Chapter 7 Conclusions

• Further research areas:

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Conclusions

It was suggested in the Aims and Objectives in Chapter 1 that three key elements will combine to enable the on-line institute:

• the appropriate cultural climate;

• information and knowledge systems in a flexible format;

• and an Interactive Learning System capable of delivering the above.

Developments in all three areas have been discussed and shown to be interactive in that development in any one area can only be because of, and in response to, changes in each of the other areas. Still let us now look at these three areas and see what light they can shine on the possible changes still required. These conclusions are written as a series of statement-responses for brevity.

• On-line Education will develop as an industry in its own right and challenge existing educational institutes, which are geographically-based quasi-monopolies, with a new global perspective.

  This is being forced by, and forcing, cultural change in the way we approach education. Whether this industry is dominated by new private sector institutes or existing educational institutes is still to be seen. The private sector is responding quickly to market needs 'stealing' clients away from traditional education outlets.

• On-line educational services need to be embedded in learner-centred, resource-based systems which support the construction of knowledge.

  If the primary role of the institutional, administrative and instructional systems is to support the learner then wholesale changes need to occur in educational institutes. The key of the cultural change discussed above and in Chapter 1 is that learners see themselves as informed consumers with talents to bring to the educational relationship and will therefore not accept hegemonic and chauvinistic practises.

  This then is where the knowledge system in a flexible format comes into play. Current information systems are difficult to use in a resource based environment due to problems in identifying, finding and transporting current media. The cultural desire for learning anytime anywhere will be stymied without rapid development of portable resources as discussed in Chapter 4.

• The gathering, converting, collating, relating, storage and distribution of information will be the primary tasks of an on-line institute.

  Following from above then is that the institution needs to provide education as a service. Knowledge, as value-added information, is the key resource of any information age organisation and will possibly be regarded higher than any institutional values, meaning students will have a transportable allegiance to the institution which provides the best quality of service.

  Institutions will continue to foster the creation of new original content and knowledge but they will also need to ensure students have access to alternate viewpoints, not only as readings, but as actual course material. This would allow the student to choose on a quality basis between local and external resources, putting competitive pressure on academics to provide 'best of class' resources.

• The move to a fully digital, network centric organisation will be critical to the success of any on-line institute.

  The archaic nature of current computing technology (which supports many outmoded work practices) needs to be recognised, so that technologies with an information age focus of communication are better utilised in future. Most current technology has been developed with an industrial age concept of the use of labour. Either the technology will change the concept or vice versa.

  Digital technologies will dominate future information transmission and storage driven by the need for more flexible resources.

• There are a number of advantages for each of the educational sectors, school, VET and higher education to start providing some level of on-line services immediately.

  Focusing on the learner as the centre of the system compels any institute to provide as much support and information as required by the learner. This organisational development is the critical first step and can occur before other more expensive physical requirements are put in place. New technology paired with old culture is an impotent combination.

• It is now possible to provide many passive on-line services, and some fully-interactive and automated services, without resorting to expensive proprietary technologies.

On-line technologies which are driven by the requirement of global, inexpensive access, compel vendors to comply with standards and provide scalable solutions. On-line institutes can take advantage of many off-the-shelf products which require minimal programming and customisation, hence avoiding expensive start-up and maintenance costs.

Further research areas:

1. The continuing support, development and standardisation of Meta-data formats is critical for the description, navigation and sharing of current organisational data.

Support of organisations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is needed for the emergence of industry supported standards.

2. The development of Knowledge Sharing Languages (KSL) is a priority for the navigation and searching of network information systems beyond the physical and logical levels.

The ontological, or intelligent relational, interface to an information system requires the use of technologies currently existing only in university and military laboratories. Use of this interface would add another dimension to information sharing.

3. The specific steps to building the on-line institute require further attention with particular focus on the implementation and scalability issues for each of the three educational sectors.

The rush of schools to use computers as opposed to providing on-line services is a concern. The filling of a room with computers (industrial age technology) does not invite immediate entry to the information age. Information age curriculums which go beyond keyboard skills still need to be researched.

4. The VET and higher education sectors need to embrace on-line learning and assessment as a legitimate methodology. Research into continuing assessment and certification is required.

The development of open learning may be held back by a lack of cross-accreditation schemes and the need for a system enabling portability of credits. Student centric funding or 'learning accounts' would also assist.

5. Ongoing research into the psychology of learning needs to be continued to provide better information on what 'interaction' really means to both teacher and student.

Identification of the key elements of interaction will be crucial for both designers and students alike. More understanding of the research of cognitive science and Human Computer Interface design would quickly raise the standards of much poor design currently in use.

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