e-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates

Ensuring quality in the age of ubiquitous learning

We live in an age of Ubiquitous learning, no longer confined by the "Spatio- Temporal Dimension" and learning is happening everywhere, all the time. Learning in the 21st century is a critical skill as technology changes rapidly and we are forced to employ new skills almost daily in our personal and work lives. For many of us, learning equates to career advancement through the development of new skills or acquiring certifications or degrees to provide evidence of knowledge. My question is will certifications become obsolete as machine learning and computer analysis provide the tools to compare required skills with those demonstrated by the learner.

What is the value of a degree acquired 10 or 15 years ago compared to an ongoing, but less structured education? Would you prefer an applicant who completed a degree 10 years ago and never opened a book since or someone who reads a lot and has completed numerous online courses related to the role you need them to fill? I would argue we currently value the degree from an accredited university or college more highly simply because it is a proxy for quality. We trust the educators have curated valuable content and assessed each learner's progress against a known standard. A degree is an evidence the student has met the standard of knowledge defined by the university.

Without a known standard, is Active Knowledge Making: "the learner-as-knowledge producer and discerning knowledge discoverer/navigator" (Cope and Kalantzis, p 16) a realistic strategy for anyone seeking employment or advancement? How reliable is this type of learning, or is the role of a curator or standard-setter still vital? Is "Collaborative Intelligence: peer-to-peer learning, sourcing social memory, and using available knowledge tools appropriately" enough? My sense is the curator is still pivotal, although I believe the role will change. The curator of the future will be more engaged in assessing desired outcomes and compiling the learning content of all types to guide the learner to develop needed knowledge and skills.

According to Guy Boulet, "Knowledge is information acquired through sensory input: Reading, watching, listening, touching, etc... Skills, however, refer to the ability to apply knowledge to specific situations."  With digital technologies, the curator can develop multimodal learning for developing and testing for desired skills. This learning will be less static and provide many paths to the goal compared to a degree program offering a limited number of electives that at best delivers knowledge, but not necessarily the needed skills. As we become better at defining the desired skills needed and comparing them to the sum of all learning and skills of the person being considered for a role, degrees will become less valuable and ubiquitous learning more so.

  • Beatriz Quiroga
  • Mariya Kokor