Section outline

  • A free online course to help build capacity for distributing knowledge to reduce inequity

    Note: if you want to gain a certificate for completing this course, you will have to create an account and log in as a student.

    The theory:

    Inequity is everywhere in higher education between countries, between regions and social and economic groups within countries. There are large variations in access to higher education across the global, regional, socio-economic and cultural divides.

    Distributed education is the provision of education where it is needed – taking it to the student rather than the student coming to it - thus overcoming limitations of time and place.

    It depends on the use of the internet and online learning. It offers increased equity of access to education for those who cannot physically attend a central campus - due to socio-economic, disability or geographic factors - as well as a reduced carbon footprint.

    Networked education depends on contributions from multiple educational institutions. It fosters “collaborative, co-operative and collective inquiry, knowledge-creation and action”. It depends on “trusting relationships… and appropriate communication technologies”.

    To gain the benefits of distributing education, knowledge has to be created. Distributing knowledge creation can counter the under-representation of diverse populations in research.

    The practice:

    Having covered the theory, the course provides aids for the design of courses using a distributed and networked approach. The course concludes with a series of questions to help you assess whether distributed education and knowledge creation are feasible in your setting.

    More about the course

    Course content
    Section 1: Introducing the course - why it matters
    Section 2: The concepts of distributed and networked education
    Section 3: Digital technologies for education
    Section 4: Distributing knowledge creation
    Section 5: Open access to educational resources and research
    Section 6: Designing programmes which incorporate distributed and networked education
    Section 7: Practical aspects of implementing the distribution of education and knowledge creation

    Learning outcomes of the course

    Graduates of the program should be able to:

    1. Assess the potential application of the concepts of distributed and networked learning and appropriate digital technologies to proposed education in their setting.

    2. Choose appropriate digital tools and platforms for distributed and networked learning and select open access and open educational resources (OERs) to apply in their setting.

    4. Engage in distributed knowledge creation (that is, drawing on a network of experts from different settings, for example, in designing both research projects and educational offering).

    5. Collaborate in designing programmes which incorporate distributed and networked education and research.

    Who is this course for?

    Initially the course might be suitable for individuals with responsibility (academic and administrative) for developing education programs in universities, with access to the infrastructure (especially IT) that would enable a distributed approach. You are encouraged to use and adapt the course to suit your own audience and any academic requirements.

    Who developed this course?

    The course has been developed by an informal group of academics including (in alphabetical order): Johanna Amos, Queen’s University, Canada; Alena Buis, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, Canada; Julia Critchley, St. George's, University of London; Anja Harrison, King's College London; Katherine Herbert, Charles Sturt University, Australia; Richard Heller, University of Newcastle, Australia; Stephen Leeder, University of Sydney; Upasana Gitanjali Singh University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa; Daniel Otto, Professor for e-learning and digital teaching at the European University for Innovation and Perspective.

    The course has been influenced by the open access book: 'The Distributed University for Sustainable Higher Education', and the journal article 'Distributing knowledge creation to include under-represented populations' in The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (in press).

    Navigating the course
    Please read through each section where you will be able to access resources through embedded hyperlinks. Please post your reflections in the reflections forum in each section (your posts will be visible to those who access the course after you, but the discussion is not active although you are able to change the setting to receive posts from others). You can gain a certificate an automated certificate of completion for the course if you post to each of the reflection forums - see the section at the end.