One of the big changes of the past couple of years has been the number of universities getting serious about what they are doing in the online distance education space.

Whilst the number of online distance education courses on offer in UK higher education has been steadily growing, the events of the last couple of years have spurred some universities to more intentionally consider what they are doing in this space.

As we emerge from a period of restrictions and enforced moves to remote teaching that have hugely impacted the higher education experience, it’s becoming increasingly evident that UK universities are thinking much more strategically about online education. 

We live in a world where there are different modes of teaching and study that educational providers can offer. It goes without saying that one of the most dominant for many of them is centred around sequences of face-to-face classes or sessions. 

As we’re approaching two years since the UK entered the first national lockdown I wanted to reflect on this period in UK higher education. This was the point when the longstanding and predominant teaching and study model of universities was completely and utterly turned on its head and the consequences of this have been playing out ever since.

There’s a valuable lesson here for anyone seeking to leverage data in digital and online learning, in that, the promise of data will never be truly realised if there isn’t skill to design the means of gathering relevant and useful information related to the learning process, and the conditions and capabilities of taking that information and doing something with it. 

The effective design of programmes is so critical because if you get the fundamentals and foundations wrong you’ll be building on sand. There are too many instances of programmes that are disjointed collections of modules and in which holistic thought of how learning happens, develops and is supported through teaching, activities and assessment is sorely lacking.

What are we to conclude in terms of the state of digital education research in the UK? Can we trust the outputs of digital education research centres like those at the University of Edinburgh and others? How are we to navigate this space and make sense of it?

Well, I think as things stand we almost have to treat these centres and some of the research as we might do a political think tank or a newspaper or media outlet. 

We can all point to particular publications whose editorial, view of the world and reporting is heavily influenced by their political stance and viewpoint - when we read their output we have to filter it through that lens. 

For many years there have been the so-called big four" in this market - they being Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas and Brightspace. However, whilst in the US the proportion of universities using those products is more evenly spread, in the UK it’s really been a case of the big two - Moodle and Blackboard. These two VLEs are still the most widely used in UK universities and are used by over 70% of the 176 HEIs I looked at. Whilst that tells a story of two dominant players - I’m not sure that’s the true picture, because they used to be much more dominant.

An expert Learning Designer is able to develop processes and continually draw upon conceptual models, theories and research to inform their approach. They are reflective and iterative and are able to effectively document and represent their design work. They are also able to engage supportively and creatively with educators, to question, influence, understand, empathise and design. 

If I was to sum up this year I’d describe it as one of transition, a year in which the scramble of the pivot to emergency remote teaching was left well behind, but not one in which we’ve seen universities radically transform their educational model. Online education whilst still viewed as suboptimal for some, is now being valued and prioritised by more decision makers in higher education.

If you were involved in the world of online education before the pandemic, then the past 18+ months have been...well….interesting to say the least. The debate and dialogue around the efficacy of online education or the pandemic version often referred to as emergency remote teaching has been at times a little fractious. Much has been lost in the fog of significant and challenging events and the many words that have been generated in light of them.

Video can be a great medium and can serve different educational purposes, but there are also pitfalls with video. We can often unthinkingly default to video when other forms of communication might be better suited. There’s no simple answer to the question of when, where and whether you should use video and what form it should or can take. But there are plenty of things that can helpfully inform the judgement that’s needed for video or that can help you to avoid some common pitfalls.

If you want to change the teaching and study model then you have to change the organisational model that buttresses it. This is hard, and the pandemic hasn’t necessarily helped as it has led to a conceited sense of organisational agility. When thinking about where universities are at due to the pandemic and gauging this against where they might like to be, we would all do well to heed the words of Irene Peter:

“Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.”

As we enter into a somewhat different phase of this period, universities might reflect on how online or distance education is a more robust and resilient mode of teaching and study than the residential model. They might also reflect on what so many of us working in online education before the pandemic knew well - that online education can result in as good outcomes as any other mode of teaching and study. It’s not the mode that makes the difference. 

What’s clear however is that the VLE isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So making the best use of what you have to support teaching and study is the key imperative. Whilst we might want to ensure there is friction or to put it another way ‘desirable difficulties’ when it comes to learning - we should really ask ourselves what the benefit is of creating frictions that just result in frustration and exasperation?

Personas certainly have the potential to be useful, but if we don’t think carefully about their relevance and usefulness to the domain of learning design and don’t fully understand what they’re there to do - there’s a danger of them becoming a hollow transposition, or a kind of vanity addition. 

The value of a learning designer role is not as another role type to plug into the academic, educational development/learning technologist space, but rather to work on a portfolio of specific programmes and courses. The learning designer role at its best is one that works as a close partner to teaching staff and teams in designing experiences and a context for learning to result. 

When we consider what technologies to use or recommend - too often we can unthinkingly choose digital technologies over other technologies, without a thoughtful process taking place. Now of course in some cases there are macro factors at play that govern and guide those discussions and decisions, but that’s not always the case.

MOOCs are meeting a demand that obviously isn’t being met elsewhere and universities as major education providers would be wise to reflect deeply on that. In reality, there are still only a handful of UK universities strategically engaging in partnerships with MOOC platforms and this has been the case since the start. 

Have you ever considered, really considered, why we have fairly rigid time divisions for teaching? Who decided upon the unit of time of 1 hour, 2 hours or more and why? When you begin to consider this, you’ll struggle to find a rationale, deep reasons or evidence that substantiates this approach. It actually all feels completely arbitrary.