"Microwave ovens were a clever idea, but their inventor could hardly have realized that their effect would ultimately be to take the preparation of food out of the home and into the, increasingly automated, factory; to make cooking as it used to be into a matter of choice, not of necessity; to alter the habits of our homes, making the dining table outmoded for many, as each member of the family individually heats up his or her own meal as and when they require it."   Charles Handy, The Age of Unreason Handy’s microwave example illustrates the point that technological innovations often have repercussions well beyond the original and intended purpose. As each innovation is launched, it inevitably interacts with a range of social, economic and cultural forces, leading to often surprising results.  Massive open online courses —MOOCs — are no different. The primary intention of MOOCs was to provide free online access to anyone via the web; not to create a radically more transparent form of higher education. But this aspect may prove to be MOOC’s greatest impact. Transparency and Instructional Quality Instructional resources and activities have historically been kept behind closed doors, available to only registered students. But, of course, MOOCs make instructional courses and their contents available to people outside of the institution; this is the format’s fundamental value.  As a result, universities and individual instructors find one of their core activities on display in ways not seen before. University leaders soon came to recognize the tremendous attention these courses were generating. Always concerned with reputation (the currency of greatest import in higher ed), universities began to see MOOCs as a new platform for competition; another means to establish and extend their brand, while fulfilling the institution’s social mission. But on what basis will institutions and academics compete through MOOCs? At this stage, it appears that the competition will be fought primarily through instructional content; the materials developed for students, such as video, illustrations, audio and text. During the past 18 months, the attention paid to the quality and production value of instructional content of high-profile MOOCs (e.g., Coursera, edX) has increased significantly. Video lectures and presentations are better written. Production values - such as professional lighting and sound - have improved. We are seeing less traditional lectures and more "performances. An instructor teaching a Udacity course begins by interviewing passersby in a style lifted straight out of late night TV comedy. The three-part edX course," Fundamentals of Neuroscience," features 5  to 10 minute NOVA-like episodes. In a recent article, edX CEO Anant Agarwal said, "From what I hear, really good actors can actually teach really well," and floated the idea that using actors in the future was a possibility. And I know of at least one digital higher education publisher that has turned to actors, rather than academics, to "star" in the company’s video lectures. While the vast majority of online courses in North American universities are made for $20K to $25K, I’ve been told (privately) that investment in MOOCs has reached 10 times that amount, due to the cost of higher production value. How Context Influences Value It’s important to emphasize that this heightened attention to the quality of instructional content is not the result of changing ideas of best practices for pedagogy or even demands by students for better quality content.  At least not directly. Rather, it’s the result of the new context in which the course is experienced. Typically, a university-level course is evaluated as part of a larger set of experiences that constitute the traditional university experience: a credential system, being part of a program of study and living on campus. Pulled out of this traditional context, the MOOC is evaluated on the basis of other criteria. Now what matters most to the student is what can be learned, full stop. So, what determines value for the learner depends more on factors such as the clarity of exposition, whether the course inspires interest in the learner (and maintains that interest), and how quickly and easily learning occurs. While these factors are certainly important in the traditional university context, they are less important, and are often outweighed by other factors, such as obtaining a degree. Using instructional content as the basis of competition for public recognition between institutions will likely increase the quality of instructional content in online higher education. To date, instructional content in online higher education has received remarkably little attention. At many institutions, the process of developing digital instructional materials still operates in a cottage-industry fashion. Individual instructors with limited funds, incomplete skill sets and insufficient incentives bear most of the burden for course design and development. While service departments provide technical support and instructional guidance, they’ve made only a small dent in the instructional model, to date. Instructional Content and Competition At the very least, I hope that increased attention given to instructional content in MOOCS will generate more focus on the design of online courses. A more disciplined, team-based approach will improve the quality of learning. And it’s also encouraging that the basis of this competition between participating institutions is actually directly related to instruction. As any education marketing professional will tell you (if their employer is not within earshot), instructional quality is not, sadly, a potent recruitment strategy. For institutions, competition based on instructional quality introduces interesting possibilities.  The elite institutions that grabbed the early MOOC headlines (Harvard, MIT, Stanford) are not necessarily better prepared (dollar-to-dollar) to offer high quality instructional content than less prestigious institutions. In fact, it could be argued − although difficult to quantify − that the focus of elite institutions on research, rather than teaching, makes these early MOOC adopters less prepared to compete on this new basis. Share your ideas in the comments section or contact me directly at: keith@acrobatiq.com or @keithhampson.  

If you’re interested in how higher education operates, or are doing research on the issues, trends and emerging technologies shaping higher education, these 20 organizations may be of value. You’ll find plenty of research, surveys, analysis, ideas and blogs, of course. Ithaka S+R The Center for College Affordability and Productivity Education Sector Contact North Survey Reports | The Sloan Consortium NMC Horizon Project | The New Media Consortium EDUCAUSE Library | EDUCAUSE.edu The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy OECD: Higher Education Management Publications | HESA Pullias Center for Higher Education  National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education Lumina Foundation Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) UCLA Jisc - supports digital technologies in UK education & research Nexus Research & Policy Center LH Martin Institute Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)  The Delta Cost Project  on postsecondary education costs, productivity and accountability Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario  

Design is having its moment.  Apple’s  Jonathan Ive, Philippe Starck and Michael Graves are among a growing number of designers enjoying rock-star status. Businessweek, Fast Company and other pubs now dedicate entire issues to design. Enrollment in college design programs has spiked. But what role does - or should - design play in education, specifically digital higher education? A lot, it turns out. As we move from the classroom to the screen, design matters more than ever. The qualities that create great design are also the qualities needed to create great online learning experiences.  The relationship of design and higher education is the theme of a series of posts we’re kicking off.  This first post highlights what great design and great educational experiences have in common. The parallels are many. Next, I’ll explore how the migration from the classroom to the online environment requires a commitment to design. The third installment will review the state of design in higher ed.  I’ll wrap up the series by exploring the parallels between design and learner data. So, exactly what is design?  There isn’t a single definition; the field is broad and expanding. In the context of this series, think of design more as user experience (UX), than instructional design. Design in digital higher ed is about how people interact with screens, software, interfaces and information in a holistic, multidisciplinary way. Similarities between design and education: Great design and great education is user/student-centric. A great designer, like a great educator, takes what is complicated and makes it easy to understand. Well-designed services and systems are elegantly integrated and easy to use; so are the best educational web sites, services and systems. Great design leverages the user’s existing knowledge, just as great education builds upon the learner’s prior knowledge. Great design connects users with information and experiences in ways that makes it memorable and "sticky." So does great education. Great design attracts the user by making the experience as compelling as possible. Great education strives to engage learners and increase interaction - a key determinant of learning success. Great design evokes an emotional response, which can alter the user’s cognitive state. Great education can evoke positive emotions that make students more creative and open to new approaches when learning. Great design saves time by focusing the user’s attention on the most important information. Great online learning experiences maximize students’ time by focusing their attention on the key learning objectives and outcomes of the course. Great design seeks to transcend passive, one-way communication towards active engagement with the user. Isn’t this the goal of all great educators and institutions? We know from retention and completion rates that just providing knowledge is not enough. Other sectors and industries have recognized this. Design is a differentiator in the market because it adds real value. It’s a lesson that higher ed is just beginning to learn. How do you see the relationship between design and higher education? Share your comments here or on twitter: @KeithHampson or email: keith@acrobatiq.com. Note: We are offering an 11-Minute Webcast on this topic, Leveraging Design, on December 19, 2013.  Next post: Design & Screen-Based Learning in Higher Education Resource: Glossary of Design Terms

As part of our series on the importance of intelligent, high-quality design in online education, we’ve gathered a list of articles, books, videos and other resources that you may find helpful. Most of the selections come from the world of design, rather than education, specifically. Hopefully, in time, there will be more to resources to share on the role of design in education. If you have a resource we should include on this list, please let us know at: Keith@Acrobatiq.com or post a comment below. Reminder: We will be looking at design in an upcoming 11-Minute Webcast, Thursday, December 19, 2013 at 12:30 pm EST. Register here. Articles/Posts A Brief History of Design Thinking Design Thinking Sparks Learning in Rural North Carolina The Three Future Waves of Design and How to Ride Them Welcome to the Era of Design In Defense of Eye-Candy Academic Articles/Books Designing for People  A Designer’s Art The Substance of Style by Virginia Postrel The Design of Everyday Things Improving the Environment in Distance Learning Courses Through the Application of Aesthetic Principles The Impact of Design and Aesthetics on Usability, Credibility, and Learning in an Online Environment The Pleasure of E-Learning: Toward Aesthetic E-Learning Platforms The Influence of Aesthetics and Content Structuring to E-Learning Systems’ Users Behavior  Websites/Videos Design Thinking for Educators Don Norman: Designing for People Design Genius (BBC Documentary) A List Apart (Magazine) Core77 A Glossary of Design Terms

". . . design has spread like gas to all facets of human activity from science and education, to politics and policy making. For a simple reason: one of design’s most fundamental tasks is to help people deal with change." (Economist, 2011). It’s widely thought that the rise of design during the past couple of decades owes much to the rapid pace of change that characterizes modern life. Design facilitates change for those seeking to stimulate change.  And for end users, design serves as a means of making changes less jarring and uncomfortable. As Ray Kurzweil, author, inventor and director of engineering at Google has argued, the rate of change is accelerating as never before.  The time between invention and mass adoption of, for example, consumer technologies, such as mobile phones and social networking, has dropped dramatically. The migration from the classroom environment to the Internet is one of the most dramatic changes in the history of higher education.  Although the Internet has been in Western households for 20 years, the vast majority of students and educators have grown up in the physical classroom model. Our institutions are designed according to the needs and logic of place-based learning. (We shouldn’t be surprised that the initial approach to web-based education was to try to replicate the classroom environment). Screen-Based Learning But the migration from the classroom to a screen-based environment is a change like no other. It’s a migration to a design-dependent environment. The digital learner’s experience is highly-dependent on the quality of design. The particular mix of colors, layout, audio, animation, words per page and other design elements can make the difference between a good and bad experience for learners on laptops, smartphones and tablets. To date, digital higher education has largely ignored the role of design in online learning. It’s not part of the conversation. You’ll be lucky to find it discussed at conferences or in journals. This is partly because good design practices are not part of most institutions’ DNA.  (Have you ever tried to find your way around an unfamiliar campus? Signage, anyone?). And partly because institutions often frame aesthetics and related matters as enemies of science. It’s time that digital higher education recognize the demands of this new online environment. The factors that determine the quality of learning are different than those that ruled the classroom in which we grew up. We need to include design talent and processes in our course design and development practices if we are going to make better use of this (still) new environment. As the saying goes, "When you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other end." Note: We are offering an 11-Minute Webcast on this topic, Leveraging Design, on December 19, 2013.  Resources Understanding the Accelerating Rate of Change        

If you can fit in some time for professional development over the well-deserved break, here are a few webcasts, videos, papers and blog posts from the Acrobatiq team on some of the hottest topics in online education. The 11-Minute Webcast This series offers a primer on some of digital education’s biggest trends. Learning Analytics Online Instructional Content Design for Online Education Resources for Teaching Papers and blog posts with valuable insights for online, hybrid or flipped classroom instructors. Best Practices in Online Teaching MOOCs: Content & Competition Lecture to Learning Dashboard Why design matters in digital higher education Acrobatiq Intelligent Courseware Walkthroughs Learn about our efficacy-based approach to improving student outcomes in these webcast walkthroughs. Intro to Biology Intro to Psychology Statistics STEM Readiness

Instructional content in higher education used to be a simple matter: the Instructor selected a textbook (or three), maybe put together a set of photocopied readings, and added his or her own course notes. But as all-things-digital washes over higher education, the challenge of pulling together the very best instructional resources for students has become increasingly complex. Options now include ebooks, OER, self-publishing, LMS-based content, digital textbook supplements, freemium textbooks, digital course packs, print-on-demand, library subscription services, custom-publishing, college intellectual property rules, and the still complex world of Internet copyright laws. The choices we make for instructional content can have a significant impact on the cost and quality of learning, but also on the institution’s administrative costs and service quality. How quickly and at what price, for example, can we get instructional content into the hands of our students and at what costs to the institution? Decisions about instructional content for courses have traditionally been handled by Instructors. But it’s not always feasible for the Instructor to know all of the possible options available. Nor do they often have the capacity to determine if there are benefits to coordinating their content needs with colleagues in other parts of the institution. "Content Strategy" It’s time for a more coordinated, institutional approach to managing instructional content. The field of "Content Strategy" - while currently focussed on marketing - offers a good starting point. Content Strategy, according to one its evangelists, Kristina Halvorson, is "the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content." The field tries to bring order to a under-appreciated, often uncoordinated set of practices that includes editorial, search-engine optimization, content management, metadata strategy, financial management, content distribution channels strategies, and more. I believe the field of Content Strategy can be retrofit to instructional content and provide a framework that will lower costs, improve services and increase quality. As a first step, I recommend taking an inventory of current practices and resources: how are we currently producing, acquiring, managing and distributing instructional content within our institution? What units within your university deal with instructional content? (e.g. Libraries distance education, bookstores, individual instructors, academic departments, marketing.) What software applications are currently being used to produce and manage content? (e.g. Content management systems, learning management systems, publisher websites, faculty blogs, wikis.) From whom is the university sourcing content, and what are the processes used to source content? (e.g. Library subscriptions, textbook publishers, instructors, simulation companies.) Who within the institution is producing content? (e.g. Instructors, academic departments, marketing.) How do the various units within the institution communicate with each other about their content practices? Do they? With a better grasp of the big picture, you’ll start to see opportunities to share resources, identify leading practices that should be emulated, and recognize potential risks. More to come. Resources For more information about the field of Content Strategy, check out the following sites: The Discipline of Content Strategy by Kristina Halvorson The Content Strategist Books on Content Strategy and Content Management  

Two findings stand out in WCET’s latest Managing Online Education survey: how course content is produced and acquired; and course completion rates. WCET (the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) conducted the 2013 survey in partnership with BCcampus, Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium, and eCampusAlberta. Course content: limitations of the in-house model Results of their survey shows that the "vast majority of online courses use content that is developed in-house by faculty." Approximately "60 percent use open content, but it is used only in a small number of courses." The dependence on in-house content for online courses fits neatly with the traditional organization of higher education: faculty are charged with serving as one-person providers for most aspects of a student’s experience, including content. And this model reinforces and reflects the notion that faculty are not merely teachers, but subject matter experts. But of course, technology makes it increasingly simple and convenient to acquire content from other sources. This isn’t a new phenomenon; the process of unbundling the production and distribution of information begins with the printing press. The downside of this reliance on in-house content development is that it places an extraordinary cap on the kinds of materials that can be produced and subsequently used by students to learn. More sophisticated materials that draw on rich media, predictive modelling and other properties that are dependent on higher levels of investment and a true division of labor, simply can’t be produced economically via the in-house model. The relatively light take-up of open content is interesting on two levels. Open content initiatives have been around for a decade and a half. Increasing the frequency with which faculty share materials is logical. And we expect adoption of open content to continue to grow. But the growth will likely remain limited until the shared materials are consistently of higher quality, which in turn, is dependent on moving away from the aforementioned in-house production model. Institutions don’t know their course completion rates The focus in the study on course completion rates is smart. While the retention rates cited in the study are not particularly surprising, the authors rightly draw attention to what might be the more important issue: many institutions didn’t know their completion rates. "65 percent were not able to provide an on-campus rate and 55 percent did not report an online rate." Course completion rates are a particularly obvious marker of academic success. And it is information that is relatively simple to capture. It’s the low hanging fruit of institutional analytics. The apparent lack of attention to even the most obvious and important information is somewhat alarming. As the report notes, "if institutions wish to improve course completion, they will need to collect these statistics. It’s hard to improve what is not measured." The full report: Managing Online Education, 2013  

MOOCs, big data, adaptive learning  and performance-based funding were some of the top trends and stories in higher ed and ed-tech in 2013. Here’s a list of links to some of the year-end roundups from industry influencers, news sites and organizations that offer news and analysis of developments in higher ed. What do  you think were the most important ed-tech trends of 2013? What are your predictions for 2014? Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues for 2013 American Association of State Colleges and Universities 10 Ed Tech Stories of 2013 Center for Digital Education The Idea Makers - Ten Tech Innovators 2013 The Chronicle of Higher Education Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2013 and Predictions Audrey Watters, Hack Education Top ed-tech stories of 2013 eCampus News The Top Digital/Edu Stories of 2013 Digital/Edu - Hechinger Report The Top Ten Higher Ed Stories of 2013 EdCentral Opportunities and Predictions, 2014 A.D. e-Literate  

When we shift the focus of higher education from the physical classroom to the digital environment, design becomes a much greater factor in creating successful student experiences. Design, here, refers to graphic and industrial design, where aesthetics and function merge. In previous posts -  Why design matters and Design and screen-based learning - I made a number of assertions: There’s a growing recognition that the ‘look and feel’ of products is fundamental to their value. Design is not merely about surface aesthetics. Design involves aligning the needs, sensibilities and behaviors of people with the things they use. The value of screen-based experiences (e.g., laptops, tablets, smartphones) is highly dependent on the quality of design. Design is a powerful tool for making it easier for us to live with technology’s  over-caffeinated rate of change. After centuries of classroom education, design can help us make the transition to digital education easier. For a variety of reasons, the software and content created for digital higher education has largely ignored the role of design - and it shows. However, there are five factors at play that may give the field of design a more central role in digital higher education in 2014. 1. Design and learner data The use of analytics is driven by a growing interest in measuring the efficacy of learning. As the education sector sharpens its focus on results of its investments and strategies, ambitious and innovative institutions are paying more attention to how courses are designed and developed. Well-designed courses can increase retention and improve learning. They are easier to use, allow students to focus on learning rather than courses logistics, reduce demands on support, and present the right instructional resources at the right time. Intelligently crafted analytics captures these improvements, which leads to greater attention to course design. 2. Design as a competitive differentiator Pundits have been talking about the highly competitive landscape of online higher education for almost 15 years. Yet, it is only recently that colleges find themselves offering very similar online programs as their competitors, and at similar prices. (For now, this is only acute in certain disciplines, such as business and nursing.) Real choice leads to real competition. And competition requires differentiation. Design is one of the few tangible ways - beyond price - that institutions can demonstrate the value of their online programs to prospective students. (For more on differentiation and the use of "surrogates of quality," see Lloyd Armstrong’s excellent post on competitive higher education). 3. Consumer-education apps crossover Educational technology has historically advanced less quickly than consumer technologies. This is also true in terms of the quality of design. But consumer-industry design is finding its way into education in two ways: Educators now regularly use consumer applications in their courses, such as Twitter, WordPress and Facebook. For more information on using Twitter in higher ed teaching, check out this article and YouTube video. Edtech vendors are adopting the qualities and characteristics of consumer technologies. An example is Instructure’s Canvas learning management system, which gained favorable reviews for its ease of use, and more broadly, its consumer-style user interface. 4. Big media investing in education There is growing interest in digital higher education among traditional media companies.  While many in education bristle at this trend, these corporations bring deep experience in packaging and delivering information-related products with high quality design.  Among them: News Corp. (Amplify), New York Times (The Learning Network), The Washington Post (Kaplan Inc.), Bertelsmann AG (Brandman University), and Condé Nast (Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design). 5. The rise of apps A 2010 Wired article by Chris Anderson, "The Web is Dead" makes the point that more people are accessing the Internet from applications than browsers. Internet traffic is increasingly managed by applications like Netflix, Facebook, and Xbox. And as more people access the Internet via mobile devices, the trend will continue. Applications offer a superior user experience. Possibly more so than any other consumer product category, applications compete on the basis of design.  Consider task management apps. These tools compete largely on the quality of the experience they offer; the way they manage and display information. The actual information available through these tools is pretty much the same, but the user experience isn’t. The consumer can quickly and easily switch from one app to another in seconds, without disruption. Design is the difference between success and failure. These five factors - for different reasons and in different ways - are elevating the role of design in digital higher education, and specifically, in the course design and development process. Those institutions that find ways to leverage design to improve their digital learning programs will benefit.