Thanks for your in depth comment Wayne, I (we) have lots to learn. Canada has just more than 40 million inhabitants, British Columbia has 650 000 students in K-12, and approximately 10% of that number are serviced in some way by provincial govt sponsored distributed learning. Of course we have urban and rural dimensions as well, the Metro Vancouver area services a large percentage of our provicial learners, yet one district in North West BC is the size of Belgium.
But the opportunities possibilities that OERu can provide for recently graduated students, even in this relatively small situation, well they are endless. On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 10:23 PM, Wayne Mackintosh < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Don, > > Me too :-) > > Rory speaks from extensive experience in open distance learning and mass > education systems. Consider for example IGNOU in India -- a single mode > distance teaching university which has +3.5 million registered students. ( > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi_National_Open_University). > > You will note that a large number of the founding anchor partners of the > OERu initiative have extensive experience in open distance education > delivery models including the University of Southern Queensland, the > University of Wollongong, Unisa (one of the mega universities of the > world), Empire State College (SUNY), Thompson Rivers University, the Open > Polytechnic, and BAOU. > > I grew up in mass education systems having worked at Unisa for 12 years. > Early in my career I was given the responsibility to coordinate a > foundation course in education studies. At the time, this first year course > had 12,000 enrollments and I learned the tricks of the trade in designing > effective pedagogy for large courses (incidentally we did this with about 8 > full-time faculty equivalents) . So when MOOCs register a few thousand > students and awe about their scale -- distance educators are not > necessarily overwhelmed. We know how to teach effectively with large > numbers of learners and have the research and experience to back us up. > > Viewing this from a network perspective, the OERu founding anchor partners > have the collective experience to design systems that will work for +10 > million OERu learners. > > Watch this space ... > > Wayne > > > > On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 6:43 PM, Don Beadle > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> I like the >> Way that >> Rory mentions ten million students as if it is just the norm. TEN >> MILLION STUDENTS!!! >> >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On Nov 18, 2011, at 5:10 PM, Wayne Mackintosh <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> In a recent >> interview<http://www.scoop.it/t/open-learning-news/p/691506005/terry-anderson-and-rory-mcgreal-speak-about-athabasca-university-and-the-oeru> >> in >> the UK, Professor Rory McGreal highlights cost effectiveness as the key to >> success of the OERu: >> >> >> *"Cost effectiveness is the key… How do we educate these 97 million >> learners … in a cost-effective manner? [OERu] .. is the first idea that >> I’ve seen that practical implementation is possible. And this could work. >> * >> * >> * >> *And the way it’d work is this: if we could get a cadre, so we get ten >> percent of them through, so that’s ten million students, but that means >> there’s a cadre of students who’ve done it, in all these little villages >> and towns all around the world, and they’re an example to the others, and >> then you can build on that and build on it and build, and that’s the way >> you do it. But not only that; we have developed self-motivated learners, >> and that’s what you need - you need a person who is a self motivated >> learner. That’s more important than anything they learn. And so we build >> that up and we’re away…"* >> >> >> -- >> Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D. >> Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org> >> Director, International Centre for Open Education, >> Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. >> Founder and elected Community Council Member, >> WikiEducator<http://www.wikieducator.org> >> Mobile +64 21 2436 380 >> Skype: WGMNZ1 >> Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/Mackiwg> | >> <http://identi.ca/waynemackintosh>identi.ca >> Wikiblog <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg/Blog> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "WikiEducator" group. >> To visit wikieducator: <http://www.wikieducator.org> >> http://www.wikieducator.org >> To visit the discussion forum: >> <http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator> >> http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator >> To post to this group, send email to <[email protected]> >> [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> <[email protected]> >> [email protected] >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "WikiEducator" group. >> To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org >> To visit the discussion forum: >> http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] > > > > > -- > Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D. > Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org> > Director, International Centre for Open Education, > Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. > Founder and elected Community Council Member, > WikiEducator<http://www.wikieducator.org> > Mobile +64 21 2436 380 > Skype: WGMNZ1 > Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/Mackiwg> | > identi.ca<http://identi.ca/waynemackintosh> > Wikiblog <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg/Blog> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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