27.1 Exploring new ways of being open  (Page 3/6)

Another approach is to put students at the center, able to decide whether and how to make use of a particular institution’s offers and services, as part of a mix of personalized services, based on open standards, that can include P2P and informal learning, and can augment today’s open educational resources. That approach is new. It is called a Responsive Open Learning Environment. Responsive means personalization. Open includes all the things mentioned in the post. From 2009, expect to read a lot, across the world, about Responsive Open Learning Environments.

By using a ROLE, people can learn about whatever is of interest to them. And source each element of their learning, to hit their personal criteria (eg “I want to cut my education costs by 50% yet obtain internationally recognized and highly rated qualifications, whilst studying in ways that I enjoy, at times to suit me, with people I will like; find me the best mix of mentoring, tuition, formal courses, informal learning, social networks and accreditation”). It will be interesting to see how open business models evolve to make use of ROLE features.

2. ken udas - october 16th, 2008 at 8:16 am

It would seem to me that the notions around disaggregating higher education are really providing different opportunities for engagement, and are not really about taking something valuable or precious apart. I am wondering though if I am missing something. Would anybody be willing to expand a bit on the relationship between the objectives of SocialLearn, specifically and Responsive Open Learning Environment (ROLE) more generally, disaggregation of higher education, and what might be seen as a threat to the traditional western university? That is, what might we see change?

3. plefrere - october 16th, 2008 at 8:40 am

I can’t speak for SocialLearn itself. But more generally… it’s likely that social-learning systems (whether SocialLearn itself or ROLEs) will include low-cost/no-cost seamless access to “as if we are in the same room” virtual-participation systems, allowing students to drop into face-to-face seminars and lectures (virtual presence). This makes possible a return to the valued ways of the original western universities (eg Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge, Sorbonne), which allowed students to move freely between each university, learning from a mix of the best scholars. Much as Steve Jobs describes in his famous Stanford commencement address (it’s on iTunes). That “free-range” or “drop-in” or “open access” approach to teaching and learning is aided by disaggregation. But if universities move to working in this way, they must be able to track who is using which services, and develop a business model that fits a disaggregated world. Likewise, free-range students may need support in engaging with a “community of scholars”. So a ROLE will necessarily provide a wide choice of open services to help them to develop and maintain their online identity, to seek guidance, to learn to cooperate / share / become members of a community, and to build trust.