Future Learning Platforms by Carl Fahle

Future Learning Platforms Final Report February 14, 2013 Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D. Director, Strategic Business Insights etrondsen@sbi-i.com www.strategicbusinessinsights.com 1 ÂŠ 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

DM#1086230

Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14.

Page

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………….. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………............................ A Vision for Future Learning Platforms …………………………………………………………………….. Learning Platforms: What, Why and Key Drivers …………………………………………………………. Learning Platforms: Overview and Conceptual Frameworks …………………………………………… Platform Functionalities: Current and Future ……………………………………………………………… Learning Platforms: Categories and Types………………………………………………………………… A. Learning Management Systems (LMSs)…………………………………………………………….. B. Massive Open Online Courses ……………………………………………………………………….. C. Social Media Platforms…………………………………………………………………………………. D. Gaming Platforms ………………………………………………………………………………………. E. Collaboration Platforms………………………………………………………………………………… F. Tech and Media Company Platforms………………………………………………………………… Tablets in Education and Learning…………………………………………………………………………… Learning Analytics………………………………………………………………………………………………. EdTech and Teacher Professional Education …………………………………………………………….. VC Funding of EdTech and Learning Platforms ………………………………………………………….. Implications for Finland ……………………………………………………………………………………….. A. Finnish Educational Institutions……………………………………………………………………… B. Finnish Teachers and Learners………………………………………………………………………. C. Finnish EdTech Vendors………………………………………………………………………………. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Appendix: List of Project Interviewees……………………………………………………………………..

3 9 12 19 22 27 30 30 44 63 66 69 72 84 94 101 112 121 122 123 124 121 125

Executive Summary

Executive Summary 

Vision for Future Learning Platforms   



What, Why and Key Drivers   



The report describes a number of specific capabilities or functionalities that Future Learning Platforms (FLPs) should ideally have to enable the vision described above. The Internet and the Web are transforming all industries and it is now clear that education and learning will undergo the same transformation, and FLPs will be a key element in new global education and learning reality. FLPs can also dramatically improve access to learning resources and hopefully also help contain and reduce the current unsustainable increase in cost of education seen in the US and some other countries.

Overview and Conceptual Frameworks  



Web and other digital technologies enable platforms and ecosystems that can enable easier access to not only education and learning content but much richer learning experiences than we have today. A wide range of platforms—in at least 6 categories discussed in this report—is gaining new functionalities and capabilities to enable “next-generation digital learning experiences.” Emerging learning platforms will not only benefit learners—who participate in either formal or informal learning and training—but can also bring major benefits to education and learning institutions as well as companies that sell education and learning products and services.

The report provides some high-level perspectives to clarify what are some of the major pieces or components of FLPs. The conceptual frameworks also indicate how a variety of access devices, including increasingly popular tablets, will be used to connect to the primary LPs for learning related content and services.

Platform Functionalities: Current and Future   

FLPs will need to provide a range of administrative functions, as current Learning Management Systems (LMSs) do today, but these will become increasingly more user friendly. Current and emerging technologies will also enable more advanced and user-friendly systems, taking advantage of social and collaborative technologies. We expect new pedagogical models, including greater use of game-based learning, simulation and project-based learning, to be more easily done with FLPs.

Executive Summary 

Learning Platforms: Categories and Types  

As described below, we see six primary categories of FLPs, but as technology advances new categories might emerge. Some FLPs may, however, be “remixed” combinations of certain elements from different categories, if such combinations can best meet the needs of certain groups of learners.



Learning Management Systems (LMSs) o o o



Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) o o o



These platforms already find use in large number of educational institutions but in the last few years the category has become more dynamic, driven by new technology and new players. Larger incumbents are taking advantage of VC funding and new technology to improve their platforms. But a growing number of startups as well as some open-source players are now battling the larger incumbents. MOOCs have sprung on the scene in the last 18 months or so, and hold the potential to become a major disruptor of Higher Education and perhaps beyond. Although leading universities have jumped onboard, many academics are worried about the implications of MOOCs, and many issues will need resolution if MOOCs are to reach their maximum potential benefits and impacts. Many different future scenarios are possible, but more clarity about their longer term impact may become clear in the next 12-18 months.

Social Media Platforms o o o

Some states in India are considering Facebook-like educational platforms that take advantage of social media features, and social media like Web-based video, for instance, are attracting millions of learners today. TED-Ed and Google Plus are just two services that offer attractive features fore education and learning, either as standalone platforms or as part of larger ecosystem. Cisco’re recent introduction of WebEx Social illustrates the appeal to build new platforms that include a range of social media functionalities.

Executive Summary 

Gaming Platforms o

o o



Collaboration Platforms o o o



Collaborative learning is gaining interest as team-based project work is now part of almost all jobs. Web-based collaboration tools have proliferated, and companies like Google and Microsoft, and many others, hope to build in attractive collaboration capabilities into FLPs. Emerging challenges include how to integrate collaborative tools, social media and other technologies into learner-centric, user-friendly solutions.

Tech and Media Company Platforms o o o



New web-based platforms for gaming are attracting millions of users and have engagement appeal that educators hope to bring to learning. Game-based learning has seen dramatic growth in interest, including growing number of apps for tablets, and this will likely continue. No one has yet “cracked the code” on game-based learning, and new players, including some very interesting ones in the Nordic region, could be successful and gain millions of customers.

A number of very large technology and media companies feel they have valuable assets they can leverage into education and learning markets. Google, Microsoft and Apple are just three of the major contenders, and many large publishers also are boosting their investments to become more competitive in the educational marketplace. Acquisitions and alliances will proliferate as companies with great content capabilities look for technology, resulting in great exit opportunities for tech startups.

Tablets in Education and Learning   

Tablets in education and learning are proliferating and some feel the iPad is the “iPod moment for education.” Tablets currently have some weaknesses as production devices, but over time they will likely gain greater capabilities and therefore displace PC and laptops among many learners. Young age groups are now increasingly targeted with tablet-based, interactive content.

Executive Summary 

Learning Analytics 

 



EdTech and Teacher Professional Education   



Today, large numbers of teachers, especially in K12 but even in higher education, are not very comfortable with new educational technologies that are emerging. Many high quality training programs exist but in the US, especially, teachers don’t have sufficient time for professional development to gain edtech comfort. The report describes what Singapore has done on this front, as it is one of the global leaders in teacher professional development around edtech.

VC Funding of EdTech and Learning Platforms   



What many refer to as “Big Data” is gaining interest in academia, especially as “digital bread crumbs” become a byproduct of online learning activities. Many educators are excited about the potential of learning analytics to take advantage of digital data about learners and learning activities to reveal new insights into how people learn. The holy grail of learning is highly personalized and customized “adaptive learning” in which one’s learning path is truly personal.

The last 2-3 years have seen a dramatic increase in VC funding for edtech, resulting in growing number of innovative startups gaining traction in the US, and particularly in Silicon Valley. Startups are increasingly working closely with teachers, some through edtech-focused incubators like Imagine K12 which has proven highly effective in getting edtech entrepreneurs ready “for prime time.” A question on many observers’ minds is how sustainable the recent edtech funding is, but this partly will depend on how successful edtech startups prove to be in the marketplace.

Implications for Finland   

The report describes specific implications for learners, policy makers and educational product and service providers in Finland. The developments the report outlines will undoubtedly result in a variety of new edtech opportunities, which Finnish players can take advantage of. But competition will be strong, so Finnish education and learning companies must do their homework and understand the emerging dynamics of the global market place.

Executive Summary 

Conclusions 

 

We are currently facing an unprecedented time period for edtech, with great opportunities resulting from increasing dynamics on both the supply and demand side and growing competition. Finnish companies typically have great technology, but this is only one piece of the increasingly complex puzzle of the global marketplace. Careful planning, and deep insights into the current and emerging market dynamics will help prepare Finnish companies for future success.

Introduction

Introduction 



The research conducted in this study was done because one of the findings of a previous study on Learning & Education Market Analysis was that Learning Platforms (LPs) would likely play a key role in shaping the future of education and learning (particularly online or “blended learning”), especially as a result of the growing role of technology in both formal and informal learning. As seen in other sectors of today's society--including entertainment, industry and government--rapid advanced in information and communications technology (ICT), and the Web, in particular, have enabled unprecedented scaling of activity that now also open dramatic new opportunities in education and learning. These recent trends and developments, and the likelihood of continued, and perhaps even accelerated, change in the "underlying driving forces," led us to conclude that an examination of Future Learning Platforms (FLPs) would help provide useful insights into the shape and characteristics of the future landscape of education and learning. The key goals of FLP project was to gain understanding and insights into:  The evolving characteristics, features and functionalities of FLPs--across all sectors of formal education and learning (as well as more informal, consumer-based learning).  Conceptual frameworks for major types of learning platforms that will likely emerge in next 2-3 years and beyond.  Which organizations are providing what types of LPs and what is the role of Venture Capital in funding of emerging educational technology (EdTech).  Implications for users (individuals and organizations) of FLPs (including use in teacher professional development). 10 © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Introduction, Cont'd 



One key part of the project has been to organize and deliver three Webinars that have focused on key areas of interest to Tekes and members of the Learning Solutions Program. The five major topics of these Webinars--Learning Management Systems (LMSs), Venture Funding of EdTech, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), Learning Analytics, and Use of Tablets in Education and Learning--will therefore have more in-depth treatment in this report than some of the other topics that are also examined (but in less detail) in the report. Another topic that Tekes wanted to be examined in the report was how leading practitioners in Asia are dealing with EdTech, and learning platforms, in particular. Based on research in the project, we concluded that Singapore has some of the most advanced and interesting EdTech practices in terms of teachers professional development, and the report therefore describes these practices. The main findings and highlights of the report were presented at the Tekes conference in Helsinki on January 24, 2013.

Vision for Future Learning Platform

Some Opening Thoughts….

In Education and learning--e.g. both the formal and informal domains of learning--the focus should be on learning EXPERIENCES and Learning OUTCOMES My Expectations:  FLPs will enable much more complete, convenient, engaging, enjoyable and effective learning experiences--in part through personalized and adaptive learning  FLPs will offer significant advantages for learning professionals, including teachers/professors  FLPs can yield important advantages for providers of learning products and services

"Platforms" Have Become Common Business Vocabulary The Age of The Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business By Phil Simon; Motion Publishing; 2011 My belief is that the growing importance of platforms will also become increasingly true in education and learning Others are recognizing this trend, e.g.:

Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012: The Platforming of Education; by Audrey Watters, EdTech Writer, Inside Higher Education; December 26, 2012 But we also face semantic/definitional challenges: "We throw the term 'platform' around a lot in tech-speak, using it to refer to everything from software to hardware, from applications to operating systems, from websites to the Web and the Internet itself. In tech-marketing-speak, 'platform' is often meant to invoke greatness or aspirations thereof: to become a platform is a goal â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 'the next Facebook,' if you will." [Audrey Watters; Inside Higher Education]

Other Perspectives on "Platforms" "A 'platform' is a system that can be programmed and therefore customized by outside developers — users — and in that way, adapted to countless needs and niches that the platform’s original developers could not have possibly contemplated, much less had time to accommodate." "The Three Kinds of Platforms You Meet on the Internet;" Marc Andreessen; blog post, 2007

" ….companies are in a landrush to create platforms that will tie together previously disconnected activities and tools…. What a platform enables is very different [from what most tools in education today do]; it enables the extension of a system." George Siemens, Professor, Athabasca University, Canada

Future Learning Platforms Vision Learners, on their own or as part of an organization, will access learning content, processes or activities--including learning-related services, e.g. tutoring services (and learn about formal educational programs, their offerings, costs, and so on)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;via LPs.. A growing variety of services will be accessed via and delivered on LPs, either fully online or as part of blended/hybrid models (e.g. partly online and partly offline)

Formal Learning Processes and Activities 2

Future Learning

Platforms1

Informal Learning Processes and Activities 3

Content Created by commercial organizations or by individuals. Increasing amount of high quality, open educational resources (OER) are now becoming available on the Web

Characteristics and functionalities discussed in other parts of this report 2 Learning in pre-schools, kindergartens, elementary, secondary, higher education, technical and vocational schools, and corporate and government training programs 3 Consumer-driven learning activities that are not part of any formal, certified /accredited program. ÂŠ 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Future Learning Platforms Vision, Cont'd 

Key capabilities/functionalities FLP should enable:         



Access: Anywhere, anytime access—ideally via high speed wireless access from any device Interactivity: Highly interactive, high quality activities and content Tracking/analytics: All learning activities are tracked to facilitate adaptive learning Personalization: Tracking and learner profiles should enable personalized learning paths Contextualization: Contextual awareness--or work context, f.ex.--will improve learning outcome Collaborative: Platforms must enable different types of collaborative arrangements and modalities Social: Wide range of social media types must be easily accommodated in platform Blend: Enabling hybrid or blended learning models will likely improve learning outcomes Engagement: When the elements above exist, high degree of learner engagement is likely

Architecture:     

Cloud: Increasingly, cloud-based applications and data storage will offer significant benefits Integration: Ease of integration with 3rd party applications and systems is highly desirable1 Privacy: Data being collected on LP activities must protect learners' privacy Security: The LP must have strong protection against hacking and breach of security Flexibility: No LP can meet all needs so should ideally have open APIs or other ways to enable users to add new and emerging capability (see next page) 1

Audrey Watters (see next page) argues that besides being concerned about software integration, interoperability, and data portability, in education we should also be concerned with API developments addressing shared metadata and issuing digital credentials.

Future Learning Platforms Vision, Cont'd 

Openness and Extensibility 

The most successful FLPs will likely be those that are able to build platforms that provide open application protocol interfaces (APIs) which make it possible and easy for 3 rd party developers to build innovative products and services and offer them "on top of " the main platform. This has been part of the strategic approach of Facebook and Amazon, and has been one of the reasons for why the gaming company Zynga, for instance, was able to quickly gain millions of users by integrating its games tightly with Facebook, taking advantage of the functionality (and data) of Facebook's platform. According to Marc Andreessen (in a 1997 blog post on "The Three Kinds of Platforms You Meet on the Internet"): "A 'platform' is a system that can be programmed and therefore customized by outside developers — users — and in that way, adapted to countless needs and niches that the platform’s original developers could not have possibly contemplated, much less had time to accommodate."





Varying Definitions 

Inside Higher Education tech writer Audrey Watters recently wrote 1: " We throw the term 'platform' around a lot in tech-speak, using it to refer to everything from software to hardware, from applications to operating systems, from websites to the Web and the Internet itself. In tech-marketing-speak, 'platform' is often meant to invoke greatness or aspirations thereof: to become a platform is a goal — 'the next Facebook,' if you will." Watters, who focuses on Web-based platforms, feels Web APIs are important for education platforms, but also notes that "… while the Web remains my favorite education platform, what we witnessed in 2012 is probably less about the open Web and more about the development of closed commercial platforms." This report will avoid narrow, technical definitions of LPs (and Marc Andreessen's taxonomy was critiqued but the issues around that debate is beyond the scope of this report) and we will examine a number of different types of candidate platforms in terms of what they offer learners as well as instructors.



"Top Ed-Trends of 2012: The Platforming of Education," Inside Higher Education, December 26, 2012

The What, Why and Drivers of Learning Platforms

Learning Platforms: WHAT are they and WHY are they important? 

WHAT? 



I see LPs providing an integrated set of affordances (or capabilities, features and functionalities) that enable learning experiences, activities and outcomes--made possible by a set of tools and technologies." (this general definition that will be made much more specific later in the report)  This project has focused on gaining insights into emerging or future LPs--and especially those that enable rich and engaging learning experiences that produce high quality learning outcomes.  We see FLPs becoming increasingly technology-based (taking advantage of rapid technology advances, especially in ICT/Internet) or involving hybrid/blended learning models  Some analysts--such as Phil Simon1--who have focused on platform issues (but not specifically in learning context) have seen platforms as ecosystems and have been especially interested in the implications of platforms (such as those of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) for business models WHY?  FLPs will enable greater and easier access, flexibility and diversity of learning experiences, especially as a result of technology enabling more powerful LPs--and will be the result of growing LP competition  FLPs have the potential to help disrupt and transform our current education and learning practices

Hybrid/Blended Model

Online Model 1 The

Age of the Platform; Phil Simon

Future Learning Platforms: Drivers A combination of technology and business drivers have jointly triggered the growth of new learning platforms--for both formal and informal learning

Accelerating EdTech Innovation: In Both Startups and Incumbents

Intensified Competition in Education and Learning Industry

Rapid Technological Progress: Increased Capability and Lower Costs Lessons Learned from Success of Online Platforms1

FUTURE LEARNING PLATFORMS

Rising Costs of Traditional Education Stimulates Innovative Solutions

Including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple

Overview and Conceptual Frameworks

Learning Platforms: Brief Overview  Extensive adoption in educational institutions  Many players and growing competition  Very large and powerful, players with growing reach and ambition  Increasingly acquisitive

 Sudden appearance and already major impact  Potentially very disruptive to existing institutions

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Tech and Media Company Platforms

MOOCs1 Gaming Platforms

Collaboration Platforms

Social Media Platforms Other Candidates

 Some countries are considering "Facebook for education and learning"  Everything is becoming "social"

 Learning activities are increasingly collaborative  Collaborative technologies are increasingly common

 Popular online commerce or other platforms (e.g. Adobe Connect) could find education and learning use, for instance 2

MOOCs: Massive Online Open Courses See: http://ed.ted.com/

 Game-based learning has gained strong appeal  Gaming principles can help achieve high engagement

Video-based platforms--either with narrow domain or "vertical industry" focus--are emerging (TED Ed may be example of this);

High Level Perspective on FLPs Secondary Learning Platform

Primary Learning Platform

Mobile Phones

Tablets

"Front-end"  Great user interface design is key  Could be organized as "learning portal"  Easy and simple navigation is crucial

"Back-end"  Must meet institutional and admin needs  Needs strong and flexible architecture

Increasingly "device of choice," especially among younger learners (see pages 84-93)

Laptops

PCs/ Macs

Other Devices:  Game controllers  Interactive Whiteboards  TVs

Future Learning Platforms Vision, Continued FLP Continuum "Distributed or Federated" Model (Integrating many "world-class point solutions": X1-Xn)

"Holistic Platform" (All-in-one)

X1 Sophisticated and comprehensive platform that incorporates all or much of the functionality noted on earlier slides

X8 X7

Core Platform (Core Functionality) X6

Issues of data security and privacy

X2 X3 X4

Open APIs

Conceptual Taxonomy of LPs  Broad scope1 and wide range of learning functionalities & capabilities  Large number of users  Many tech or bus partners may be tied into platform  Could be seen as "learning ecosystems"

Platform 2

"Platform Planks" or specific learning applications and capabilities 1

Increasing scope and capability

As technology improves and enables new functionality and platform owner/developer adds tools, technology and capability, LPs will move up to higher levels Platform 1

 Narrow scope and relatively limited range of learning capabilities  Number of users may vary from small to large  Less likely to have many technology or business partners--or deep ecosystem-tied into platform 1

See next section on current and future LP functionalities

Platform Functionalities: Current and Future Perspectives

Learning Platforms Functionalities: Today 



Access to lectures and content--Learning and teaching has traditionally been very focused on delivering content or courses. Even today, most MOOCs, and especially xMOOCs (see pages 44-62 for discussion), have relatively narrow functionality and are primarily platforms for delivering video lectures and for students to access other content (documents) and only have limited collaboration and communications with instructors or students. Access to broader learning functionality--cMOOCs and most LMSs today have wider range of capabilities that offer learners a range of options for communication and collaboration as well as ability to create content in various ways in addition to only consuming content that is being distributed via the platform. Course creation and administration--Since education is still very course-focused, instructors need tools to create, deliver, and manage their courses, including doing assessments, grading, grade reporting, and so on. This has been the strength and focus of most LMS systems, but often at the cost of learner utility and friendliness. Limited social learning interactions--Learning has always been "social" (involving social interaction between learners and instructors) but LPs have typically had only limited capability for social interactions, and especially with user-friendly and intuitive design to allow and enable such interactions (and how to architect these interactions), especially compared to what newer social media, such as Facebook, have provided. Register, assign (courses), track and measure learner activities. These have been among the basic coursefocused functions of LMS and together with various notification functions (automated updates, schedule reminders, and so on) have been among major strengths of LMS. Mobile learning. Most LPs have recognized the need to enable learners to access learning resources via mobile devices (including mobile phones) and this capability is generally available, and recent focus on apps and tablets is improving learning experiences on these devices. Increasing Web-based integration of different learning capabilities. In recent years this has become evident not only among emergent LMS players that are "Web native" in their architecture, but the same integrated capabilities for collaborative learning, with strong social tools, are provided by Google Apps for Education and WebEx Social, for instance.

Learning Platforms Functionalities: Future 



Allowing more diverse pedagogies. Past LPs have been primarily "top down" and instructor-focused and modern pedagogy, including emerging MOOC pedagogy, will include more peer-to-peer and other forms of learner centric learning approaches. FLPs will likely enable such diversity and flexibility. Pedagogical approaches using more gamebased and simulations-based learning will also become more commonly used, and in some cases available as pedagogical modules of FLPs. Evolving collaborative and social learning. The recent launch of WebEx Social (see page 80) is illustrative of how many FLPs will integrate a variety of capabilities around collaborative and social learning, taking advantage of different types of media and tools, to enable much easier and higher levels of team-based learning, for instance. Flexible integration of emergent tools and capabilities. Today, many providers of LPs and tools do not have open APIs available for 3rd parties to take advantage of easy integration of their innovative products and services. Based on recent evidence from Pearson, in terms of recognizing the need for "peaceful coexistence" of open and proprietary learning resources and solution, we expect growing integration capability to emerge. More sophisticated learning analytics (LA). In some cases, this capability will involve integration of "world class point LA solutions ("bolt-ons"), but in many cases this capability will be native and built into the FLPs, especially as LP contenders like Pearson are investing significant resources in LA. Developing and consuming interactive multimedia content. Again, some of these capabilities will be integrated with FLPs via APIs, but in other cases more sophisticated tools will become native parts of FLPs, and Cisco is one of the companies developing its own video capability that will be an integral part of its FLPs. More capable and flexible assessment engines. Analogous to what we expect to see in the learning analytics front, MOOCs in particular will require innovative assessment engine design and development, but it is uncertain whether these engines will become service capabilities that can be used by any MOOC platform or whether MOOC platforms will want to develop their own, unique engines. Learner profiles. FLPs will likely include greater information about learners’ needs and interests—in profiles that include expertise tags and portfolio archives of past work. These profiles will be used for a variety of purposes, including enabling more effective adaptive learning.

Categories and Types of LPs: Learning Management Systems (LMS)

LMS: Summary Overview 

Characteristics:   



Recent Developments:   



 

LMS sector has a number of relatively large incumbents: Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Pearson, Moodle, Sakai, Saba, and SumTotal. Smaller newcomers include: Instructure, Epsilen, Loudcloud, Lore, Schoology, and Edmodo. Mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances are likely reactions to emerging industry dynamics and greater competition.

Selected Issues/Questions:  



In last few years, a number of newcomers have entered the scene and adding new competitive thrust. Significant strategic changes have also taken place in some of key players, resulting in more dynamic sector but also raising questions about strategic positioning (see page 39). New business models--a la "freemium model" that has gained popularity online--has added new dimension.

Key Players: 



LMSs have been, and continue to represent, the main LP used in education sector--and especially serving basic functionality for teachers and students. Typically LMSs have been very course and instructor focused but evolving towards greater learner focus. They have been viewed as costly and slowly evolving systems but more innovative in recent years.

Will combination of Google Apps for Education combined with "freemium player" or other emergent LMS players represent significant alternative to larger incumbent players? Will educational institutions and users see significant new benefits from new market dynamics?

Future Perspectives  

Within a few years "cloud and 'big data' " will impact the nature of LMS platforms and their value proposition. Unclear whether LMSs will be "backbone" of FLPs or more of feature of, or bolt on to, other larger platforms. © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Brief Primer: The "Why and What" of LMS LMS enable cost-effective delivery, management and control of online â&#x201D;&#x20AC; and, increasingly, "hybrid or blended" â&#x201D;&#x20AC; education and learning processes and activities.

Simple Overview (more details on Current and evolving functionality In subsequent slides)

The "How" of LMS: Evolving Functionality Traditional Functionality:

Emerging Functionality:

 Managing courses, users, roles, instructors and track activities.  Enabling instructors to easily create content -and upload into LMS--as well as post syllabus and course materials.  Facilitating testing and assessments, as well as display results.  Posting class schedule and notices throughout course.  Allowing collaboration and communication between everyone involved in learning activities, but LMS collaboration and communication capability has often been relatively weak compared to that in emerging systems.  Generating/Collecting/Managing student and learning data--for reporting functions.  Common Critique: Most LMSs have been very course-, administration- and control-oriented.

 Strong "Big Data" and Analytics Capability [major players have built up or acquired such capability or in the process of doing so].  Value Added Services are gaining importance relative to core LMS functionality.  Ease of Customization and Personalization [i.e. more modularity and enabling PLEs1 if learners want this; Open University has moved in this direction].  Enabling Mobility and increasingly with apps [and greater use of apps for wide range of learning options].  Support for MOOCs?  Privacy and Security [while avoiding high (maintenance) cost].  Industry LMSs have increasingly built up Talent Management capability2.  Strong Social Media and Collaboration capability and Integration; i.e. new platforms have social media and collaboration as fundamental DNA (i.e. in architecture).

PLE: Personal Learning Environments performance management, competency management, and succession

2 Includes

LMS Survey Results 20121 What Features are ESSENTIAL for your LMS/ LCMS/Learning Platform?

What Features would be nice to have in a LMS?

 Mobile Learning – 68.5%  Peer Review, Chat, Collaborative Learning – 68.5%  Social Learning – 57.1%  Administration, wizards, stock images, templates – 57.1%  ILT/Classroom mgt – 48.5%  Talent/Performance mgt – 37.1%  Skype – 20%  E-commerce – 14.2%  Other 8.5%

          

Advanced analytics for administrators – 65.7% e-book publishing and development – 60% Podcasting – creating your own – 57.1% Audio/video/image editing – 51.4% Ability to use Skype – 48.5% Ability to send SMS (text messages) – 48.5% SEO (Search engine optimization features) – 40% Dropbox, box.net or similar – 37.1% Salesforce.com or customer mgt system integration – 17.1% Other – 14.2% Synch with accounting software ala Quicken, etc. – 5.7%

1 Survey:

"…Respondents were from all size of companies, education, higher education, associations, non profits and other. On the total number of employees, over 44% were from businesses 500 or less.36% were from 501 to 5,000 employees (16.6% from the 501-1,000), and 11% were from companies over 50,000 employees."

Source: State of the LMS 2012; Craig Weiss; http://elearninfo247.com/2012/02/16/state-of-the-lms-2012/

The How of LMS: Comparative Functionality1 ARCHITECTURE

CANVAS

MOODLE2

BLACKBOARD DESIRE2LEARN

SAKAI3

Native Cloud Service Automated Peak Load Management Development Technology

OPENNESS

Software Licensing Open APIs

Manual (hosted)

Ruby on Rails

Manual (hosted)

Java J2EE

Manual (hosted)

Microsoft NET

Closed Source Proprietary

PHP

Closed Source Proprietary

Community Backed GPL

Manual (hosted)

Java

Community Backed ECL

Fee Based

Annual Open Security Audit

USABILITY

FEATURES

Standard LMS Functionality Integrated Learning Outcomes

Fee Based

Mobile Applications

Fee Based

Version 2.1 only

Accessibility (NFB4 Certified)

35 1

Source: Instructure (http://www.instructure.com/compare-canvas)

Moodlerooms

rSmart 4 National Federation of the Blind

Some High Level Perspectives & Dynamics

Incumbents Some Issues:  LMS vs. PLE1  Institution needs and constraints vs learner/user needs and preferences  Evolving online learning, esp. MOOCs

Proprietary Tech Traditional LMS

Open Source

Emerging Contenders     

Newer tools and architectures Often cloud-based More social media oriented More flexible New Business Models

New LMS 1

Personal Learning Environments; See, for example: Web 2.0, Personal Learning Environments, and the Future of Learning Management Systems; by Niall Sclater, Open University

LMS Market Evolution

Some High Level Perspectives: Players 



LMS markets for Education and "Industry" (Corporate and Government) are distinct and very little overlap (although Blackboard has some presence in both markets). Some similarities/parallels as well as differences in dynamics of these two markets.

Leading Education-Focused Players:  "Incumbents"  Blackboard1  Desire2Learn2  Pearson3  Moodle4 [open source]  Sakai [open source]  "Emerging Contenders"  Instructure  Epsilen  Loudcloud  Lore [ex Coursekit]  Schoology  Edmodo [See page 117]

Major Industry-Focused Players5:  Saba  SumTotal  Plateau [Acquired by SuccessFactors-->SAP]  WBT Systems  Skillsoft  RWD  NetDimensions  ElementK  LearnShare

Has made numerous acquisitions over the last decade, including Prometheus, WebCT, ANGEL Learning and Elluminate Company made a made a very surprising "strategic move" in September 2012--See page 116 3 Claims to be the world's largest education/learning company, and has made numerous acquisitions, including Norwegian Fronter 4 One of large users of Moodle is Open University UK--see page 42 5 One report by market analyst Bersin (industry) LMS profiled 39 solution providers--http://www.scribd.com/doc/40942676/LMS-MarketOverview-Bersin 2

Summary Profiles of Selected LMS Players 

Blackboard   



Desire2Learn   



Canadian company has long been one of major players in educational LMS space. Recent strategic decision to seek significant venture funding was surprising but also indicative of more aggressive and ambitious plans for future [see page 116]. Reportedly has loyal customer base, has fleshed out product line (with e-portfolio, design wizards, mobile, etc) and been focusing on internal R&D.

Pearson   



Dominant player in education sector, but has been losing market share despite very active acquisition activity. Very mixed feelings about its products, and many view it as falling behind others and emerging technology. Recent acquisitions of Moodlerooms and Netstop have been interpreted as "pivot" and has caused confusion and concern about strategic direction of company--seemingly moving away from its core (LMS) business, towards services.

Company has resources that other competitors can't match, and company has been aggressively acquiring capability and expanding across education sector. It has been gaining LMS strength since acquiring Fronter but most recent move to launch OpenClass (free LMS) is another example of its more ambitious plans for future. While company has impressive capabilities many in education sector are concerned about connections between it free LMS and its main business: Selling content.

Moodle   

Major open source player in LMS space and claims 69, 123 "registered sites" using their product and having a very large and global community. One of largest users of Moodle is Open University UK, evolving the Moodle Platform to meet the changing needs of OU [see page 42]. Moodle.org has large, global community, with impressive usage statistics--https://moodle.org/stats/

US Campus Computing Project1 and LMS

"The campus LMS market remains a textbook example of a mature market with immature, or evolving technologies, and that's a prescription for a volatile market." Kenneth Green, Founding Director, The Campus Computing Project



 

  

Most US campuses have LMS systems, but market share of Blackboard (including Angel and WebCT, which are part of Blackboard) is declining, as Desire2Learn, Moodle and Sakai have gained ground. In Fall of 2010, 34.8% of private 4-year institutions reported having Moodle as their LMS According to Campus Survey, "several new LMS providers, including Epsilen, Instructure, and Loudcloud, among others, are generating significant interest and beginning to sign some interesting campus clients." 27.8% of survey participants reported that they had moved or were migrating their LMS application to Cloud Computing. Rapid growth in number of mobile apps used in American universities. Most institutions report that lecture capture "is an important part of our campus plan for developing and delivering instructional content."

1 Campus

40 Computing Project Survey 2011; CampusComputting.net

Loosening Grip of LMS On FLP on Campus?

"So far the creators of these high-scale experiences [1] have eschewed the established LMS's, preferring to bring their courses to the market on their own platforms. I think we'll see more of that in 2013, further loosening the grip of the traditional campus LMS on the development and distribution of technology enhanced learning." Adrian Sannier; Digital Strategist and Senior Vice President of Product; Pearson; Interview in Inside Higher Education; January 9, 2013

Referring to MOOCs

Illustrative LMS Use Case: Open University (OU) and Moodle1  According to Slater, at the OU the content management system, e-portfolio system2 ("MyStuff" was developed at OU), search facilities, synchronous collaboration systems, and the student portal together with the e-tutor-marked assignment system are clearly delineated from the LMS (Moodle)--although the aim is to provide a unified interface for students that they are accessing a single system.  MyStuff "…draws from social software innovations elsewhere and allows learners to store and tag content and to share and discuss it with others."  "In an attempt to make the LMS more flexible, appealing, and useful to students, the OU is working on a fundamental change to the architecture of Moodle from the students' (and tutors') point of view, allowing them to set up their own forums, wikis, blogs, and other tools and to invite others to join them in ad hoc groupings--in addition to those provided for specific course purposes." 2

Built to be fully integrated with Moodle, but also able to be run as a stand-alone system, if necessary

X2 X3

Core LMS functionality

"Best-of-breed" applications (Xi) integrated with Core LMS functionality--perhaps via Web Services

According to Sclater, "It is possible that the LMS will evolve into more of a MIS working away in the background, with the information exportable to a variety of other systems under the control of students who wish to view it in environments they prefer. LMSs may therefore increasingly have to allow data to be exported to and be imported from other systems."

Based on Web 2.0, Personal Learning Environments, and the Future of Learning Management Systems; by Niall Sclater

LMS Future Perspectives & Issues 



Supply and Demand Drivers. The future of LMS will be driven by ongoing trends and emerging changes on Supply Side (i.e. enabling technology and competitive dynamics among vendors) and Demand Side (evolving needs of both end-users, i.e. students, as well as professors and educational institutions, and to a lesser extent by other constituencies, i.e. parents, for example) Early signals of change. These signs of what future of LMS will look like will likely be seen in the emerging competitive dynamics of the 20 key players identified on page 38, and we are currently in the middle of major strategic, competitive battle among these (and a number of other) players, each trying to meet changing customer needs and preferences. Mobile Learning. Recent trends in smart phones and tablets make it clear that mobile learning will need to be a core functionality of leading LMS players, and they will need to be able to offer well-designed apps or HTML5-based web applications that provide great user experiences (which very few, if any, are offering today) Learning Platform Competition. LMS-centric LPs will be facing a number of other competitors, including some emerging from strategies of content providers (including media companies) to offer more complete solutions that integrate their content with delivery platforms. MOOCs as Major Disruptor. Within less than a year, MOOCs have come out of nowhere to now be seen as a major disruptor, especially in higher education (a small number of academics have offered MOOCs for years, but they did not generate nearly the interest and attention, in part as they did not have nearly the number of students that recent MOOCs have attracted)

Categories and Types of LPs: Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

MOOCs: Summary Overview 

Characteristics:  



Recent Developments:   



 

Degree of potential disruption by MOOCs will depend on whether sustainable business model is found. Most MOOC platforms are very basic today but will they evolve to offer rich learning experience options? How will for-profit versus not-for-profit models competition evolve?

Future Perspectives  

edX: Consortium of a small number of mostly elite universities is key not-for-profit player which also is building an open source MOOC platform. For-profit players include Coursera, Udemy, and Udacity (and others are being launched). Instructure (Canvas Network), Blackboard and other LMS players trying to offer MOOC platform option.

Selected Issues/Questions:   



In very short time of a little over a year MOOCs have become a potentially significant disruptor of HE 1. Interesting emerging dynamic tension between for-profit and not-for-profit players. Vigorous and growing debate among academicians about true disruptor potential of MOOCs.

Key Players: 



The most significant distinguishing feature of MOOCS today is their scale of operation, enrolling unprecedented number of students in free and open courses. The two main types of MOOCs--xMOOCs and cMOOCs (see page 47)--differ significantly in their philosophy, design and approach.

MOOCs have had dramatic impact on thinking about future of HE and could trigger needed changes. If MOOCs find sustainable model, they may bring significant transformation of HE landscape, at least in US.

Definition, Brief Characteristics & Importance  MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses  Massive: Typically thousands of students and even tens or hundreds of thousands students enroll ─ but typically many fewer, often 5-15% of total, actually complete these courses.  Open: Anyone with Internet connection can sign up, and typically no prerequisites.  Online: Most of course is online, but sometime study groups and "meetups" organized to meet in physical locations.  Courses: Most have relatively traditional structure, but with video-based lectures being "bite sized", often only 5-7 min long.

 Characteristics:  Most have learned from Khan Academy, using video-based lectures, but complemented with assigned readings( but most often no textbooks assigned) ─ and courses are typically credit-less (see slide 55 for more on this point).  Many, particularly courses in computer science and programming, use technology to provide real-time feedback in quizzes and tests.  Most MOOCs rely heavily on peer grading and evaluations, where participating students grade each other's work (i.e. using "crowdsourcing" principles).  MOOCs also rely extensively on online discussion forums and/or threaded discussions and students self-organizing small study groups for support during the course (instructor and/or teaching assistants may also play role, but have limited reach).

 Importance:  Sebastian Thrun, Founder of Udacity, "…sees traditional university degree as an outdated artifact and believes Udacity will provide a new form of lifelong education better suited to modern labor markets." [The Crisis in Higher Education," by Nicholas Carr]. 1  "Former US secretary of Education, William Bennett has written that he senses "an Athens-like Renaissance" in the marking. Stanford president John Hennessy told the New Yorker he sees "a tsunami coming." [The Crisis in Higher Education," by Nicholas Carr].  Adrian Sannier ─ Senior Vice President, Product at Pearson ─ thinks MOOCs will be a major contributor to the decline of what he calls the "Sole Practitioner Model" used in Higher Education for course creation, and thus lead to dramatic change in how courses will be designed and delivered in the future. 1

Joshua Kim, who writes for Inside Higher Education, feels that it is great that MOOCs have sparked new conversations on campus about teaching and learning, but that MOOCs are a means, not an end, to meet the challenges faced in higher education.

MOOCs Taxonomy

cMOOCs2

cMOOCs Characteristics3:  About harnessing the capacity of participatory media to connect people and ideas.  Built around lateral, distributed structures, encouraging blog posts and extensive peer-to-peer discussion formats.  About discovery and generating knowledge.  More experimental and user-driven than xMOOCs.

MOOCs1

xMOOCs

1 2

xMOOCs Characteristics:  MOOCs given by Udacity, Coursera, edX and others.  "Exist at the intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley" (according to Mike Caulfield4).  More "top down" and instructor-driven and more based on traditional teaching model.  Typically little integration with external resources and media.

Term MOOC coined by Dave Cormier (University of Prince Edward Island) in 2008; Cormier's blog: http://davecormier.com/ Tracing origin to course by George Siemens and Stephen Downes in 2008 on "Connectivism and Connected Knowledge." Course had over 2,300 students signing up for free and open version. This categorization of MOOCs was made by Stephen Downes. 3 Based in part on "What lies Beneath: Some Thoughts on MOOCs' Tech Infrastructure," by Audrey Watters (Educause) and "The problem with EdX: a MOOC by any other name" by Bon Stewart (http://theory.cribchronicles.com). 4 Blogger: http://hapgood.us/ © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Potential MOOC Benefits and Some Concerns   

 

Enable unprecedented SCALING of education and to provide free or low cost educational content to millions. Catalyst to educational, and especially higher education, reform and even transformation and enable greater innovation. Enable radical restructuring of course development model, from traditional one of "Sole Practitioner Model" (according to Adrian Sannier, Pearson). New and much needed cost efficiencies could result--helping reduce unsustainable increases in costs in recent decades. Allow unprecedented data collection on learning activities (online) that, combined with new and better learning analytics techniques and technology, will (hopefully) produce new insights into how students learn and enable adaptive learning and interventions that will produce improved learning outcomes. But many faculty members are eyeing MOOCs wearily, "fearing a high-tech Trojan horse that will destroy their jobs." 1 Other concerns of some critics:   

1 MOOCs,

Quality of courses, learning and education will suffer Problems with testing and assessments won't be sufficiently addressed Plagiarism and peer grading will remain as significant challenges for MOOCs

48 The Dip, and Performance Funding, by Matt Reed, Inside Higher Education; November 13, 2012

MOOC Importance: One Professor's Perspective "…I now view MOOCs, and the assessment and discussion infrastructure that comes with them, as invaluable resources that I embrace and to which I add value. I, and I am guessing many others, are short steps away from full-blown customizations of individual courses and even entire curricula, drawing upon resources from around the world and contributing back to those resources." "…For the first time in 25 years of teaching, I feel as though I am in a scholarly-like community with my fellow educators."

"…Now there has been a profound shift in my mindset – I use and build on the educational production of others; I do it openly on public sites, of which I am proud rather than embarrassed; I contribute back, and my students see and learn from this practice of scholarly appreciation, and are even encouraged to contribute to it through their own content creation and sharing. This opportunity for “scholarship” in educational practice is what, as an educator and scholar, I find most exciting about this nascent and exploding online education movement." Source: Warming Up to MOOC’s; The Chronicle of Higher Education, Prof. Hacker; November 6, 2012; http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/warming-up-to-moocs/44022

MMOCs Today: A Small Sample 211 courses offered by end of 2012, from 33 universities.

University of California, Berkeley, University of Texas (UT), Wellesley, and Georgetown are also part of edX. UT says "there will be degree and certificate and professional development and training programs for health care professionals."

At end of 2012, Udacity was offering 19 courses.

In December 2012, Open University launched its FutureLearn MOOC platform together with 11 other UK educational institutions. Table source: The Crisis in Higher Education; by Nicholas Carr; Technology Review, MIT; September 27, 2012 http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429376/the-crisis-in-higher-education/

Evolution of MOOCs

Source: Phil Hill, e-Literate

MOOC Role Today: Some Other Developments  Other MOOC Players or Related Developments:   

 

Google: Has released MOOC-building online tool. TED Talks, Khan Academy and other video-lecture providers also have millions of learners but may not be focused on "courses”. Stanford University Platform Developments. Stanford's Vice Provost for Online Learning is funding a number of platform experiments that may benefit future MOOC students and providers; University also has unveiled its own online platform, Class2Go. In late 2012, Udacity announced collaboration with San Jose State University. Pilot with 300 students in algebra and statistics courses. Path towards college credits for MOOCs. Last week, five of Coursera's courses earned credit recommendations from American Council on Education.

 Other Developments Driven by MOOC phenomenon: 



Semester Online recently announced by Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and seven other prominent institutions may have been influenced by MOOCs but will not have the scale of MOOCs. Blackboard: In November 2012, the company announced that CourseSites, its free, fully hosted and supported cloud-based system will be used for a variety of open education initiatives, including by Arizona State University and the University of Illinois Springfield ─ but none of these will be on MOOC scale.

Stanford University MOOC Platforms Class2Go—Stanford University’s New Online Platform  



Initially, Stanford planned to create a mobile add-on to its existing course-hosting platform (Courseware) but decided it would be better to build new platform. The project group decided to incorporate several existing tools into the new platform, including Khan Academy's exercise framework, YouTube's video service, and a discussion forum tool created by a local company called Piazza. The platform is open-source, nonprofit, it is portable and it is designed not only for teaching but also for research.

Stanford Venture Lab (VLab) Platform—Now spun out of Stanford    

Designed for experiential classes and unlimited number of students and includes mechanics for team creation. Teams will communicate via Skype or other existing Internet tools (and use Google Hangout for video communication among small teams). The backend of the platform uses Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Memcached, and Amazon Web Services. Plans to include gamification and simulation in future platform development. "In this early time, when we’re all learning how to do these classes, it’s important to have different platforms we can experiment on—open source, commercial, closed source.” Nick W. McKeown, Professor of computer science and electrical engineering, Stanford University

Business Model Issues "The MOOC providers are in strange territory. They have staked their future on a vision that makes higher education more free than ever before. And yet their task, eventually, will be to figure our how to make money." How Will MOOCs Make Money? Inside Higher Education, Steve Kolowich, June 11, 2012



MOOCs can charge for "Certificates of Completion or Accomplishment." [Coursera is working on webcam system to allow it to proctor students taking exams. It might charge between $150 and $250 for Certificate of Accomplishment with proctoring and $30-$100 for one without]. "One of the more provocative potential business models for MOOCs is to bypass credentialing altogether. Udacity has suggested that it might double as a headhunter for companies that might like to hire some of its more impressive students." 1

 Headhunting revenues  Lead Generation revenues

DATA Potential Revenue

MOOCs DATADa

1 How 2

Generating Activities

Wrap free courses and assessment with "accompanying content and services" 2:  Tutoring services  Layers of more robust assessment  Tier of feedback and human interaction  Library resources  Publications and eBook offerings  Exclusive gatherings/conferences  Etc.

Will MOOCs Make Money? Inside Higher Education, Steve Kolowich, June 11, 2012 Ann Kirschner, Dean of the honors college, City University of New York

Course Credit Issues 

Path to College Credit for MOOCs:   



 

In October, 2012, Coursera struck licensing deal with Antioch University in which it will pay to use Coursera's MOOCs as material for credit-bearing courses (Antioch's instructors will oversee the courses)1. American Council of Education (ACE) working with Coursera and edX to determine whether certain MOOCs should be worth credit. In February 2013 ACE recommended credit for 5 Coursera courses. ACE, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and Ithaka S+R are teaming up with University System of Maryland (and with Gates Foundation funding) to study and test MOOCs [ACE, APLU and Gates are also primary forces behind the national college "completion agenda"]. "Another potential path is through prior learning assessment, which is the process of awarding credit for learning that occurs outside the traditional academic setting. This can take the form of individual student portfolios… MOOCs remain tantalizing for their potential use by students seeking prior learning credit through portfolios. That process could get a boost if the courses were closely tied to online portfolio-based services like LearningCounts.org, an offering from the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), or those from individual colleges like the University of Maryland University College. In that scenario, the MOOC providers could direct students toward portfolio services and share data with them, such as records of student engagement, to help verify whether a student participated in the course." 1 . "Another form of prior learning assessment is through programmatic review, where the issuer of credit reviews the learning and experience delivered by a particular training program." 1 Growing number of colleges are planning to use course materials from MOOCs for credit-bearing classes, including San Jose State University that plans to use edX course (on circuits and electronics), with professors and teaching assistants on campus leading discussions.

ACE is creating a "Presidential Innovation Lab" that will look at "new academic and financial models inspired by MOOCs, which could in turn help improve degree production." 1

55 Establishment Opens Door for MOOCs; Paul Fain, Inside Higher Education, November 14, 2012

Ideological Perspective on MOOCs Anti-Market Camp1:

Pro-Market Camp2:

cMOOCs xMOOCs ● Unthinking Technophilia3 ● Wide-scale profiteering ● Demoting professors to the level of information delivery system ● Dictates of emboldened technocrats ● Professors becoming rope-makers for their own hangings ● New Taylorism ● Greed and instrumentalism ● Future of education will be less egalitarian ● Offering false promises ● Undermine shared governance ● Running roughshod over established curriculum development procedure ● Move towards teacherless classrooms ● Destroy academic integrity

Silicon Valley Players

"The academic conversation on MOOCs is starting to polarize in exactly the talking-past-one-another way that so many complex conversations evolve..." 4

1 Many

in this camp are also very skeptical and even hostile to role of technology in education Most members of this camp are typically also strong supporters of the role of technology in education 3 Title of article in Inside Higher Education, January 14, 2013 written by four professors in Southern California 4 If MOOCs are the answer, what is the question? Cathy Davidson--http://bit.ly/VZfguP 2

Building MOOCs at University of Amsterdam

 " …MOOC team, some 13 people working feverously to get their first MOOC out to the audience… We never expected we would have so many colleagues working on the project. It seemed quite simple to set up a course with video."  " Making a MOOC is like moving a mountain. We now have a production team of 4, an editorial board of 4, designers and PR people, project managers, staff of the College of Communication and the Graduate School, the IT team with Frank Benneker our MOOC guru, etc. We have internal people on the job, but also some external people, which I think is very healthy for both speed and thoroughness." Source: "The making of a MOOC at the University of Amsterdam;" Arie K. den Boon; Inside Higher Education, February 5, 2013

Future: One Pessimistic Scenario1  

 

[SJSU-Udacity] "Pilot succeeds, expands to more universities and classes." "Part-time faculty get laid off, more community colleges are shuttered, extracurricular college services are closed, and humanities and arts departments are dissolved for lack of enrollment (science enrollment increases–yay!?)." "Graduate programs dry up, once master’s and PhD students realize there are no teaching jobs. Fewer graduate students means fewer teaching assistants and, therefore, fewer classes." "Competency-based measures begin to find the online students perform on par with, if not better than, campus-based students. Major accredited state college systems offer fully online university degrees, then shutter more and more college campuses." "A few Ivy League universities begin to control most of the online content, as universities all over the world converge toward the classes that produce the highest success rates." "In the near future, learning on a college campus returns to its elite roots, where a much smaller percentage of students are personally mentored by research and expert faculty."

"How California's Online Education Pilot Will End College as We Know It;" Gregory Ferenstein, UC Irvine, Techcrunch; January 15, 2013

Future of MOOCs 

   



In very early phase of their evolution; one year has seen an amazing amount of interest and activity; likely to continue in future. Many issues will need resolution, including business model, content ownership (professors vs. universities), and "course completion" issues. Few international MOOC players so far, but Open University's FutureLearn initiative, University of Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam are among those taking action Convergence of cMOOCs and xMOOCs? MOOC platforms gaining much greater functionality?  Innovation around edX's open source platform.  Innovation coming out of many experiments at Stanford University. MOOCs--> Major disruption/transformation of structure and economics of HE, especially in US?

"If, in 2012, MOOCs hit the heights of inflated expectations, 2013 may well represent the trough of despair, at least in terms of the MOOC's perceived potential to completely disrupt conventional institutions." (Adrian Sannier, Digital Strategist, Pearson)

Future of MOOCs, Concluded 



MOOCs are in the very early phase of their evolution, and the last year has seen an amazing amount of MOOC activity, and this will likely continue and perhaps even accelerate. However, many issues will need resolution, including issues of course content ownership (professors or universities).

Next-Generation MOOCs

Possible Characteristics/Features:  Increasingly sophisticated learning platforms for communication, collaboration, and assessments  Will offer variety of communications modes, including synchronous and asynchronous, as well as more immersive environments that enable more engaging forms of collaboration  Platforms will enable variety of value-added services noted in slide 9 on business models  Platforms, and data collected on student performance, will also enable "adaptive learning" and personalized services for students willing to pay for them  Platforms could also link to, and integrate with, ePortfolios

Customers:  Individuals  Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that will use MOOCs to complement existing course offerings  Growing number of HEIs will likely wrap MOOCs with a variety of services and activities they can deliver in existing physical facilities, for students who are willing to pay for this  HEIs may also work with companies to offer them customized learning and training services that utilize MOOCs in some ways

Potential MOOC Benefits and Some Concerns   

 

MOOCs may enable unprecedented SCALING of education and to provide free or low cost educational content to millions. Catalyst to educational, and especially higher education, reform and even transformation and enable greater innovation. Some expect (hope for) new and much needed cost efficiencies could result-helping reduce unsustainable increases in costs in recent decades; but many others are skeptical that MOOCs will affect current HEs in this way. Many faculty members are eyeing MOOCs wearily, "fearing a high-tech Trojan horse that will destroy their jobs." 1 Other concerns of some critics:  Quality of courses, learning and education will suffer.  Problems with testing and assessments won't be sufficiently addressed.  Plagiarism and peer grading will remain as significant challenges for MOOCs.

1 MOOCs,

The Dip, and Performance Funding, by Matt Reed, Inside Higher Education; November 13, 2012

Implications 

For Learners/Students:    



For Higher Education Institutions (HEIs):    



Increased availability of high quality learning materials, at no or low costs--and accessible anywhere. MOOCs will also enable easy connection to other students/learners and to "learning communities." As MOOCs see growing "bundling" with more traditional educational offerings, students will have more learning options also in more traditional settings. Over time, I expect a variety of "college credit options" to emerge, with varying pricing tiers and options. Growing number of HEIs will either offer and/or use MOOCs and benefit in different ways, depending on what they chose to do. The institutions that decide to create MOOCs will gain visibility and connections to new potential customers. Many institutions will likely offer more flexible and innovative learning programs and certificates, and thus find new revenue streams. Smaller institutions will need to change how they operated, including changing the role of many instructors who will do less traditional "course design and delivery" and instead engage students in more interactive discussion and help guide students in their learning journeys.

General Social and Economic Implications:    

Greater and lower cost access to learning resources will result in net social gain, despite some inevitable resistance and "transitional pain" by some institutions. MOOCs may play important role in offering short, industry-focused courses that can meet important skill needs that are currently not being met. MOOCs have already played an important role as a "disruptive catalyst" in HE and this role may continue and even grow. MOOCs will help generate vast amounts of learning data that may help educational researchers gain new insights into how students learn, and these insights will enable new course designs and innovative adaptive learning systems.

Categories and Types of LPs: Social Media Platforms

Social Media: Summary Overview 

Characteristics:   



Recent Developments:   



 

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yammer, Google Plus, Pinterest, YouTube, Apple (its iTunes platform has social functionality built in), Wordpress, and many others. Facebook has set the pace and has around a billion people using its platform and many others (such as Zynga with its online games) have built applications on top of, or linking to, Facebook. All companies want to use social media to connect with customers or potential customers and build loyalty.

Selected Issues/Questions:  



Large tech companies acquiring or building social media functionality--and recent years have seen many, and costly, acquisitions (such as when Microsoft acquired Yammer to "bring social to the enterprise"). Cisco recently brought out major new "social and collaborative" platform for education (see section on Tech and Media company platforms). All LMS platforms have added "social functionality" to become "Facebook-like”.

Key Players: 



Typically enable easy and quick--and free or very low cost--communication and information sharing. Enable easy connection to "friends" and distinct social media now enable easy linkages. Gaining interest and use in enterprise, education, government and other sectors.

Many EdTech startups are building "more social and friendly, easy-to-use" platforms as alternatives to traditional LMS (see LMS section of the report)--but can they displace larger incumbents? Large states in India are planning, or hoping to, build "social learning platforms" on Facebook model.

Future Perspectives  

Will "social platforms" become moot issue as "everything (all applications) becomes social"? How can social media functionality be used most effectively in education and learning? © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Social Media for Education and Learning 

Social media platforms that have strong media and communications capability--and are user-friendly and easy to use--can be important education and learning platforms or bring such capability to other platforms. Some examples, which illustrate how social media is used to also create "learning communities" or "communities of interest": 





YouTube: Many organizations are using YouTube videos for education and learning and some (including companies) are setting up their own YouTube channels for learning and training either customers or employees (University of Phoenix has its own YouTube Channel, for instance). TED-Ed: According to TED, "This platform also allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED's, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student." [http://ed.ted.com/about]. Google Plus: This social platform has been seen as an important element in Google's competitive response to Facebook's success, and Google Plus (see section on Tech and Media Company Platforms) has gained growing interest and use by educational institutions, and constitutes one of many elements in Google's Apps for Education.

Social media companies, and social media technology, has exploded in recent years and photo and video sharing--as well as tools for creating videos to share (including easy-to-use, browser-based video editing tools)--is now common. But will users want to, and need to, access separate applications or will education and learning-focused platforms that integrate all or most of the needed functionality into one platform be preferred? It is too early to say what users will prefer, but it is clear that many companies will offer more integrated platforms, where social and collaborative capability is brought together specifically in an education or learning context (as LMS players are doing or as Cisco is doing with its new Cisco WebEx Social product that was launched at EDUCAUSE conference in November 2012).

Categories and Types of LPs: Gaming Platforms

Gaming Platform: Summary Overview 

Characteristics:  



Recent Developments:   





Numerous companies have powerful and interesting platforms that could become education and learning platforms: Microsoft (around its XBox but also other, related tech, such as Kinect), Nintendo (Wii platform), and Valve--to mention just a few of them. 3D immersive platforms--some that will now be browser-based (leveraging HTML5 and WebGL tech)--will bring greater opportunities for higher level of engagement.

Selected Issues/Questions:  



Game-based learning initiatives continue to spread--and San Jose State University is one of the most recent initiatives launched to explore how to leverage games and gaming principles in education. Gaming platforms cater increasingly to "casual gamers" and using mobile devices and these developments help increase the appeal to educationalists. Game-based learning apps for tablets and smart phones are multiplying--and interest by Singapore's government illustrates how interest is spreading.

Key Players: 



Gaming platforms can be seen as a form of social media platforms, and may or may not have education and learning use and applications. Gaming elements and gaming characteristics that result in very high engagement has long been of interest to educators, who would like to find ways to tap some of these capabilities.

Will we see mostly very "narrow" gaming platforms (for tablets, for example) or larger, integrated platforms. Building effective game-based learning is difficult, and how long before this changes significantly?

Future Perspectives 

Gaming Platforms for Education and Learning 



Today, it seems that both the opportunities and obstacles/challenges are very large, but with exponential progress in technology and growing number of game designers, educationalists, and growing amount of funding targeting game-based learning, we may overcome the challenges that have so far held back significant game-based learning progress. These two players on the gaming front illustrate future opportunities as well as the resources and talents that may be leveraged into solving the challenges to creating cost-effective game-based learning products: 





Microsoft. The company's Xbox platform was launched in 2001 and has been a very successful part of Microsoft's business. This becomes even more interesting when seen in the context of its Kinect technology which is finding application in a growing number of areas, including work and learning/training. And finally, the company's new tablets, Surface, may become a way for students to easily access game-based learning applications. Microsoft has also long had strong education and learning involvement [Also see discussion in Tech and Media Company Platforms]. Valve. The company is the creator of Steam, a pioneering online game platform that distributes and manages thousands of games directly to a community of more than 50 million players around the world. Valve has been forming partnerships and relationships with educators, universities, foundations and nonprofits and supporting curricular efforts around STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Steam has had a consistent focus on providing a good user experience and delivering value, which has helped it become by far the most successful digital-distribution service that's dedicated to games. iOS/Android is technically bigger, but Steam almost certainly has much more revenue than either of those services and Steam is certainly much bigger than Xbox Live/PSN/WiiWare/DSiWare/3DS store.

Unity3D, Minecraft and other gaming toolsets, engines and platforms have already found use in education and learning but not likely to offer significant education and learning platform in near future. © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Categories and Types of LPs: Collaborative Platforms

Collaboration Platforms: Summary Overview 

Characteristics:  



Recent Developments:   





Google Apps for Education (and its cloud-based calendar and e-mail are simple but important collaborative tools, but as seen later in this report, these are complemented by a number of other popular tools); Microsoft has Sharepoint, Skype, Yammer and other collaborative tools and platforms. Other players include: Jive, Adobe (Captivate), Citrix, Salesforce (has acquired Dim Dim, GroupSwim (now Chatter) and Manymoons (now called Do.com)), and VMWare (acquired SocialCast and Zimbra).

Selected Issues/Questions:  



A recent eCampus News Special Report on "How 'collaborative learning' is transforming higher education" 1 highlighted the launch of WebEx Social and other products that are now gaining use in HE Most large tech companies--including Microsoft, SAP and others--have been incorporating collaboration functionality into their platforms. Many smaller players focused on collaboration have emerged (and often been acquired), as noted below.

Key Players: 



Co-creating and sharing documents, being able to easily communicate and meet with people--with audio and/or video (and perhaps in 3D environment)--for work- or learning-tasks. In both K12 and especially in HE, collaborative work is now emphasized--and the discussion of Singapore's ICT Masterplan for education illustrates growing focus on enabling collaboration.

How will "consumerization of IT" and BYOD2 affect educational institutions' choice of platforms? How will new "social and collaborative" functionality affect evolution of MOOC platforms.

Future Perspectives  1

Collaboration technologies will continue rapid development and feed into larger platforms of major platforms eCampus News, November/December 2012

2 Bring

Your Own Device (which has security implications, among others)

Collaboration Platforms for Education and Learning 



Major players in education and learning industry will continue to search for ways to develop platforms that enable them to offer value added content and services to educational customers (institutions or individuals). Pearson's OpenClass LMS is an example of a platform that Pearson will provide both content and services around, including perhaps sophisticated analytics (in the cloud) that analyze formal and informal learning activities, including many that involve collaboration (they could also include next-generation digital and highly interactive books/tablets that can be used for team-based collaboration and learning activities). Collaborative learning and work apps will likely explode, but the open Web--with easy access (through a browser) to vast amounts of open education resources--will represent an important alternative for learners. As a result of advances made with HTML5 and WebGL learners can now also have high quality immersive experiences by clicking on a link and enter a 3D virtual environment that offer a high engagement learning environment. This also will offer richer collaboration opportunities similar to what the virtual world of Second Life has offered its members for many years. Another way of looking at this development is that it will take audio and videoconferencing-based collaboration functionality to a new and higher level. The rapid development of new collaborative capability will create a dilemma for many educational institutions that are using legacy LMS that have limited or unsatisfactory collaborative functionality. Even though incumbent LMS players are working hard to incorporate more new tech and functionality into their platforms, such "bolt-ons" often don't produce a good result and undermines user experience. Therefore, the likely result of the trends we are seeing is that they will help stimulate a more rapid replacement of old legacy LMS that education and learning institutions are currently using. © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Categories and Types of LPs: Tech and Media Company Platforms

Tech and Media Company Platforms: Summary Overview 

Characteristics:   



Recent Developments:  





Apple, Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, Dell, HP and others are among significant players (see pages 74-77 for more details on the education and learning products, services and activities in education). Pearson (media company shifting focus towards education), and large media companies are gaining interest in education and learning opportunities (see pages 78-80).

Selected Issues/Questions:  



"Perfect storm elements" of mobility (and very rapid adoption of tablets), cloud computing, data/analytics and "social media" are now jointly driving strategic thinking of tech and media companies. 2 MOOCs, EdTech and EdTech startup developments over last year or so have pointed to potential disruption and significant change and opportunities in digital/online education and learning.

Key Players: 



Most tech and media companies don't have holistic, integrated LPs but all have significant presence, commitment to, and involvement in education and learning. Education and learning sector represents major market but also for building brand and product loyalty. Sector is growing in importance as BYOD1 becomes more common and accepted.

Can players making numerous acquisitions integrate them into LP-like user experience? (See next pages) How will "open vs closed" (or degree of openness) orientation of LP affect long term success?

Future Perspectives  

Will "app vs Web" be divisive issue or will we see "peaceful co-existence" in next few years? Rapid tech progress is certain, but which players can best execute best education solutions in next 5 years?

Bring-Your-Own-Device; but extending beyond "device" to software and services used on device Kindle Fire-based subscription service targeting kids with both entertainment and learning content. © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Amazon in late 2012 launched a new

Apple in Education and Learning Devices/HW

Services, SW & Content

      

    

iPads (See page 84) Macs Laptops iPhones iTouch iPods AppleTV4

iOS & Mac OS iTunes & iTunesU iBooks iAuthor Apple app store

Observations and Comments:  Compared to other tech and media companies, Apple's control of HW, SW and services has enabled high quality user experiences  The company's Mac line of computers has long had very loyal users in education, especially for content creation and creative applications  The success of its iPads may consolidate its strong position in the education sector  But educators also like "openness"--and low prices--and here Androidbased devices have competitive strengths  Apple has made relatively few acquisitions since 2005--only 18--and while some of them may strengthen Apple's education offering, most will have only long term impact on its education products and services

iOS & Mac OS  Major strengths of Apple and key to success  But Andoid has much higher market share than iOS in smartphone market--due to decentralized distribution iTunes and iTunes U  Introduced in 2001, iTunes illustrates Apple's strength in SW and strong usability, extending across all its products  The media player and library application and media store  iTunesU was launched in 2007 and is being used by large number of educational institutions iBooks and iAuthor  iBooks is ebooks application that was launched in 2010 for its iPad, iPhone and iTouch devices.  iAuthor was announced in 2012, to enable easy authoring of interactive textbooks2 and iBookstore was expanded with textbook category  Both iBooks and iAuthor face challenges from growing number of competitors, many of which are better in dealing with OER3 Apple App Store  Launched in 2008 and has similar size to Google's App Store in terms of number of apps (ca.700,000) but daily revenues 4-5 times higher in Apple's app store  Search for "educational apps" in Apple's app store resulted in 409 hits

1 HW:

Hardware; SW: Software 2 See page 86 for comments on iAuthor 3 Open Education Resources 3 Has not yet gained much adoption but both Apple and Google are trying hard to gain access to living room as another piece in total media consumption chain © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Google in Education and Learning Services, SW & Content Built by and with brand of Samsung and Acer

Devices/HW    

Chromebook Nexus 4 smartphone Nexus 7 tablet Nexus 10 Tablet

 Chrome OS  Android OS  Google Apps for Education1  YouTube/YouTubeEDU  Many other products and services

Observations and Comments:  Google's strength is in Web products (including its Chrome browser) and services (search, YouTube, and many others)  The company lacks the superior user experience of Apple's very tight integration of its HW and SW and services and tight control of its ecosystem  Google's philosophy and technical and business approach that embraces openness (including open source) and "looseness" of its ecosystem results in both strengths and weaknesses, vis-à-vis Apple, for instnance  Google Apps for Education is seeing strong appeal and adoption--as it brings together a number of popular Google products and services that find strong appeal in education sector  Since 2005, Google has made 107 acquisitions, many in social media, digital/online video, social gaming, ebooks, etc--many or most able to strengthen Google's education and learning offering

Chrome OS  OS developed specifically for Chromebooks, designed and optimized to work with Web applications2  Coexistence of Chrome and Android OS has raised questions and some market confusion Android OS  Popular OS for smart phones and tablets produced by many strong manufacturers to boost their own brand (including Samsung)  But freedom that Android gives different carriers and manufacturers is also Android weakness--as wide variety of user experiences result Google Apps for Education (GAFE)  GAFE launched 6 years ago  Google says GAFE is now used by more than 20 million students, faculty members and staff worldwide YouTubeEDU  University, Primary & Secondary and Lifelong Education categories  Launched in 2009 and joins growing list of educational video offerings

Google Apps is a free suite of hosted email and collaboration applications exclusively for schools and universities. This includes Gmail, Calendar, Documents, Sites, and Groups, all at no charge. Used by University of Michgan, Utah State, Vanderbildt Lakehead, and Wesleyan University, among others 2 Source: TechCrunch, October 1, 2012 © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Google in Education and Learning, Continued ePortfolio Mash Up with Google Apps1 (illustrates some of Google's "Education Footprint")

Microsoft in Education and Learning Services, SW & Content

Devices/HW  Surface (tablet)

MS: Microsoft

 Microsoft 365  MS Office  Windows OS (8 is radically new OS1)  Kinect (for gesturebased navigation)  Xbox gaming  Sharepoint server  Others

Observations and Comments: Both SW productivity and back-end server products (including Sharepoint Server) have widespread adoption in education sector Web portals for both K12 and HE have had significant adoption Microsoft has long had extensive involvement in education sector globally, both with products but also education policies and with R&D and innovation Bill Gates has been strong advocate for reforms and Gates Foundation is leading funder of education innovation MS has made 75 acquisitions since 2005 and some of them have added significant strength to their educational offerings, esp Skype and Yammer (for adio and video conferencing and social media)

Microsoft 365  Email and calendars, web conferencing, office web apps, public website, team sites, active directory integration  Universities using it includes University of Texas at San Antonio, Cornell (7k), University, Dartmouth College MS Office (for PC or Mac)  Longest lasting and most popular productivity software suite  Contains products used extensively in industry and education: Word, Powerpoint,Excel, Onenote, Outlook, Publisher and access Windows Operating System  Windows has been basis of MS SW products since 1985  Significant changes in design with Windows 8 to meet needs of mobile devices, and especially tablets Xbox and Kinect  MS has one of leading video game and online gaming platforms--now in 6th generation  Xbox Live is online gaming platform  Kinect is innovative, gesture-based navigation system introduced for Xbox in 2010  Windows version of Kinect launched in 2012

Windows 8 introduces significant changes to the operating system's platform, primarily focused towards improving its user experience on mobile devices such as tablets to rival other mobile operating systems like Android and iOS, taking advantage of new or emerging technologies. © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Media Companies: Growing Interest in Education Sector Opportunities Selected quotes of Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, August 20, 2012, from his article about "Media Companies, Seeing Profit Slip, Push Into Education;" New York Times, August 20, 2012

 



"Discovery (the cable TV company), News Corp, NBCUniversal, and Walt Disney are media companies dipping into the education business." " Education is emerging as an answer [to challenges the Web has presented to current business models of media companies], largely because executives see a way to capitalize on the changes that technology is bringing to classrooms." "The current education business focus of these media companies appears to be the K-12 market, but how long will it be until these same media companies look for a slice of the $4.5 billion dollar higher education textbook market? Beyond textbooks, annual higher education spending is somewhere north of $475 billion a year." " The market for edutainment will much larger than we realize. Consumers will pay for learning experiences that retain the production values and narrative drive of the best games, movies, and television shows. The growth of open online learning will also open up a larger market for exclusive learning experiences. Media companies are well positioned to serve this high end." " I could see large media companies getting serious about the educational space via strategic investments in edtech startups. It is possible to buy into the educational space at much lower multiples than in other technology sectors (say gaming) opportunities abound." 78

Other Tech and Media Companies in Education and Learning  



Because of the size of the global education and learning markets1, it is not surprising that most tech and media companies are increasingly targeting this sector with its products and services. Most of these companies started out by designing independent "point solutions" rather than integrated LPs, but over time their products and services have become more tightly integrated to form more cohesive LPs (such as Google Apps for Education or Cisco's Communications and Collaboration LP shown on page 80) or learning ecosystems. Companies like Amazon see opportunities in targeting institutions or consumers directly with education and learning products and services, or as a combination of entertainment and learning products. Amazon, with its impressive technology, content and transaction platforms, is leveraging its platform and its Kindle line of tablets and growing digital content lineup (including streaming content from its strong cloud infrastructure), recently boosted with the launch of FreeTime Unlimited, a subscription multimedia service--with books, games and films--for the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HD aimed exclusively at children of ages 3-8 years. Pearson, Macmillan2 and other media companies are also nurturing inhouse startups in EdTech or setting up inhouse incubators as a way to stay abreast of new EdTech capabilities that they should add to their lineup of education and learning products/services and helping them beef up their LPs.

1 According to the 2011 Executive Office of the United States report "Understanding the Potential of Educational Technology" the the Council of Economic Advisors the global education spending was $3.9 Trillion, but only a fraction of this is for EdTech 2 According to OnlineUniversities.com, "Fearing that traditional textbook publishing is being phased out in favor of digital offerings, the company is working to develop tools that will make it easy to transition into selling the next generation of educational resources. Macmillan has invested $100 million in acquiring startups, with the idea the the businesses will be allowed to exist like independent companies under the Macmillan umbrella © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

Pearson: Leading Education Player  Very large financial and learning assets (esp. including content/learning resources) that can be leveraged.  Serious intentions to become global leader in digital education, offering wide range of products and services.

 Has been making numerous acquisitions in recent years to strengthen its position.  Created significant buzz in 2011 when it introduced OpenClass: "Discover a learning environment that goes beyond the LMS. Open to everyone. Easy to use. Completely free. Amazing."  Positioned OpenClass as being aligned with Google Apps in Education.  More recently introduced search engine to help instructors locate content--both proprietary and free materials from popular "open educational resource" repositories. OpenClass: “a free LMS that combines standard course-management tools with advanced social networking and community-building, and an open architecture that allows instructors to import whatever material they want, from e-books to YouTube videos.”

Cisco in Education and Learning Cisco-WebEx Integrated Communication and Collaboration Platform

WebEx Social1

Cisco Telepresence  High-end audio and video communications system  Used by Duke University and University of South Carolina, among others

Cisco Video-Conferencing  Cisco product line strengthened by acquisition of Tandberg products  Used by University of Colorado, and University of Highlands and Islands, among others

 Facebook-like, social network (behind firewall) designed for educational institutions with intuitive UI that enables easy asynchronous and real-time communication and collaboration  Provides personalized dashboard, displaying calendar, activity stream, and "watch list" to help users keep track of posts and activities that are relevant to them  Platform integrates chat, audio, video, desktop sharing, whiteboarding, and community-based sharing  Integrates with Microsoft Office applications to enable users to edit and share documents  Search capability enables easy search for content and people and then to launch video-calls, IM or WebEx conferencing sessions  Student intern group at Cisco found that WebEx Social helped address the problem of the current system being de-centralized, fragmented, confusing, highly dependent on email, and requiring students to learn new tools and build profiles across a range of different tools

UI: User Interface; IM: Instant Messaging 1

Product launched at EDUCAUSE annual conference in November 2012

LPs and Human Capital Management Consolidation: SAP & SuccessFactors Integration of Work and Learning Acq: summer 2011 Acq: March 2011

SAP PLATEAU SUCCESSFACTORS (SF) JAMBOK

 Plateau: LMS, product and knowledge capital and talent management provider  Jambok: Social video and mobile learning provider LMS: Learning Management System SaaS: Software as a Service

 According to SF, it is the leading provider of cloud-based business execution software, and delivers business alignment, team execution, people performance, and learning management solutions to organizations of all sizes across more than 60 industries.  Plateau acquisition solidified the company as a learning leader in the talent management space, with a true end-to-end SaaS platform

 SF acquired by SAP for $3.4 Bill in November 2011  SF (with $330 Mill. Revenues (2011) became part of € 14 Bill (2011) revenue company  SF gave SAP cloud-DNA and cloud leadership  SF HCM integrated into SAP service portfolio to help customers manage employees, sales, suppliers and money

Hasso Plattner Institute* (HPI/SAP) MOOCs Evolution of use of Video for Education at HPI

Phase 1

Phase 2

Videos posted on Tele-TASK portal

Videos posted on Apple's iTunesU

 Expose the complete course materials (video) and let people watch them whenever they like  No tests and homework  No student interaction or interaction with professor

HCI: University Center of Excellence in IT Systems Engineerning F2F: Face-to-face

Phase 3

"…we see this as a platform of HPI." Dr. Christoph Meinel, CEO of HPI

Videos used with new Learning Architecture

 Course broken down into smaller units  New sequence of units posted each week  Each sequence includes self-test and homework exercises  Use of social media and communications tools  Enables more student interaction around materials and create learning communities  Virtual office hours by professors  Physical F2F meetings in local places

Tablets Use in Education

Tablets in the Future of Education "I see Tablets (and especially iPads) as the 'iPod moment for Learning' [particularly for K12]" Director, Digital Strategy, Pearson, and former CEO of Fronter (leading LMS company for K-12 in Europe)

In July, 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that the adoption of the iPad by educational institutions was “unlike anything I’ve seen in technology.”

Some analysts see tablets as key step towards greater interactivity and innovation when users/learners can easily move content from tablets to TVs--and that this will be "the next big thing" for Apple.

The Expanding iTablet Universe Apple sold 1 million iPads, or two times as many iPads as Macs, to schools in the second quarter of 2012. Total number of iPads sold in the quarter: 17 million. Since Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s big education and iPad initiative in January 2012, 700 K-12 schools and 125 colleges have signed up to use iTunes U. Apple feels that iPads sales in education are driven by company's total education apps package. Apple introduced its iBooks education initiative in January 2012, which included an updated iBooks app that specifically supports digital and interactive textbooks, a textbook authoring tool, and a dedicated iTunes U app. However, Roger Larsen of Pearson feels iBooks is a flawed concept for what today's textbooks should, and need to, be. 1

Larsen feels that Apple sees iBooks mainly in terms of authoring/creating text and publishing, i.e. traditional model, but today textbooks should be dynamic, personal, interactive, multi-media rich, and perhaps social, filled with assessments, and where content is changed in real time as a result of the assessments. To get it right, Apple needs to combine its iBooks with iCloud.

Expanding Tablet Universe: Supply Perspective 



 



Regardless of what one thinks of Apple and its products, or software, especially relative to Google's Android-based tablets and others, there is no doubt that Apple has played a major catalyst role in creating a "tablet explosion" that is bringing significant innovation and growing choice of devices that will find use in schools. A recent review of a main website for tablets--Tablet PC Comparison (http://www.tabletpccomparison.net/)--shows 55 different tablets (most of which have a version of Android's operating system) now on the market, with a wide--and rapidly growing--variety of technical features, designs and prices. The recent entry of Microsoft into the tablet market with a serious contender--its Surface tablet-with an innovative operating system (Windows 8), also adds an interesting competitive element into the tablet market dynamics. Tablets are so far seen as especially ideal devices for "content consumption" ("experience devices"?) and Pearson's Larsen thinks next-generation interactive textbooks on tablets will bring dramatic change in education. But tablets will likely evolve from primarily "consumption-focused" devices to also become better at "content production" and become important "interactivity" devices. Today, most tablets are inferior to laptops in terms of rich media creation. News Corporation's new K-12 education division, Amplify, has partnership with AT&T to provide tablet-based learning products and "…launching a pilot program during the 2012-2013 school year, offering 4G tablet devices, Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity, and device management and technical services to select schools across the nation." 1

"Tablets Trump Laptops in High School Classrooms;" http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/08/03/tablets-trump-laptops-in-high-school-classrooms

Expanding Tablet Universe: Demand Perspective 



Tablets have generated a great deal of interest and excitement among many educators and school administrators around the world, although little evidence has been produced so far about the true impact of tablets on the key metric of learning outcomes. These are some examples of tablet adoption in US schools so far: 



1.5 million iPads were used by US students by mid-2012, and more than 20,000 education and learning apps were available for iPads, according to MDG Advertising, and it estimated that 47,000 iPads were sold to US schools in the first 45 days of iPad sales. The firm also estimates that iPads were used by over 1,000 colleges worldwide..1 "A school district in San Diego recently spent $15 million expanding its iPad program, taking on 26,000 iPads in what was one of the biggest iPad deployments to date. The McAllen school district in Texas, which had only distributed 5,000 devices as of last April, will provide nearly 20,000 to students this fall [2012].” 2 According to one report, programs in two thirds of 600 school districts nationwide that were using iPads in 2011 and were new for 2011; others started these "one-to-one" programs, in which schools provide one iPad for each student, soon after Apple released the tablet in April, 2010.3 Beginning the fall of 2012, all Orlando Science Schools students were to be issued an iPad for use at home and at school. But there was a stipulation: Students had to keep a still-to-be-determined GPA in order to continue using the iPad; those who fall below the target will forfeit use of the tablet. 4 About 450 K-5 students and their teachers at Paul Elementary School in Idaho were chosen to receive iPads as part of an "iSchool project", which is funded through a grant and partnership between iSchool Campus and Apple Inc. The school was chosen to participate because it is an award-winning Idaho Leads Project school. 5 Textbook publishers are gearing up to meet growing demand for tablet-based textbook apps that have interactive content (and Mifflin Harcourt has already released apps for algebra and geometry). The website iPad in Schools has a list of dozens of apps that can be used in high schools.

http://www.ipadinschools.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/kid-tech-infographic.jpg Trump Laptops in High School Classrooms"; http://bit.ly/Ofylgq

2, 5

http://www.ipadinschools.com/

3 , 4 "Tablets

Tablets in Classrooms: One Teacher's Perspective Not surprisingly, educators and teachers have a diversity of views on the current and future role of tablets in education. But here are some perspectives of one teacher who is very excited about the benefits she has seen from the use of the iPad in her teaching 1:  "When I teach, I use my iPad pretty exclusively, from lesson planning to classroom management to grading, and it has done a serious number on the way I think about being a teacher in the dawning age of ubiquitous digital technology."  "…tablets hit the sweet spot between a computer and a piece of paper…I no longer have to move between a computer screen and printed documents; my iPad takes care of both."  "…I have found that this mobility [of tablets] enables me to remove myself from the front of the room and decenter the classroom in physical ways: I can be with the students as they learn, while still keeping my readings and notes at hand."  " Tablets remove the barrier of the screen from between me and my students… I can hold the tablet like a piece of paper, removing the physical barrier of the screen. This helps to open up the classroom, and I have found that it significantly changes the dynamic of the room."  "I can create documents that are easily shared with the swipe of a finger. I can also use digital versions of textbooks, which support robust annotation and external linking. I can store all of my notes in one place, and access what we did the day before with the touch of a button. Finally, I can take attendance and keep track of grades quickly and easily on the iPad."  "Tablets support streaming video as well as image projection, so instead of lugging my laptop around, I can still show my class videos, presentations, or images right from my iPad. Tablets can use polling and clicker technology, whiteboard projection, and more. A single tablet has the potential to replace a suite of technologies, and is perfect for classrooms without much technology support."

"Teaching With Tablets," by Stephanie Hedge, Inside Higher Education, November 4, 2012 http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/teaching-tablets

Tablets in Higher Education: A Case Study This brief case study describes some of the main elements of the iPad initiative of Long Island University, which educates over 24,000 students in degreecredit and continuing education program, and has 630 full-time faculty. The pilot program was launched in the fall of 2010, and iPads were given to incoming students and faculty: 1  Incoming freshmen are given iPads at no cost, while graduate students and part-time undergraduates can purchase the devices at half price, $250. These tablets belong to the students, so students are advised to visit a nearby Apple Store to resolve problems. That means less of a support burden for LIU IT staff. To date, the initiative has reached about 10,000 students and educators.  Students use iPads to access the school's Blackboard Web app for homework..  Most faculty members have not (yet) used it to enhance pedagogy  The killer app, according to LIU CIO, will be textbooks. But because the textbook industry and the publishing platform players like Apple and Amazon haven't agreed on a standard, he said there hasn't been a migration of textbooks to tablets yet. He hopes this will soon change.  One challenge LIU confronted as it moved forward with its iPad initiative was wireless network provisioning. Initially, LIU set aside $160,000 for network infrastructure upgrades. But wireless network demand quadrupled and the university is now setting aside that much annually, specifically to continue boosting wireless capacity.  According to LIU's CIO, the consumerization of IT has altered the way they protect the institution because they have to allow more openness. ... "We're more into compliance issues, in protecting students' and employees' data."

90 1

Ipad University: IT Lessons from College Pilot; Information Week, October 29, 2012; http://bit.ly/Rp2LaE

Some International Developments of Tablet Use in Education 



According to Rice-NTU1 Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics in Singapore, 50,000 I-slate tablets, each costing about US$ 45, will be used by 10-13-year-old pupils over the next three years in Mahabubnagar District in Andhra Pradesh, India. 2 After setbacks by the much publicized Android-based Aakash tablet, the next version, Aakash 2, was unveiled at the UN by the British company Datawind. The tablet "…was developed as part of the country's aim to link 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning program." 3 Recent UK study reports that 4.5% of "all pupil-facing computers" in primary schools, and 6.9% of those in secondary schools, will be tablets by end of 2012. They also forecast that the adoption will rise to around 22% by 2015. The survey also found that 61% of primary schools and 39% of secondary schools still feel "it is important to wait for the government to support adoption." 4

Norwegian versus Swedish policies on tablets in schools 5:  Swedish schools have embraced iPad as "tablet standard" more than in Norway (but see last bullet)  Reportedly, it is quite common in Sweden for local communities and schools buy iPads  In Norway, no widespread or general acceptance or policy of iPad use has emerged.  According to a report by Aftenposten (29 January, 2013), “the majority of Norway’s 428 municipalities and 19 counties (“fylkeskommuner”) today have pilot projects to test out iPads in schools”. Reportedly, iPads have a 90% market share for use of tablet in schools in Norway.  No national policy set about tablets set in either Sweden or Norway so far  According to the Norwegian EdTech firm Creaza, Sweden is one of the most innovative and advanced countries when it comes to integrating digital learning in the schools, and it is probably also among the leading countries when it comes to iPads in the classroom. 1 3

Nanyang Technological University; 2 "$45 Tablet: Made in Singapore, Snapped Up in India;" The Jakarta Globe, March 20, 2012; "Aakash-2 tablet unveiled at UN:" The Siasat Daily; 29 November, 2012; 4 "Digital tablet revolution reaching schools, says Besa" ; http://bit.ly/Txp4wa 5 Personal communication with Eir Husby, co-founder of Soleis (a Norwegian EdTech startup)

Future Speculation 



Tablets--and other mobile devices for education/learning--will only have full impact when pedagogy and learning/teaching processes change to take full advantage of the new technology of tablets or other portable devices. Another key precondition for maximum impact is that teachers have the necessary training to take full advantage of the new technology. (Singapore is one of the countries that has very strong teacher professional development programs to give teachers the training they need) Maximum benefit and impact will also come when learning content takes full advantage of these new devices, to not only provide highly engaging and interactive content, but also take advantage of data--from student profiles as well as their past and real-time learning activities--to enable adaptive learning. According to the Chief Scientist of Accenture, a "reasonable guess is that a media tablet with 16GB of memory will cost around $100 by 2015," and he also feels that tablets are much more versatile alternatives to traditional textbooks (but it is interesting that efforts over the last year to replace textbooks with tablets resulted in backlashes in both Sweden and Korea). The British BESA survey found that "the majority of schools are adopting a research-driven approach to tablet take-up, and want more evidence before supporting the adoption of tablets in the classrooms." Although it will likely take some time before sufficient evidence is available to give educators and administrators the confidence they need in the efficacy of tablets in improving learning outcome and performance, such evidence is already starting to emerge.

Implications 



I think that tablets have potentially dramatic impact on education and learning, especially in a global context, in part because of two compelling drivers:  Low cost of these devices in the next few years, enabling cost-effective reach to millions of students  Ease-of-use of tablets compared to other, earlier computing devices, will help stimulate adoption and use Teachers will relatively quickly gain the necessary comfort level with tablets and then will use them in new and innovative ways in the classroom, especially as "best practices" will increasingly be shared within and across schools. The adoption of tablets and their connection to wireless networks and to administrative systems will also likely start yielding new and significant benefits, including greater use of a wide range of content--much of which is available as "open learning resources"--that likely be more engaging and interactive. Content format standards will likely emerge in the near future, and this will further stimulate both creation and sharing of content, and help stimulate the development of new, more innovative and high quality content as larger markets for this content will stimulate content developers.

Learning Analytics

Definition

“Learning analytics refers to the interpretation of a wide range of data produced by and gathered on behalf of students in order to assess academic progress, predict future performance, and spot potential issues. Data are collected from explicit student actions, such as completing assignments and taking exams, and from tacit actions, including online social interactions, extracurricular activities, posts on discussion forums, and other activities that are not directly assessed as part of the student’s educational progress. Analysis models that process and display the data assist faculty members and school personnel in interpretation. The goal of learning analytics is to enable teachers and schools to tailor educational opportunities to each student’s level of need and ability.” “Learning analytics need not simply focus on student performance. It might be used as well to assess curricula, programs, and institutions. It could contribute to existing assessment efforts on a campus, helping provide a deeper analysis, or it might be used to transform pedagogy in a more radical manner. It might also be used by students themselves, creating opportunities for holistic synthesis across both formal and informal learning activities.” Johnson, L., R. Smith, H. Willis, A. Levine, and K. Haywood. 2011. The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf

Characteristics and Importance 



According to Marsha Lovett, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Learning Analytics enable prediction and understanding (of a student's learning) and can result in targeted action (that will help students). Online Learning Initiative at CMU, they have developed a Learning Dashboard: An analytics system that estimates students' learning skill by skill, and provide support for instructors, students and (course) designers. The Learning Dashboard learning analytics system tracks what students do, record which questions students get right or wrong, and summarize student performance. The Dashboard, according to Lovett, gets more about of the data by revealing what student did or didn't learn, quantifies how well students have learned each skill, identifies consequential patterns in students' learning behaviors, and measure effectiveness of instruction and design choices. This type of learning analytics system and dashboard can give teachers up-to-date, actionable information in the following way:    

Quick snapshot of how a class is doing [data can also be aggregated across classes for comparative analysis]. Access to details on areas of strength and difficulty. Alerts to noteworthy patterns in student learning. Pointers to opportunities for adapting their teaching.

Concerns Some have about Learning Analytics 



Some are concerned that we are becoming too "data-driven" in all everything we do, and will rely less on other inputs, including intuition about how students are doing after engaging them in dialog and by "reading the faces and eyes," for instance. When we rely heavily on data and models, we become vulnerable to "junk in, junk out" *(if data we use are not trustworthy), or faulty models [we saw disastrous results of overreliance on models that proved wrong during financial crisis in 2007-8 and overconfidence in financial instrument models that were used]. A recent announcement about CourseSmart Analytics ─ see next slide for more details ─ resulted in the following concerns:   



We are getting too much driven by "buzz, analytics, return on investment, and data sets." 1 Warner admits that analytics may have "some utility" in MOOCs but feels such tools are not needed in classrooms where teachers can interact with and observe students. Many instructors (and teachers unions) are concerned about the use of analytics will result in more scrutiny and pressure on teachers in the name of "efficiency."

But others took different views:  Learning analytics are another [useful] tool. It helps especially with large classes or comparing across lots of small classes, and can help improve teaching longer term as well as in the moment.  Many college classes are taught in large auditoriums with large number of students where 1:1 interactions between teachers and students are very minimal.  According to someone who develops hundreds of curated courses: " I see [learning analytics] as a fast track to the knowledge you are already getting in a face-to-face classroom and a way for me to rapidly scale up to a democratization of education."

CourseSmart Analytics is a Bad Idea, by John Warner, November 20, 2012, Inside Higher Education

Who is Doing What? 



  



Kahn Academy: Although KA is not really a MOOC provider, is does serve very large number of students online and is among the leaders in developing LAs to help it improve its adaptive learning systems EdX, Coursera and other MOOCs: All are bullish on both data mining and LAs as a way to gain new insights into how students learn, and MIT and other universities plan to use these insights to also improve their courses and teaching in their more traditional (classroom-based) operations.1 Online Learning Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University: Viewed as one of leading developers and users of advanced LAs in education EdTech Startups with LAs Focus: Grockit, Newton, Junyo and many others are using LAs as a key element in their products Incumbent Learning Providers: Pearson, Blackboard, Desire2Learn are among the players that have been making significant investments--though internal development and/or via acquisitions--in LAs CourseSmart Analytics:  

The software can quantify student interactions with the text It "tracks students’ engagement with their e-textbooks and provides and allows professors and colleges to evaluate the usefulness of learning materials and to track student work.

See Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics: An Issue Brief; by Marie Bienkowski, Mingyu Feng and Barbara Means, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International

Future of Learning Analytics Sophisticated Learning and Technology Platforms

Data Warehousing and Cloud Computing

Data Mining

Predictive Techniques

Next-Generation Learning Analytics

  

Increasing progress in a number of enabling technologies--some major ones noted in figure above-raise hopes of significant break-throughs in LAs Existing, and growing, shortage of "data scientists" may need to be addressed for expected breakthroughs to be realized Many emerging issues may also complicate and potentially slow progress unless satisfactory solutions are found to the following questions/issues:   

Data ownership--who own the data generated in students' learning activities? Will big data applications in the commerce, social and services sectors prove significantly different from those in K-20 education (and if so, what will be the implications of such a gap?) 1 Means et al report that LA experts anticipate potential barriers relating to technical challenges, institutional capacity, legal, and ethical issues—so how will these be tackled? See Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics: An Issue Brief; by Marie Bienkowski, Mingyu Feng and Barbara Means, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International

Implications 



Despite some concerns about LAs among some educators, pressures to achieve better and faster learning outcomes, more personalized learning and gain efficiencies (especially due to growing recognition of excessive cost increases and lack of productivity gains in the educational sector) will likely result in a growing role of LAs in education, especially in the US. How significant, how extensive and how quickly LAs can yield the expected, or hoped-for, results will be is still highly uncertain, especially if "data scientist" and related, needed talents will be in short supply. But OLI at Carnegie Mellon has already demonstrated some of the improvements that can be gained through LAs and the use of "dashboard" for teachers, and this raises hopes that these types of initiatives can continue to achieve additional improvements. MOOCs and the data they will generate are too recent to determine how significant these will be and to what extent LAs in this new context will bring new and significant insights that can potentially be leveraged both online, in MOOCs, as well as in more traditional teaching environments.

100

EdTech and Teacher Professional Development (TPD)

101

Technology Context for Teacher Training or TPD A Framework for Understanding Teaching and Learning 1 Technology enables more efficient and effective ways of gaining subject matter expertise

Learners' social context--for work or play--is significantly changed by technology

Teaching processes and pedagogy are increasingly affected by technology (see Singapore discussion)

1 Preparing

102

Current Status, Issues and Challenges--K12 

•



K12 schools in the US face numerous challenges--outlined in the Tekes I project--and the deployment and use of EdTech, and providing EdTech training for teachers in K12, will take time to gain significant headway throughout the US. According to the report Professional Learning in The Learning Profession: "While teachers typically need substantial professional development in a given area (close to 50 hours) to improve their skills and their students’ learning, most professional development opportunities in the U.S. are much shorter. But many excellent programs for TPD that includes EdTech, and growing number of schools and school districts are making major commitments to EdTech in many parts of the US [see next page for brief description of one program for teacher professional development with EdTech focus in Silicon Valley] Linda Darling Hammond1 notes a number of the challenges facing the US on this front: 



“Although heroic work is going on to transform teacher education and a growing number of powerful programs are being created, more than 30 states continue to allow teachers to enter teaching on emergency permits or waivers with little or no teacher education at all. In addition, more than 40 states have created alternative pathways to teaching—some of which are high quality post baccalaureate routes and others of which are truncated programs that short-circuit essential elements of teacher learning." “In some states, such as California and Texas, unlicensed entrants have numbered in the tens of thousands annually, hired to teach to the least advantaged students in low-income and minority schools. Even when these candidates are required to make some progress toward a license each year by taking courses for teaching while they teach, the quality of preparation they receive is undermined (Shields et al., 2001)". 2

103

Current Status, Issues and Challenges--Higher Education (HE) 

 



A very different context and situation exists in HE (compared to K12), as professors generally have greater comfort level with technology and most colleges and universities have higher EdTech use--including use in both teaching and research. But most HE instructors also are still primarily mostly using very basic functionality of available EdTech tools and learning platforms. Although most HE institutions in the US also face major challenges--including declining funding, growing competition, demand for higher accountability by policy makers, for instance--they still have been able to make more EdTech investments and they don't have TPD needs of their colleagues in K12. 2012 survey by the Center for Applied Research at EDUCAUSE found that: 





"…64% of students think that technology can elevate the level of teaching--and more students said their instructors have used technology in their teaching this year than two years ago (70% compared to 49%, respectively." 1 "…instructors are using technology more effectively than before, the study suggests: In 2010, just 47% of students said most of their instructors were using technology effectively to advance their academic success, compared to 68% who said it was the case this year." 1

In HE, careers are mostly advanced via research, and most EdTech vendors have not done great job in bridging research (and exploration) with instruction (course delivery) and once they do better job on this, HE instructors will have greater incentive to use and learn about EdTech.

104

Brief Case Study: TPD at Krause Center for Innovation (KCI)1 



Since 2000, the KCI has provided critical resources for educators, utilizing applied technologies to enhance teaching and learning. The bulk of the Center's funding (73%) comes from philanthropic contributions, with the rest coming from Foothill College, primarily in facility support, hardware, software and staff positions. According to the Center, its "classes and programs employ cutting-edge tools and modalities to advance subject matter knowledge, technological expertise, and professional development so that students are more engaged and better equipped to learn. Its programs focus on 21st century skills --creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration --with the goal of transforming teaching practices and integrating technology into every level of curriculum." 2 KCI programs include: 





Making Education Relevant and Interactive Through Technology (MERIT). The program exposes teacher participants to digital media technologies, online tools, and open educational resources as potential classroom tools and develops ongoing collaborative projects. Faculty Academy for Mathematics Excellence (FAME). The program offers professional development program for middle school mathematics teachers. It is designed to increase content knowledge and promote technology to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics.

KCI has now started discussions with partners in both the US and internationally about replicating their programs. In addition, the center is working with Silicon Valley Educational Foundation to help school administrators incorporate educational technologies to improve student outcomes and enhance teacher effectiveness. 1 Foothill

College, California (in Silicon Valley) Program (see the next few pages)

2 This

program description has many similarities with Singapore's TPD

105

Singapore: Thought Leader and Leading Practitioner 

Early Start to Plan and Implement ICT in Education:       



1997: Announced the First Masterplan for ICT in Education and also started core teacher training and provision of school-wide infrastructure for all schools. 1998: Created Ministry of Education portal for ICT in Education and launched technology award for teachers as well as school-industry partnerships. 1999: Started School Cockpit--a school administrative system. 2002: Announced Second Masterplan for ICT in Education. 2005: Set up Learning Sciences Lab in National Institute of Education, and launched iShare, an inter-cluster resource sharing platform. 2007: Launched FutureSchools@Singapore program and phased in baseline standards for students. 2008: Announced Third Masterplan for ICT in Education:  Vision: "Harnessing ICT, Transforming Learners."  Outcome Goal: "Students develop competencies for self-directed and collaborative learning through the effective use of ICT as well as becoming discerning and responsible ICT users."  Enabler Goals: (1) School leaders provide the direction and create the conditions to harness ICT for learning and teaching; (2) Teachers have the capacity to plan and deliver ICT-enriched learning experiences for students to become self-directed and collaborative learners, as well as nurture students to become discerning and responsible ICT users; (3) ICT infrastructure supports learning anytime, anywhere. Other key elements in the current masterplan that affects teachers use of ICT and training for using ICT effectively include "ICT in Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment" and teacher professional development (see details about this on the next two pages).

106

Singapore: Thought Leader and Leading Practitioner, Continued 

Four projects under Professional Development are as follow: 



ICT-Professional Development Framework: "An ICT-PD Framework has been developed to define the respective roles, responsibilities and a corresponding set of competencies (knowledge and skills) for the different groups of school personnel implementing the use of ICT in schools. The framework aims to guide the Ministry of Education (MOE) HQ and schools in the planning and development of various MP3 professional development programmes, as well as help schools understand how the roles of the different school personnel contribute to actualizing the various MP3 goals. The framework was released to schools in early 2010." ICT Mentors: "To cascade effective ICT practices in and across schools and to raise the level of ICT use in schools, a group of ICT Mentors will be developed. The training of ICT Mentors will be implemented in 6 phases from 2010-2012. These ICT Mentors will serve as mentors to teachers on ICT use for launching learning and teaching in their respective disciplines. They provide requisite knowledge on planning and delivering ICT-enriched learning experiences, champion best practices, and facilitate the sharing of ICT resources by teachers to propagate good ideas and practices." Consultancy and Support for Schools: MOE will continue to provide ICT consultancy and support to schools through customized professional development programmes and teacher work attachments. It also establishes sharing platforms, such as annual educational technology conferences, to promote the sharing of good ICT practices among schools." Recognition Program for Teachers: "To recognize the innovative practices of teachers, award programmes such as the School Digital Media Award for Teachers are in place to facilitate the sharing of good practices among the community of teachers." Type of School1

Enrollment (2010)1

Number of teachers (2010)1

Primary Secondary Mixed Level

256,801 196,220 37,225

13,308 12,183 2,572

Junior College Centralised Institute

20,468

1 Source:

Wikipedia

107

Singapore: Thought Leader and Leading Practitioner, Continued 

Research and Development projects connected to Third ICT Masterplan: 





EduLab: "The emphasis for R&D in MP3 is to strengthen teachers' pedagogical understanding of ICT use that can be applied in the learning environment and subsequently to spread such practices through adoption by other teaches in schools. One key programme to facilitate this translation is edLab, a joint MOE-National Institute of Education (NIE) initiative which serves as a major conduit through which ideas with system-wide potential can be brought into practice, with a view to scaling within the education system. Through eduLab, these ideas can be developed into ICT-infused lessons and product prototypes, with support from a central pool of MOE-NIE expertise as well as international and local experts (including researchers from institutes of higher learning and industry). In 2010, three existing translational projects (namely 1:1 computing, assessment for learning, and computer-supported collaborative learning) were brought under the eduLab umbrella." FutureSchools@Singapore: "MOE continues to support the FutureSchools@Singapore programme to push the frontiers of teaching and learning at a school-wide level to fully harness ICT to engage students in learning. These schools also serve as test-beds for research and development in emerging ICT in education. The knowledge gained will then be shared on various platforms and adopted for implementation in other schools." Interactive and Digital Media (IDM): "(1) Prototyping and studying the use of IDM-based learning environments (e.g. educational games, immersive virtual environments, tools and content to support engaged learning of students); (2) Understanding the development of IDM media literacy required in learners, namely learners' critical appreciation of IDM and their assimilation of IDM design and content creation skills; (3) Studying the social and psychological impact of IDM among students."

Various initiatives have also been launched to provide the necessary technology infrastructure, including high bandwidth in schools. Plans are for implementation of IDA's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, which will eventually install fiber in all schools (and provide bandwidth up to 2Gbps) © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

108

Singapore: Thought Leader and Leading Practitioner, Continued 

Insights gained from my communication with Tan Seng Chee, Head of Learning Sciences and Technology Group, National Institute of Education, Singapore:  



In 2008, two-thirds of teachers were comfortable in using existing ICT tools and resources to support classroom teaching and this is likely considerably higher today. The choice of professional development for teachers is a combination of what the schools specify and what the teachers request. That means there is certain degree of autonomy for the teachers to decide what and how much of the training they would like to receive…. In addition, teachers can sign up for post-graduate programs that specialize in the use of technology for teaching and learning. Most Singapore schools (close to 100%) have an online platform, similar to learning management systems. The platform apparently is not (yet) standardized, but there has been an attempt to standardize the content format. Schools can negotiate with vendors to sign up for such services, which may also include resource materials for content. According to New Media Consortium report1 indicates that the LMS of Marshall Cavendish Singapore, known as Marshall Cavendish Online (MCO), is used extensively in schools, as is Teamie, a cloud-based social media learning platform (see box below)

MCO--Collaboration Wiki -- Podcast -- Vodcast-Chatroom -- Blogs-- Learning Portfolio with Rubrics -- Forum Media Gallery -- Workspace -Google e-mail -- Google Docs -Google Calendar -- Google Site

MCO--My Tools Survey/Polling -- Digital Resource Management -- Oral Buddy Builder Writing Buddy Builder -- Lesson Bank -- Lesson Builder -- Test Bank Test Builder -- My Form -- Game Builder My Project -- Offline Homework

Teamie Features Variety of Social Collaboration tools -- Learning Tools -Admin Tools -- Communication tools -- Reports -Support -- Hosting and Management

1 Technology

Outlook: Singaporean K-12 Education 2012-2017; An NMC Horizon Project Regional Report; NMC report also notes that Singapore is using Google Apps for Education for over 30,000 teachers © 2012 by Strategic Business Insights. All rights reserved.

109

Singapore: Thought Leader and Leading Practitioner, Continued 



Tan noted that effective use of technologies for meaningful learning still is challenging. This was highlightged at the launch of the third ICT Masterplan. Today, most teachers seem generally comfortable with the use of technologies. The attention is now on how to use technologies in pedagogical ways to enhance student learning. In the third ICT masterplan, self-directed learning and collaborative learning have been highlighted as the 21 st century skills that could be developed with the use of technologies. In Singapore's teacher education, they focus on meaningful use of technologies for teaching and learning. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (so-called TPACK) framework has reportedly been useful for this. Some schools have been piloting extensive use of tablets, especially iPads--and used in the 1:1 computing initiative referred to earlier--but no plans yet exist for system wide deployment of iPads, perhaps in part because it would require systemic effort to prepare the infrastructure, school readiness to fully take advantage of the tablets, availability of meaningful learning resources, and parental consent. But innovative, small scale experimentations are going on. A report by Asia Society1 notes a number of other reasons for Singapore's success in developing a high-quality teacher workforce:  " All teachers receive training on the Singapore curriculum at the country’s National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, either in a diploma or a degree course depending on their level of education at entry. There is a close working relationship between the Institute and schools, where master teachers mentor every new teacher for several year."  " Teachers are entitled to 100 hours of professional development per year. This may be undertaken in several ways. Courses at the National Institute of Education focus on subject matter and pedagogical knowledge and lead towards higher degrees. Much of the professional development is school-based, led by school staff developers, whose job it is to know where there are problems in the school, for example with a group’s math performance, or to introduce new practices such as project-based learning or new uses of ICT. Each school also has a fund through which it can support teacher growth, including the development of fresh perspectives by going abroad to examine aspects of education in other countries." 1

110

Implications for Future 



Singapore has a population and GDP that is very similar to that of Finland and the country also has a similar interest in, and focus on, innovation and the use of emerging technology--all reasons for why Finland might find it useful to examine and monitor what Singapore is doing on the EdTech front, including its use of EdTech in TPD. As noted in the previous pages, Singapore has long recognized the importance of technology in education and learning and has taken a more active (national) policy stance with respect to TPD vis-à-vis EdTech than most other countries--and there is no reason to expect that to change. The country has set clear goals for what it wants to accomplish and it is likely to continue to be both a thought leader and early adopter of technology for TPD. Given Singapore's location and its relationship with China and other large Asian markets for education and learning technology, Finnish organizations and companies may want to consider finding strategic partners in Singapore. Singapore government's active and very supportive role for the use of EdTech also means that it might also be an interesting collaboration partner for the development, adoption and use of EdTech. Singapore and Finland also both have strong capabilities in advanced technology, including mobile devices. In this context, it is interesting to note that the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics in Singapore--an institute jointly set up by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and Houston's Rice University--has developed a tablet (I-Slate) which is now being tested with thousands of school children in southern Andhra Pradesh state in India. For a number of different reasons, therefore, Singapore is a very interesting country to at least monitor, and perhaps partnering with, when it comes to EdTech.

111

VC funding of EdTech, including LPs

112

VC investments in EdTech

113

VC investments in EdTech, Cont'd

114

VC investments in EdTech, Concluded

115

VC investments in EdTech--Level of funding by firms

116 116

Implications for Finland

117

Implications for Finnish Educational Institutions 



Think and plan strategically and do contingency planning:  Prepare long terms plans and consider shorter term operational issues.  Given uncertainties ahead, consider joint scenario planning effort with other educational institutions.  Examine initiatives by other institutions, including some of the leading US institutions. Leverage current strengths and recognize weaknesses:  Review current systems and facilities--Do they meet emerging needs?  Communicate openly with faculty and students to understand their needs and perspectives.  Is collective and collaborative action among institutions a viable and advisable option? Strengthen communication with EdTech vendors:  Understand their future roadmaps.  Explore how their roadmaps align with emerging needs of your institutions.  Continually assess strengths and weaknesses of competing vendors. Open dialog and discussion in Finland:  Does forum exist for ongoing and open dialog and discussion of emerging EdTech issues exist?  If EdTech "community of interest" does not yet exist, consider how to create one.  Examine what resources exist that can benefit Finnish institutions.  Consider examination of "good/best practices" study of selected leading institutions in Europe and/or US in the area of EdTech use and planning. Parse complexities of FLPs:  As this report has made clear, FLPs have many "moving parts" and complexities, in terms of how they will likely evolve--so institutions need to determine what are the most relevant and important issues and developments for their organization and monitor and examine these as industry dynamics change.  Consider establishing taskforces that will monitor and examine, and recommend future action for specific elements of the emerging FLP landscape.

118

Implications for Finnish Teachers and Learners 

Don't try to avoid the unavoidable:   



Communicate with and learn from others:   



Vast resources exist online and ask colleagues and peers for recommendations Do your own "Web surfing" to see what is out there and what might be useful to you Consider setting up a small discussion group of colleagues who have similar needs and interests around EdTech

Build dialog with school administrators:   



Identify colleagues and peers who have EdTech knowledge or interest Talk openly and frankly about what you have experienced and what your needs and concerns are Try to take a positive attitude and look for ways to turn EdTech into a useful resource

Identify resources and assistance:   



There is no use in trying to avoid EdTech--It's coming whether you want it or not! Figure out how you can best benefit from what exists and what is coming Take advantage of considerable resources that exist to educate yourself

Learn what plans are for use of EdTech and share your views about needs and your concerns If they are not making EdTech plans, try to influence a proactive stance by school administrators Suggest a school forum for discussion of current and future use of EdTech, if none exists

Organize hands-on workshops:   

It is not enough to read about EdTech--hands-on use and experimentation is essential Build collaboration or alliances with organizations that have experience with EdTech user workshops Influence programs and activities to address your needs and interests

119

Implications for Finnish EdTech Vendors 

Identify your current and desired positioning vis-à-vis FLPs   



Taking advantage of evolution of FLPs   



Examine the risks and uncertainties of the LP markets in which you operate Consider contingency plans for "high risk-high uncertainty" events that may appear Explore mitigation strategies for key technology or market risks you may face in the next 2-5 years

Technology of FLPs   



Recognize how your current products and/or services integrate into or align with different LPs in the market Design your strategy map to take full advantage of the likely dynamics of the FLPs Consider aligning or building alliances with LPs providers that may be well positioned for rapid growth

Coping with uncertainty of evolution of FLPs   



Understand your current market positioning within the dynamics of FLPs Make sure you have a good roadmap that takes into account the dynamics of FLP marketplace Work closely with your customers to align your roadmap with their FLP needs

Review areas where rapid technology change could significantly alter the ecosystem around one or more of the LPs that you integrate with or depend on Consider the value of new alliances or partnerships to be better positioned for new technology developments that could significantly change the FLP landscape Create a "uncertainty-impact" matrix (with low and high probability events for each axis) for key technologies of FLPs.

Market and business of FLPs  

Examine the evolution, and implications, of business models for different categories of FLPs, especially LMS and MOOCs Evaluate the competitive implications of future M&A and strategic alliances that will form in the next five years

120

Conclusions

121

Selected Key Insights 



Many contenders for developing leading FLP but no clear front runner. A number of large players have become increasingly active in developing or acquiring LP capabilities--including Pearson, Google, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, and others discussed in this report--but currently none of them have a clear front runner position. Existing and new technology enabling powerful new learning capabilities in FLPs. Internet and software veteran technologist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen holds that software is now "eating the world" as it is enabling increasingly more powerful systems. This is also happening in education and learning systems, and with increasingly powerful broadband (including wireless), powerful tablets and so on, they enable very powerful FLPs that can transform education and learning. Some large incumbent players may create leading FLP but innovative, smaller players are emerging contenders. In recent years, EdTech startups have exploded on the scene, especially in the US but spreading globally, and new, agile and innovative companies are now competing with large, incumbent LMS players. This is also true in other segments of the LP landscape. Learning analytics and other technologies could enable very powerful FLPs. Recently, a combination of powerful software systems, statistical and modeling technologies together with data mining and cloud computing give hope to new insight into learning processes that can enable adaptive and personalized learning that could be incorporated into FLPs. Current diverse mix of LPs may point to future consisting of many strong, competitive FLPs with no dominant platform. As shown in the summary graph of page 21, a number of different categories of LPs exist, and within each of these categories, FLPs--or potential FLPs--are emerging as a result of growing investments by a wide range of companies, investors, entrepreneurs and educators who are passionate about making a difference. 122

Selected Key Insights, Concluded 



New learning approaches and pedagogical models may be incorporated into FLPs. Although team-based and collaborative learning has long been seen as important, few LPs have provided intuitive designs to enable such learning. WebEx Social is one recent example where a new LP has been designed with emphasis on such learning. FLPs may also incorporate more game-based learning or "gamification elements" that could result in more engaged learners. Alternative Future Scenarios for FLPs. One scenario may be dominated by a player like Pearson, which could have a sophisticated LP that incorporates a wide variety of learning affordances, or have open APIs for 3rd party vendors to easily connect to the main platform. Such a LP could attract millions of learners. Another scenario would have very narrow LPs--similar to some of today's MOOCs--but offer great content and some other (basic) functionality and this combination might be sufficient to also attract millions of learners. Uncertainty of sustainable business models. A common challenge for Internet-based businesses over the last decade has been to find sustainable business models. Today, significant cost and pricing challenges face both traditional HE institutions as well as emerging Internet businesses behind some of the xMOOCs, for instance. Unbundling or re-bundling of different content and services (including credentialing) will emerge and the result will affect which FLPs will provide what services. Uniformity or diversity across FLPs for different market segments. In many ways, HE is very different from K12 schools or corporate learning and training operations. Yet, FLPs could no doubt have the capability to provide key needs of each of these sectors. Today, few LP providers are successfully bridging these segments, but flexible, cloud-based FLPs could potentially serve multiple segments, at least with certain services, and enable easy integration of 3rd parties that would meet unique needs of particular segments. 123

Appendix

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Appendix: List of Project Interviewees                   

Bowe, Megan; Learning Consultant, Rustici Software, WDC Brandman, Relly; Senior member of Operations Team, Coursera, Palo Alto Bruck, Bill; CEO, Q2Learning, Virginia Carter, Michael; Principal, Twin Learning LLC, San Francisco Cocheu, Ted; CEO, Altus Learning Corp., Campbell, CA Cross, Jay; CEO, Internet Time Group, Berkeley, CA Devlin, Keith, Professor, Stanford Dwyer, David, Katzman-Ernst Chair in Educational Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles Edmonds, Rob; Senior Technology Consultant, Strategic Business Insights; London Griffith, Terri; Professor, University of Santa Clara, Silicon Valley Hamilton, Chuck; Director, Social Learning, IBM Canada Johnson, Gordon; VP of Marketing, Expertus, Silicon Valley Larsen, Roger; Director, Digital Strategy, Pearson, London Patton, Renee; US Public Sector Director of Education, Cisco, Silicon Valley Roebuck, Kevin; director of academic computing, Oracle Education and Research, Silicon Valley Rusteberggard, Bjorn; Founder and Chief Technology Offer, Inspera, Norway Sclater, Niall; Director of Learning and Technology; Open University, London Siemens, George; Professor, Athabasca University, Canada Silvers, Aaron; Chief Learning Officer, Problem Solutions LLC, WDC

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Appendix A: List of Project Interviewees, Concluded  Tan, Seng Chee, Head of Learning Sciences and Technology Group at National Institute of Education, Singapore  Whitman, Kyle; Senior Technology Consultant, Strategic Business Insights, Silicon Valley  Wittenberg, Harry; Senior Learning Consultant, Autodesk, San Francisco

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Contact Information

 Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D.  Strategic Business Insights  Telephone: +1 650 859 2665  E-mail: etrondsen@sbi-i.com  Skype: etrondsen  Twitter; eilifT  http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com

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