A Brief History of Distance Learning at Harvard and the 2006 Presidential Distance Learning Pilot Program

Technology in Education, ABCD Working Group

December 1, 2008

Mary Spidle

Distance Learning

• A learning form employed when learner and teacher are physically separated. It can be synchronous (when the learning is accomplished in real time) or asynchronous (when the teaching and learning occur at different times.)

• Entirely online or hybrid

A Brief History

• 19th Century - Cheap printing technologies and universal postal service resulted in correspondence courses

• Late 1800s - US Land Grants

• Early 20th Century - Radio

• 1960s - Vast improvement in the technology of television

A Brief History At Harvard

• 1950s - DCE offered courses via educational radio and TV

• 1960s - DCE offered courses to US Navy personnel on board submarines

• 1984 - Daniel Goroff of the FAS Math Dept received a grant from the Annenberg Foundation to develop and teach on-line calculus courses for the Harvard Extension School for credit

• 1997 - DCE offered first computer science course by FAS Professor H.T. Kung

• DCE began scaling up distance learning program in late 90s, open enrollment, credit-bearing courses

1990s

• Technological change continued

• Personal computer and home connectivity

• Worldwide demand for education growing and exceeding the capacity of traditional campus-based education

• Modern economy requires on-going adult education

Options Considered in 1999

Should Harvard:• Enhance existing residential programs?• Extend existing offerings to new audiences?• Pursue new markets?• Create harvard.com?• Partner with our peer institutions to create

course offerings?• Make its content freely available?• Wait and see?

University Strategy

• Focus on improving residential education• Create a suite of tools to support

classroom teaching• Provost’s Fund for Innovation in

Instructional Technology and Provost’s Fund for Distance Learning established in 2000

Provost’s Fund for Distance Learning

• 15 projects awarded • Over $2 million distributed, average grant

was $250,000• Five programs still in existence in 2008:

Harvard@Home, DCE, WIDE World (GSE), Organizing (HKS)

• Distance Learning funds were redirected towards content development in 2004

Industry Observations

• Dramatic growth in online programs in large public institutions

• A handful of for-profit learning companies established themselves

• Most large commercially-oriented higher education ventures were not successful

• A few prominent successful degree programs at Harvard peers

• Market Lesson: Tuition-bearing programs must lead to a valued credential to attract a significant number of students

Derek Bok’s 2007 Commencement Address“To begin with, we need to be asking ourselves just whom we should be educating. Universities have long concentrated on teaching young people between the ages of 18 and 25. But quietly over the last quarter-century, two great changes have occurred. Professionals everywhere have come to recognize the need for lifelong learning, so much so that at Harvard today, between 60- and 70,000 nontraditional students come each year, for a week, a month, a year of further education. In addition, technology now makes it possible for universities to educate people anywhere in the world.” “Distance learning, even executive education, are still add-ons to traditional teaching programs. And so I think universities need to review their educational priorities more carefully. They should ask whether it’s more important to teach a course to 300 students for a semester or to plan a one-week program for the top 25 leaders of a major corporation, nonprofit or government agency. I don’t say there’s an easy answer to that question, but it is a question that deserves scrutiny.”

2006 Presidential Distance Learning Pilot

• Address the interests of mid-career, continuing professional education audiences, and Harvard students studying at a distance

• Extend existing programs to new audiences where there are barriers to attending existing degree or certificate programs

• Accelerate insights into sustainable opportunities in executive education

• Through evaluation gain insight into the ability of online courses to achieve learning objectives and a qualitatively positive student experience

• Encourage use of existing technologies and pedagogical approaches that increase the interactivity and personalization of on-line learning experiences

2006 Presidential Distance Learning Pilot

• 11 grants funded to FAS, DCE, GSE, HMS, HSPH, and KSG

• Online courses• Hybrid models• Evaluation-only grants• Planning grants• Pre-matriculation modules• Webconferencing pilots

Justice Online• FAS, Justice Course, Professor Michael Sandel• Course captured in high quality video• Extend existing degree program course to alumni• Asynchronous participation with new content

delivered over semester• Interactive blogs and polls• Thousands, tapering off to hundreds, of alumni

participants• Supplemented by in-person, regional events• Currently being offered again (Fall 2008) at request of

alumni and alumni clubs

Division of Continuing Education

• DCE offers more than 100 online, open enrollment, full semester courses, 25 of which are recorded lectures of Harvard College daytime courses Open enrollment

• Videos of most course sessions are available online after live sessions, a few are streamed live from new DCE facility

• All online courses are distance versions of existing DCE on-campus courses

• Take one, take some, or take all• Uses TAs to monitor online Q & A sessions and provide tutoring

and feedback• Teaching staff provided by DCE are responsible for interactions

with students• Grant to evaluate program with emphasis on the role of the TA

Continuing Medical Education (CME)• Harvard Medical School has delivered on-site programs for 35 years

to physicians and health professionals• CME at HMS has been very successful since late 1990s• Large international student body• The goal of the project was to engage students by incorporating

new technologies (video, study guides), enhancing the existing design interface (navigation), and fostering a sense of community among students (Ask the Author, discussions).

• Tuition inexpensive, provides continuing education credits• Interactive community of online participants and faculty is a future goal

Strategy and Leadership of Nonprofit

Organizations • HKS Executive Education, Chris Letts, Dean for Executive

Education• First online course for HKS Executive Education• Offers existing graduate-level course to international

audience• Senior leaders in nonprofit and nongovernmental

organizations in the developing world• Case-based teaching with faculty video introductions,

reading material, online discussions, class videos, and written assignments reviewed by the faculty

• Asynchronous participation with new content delivered bi-weekly over 10-weeks

Results of the Pilot

• Ongoing programs

• Replicable online models

• Two new positions created

• DCE - Center for the Study of Online Teaching and Learning

Lessons Learned

• Match course directors with experienced technology teams and pedagogical know-how

• Creating new courses from scratch is very time consuming

• While still immature, online interactive learning is becoming more viable

• Leverage existing software• Schools need professional staff to do market

assessment, course promotion, and content development for new online courses and programs

In 1997, Peter Drucker predicted that “30 years from now, the big university campuses will be relics,” and that the residential university is destined to give way to the virtual university.

•Are the unique benefits of residential programs more important early in one’s academic career than later (e.g. college vs. a second professional degree)?

•What are the strategic opportunities that technology is enabling?

•Do some academic disciplines and pedagogical approaches translate well online while others require residential (face-to-face) instruction for the foreseeable future?

•Should Harvard dramatically expand the number of students it reaches, both domestically and internationally, via online programs?

•Online learning programs will steadily improve and will one day rival residential programs. Therefore, it is important for Harvard to …….?

•Where possible at high quality levels, should Harvard pursue online programs that can generate an excess or revenues over costs in order to support existing academic programs with the Schools?

•Should Harvard develop online programs for students that for various reasons cannot attend residential programs in Cambridge?

Recurring Questions

Handout

Current Trends in Distance Learning and Related Activities at Harvard

Distance learning opportunities

Enhance existing residential programs

Extend existing programs

2000-2008Portals, Course websites,Online tools, Digital assets, Classroom technology

-Hybrid programs: on and off-campus sessions-Residential courses with some remote learners-Institutions linking classrooms-Prematriculation, foundational programs

Pursue new audiences

-New programs-Courses for alumni-Open educational resources