Towards a future VLE for an Open and

Distance Learning Institution

Dr. Steven Verjans

Open Universiteit Nederland

Educational Technology Expertise Centre

Current situation Open Universiteit NL

The Dutch university for lifelong learning High-quality distance education at academic level No formal admission requirements Study at your own pace and location, in your own

time. No student cohorts. Coaching and guidance through phone, e-mail,

coaching sessions in study centres, workshops 32000 students enrolled,

43% have paid job 44% of ‘second chance’ students

Lifelong learning university

Next to ‘traditional’ degree programmes, specific tailor-made programmes, but also different specific offerings:

single courses, open educational resources

room for informal and non-formal learning support for communities-of-practice (RdMC) APL – Accreditation of prior learning

Joint initiatives with other HE institutions National Dutch initiative ‘Long live learning!’

Strategic issues of the Open Universiteit

Competitive situation is changing for ODL universities for degree programmes

More competition from ‘traditionals’ and other providers, much online learning materials

Issues Formal vs. informal education Degree programmes (BaMa) vs. ad hoc demand Cohort-based vs. individual learning More or less coaching (time-consuming)

Current VLE

1997: StudieNet: component-based (newsgroups, course webs)

Current: BlackBoard, with several other systems running in parallel for specific functionality

Mainly supports degree programmes, closed-access systems (quality and legal criteria)

Dilemma: Different tools are needed to support lifelong

competence development & informal learning

OUNL’s VLE of the future - Issues

Different learning products require different tools Degree programmes vs. lifelong learning How to combine controlled environment for

degree programme with support for more informal contextualised learning?

Parallel initiatives make for complex organisational context Institution-wide enterprise architecture Digital identity management project Update of web-presence (portal)

OUNL’s VLE of the future - Principles

Personal, flexible and sustainable Personal learning & working environment for

learner and staff, no longer ‘just’ a VLE/LMS Preference for Open Source Easily ‘mashable’ services (Netvibes, iGoogle…) Learning in a network / community Experimental vs. production environment

Widest possible organisational support is needed Careful transition is needed

Preliminary model

Next steps

Finalise strategic-level discussion Formulate development and implementation plans Hang on to current VLE for the time being &

incrementally choose / develop & implement new services

Conclusion

“OUNL chooses Moodle, Sakai, Fronter, …”?

No! Getting the vision of the future right !

Tak – Thanks – Danke – Grazie – Merci

http://www.ou.nl/

http://stievie.blogspot.com