In the photo montage on the left (by Catherine Cronin on flickr), pictured speaking at last week’s symposium in Trinity College Dublin on Disrupting Higher Education were, (from the left) Audrey Watters, Sian Bayne and Diana Laurillard. I have already blogged about the introduction to the symposium here, and about the first speakers here, including Laurillard’s contribution. Watters and Bayne spoke in the afternoon session, which was opened by Dr Rob Robinson (Solutions Director at Blackboard; President of the US Distance Learning Association) on the institutional components for quality online delivery.

He began by observing that online delivering is currently at the edge of higher education institutions, but that the existence and evolution of MOOCs is increasingly pushing online teaching and learning to heart of those institutions. They are looking at online delivery for three reasons, to increase access, to meet social objectives, and to increase revenue. But if they are to be successful, they must get the quality right. “Quality”, he said repeatedly, “is an institutional commitment”. This requires that online delivery must align with the core mission of the institution, that online courses must have sound pedagogical design, that the technical infrastructure must be sufficient, and that there must be appropriate technical and academic support.…

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Last week, Trinity College Dublin hosted an international symposium on Online Higher Education – Disrupting Higher Education to stimulate discussion about technology-enhanced learning, the opportunities and challenges associated with offering free online courses, and meeting the educational needs of online learners (hashtags #OpenHE #DHE #disruptinghighered on twitter; storified here and here). Pictured left are the Provost of TCD, Dr Patrick Prendergast, the Dean of Graduate Studies, TCD, Prof Veronica Campbell, and CEO of the Higher Education Authority, Tom Boland; and I blogged about their speeches here. The presentations will be soon podcast, and the slides will also be available, and the full text of the Provost’s speech is now available here. Meantime, here are some more of my thoughts from the day.

Diana Laurillard, Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies in the London Knowledge Lab of the Institute of Education, University of London, spoke about “remodelling higher education to harness technology”. Her ultimate point is that the innovation here is by the teachers and lecturers using the technology. She began by pointing to the massively increasing global demand for higher education: the draft UNESCO goals for education after 2015 will see a great expansion of education to meet the increasing needs for knowledge and skills worldwide; this implies teacher training needs in higher education; and this in turn raises questions as to the purposes of higher education.…

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Trinity College Dublin today hosted a symposium in the Science Gallery on Online Higher Education – Disrupting Higher Education – to stimulate discussion about technology-enhanced learning, the opportunities and challenges associated with offering free online courses, and meeting the educational needs of online learners (hashtags #OpenHE #DHE #disruptinghighered on twitter; storified here). Here are some of my thoughts on the day. The presentations will be podcast, and the slides will be available, so you can go right to the source in due course, but this summary can serve in the meantime.

Prof Veronica Campbell (Dean of Graduates Studies, TCD) welcomed us to the symposium. She was too modest to say so, but the symposium was her brainchild. She said that the symposium will allow us to learn from those at the vanguard of online higher education, not least massive open online courses (MOOCs). They raise fundamental questions about optimum business models, especially where universities aim to stimulate critical thinking rather than merely transfer information. She left us with the thoughts of David Puttnam, recently–minted Digital Champion for Ireland, who warns that the digital world has destroyed distance. So, the question for the day is, if distance is not longer an issue in higher education, where does it go from here?…

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Last week, the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn, announced his intention to “introduce new legislation which will oblige universities to comply with government pay policy”:

Some €7.5 million in unapproved and unauthorised payments paid out by universities from 2005-2009

The Minister for Education and Skills has secured government agreement for the drafting of an amendment to the Universities Act 1997. This amendment will give the Minister the power to require universities to comply with government guidelines on remuneration, allowances, pensions and staffing numbers in the University sector. It will further address issues which have arisen in relation to the non-adherence to elements of the Croke Park Agreement. …

The heads of the relevant Bill are here (pdf), and they are discussed as follows on Steve Hedley‘s Ninth Level Ireland blog:

Universities behaving badly? Send in the clowns!

… The focus is on compliance with a “policy decision made by the Government or the Minister in so far it relates to the remuneration or numbers of public servants employed in that university, or a collective agreement entered into by the Government or the Minister”.

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By way of follow up to my post asking How will the internet subvert campus-based higher education?, I see that Stephen King (Monash) has a similar post on The Conversation:

MOOCs will mean the death of universities? Not likely

However, within all the commentary on the rise of MOOCs, the death of the university campus has been grossly exaggerated. … MOOCs will not threaten existing university education – and are unlikely to survive – unless they adapt to the internet as a medium of delivery.

[Nevertheless] … change is inevitable … [and] universities that act early can build a reputation for innovative, high-quality teaching. … The universities that succeed in transforming education will not be those that work on a top down approach. That cannot work. Rather, it is the universities that develop the incentives and motivation for “bottom up” academic-led reform who will be tomorrow’s leaders in tertiary education.

via theconversation.edu.au

Stephen might be right that current MOOCs are not yet in a position to threaten the campus model of third level education, but I think he is rather too complacent about the threat that they pose. I agree with him that change is inevitable, but I think it will come about much sooner than he does, and I think that universities need to move much more quickly than he does.…

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I have been pondering the question in the title for some time. When I came to gather my thoughts for this post, my working title was “Will the internet affect campus-based higher education?”, but since I am convinced that it will, and that it will do so much sooner rather than later, the title quickly gathered the opening “How ..” and the verb changed from “affect” to “subvert”. My thoughts were crystallised somewhat by the following article, to which the inestimable Ninth Level Ireland drew my attention:

The Siege of Academe

For years, Silicon Valley has failed to breach the walls of higher education with disruptive technology. But the tide of battle is changing. A report from the front lines.

By Kevin Carey

… Back in the 1990s … many people confidently predicted that the Internet would render brick-and-mortar universities obsolete. It hasn’t happened yet, in part because colleges are a lot more complicated than retail bookstores. … But the defenders of the ivy-covered walls have never been more nervous about the Internet threat. In June, a panicked board of directors at the University of Virginia fired (and, after widespread outcry, rehired) their president, in part because they worried she was too slow to move Thomas Jefferson’s university into the digital world.

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