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A “Toast” to Systemic Changes in Education

The brilliant peeps. Photo by Nathalie Dallin.

Reflection for 515R IP&T Open Scholarship class on paper by Siemens, G. & Matheos, K. (2022). Systemic Changes in Higher Education. In R. Kimmons (Ed.), Becoming an Open Scholar. EdTech Books.

I used to think of our family (me, hubby, eight children) as a college bound and educated family. I am now standing witness to some systemic changes in higher education that have me thinking that some of us may not get the college education and degrees as anticipated. In our class reading titled Systemic Changes in Higher Education, I learned that there are several reasons why this may not occur for our family.

First, here’s the rundown on the family (all brilliant, of course): 

My husband ended up ABD and I earned my bachelor’s and master’s while producing children. Now that the youngest is almost 13, I’m back for a PhD. Our oldest daughter and her husband both sport master’s degrees. Our second daughter is well into her PhD. Our next in line, a son, graduated with his bachelor’s in computer engineering, so at the moment has a great job and sees no need to further education at the university level because the money stream is likely to continue. Fourth child, another son, just younger than this computer guy, took a couple of semesters of college and dropped out. 

This number four child, felt he knew more than the teachers teaching his subject (and in many cases he did because he has read so extensively on subjects he cares about) so he dropped out of college and saw no need to jump through hoops. However, he’s a successful sales person because he’s super intelligent and can quickly learn everything to be known about the wares he’s selling (everything from cars to shoes). Back when he was a salesman for Red Wing Shoes, he could tell you every product in the catalogue, how and when it was made, and the history of the company. If you were the customer lucky enough to get him as your sales guy, he’d fit you with the best shoe in your price range, along with inserts, a few pairs of socks, extra laces, boot cleaner and any other accessory you may not know you needed. 

The fifth child, a daughter, is working on her master’s degree in instructional design, still much in the university system with a desire to make a contribution to learning design.

The next two children graduated early from high school, one 3 months early, and the other two years early. Both smart young men, but lackadaisical in focus and in the importance of taking school seriously. I finally had to get them through school by taking them to an alternative high school. The six child did get a certificate in Aerospace Composites while in high school. The seventh son has worked off and on after a semester of college that he didn’t enjoy.

The youngest, number 8, has social angst and feels like she is wasting her time in her classes because some of her peers are goofing off. She’s very much a child of her generation, and even wonders why she just can’t start working now towards getting a degree and take college classes (because she thinks she can do it). I just pulled her out of middle school for homeschool on Friday.

Now, back to the article and my reasons. The university reflects the society, and right now the universities aren’t staying up with the society it should be reflecting. The information cycles are no longer in control of publishers, but in the control of individuals. The global pressures of climate change, financial upheavals, policy shifts and technological innovations are affecting our universities in ways that damage their established viability.

Universities are responding by moving toward open models of scholarship and education, intersecting with traditional educational models. According to the authors, “Future higher education models, while continuing to rely on government research and service to society, will likely develop in response to global, social and political, technological, and educational trends.” 

Looks like my vision is toast! My younger children are and will be affected by these shifts in higher education. My goals of college bound and college educated/graduated children may not happen with half of my children. But don’t let them know this yet. I’m still banking on higher ed as it stands now for the next few years.

#openscholarship

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OER as Infrastructure: Possibilities to Build Upon

DISCLAIMER: These are from notes of the Zoom interactions in class, and have my biased built in, so I take responsibility for my interpretation that may not be totally reflective of what David and Nicole meant by what they shared.

Infrastructure has been the byword this past year as Congress and the Biden administration have negotiated on the larger and finer points of updating highways, bridges, rails, power grids, broadband internet and the creation of a myriad of programs and policies related to climate change, restoration of lakes, removal of lead pipes, provisions for clean drinking water, and reduction of vehicular collisions with wildlife. The case for these updates comes as infrastructure’s invisibility cloak has become thread-bare with the moth holes of indifference during the past few decades.

Just as in the case with the crumbling of the nation’s infrastructure and the tantamount need for modernizing, the nation’s higher education system needs a similar-in-scope overhaul. In last Thursday’s class, we listened (via Zoom) to two thought leaders in the area of Open Educational Resources (OER)—David Wiley and Nicole Allen—and they both proposed using OER as an educational infrastructure with the idea that there are a myriad of possibilities to build upon it.

“OER is about creating possibilities,” said Wiley. “When infrastructure is of reasonable quality and it’s available for everybody to use, then it becomes kind of an innovation platform that you can do all kind of stuff on top of.” He furthered explained that there is a “base layer on which all the interesting things we do depend” and that having that infrastructure in place “doesn’t mean that anything interesting is going to happen, but minimally it has to be present,” said Wiley. “It’s necessary, but not sufficient.”

Allen later commented, “I think the future of OER is going to require a shift in the way that higher education looks at course materials and I think it probably needs to be a part of that broader systemic shift and reckoning that higher education needs to go through in terms of like—Why are we actually here? Are we doing what we think we are we doing? Are students getting out of this what they think they [are getting]  at the beginning?”

Wiley stated that the “intellectual infrastructure of education” is based on outcomes, content, assessments and certification. He said that he thinks of all of those things as infrastructure, just like we would think about roads and power and water [in a city]. “Nobody really gets excited about roads but everybody gets mad when the infrastructure doesn’t work, like when the power goes out or a road is blocked; otherwise, this infrastructure is invisible until something goes wrong.” He added, “Imagine trying to do education without any learning goals, learning content, assessment of learning or any recognition.”

“How do we make the kind of investments to have that kind of infrastructure?” Allen posed. “OER is going to take investment in training, professional development, new staff….” she added. “The future of OER is thinking about OER as infrastructure, and as part of the core infrastructure of what institutions do” as indicated by Wiley’s hard nod to outcomes, content, assessments and certification.

I think the invisibility cloak has been pulled from the higher education infrastructure and the moth holes are showing. Making a shift to think of OER as educational infrastructure begins the possibilities for higher education to make beneficial changes.

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Quick Synopsis of OER Valuation Study

I like that this article provided some compelling reasons to adopt OER at institutions of learning. I put together this short video presentation that shows the reasons.

Here is the conclusion of the study:

This research suggests OER is an equity strategy for higher education: providing all students with access to course materials on the first day of class serves to level the academic playing field in course settings.

While additional disaggregated research is needed in a variety of postsecondary contexts such as community college, HBCU, and other higher education settings to increase the generalizability of this notion, this study provides an empirical foundation on which to begin to change the advocacy narrative supporting OER.

A new opportunity appears to be present for institutions in higher education to consider how to leverage OER to address completion, quality, and affordability challenges, especially those institutions that have higher percentages of Pell eligible, underserved, and/or part-time students than the institution presented in this study.

#intro2opened