technology and quality
Unbundling the formal model
Globalising the formal model
The sustainable university
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Challenge 1: Facilitating the
Student Journey
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Global Online
OpenLearn and BBC sites as recruiters
OpenLearn as preparation
APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning
Integrating Web 2.0 learning elements into courses
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Challenge 2: Technology and
Quality
‘The notions of collective intelligence and mass
amateurization are redefining scholarship as we grapple
with issues of top-down control and grassroots
scholarship.’ (Horizon Report)
 The University of the People
 The Assessment of e-learning and informal learning
 EADTU and E-xcellence
 Fraud and impersonation
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Challenge 3: Unbundling the
Formal Model
 Recruitment, Curriculum, Teaching, Guidance,
Assessment, Award
 Specialised Services by Specialised Bodies
 London University External
 Varsity and UNISA
 Liverpool and Laureate
 The Textbook Providers e.g. Pearson
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Challenge 4: Globalising the
Formal Model
With the growing availability of tools to connect learners
and scholars all over the world — online collaborative
workspaces, social networking tools, mobiles, voice-overIP, and more — teaching and scholarship are
transcending traditional borders more and more all the
time.” (page 5) Education has gone global (The Horizon
Report (2009)
But, technology is not as global as Education needs…
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The digital divide - Internet
Source: ITU
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The digital divide - Mobile
Source: ITU
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Challenge 5: The sustainable
university
Public/Charitable Funding
Mainstream University
Business
Customer
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Thank you
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