Transforming Conventional Education through ODDE

Abstract

Open and distance education has a long history and rich heritage, its literature affirming that a systems approach based on industrial production is an optimal means of providing education that is accessible, cost-effective, flexible, open, and scalable. This approach to education, based on an asynchronous separation of participants, continues to find its expression in the Internet age. The recent COVID-19 global pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT). This sudden adoption of online education took place more in response to need than careful strategizing. Significantly, the term “online distance education” is often used to describe the mostly synchronous ERT model, even though this is out of step with classic distance education theory. This chapter explores the differences across educational models beneath the terms “conventional education” and “open, distance digital education (ODDE), " and the nature of “transformation” as conventional and distance models of education are expressed online. Transforming conventional education through ODDE challenges our thinking as to the nature of education practice and the potential of digital technology in the twenty-first-century context. The potential of ODDE - anytime enrolment and assessment, effectiveness and efficiency in tuition, enhancing student success by design and personalized provision - goes well beyond extending the classroom into the online space. For on-campus providers to become effective ODDE providers, a transformation is required. The final part of this chapter deals with the challenges of rethinking the role of the educator and of reformulating a university’s operating model.