This edition of the journal is a special Issue which focuses on assessment in open, distance and e-learning. The specific concept behind the issue is to draw on lessons from practice. At a time when assessment is often experienced as brutal and or ‘algorithm led’, it is surely of importance to draw down on the wisdom of communities of practice if we are seeking to provide focused assessment of learners of all kinds?
To kick off the issue, we have the second of our interviews with leaders of Open and Distance learning institutes in Europe, Rosa Martín-Aranda reports back on the views of Alejandro Tiana – Rector of Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED) in Spain.
Interview with Alejandro Tiana – Rector of UNED, Spain
The interview was conducted by Prof. Rosa Martin Aranda, Faculty of Science, UNED. As with the first interview with the UK Open University’s Peter Horrocks (Bell, Citation2016), Alejandro is asked his thoughts on six questions relating to sustainability. What follows is an edited version of this interview.
Question 1. What is the current strategic vision of the University to meet the challenges of the next 20 years?
From a general point of view, I consider that the main challenge for higher education in the years to come is to adapt to the demands of the digital society from the perspective of life-long learning. In other words, the aim is to incorporate universities into the digital society, which would help them respond appropriately to today’s challenges. It goes far beyond just incorporating ICTs to their daily life, an already ongoing and never-ending process. In my view, the challenge that universities should currently consider is not so much how to use ICTs whilst attempting to maintain the traditional features of the institution unaltered, but rather how to adapt to the demands of the digital society.
This is a general challenge that universities face. It implies facing some concrete challenges:
| • | On the one hand, the continuous increase in the number of people seeking higher education means that solutions will inevitably be sought to meet the demand at a reasonable cost. | ||||
| • | In conjunction with the above, it is possible to imagine combinations which go beyond national borders. Although this is as yet only in an initial phase, there are indications that groups of universities from several countries are working together to offer joint courses with various combinations of material and student support services. It is therefore quite legitimate to wonder whether a phase of development has been reached in which some initiatives should move beyond institutional or even national boundaries. | ||||
| • | Moreover, changes are occurring in the field of higher education which may lead to a reappraisal of the university’s traditional functions. Such include the increasing overlap between university education and vocational training, the demand for accreditation and certification of competences acquired in nonformal and informal education, or the gradual dismantling of traditional teaching functions into different components. | ||||
| • | Finally, the new advances in technology occurring at present favour innovation and the search for new methodologies. Such is the case of learning through mobile devices, which is currently revolutionising training and education. | ||||
Question 2. Is it ‘business as usual’ for HE or can we expect to see dramatic change?
Of course, this does not mean ‘business as usual’ for the future. As I said, it implies a deep change in some of the university’s current features. I have already pointed out some of them in the previous answer, but I would add that everything would suggest that universities will undergo significant transformations over the coming years.
Digitalisation is a current trend which affects every aspect of human life. ICTs have profoundly affected production systems, social and economic organisation, cultural norms, international relations and many other fields. Logically, universities could not remain on the sidelines of this general trend. And persons and societies are changing so quickly that universities could not escape to a parallel transformation.
Question 3. How does the University’s strategy contribute to the specific international challenge of sustainable development in its many guises?
Sustainable development is a crucial challenge for the future. It affects all institutions, not only universities. Our university has already included sustainability and environmental care among our institutional values and takes them into account when developing our daily activities and when designing and planning new initiatives. In this sense, UNED is fully aware of the contribution that universities should and may make in favour of a sustainable future.
Nevertheless, my personal impression is that we should do more to translate these kinds of declarations into real actions. For instance, more can be done in terms of including sustainability as a transversal curricular subject. It is already included in some specific degrees, like Environment Sciences, Social Education and some others, but it is not a study subject or issue for some others.
Question 4. What are the likely futures for MOOCs?
In a paper on MOOCs I recently published in Telos, a Spanish review on communication, technology and society, I studied the promises and the realities posed by that movement. For me, there is no doubt that the launch of MOOCs was presented as an innovative, disruptive initiative aimed at reaching two complementary objectives: on the one hand, democratising higher education, and on the other hand, transforming teaching and learning models. The reality is that those promises proved to be unrealistic. Of course, MOOCs have had an important impact in the way universities present themselves to the external world, but they have not changed their operations, degrees and so on.
Of course, it can be said that MOOCs history is still very short and this is undoubtedly true. But one cannot forget that behind the social mission of universities there is an extremely important element of certification of knowledge already acquired by learners that MOOCs have not been (and maybe are not) able to change by themselves. And moreover, some of the main problems raised when MOOCs started to work are very familiar for DTUs (Distance Teaching Universities). For universities like ours, MOOCs are an innovation, but not that radical.
Nevertheless, I ended that paper by saying that we cannot expect miracles from MOOCs. Their expansion clearly shows a need for change in higher education and this is the main issue to be raised. It is very likely that MOOCs will change in the near future and will give way to new developments. This is, for me, their outstanding contribution. In other words, it may well be that MOOCs will not be the future, but the future will not be understood without them.
Question 5. Is distance learning going to remain the preserve of a few specialised agencies or do you think it will become more widely provided by other agencies?
In my opinion, distance teaching will not be a separate enterprise as it has been until very recently. One important feature to be developed – or already being developed – will be a closer combination of face-to-face and distance learning modalities. I would like to underline that trend, which I think is going to be relevant for the future.
In fact, as a result of the incorporation of ICTs into university life, the boundaries which have traditionally existed between traditional universities and distance universities have become blurred. For some years now, an increasing number of traditional universities have begun to offer online courses, blended learning programmes, self-tuition courses, and other similar activities. Although most university activities are still performed in classrooms and on campuses, new initiatives have arisen in which the physical presence of the students is not an indispensable prerequisite to follow a course of higher education.
Everything seems to point to the increasing combination of both modalities. This idea is reinforced by some who favour the convergence of both, which is not at all unrealistic. Indeed, we are already seeing developments that would support this idea. Such is the case of the expansion of online and e-learning models in traditional universities, the development of blended learning which combines varying proportions of face-to-face and online learning or the appearance of flipped classrooms in which part of the learning activities take place outside the classroom.
Although it cannot be categorically stated that the distinction between traditional campus-based education and distance learning has disappeared, there is no doubt that boundaries have become more permeable and less rigid than they were just ten years ago. This opens new prospects for the future which we should take advantage of.
Currently, it is difficult to predict exactly how this combination of modalities will develop, which modality will be used in which proportion, and even whether total convergence will occur at some time in the future. However, there is no doubt that the days are numbered for the rigid division between campus-based universities, and distance and online universities. The future is open, but the process of change has passed the point of no return.
Question 6. As country and language boundaries change – how important is a sense of place to the University?
In this new context of blurred limits between different teaching and learning modalities, blurred boundaries between national and transnational universities, somebody could think that learning activities could be developed in the virtual space. I sincerely think this is not right. My experience at UNED is that students can learn flexibly by themselves or with the support of tutors, all alone or together with other colleagues. This is a very important observation. These new universities and current DTU transforming into new types of universities need to take into account that learning is an activity which needs at the same time academic freedom and loneliness on the one hand, and local insertion and support on the other. When I see these locals in many of our Spanish cities in which our university is present, where people can feel being into a university setting, at the same time that they may study through the Internet and virtual courses, I have the feeling that we are succeeding in giving them the response they really need. It does not mean that we may open our limits, collaborating with universities from other countries, offering international programmes, receiving international students, but allowing all of them to feel part of a university, an institution with a long history and local roots. I am not among the believers in a virtual world with only virtual relationships. We are rooted persons even with the capacity of transcending our personal environment.
In future Editorials, we will be presenting the views of leaders from the Universidade Aberta in Portugal and the FernUniversität in Hagen in Germany.
Early in 2017, we hope to provide an overarching assessment and synthesis of the four interviews.
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