The Kragerø Open Online Education Declaration 2014

Hasselholmen, near Kragerø in Norway

The Kragerø Open Online Education Declaration was conceived and signed by a group of 14 Nordic experts related to the field, attending Campus NooA's workshop on online education at the Hasselholmen Island from May 28 to June 1, 2014.

Our discussions revealed that online learning and education covers a much broader range of activities, issues and opportunities than MOOCs. Therefore, the issues and statements that were discussed during the workshop, then refined and prioritised through an online Delphi process, resulted in the following declaration:

We strongly believe that the current open education values and practice will improve, innovate and even revolutionize learning and education worldwide. In many cases, it can be more flexible, economical and open than traditional education. Online learning and education can potentially emulate all educational activities in schools and colleges, not only single courses as the MOOCs do. We urge politicians, bureaucrats, managers, researchers, course designers, teachers and students to develop, promote and support quality online learning and education, because it:

1. provides new opportunities to include people with disabilities, social anxieties and negative experiences from previous education
2. should be environmental and economically sustainable
3. fosters innovation and cooperation since it brings together people from a broad range of subject fields, countries, cultures and types of institutions
4. provides opportunities for people with work and family responsibilities
5. helps more people enjoy learning
6. is available any time (24/7/365) anywhere
7. is central in the open education movement which supports MOOCs, Open Educational Resources, Open Badges and transparency
8. is potentially the most cost effective way to reach out and provide learning to large groups of people
9. can be social, interactive and facilitate networking
10. can be current and up to date since digital learning resources can be more frequently updated than printed resources
11. supports cooperative learning with individual start-up and pacing which is good for people who find it difficult or inconvenient to follow the schools’ semester- and timetables
12. fosters internationalization and increased diversity
13. supports democratic values and humanitarian actions
14. is more agile and scalable to suit 21st century demands
15. focuses on people, enhanced by technology, it can demonstrate that technology can be our servant, not our master
16. fosters what Germans call "Bildung" and Scandinavians “Dannelse”
17. is flexible with regard to for example time, space and path
18. is available via mobile devices
19. benefits the next generation of learners worldwide
20. facilitates blended learning and flipped/scrambled classrooms
21. can be used for efficient educational administration, and a wide range of student support services
22. is used to teach almost everything
23. supports both humour and friendliness


The statements that received most votes are at the top. The work is still in progress and we realize that some of the statements can be grouped together, and we welcome comments and discussion that could result in further refinement of the declaration.

In alphabetical order:

Per Olav Apalnes, www.cogito.as

Astrid de Mora, www.ecademy.no

Bjørn Z. Ekelund, www.human-factors.no

Anne Fox, www.annefox.eu

Katrine Gjærum, www.censusfilm.no

Fred Johansen, www.hig.no

Nina Zoë Jørstad, www.storymaker-triangle.no

Jørn Bue Olsen, www.jbo-konsult.net

Ebba Ossiannilsson, http://e4qualityinnovationandlearning.blogspot.com/

Morten Flate Paulsen, www.nooa.no

Rune Riismøller, www.eaftenskolerne.dk

Edgar Valdmanis, http://edgarvaldmanis.no

Kristin Vigander, www.kristvi.net

Gunnar Østgaard http://myoutime.com/

Quality in online education: an interview with professor Torstein Rekkedal

Professor Torstein Rekkedal is chairing
Campus NooA's International advisory board

Professor Torstein Rekkedal is chairing Campus NooA's International quality board which is set up to support NooA in assuring, maintaining and developing the quality of NooA’s total operations. This includes information of courses and programmes, administration of courses and programmes and student services, course contents, teaching and learning methodology, evaluation of students, and teacher qualifications.

Torstein Rekkedal was awarded Roll of Honour of the EADL in 2000 and received the ICDE Prize for life long contribution to the field of distance education in 2001. In 2003 he was conferred honorary doctor of the British Open University, and in 2008 he was granted the title Senior Fellow of EDEN.

What do you think is especially important for the content quality of NooA courses?

The course content is generally pre-produced to meet the needs of students with very different characteristics. In my opinion, national and international research demonstrates that online students are very different and as a group characterized by greater differences than on-campus students on most variables. Further, online courses require that students take responsibility for their own learning and study actively, not depending on teachers to feed them with knowledge. Online courses have to provide both subject materials and the didactical and pedagogical activities to facilitate motivating, effective and efficient learning. Despite the fact that the content is pre-produced for the target group, there must be opportunities for flexible and individual learning approaches, both concerning learning strategies and allocation of time. The aim must be to support pedagogical and system solutions that allow both individual learning and co-operation with other students. I see it as a great advantage if the solutions also allow that experiences and activities of previous students contribute to quality improvements by integrating their learning activities in the course and making them available to new students if needed.

What should NooA focus on with regard to the quality of the online teachers' work?

There is no doubt that the quality of the work of tutors is critical for the total quality. The teachers have to be quick in all aspects of communication with their students. Research demonstrates that the turn-around time of submitted assignments and student questions is extremely importance for students’ motivation and learning.

That teachers are academically competent is given. However, they must also understand the specific requirements of quality online education and the specific demands on online teachers. This means that they should facilitate student learning activities and supply sufficient and academically correct feedback on submitted assignments, and not least respond quickly to student initiatives and questions. The teachers have to establish a personal relationship with the students from the beginning in ways that make the students feel they know their teacher and participate in personal and individual communication. Ideally the teacher should have a good understanding of which student initiatives that require teacher responses and which should be left for students’ responses.

Do you think that the decision to use the Moodle learning management system will affect the quality of NooA courses?

I really don’t consider myself to be an expert on learning management systems as such. To me the main importance relates to which degree the system facilitates the administrative and didactical solutions that constitute the basis for NooA’s teaching and learning philosophies. As far as I can judge Moodle respresents an excellent alternative, which also has been chosen by other recognized online institutions world-wide, e.g. the British Open University.

What is your best advice for online course providers that are dedicated to provide high quality courses and services?

For distance students it is extremely important that all information from the first contact with the school and until the courses are completed is easily available, understandable and correct. Correct information also means that all that has been promised is maintained throughout the whole process. In my view, online students have a great need for flexibility.

Thus:

• All information has to be correct.
• Correct information means that the institution delivers all that has been promised.
• Secure that all teachers are trained in online pedagogy specifically realted to the teaching and learning philosophy of NooA.
• Secure that new students are informed about study techniques specifically related to online studies, again specifically related to the learning philosophy of NooA.
• Courses, administative solutions and systems have to be developed according to and based upon research based knowledge of distance and online education.
• Regularly carry out systematic quality checks where student evaluations are important contributions and revise according to information collected.

Campus Alastair: An interview about quality in online education

Alastair Creelman is on
NooA's International quality board

Alastair Creelman works with net-based learning at Linnaeus University, Kalmar in south-east Sweden with particular interest in social media and open educational resources. He is also a board member of the European Foundation for Quality in E-learning.

Alastair is also on NooA's International quality board which is set up to support Campus NooA in assuring, maintaining and developing the quality of NooA’s total operations. This is including information of courses and programmes, administration of courses and programmes and student services, course contents, teaching and learning methodology, evaluation of students, and teacher qualifications.

 

What so you think is especially important for the content quality of NooA courses?

Clear structure and attractive layout are extremely important – first impressions matter. Well produced material creates credibility and trust. Content should have a consistent profile and the student should always be able to see exactly where they are in the course structure. A good variety in the types of content in the course is also healthy with alternative paths available to students. Avoid repeating the same formula for every unit and add some surprise elements now and again to stimulate curiosity. Encourage students to contribute their own material to the course and to collaborate on reading lists or playlists. If each course leaves new material and ideas that are then used in the next version of the course students feel they are part of the course development.

What should we focus on with regard to the quality of the online teachers' work?

The personal touch is so important. Students who feel welcome and recognized are more likely to complete a course and even if a course has many students there are ways of making all feel welcome and part of a dynamic community. For example a short introduction video from the teacher is much more personal than a written e-mail. Spoken feedback on an assignment as a sound file is often far more effective than written feedback and often takes much less of the teacher's time to record. It's also vital for teachers to help create a network between students and encourgae them to solve problems themselves rather than waiting for the teacher.

Do you think that the decision to use the Moodle learning management system will affect the quality of NooA courses?

Moodle is of course the world's most widely used learning management system and therefore many of NooA's students will already be familiar with the environment. The important factor is not the name of the platform you choose but how you use it. Moodle has a wide range of functions that allow for example formative assessment, peer review and a wide range of testing options and these can all contribute to enrichening the learning process. Clear and atractive layouts and design features are essential to provide students with an attractive and user-friendly learning arena. A common mistake is to overload pages with too much information or create excessively long pages sometimes known as the scroll of death. Once again, it's not the tool it's how you use it.

 

What is your best advice for online course providers that are dedicated to provide high quality courses and services?

In online learning the quality of information about the course is vital. Students need to know exactly what the course offers, what is expected of them, what support is available, pedagogical methods to be used, how they will be assessed and examined and clear deadlines. We need to make it absolutely clear what type of course this is, what it will lead to and how it will be conducted. The most important factor however is that we then keep our promises.

Reflections after 25 years with online teaching

During the fall of 1987, I developed and taught my first online course for NKI Nettstudier. As far as I know, it was the very first online distance education course in Europe. To celebrate the 25^th aniversary, we have now scanned and uploaded the first English report Torstein Rekkedal and I wrote about our pioneering experiences wich is titled The Electronic College: Selected articles from the Ekko project. You may also be interested in the very first article I wrote for an international journal in 1987: In Search of a Virtual School. 

More articles in Norwegian and Englis are also available at http://issuu.com/mfpaulsen.

Since I now design and teach the first courses for Campus NooA, I have made the following reflections about the developments during these 25 years:

The ICT systems have continuously become faster and more powerful. The most important breakthrough for online education came with the web in the middle of the nineties. The second most important development was the proliferation of the learning management systems. Later, open educational resources and social media became increasingly more important for learning. It is also important to point out that the technology gradually has become more mobile and wireless. However, the most significant difference is that very few people were online in 1987. Now, almost everybody is online – all the time.

There has been a lot of focus on technology and digital learning resources, but I will speak up for people who suceed in utilizing the systems well. Learning platforms are important, but I will argue that it is more important how we implement and use the systems. Well organized models, effective student and teacher support, quality content and teachers who really care about their students - are crucial for high quality online education.

Maybe this is why online pedagogy hasn’t changes so much as I expected 25 years ago. The classroom metaphores and mindsets are still too strong. E-mail and online discussion forums are still central elements in online courses and the teacher workload remains high. The students get too litle flexibility, especially regarding individual start and progression. At the same time, they want swift and insightfull feedback from teachers and support personnel. As far as I can see, we have not improved much in these areas during the last 25 years. I therfore urge online educators to focus on how we can organize online education better, for the benefit of all the excellent and hard working online students and teachers.