{"id":8100,"date":"2019-08-01T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T07:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=8100"},"modified":"2019-08-01T08:18:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T07:18:58","slug":"broadening-access-to-digital-education-is-there-another-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2019\/08\/broadening-access-to-digital-education-is-there-another-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadening access to digital education: is there another way?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A post by Stuart Allan, Director of Online Learning, Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University), @OpenPlanStuart <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports of \u2018the death of the VLE<\/a>\u2019 have been circulating for long enough for it to become a kitsch subject\nin ALT circles. But the institutional VLE \u2013 whether as a monolithic system or a\ncentral column into which other technologies are integrated \u2013 remains a\nubiquitous presence in most universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in\nspite of bold proclamations (mainly from tech firms) about how \u2018technology is increasing access to quality\neducation on an unprecedented scale<\/a>\u2019 (edX), significant global digital\ndivides remain. Online courses are still accessed mainly by the privileged few\nwho already have good access to education and technology, and a drive towards interactivity\nand synchronicity arguably exacerbates the impact of this inequality (Hillier\n2018; Sheail 2018). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they acquire and adopt digital\ntechnologies, are universities doing enough to consider the needs of students who\nhave low-quality or intermittent internet access, or are less able to access synchronous\nclasses due to geographical, technological or financial constraints? Many of\nthe 9,000 students at my institution (Edinburgh Business School, EBS<\/a>) could be described in this way; around one in four\nlive in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when we\nbegan thinking about a new environment for digital education in 2017,\nreflecting on global digital divides was a key concern. The first step was to\nconduct research with our global student body to gather feedback on their prior\nexperiences and future needs, as well as data on their levels of internet\naccess. Overall, only 43% of the 1,132 respondents to our student survey described\ntheir internet access as \u2018full and unrestricted\u2019; the majority of students who said\nthey had limited internet access lived in southern Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with a set of technical\nrequirements, which flowed from a value-driven vision for our future online\npedagogy, we met with several VLE vendors then conducted a formal procurement process.\nHowever, we found that the platforms we analysed were not fully aligned with\nthe needs of our students in three main ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. offline study options\nwere generally lacking;<\/li>
  2. surprisingly, smartphone optimisation was patchy in\nsome cases;<\/li>
  3. online content was\ngenerally siloed by mode (i.e. text pages, videos, quizzes and discussions were\naccessed via separate menu items), and this structure seemed very difficult to\noverride via customisation. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    We felt that these issues severely\nlimited our potential to create the accessible, rich, intuitive and\ncollaborative experiences many of our students were looking for. Worse, it\nseemed that these limitations would disproportionately disadvantage students who\nhad limited internet access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So while we did select the best candidate from the VLEs in the procurement process, instead of customising it \u2018out of the box\u2019 we decided to integrate it and other \u2018best-of-breed\u2019 technologies underneath a custom-built student interface (see Brown et al. 2015). This approach was only possible because we had an in-house IT team with expertise in software development and user experience design, who have spent the last 18 months developing the student interface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    In my\nposter and GASTA talk at ALT-C<\/a> I\u2019ll reflect\non this process, as well as proposing some scenarios that could make it a\nlittle more straightforward for others to take a similar approach in future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the absence of digital technologies that\nare designed specifically with their needs in mind, students with limited\ninternet access will continue to be excluded from digital education and instead\nforced towards campus models or print-based correspondence courses, or even miss\nout on education altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019d argue that this issue is too\nimportant to be left solely in the hands of technology companies. If we\u2019re\nserious about addressing inequality of access to digital education, technologies\nmust be anchored in the needs of those who would otherwise be marginalised or\nexcluded. This will require leadership, collaboration and investment across the\nsector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Brown M., Dehoney J. and Millichap N.\n(2015) The Next Generation Digital\nLearning Environment: A Report on Research<\/em>. Available from: https:\/\/library.educause.edu\/~\/media\/files\/library\/2015\/4\/eli3035-pdf.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hillier M. (2018) Bridging the digital divide with off-line e-learning. Distance Education<\/em>, 39 (1), 110\u2013121.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    \"StuartStuart Allan, Director of Online Learning, Edinburgh Business School,Heriot-Watt University @OpenPlanStuart <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n


    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you enjoyed reading this article we invite you to join the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) as an individual member, and to encourage your own organisation to join ALT as an organisational or sponsoring member.<\/p>
    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reports of \u2018the death of the VLE\u2019 have been circulating for long enough for it to become a kitsch subject in ALT circles. But the institutional VLE \u2013 whether as a monolithic system or a central column into which other technologies are integrated \u2013 remains a ubiquitous presence in most universities. Meanwhile, in spite of […]","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1306,1308,1307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alt-2019-conference-posts","category-digital-divides","category-virtual-learning-environments"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2019\/07\/blog-image.jpg?fit=913%2C539&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8150,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2019\/08\/alt-conference-from-the-executive-education-point-of-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":8100,"position":0},"title":"ALT Conference from the Executive Education Point of View","author":"rchallen","date":"19 August 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Executive Education comes in various shapes and forms, from one-day programs and workshops to multi-modular pathways, and from open programs available to anyone who meets the entrance requirements to tailored custom programs that use the joint forces of an Executive Education (EE) provider and the client\u2019s L&D department. 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