Education and the Economics of Inference

 If history is our guide then we go forward through the rearview mirror, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan. There are many metaphors that help us make sense of the present. I like the skeuomorph, mostly because, as a practitioner of human centred design having worked on many projects involving UI, UX and behaviour change, these help orient ourselves to the present use case by mapping past grammars of action into the future. January is a fitting time to reflect on how the past informs the future. And we are at a critical junction in postsecondary education, and depending on your perspective this is either a beginning or an end. 

Education going forward will be defined by new ways of thinking that promotes better access and accessibility – using AI in teaching and learning, better credit mobility, a focus on affordable learning and open education, modular and micro-credential learning, including more effective use of physical space, and increasing the porosity between the private and public sectors. We are in the middle of redefining the business model of higher education. Here are some observations from last year that will help inform this year as eCampusOntario continues to support Digital Transformation – in Ontario and across Canada through our network of partners and Digital Campus Canada. 

Access: Accessibility

This year marks the full implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). There is a still a lot of work to be done to meet the aims of the AODA, but there has been a lot of great work on accessibility across our sector.

Last year we worked with partners to produce two excellent resources to support accessibility. 

The Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University is a global leader in accessibility. Check them out – these have many useful resources, including this one: Framework for Accessible and Equitable Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education. This report offers great guidance on AI – it is “a practical guide to the dizzying domain of artificial intelligence within the education ecosystem, with a particular focus on the impact on equity and accessibility. AI and accessibility are beginning to have an interesting conversation.” 

We also worked with the Business Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) on a roadmap for supporting Accessibility, Digital Transformation, and Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) – watch for this to drop soon.

Artificial Intelligence: AI

AI is a pharmakon: it is either a remedy or a poison. As such, it too is a fitting way to frame our discussion as with those described above. And AI is a resource extraction industry. It uses the raw materials of the Internet to build inference – the process by which harvested data produces meaning. Eventually the full cost of this will be apparent. But for now, beyond the hype cycles AI adoption is the big push – and education will be no exception.  Here are a couple of excellent resources on using generative AI in teaching and learning:

• York University: https://www.yorku.ca/teachingandlearning/gen-ai/  
• University of Toronto: https://ai.utoronto.ca/ 
• Contact North has a great suite of AI tools.

A credit granted anywhere is a credit granted everywhere 

Humber Polytechnic demonstrated leadership on seamless credit transfer by announcing late last year that there will be “Automatic and no fees for credit transfers and prior learning assessment and recognition starting Fall 2025.” This is a game changer for Ontario. It is the first domino to drop as Ontario continues system evolution toward a bigger focus on learners and value for money – for learners and for the system. Bottom line: Learners should be provided with “no wrong door” into the educational system that will enable credential completion across all areas of the economy. 

Affordable Learning: OER Uptake at Scale

The Ontario Virtual Learning Strategy (VLS) invested $35M in open education. As the Minister Nolan Quinn of the Ministry of Colleges and Universities said in his opening remarks at the eCampusOntario annual Teaching and Education Seminar and Showcase, OER saves students money. Our Open Library has a student savings tracker that includes an opportunity to learn how much faculty can save their students and to share an adoption.  And there is good news from across the sector: Check out this story from Trent University Open Educational Resources Pilot Project Saves Students an Estimated $390,000 in Textbook Costs. And from Fanshawe College the OER Design Studio enlists students to work and learn that saves students millions in annual costs. Both of these were supported by funding from the VLS.

Want to learn more about open education in Ontario? Check out these two recent reports:

• Brock University’s Inclusive Education Research Lab and eCampusOntario have released On a Path to Open, a new report detailing key results from a study conducted with Ontario’s publicly-supported colleges, universities, and Indigenous institutes about their capacity to support open educational practices (OEP)
• Affordable Learning, Lasting Impact: How OER and Partnerships Save Students Money, a new report detailing how Open Educational Resources (OER) are emerging as a critical tool in addressing education affordability, promoting equity, and fostering innovation across Ontario’s higher education sector.

Modular and Micro-Credential Learning

Here’s two excellent examples of leadership and the future of learning. We recently had the opportunity to visit Dario Guescini and Radha Krishnan at Seneca Polytechnic. Among other highlights they showed us the Hyflex Classroom design. This digital by design space enables full hyflex learning – it does not matter if the students are in the class or attending remotely. A significant percentage of classroom at Seneca Polytechnic are outfitted this way. They started building these during the pandemic. That’s foresight in action.

And on a recent visit to College La Cite I learned about their approach to modular curricula: all courses across all programs are modularized and translated to outcomes based learning. This gives them enormous flexibility on supporting multiple and myriad learning pathways, including the potential to create micro-credentials. This is a great example of future-focused extensibility. Again, exceptional foresight that future proofs learning design forward.

And on the topic of micro-credentials, eCampusOntario continues to support our members to align programs with local labour markets to fill specified labour market gaps.

The official Ontario upskilling platform – the Micro-Credentials Portal operated on behalf of the Ontario Government by eCampusOntario supports Ontario’s Micro-Credential Strategy. The MC Portal continues to provide members with innovative labour market tools to ensure program alignment. It is also an example of AI in action.

The AI back end of the Micro-credentials portal helps institutions assign labour market information (LMI) to their courses and programs with a click of a button. Institutions can be supported in aligning their courses/programs at scale with NAICS, NOC, and CIP data, as well as structured skills taxonomies, associated job titles, and local job market data by geographic region, to ensure local labour market alignment of programs prior to international recruitment. The AI front end provides learners with clarity on eligible programs and job market alignment and easy to use features to find the right program at the right time in their career. 

These tools can be expanded to support targeted international student recruitment. Institutions gain clarity on how their programs align with labour markets and IRCC regulations, and MCU gains clarity on the scale and scope of programs offered as part of fulfilling local labour market openings. New program development can also be supported with these data.

Please reach out if you are interested in learning more and being part of our national expansion in providing a LMI-informed upskilling platform that provides incremental new revenue to PSE institutions. 

Private:Public 

A while ago I explored some educational ratiocinations – some reasoned random thoughts (and linguistic ratios) on the future of education. The takeaway for me there is how we position the sector to address Canada’s three-legged productivity problem, which is helping employers to:

• Conduct research and innovation
• Derisk new technology adoption, and
• Engage in education and upskilling.

Postsecondary education is a primary enabler of the innovation economy. Private:public partnerships are key to realizing the benefits of both private and public investments in education. eCampusOntario supports partnerships through micro-credentials and upskilling and through research and innovation via the Ontario Collaborative Innovation Platform. 

Within this discussion we should be asking ourselves: is PSE a public or a private good?

Most working in the sector would say it is both. York University President Rhonda Lenton nicely outlines the public value of postsecondary education in supporting personal resilience, the ability to continue to learn and to use technology systematically through disruptions and career changes. Higher education is no longer a scarce resource for many. And the current no- and slow-growth economic context has made the public value of postsecondary education more diffuse and difficult to define for a generation reared in an environment that has seen reduced per capita incomes, housing expense volatility and strained public services like healthcare. Or, to put it in Nate Silver’s terms, the river is washing away the village. 

In this context, it is incumbent on us all to continue to take what is usefully learned from the past while remaking the postsecondary education system for the future. Partnerships and porosity of institutions are paramount, as is the need for new models and ways of doing things. We have pedagogical and technological debt to amortize. We can do this without mortgaging our future any further.

Our past informs the value of our credentials. Our future is meeting learners at every age and stage of life. Our present is adapting how we deliver our credentials.

At eCampusOntario, we are focused on supporting our members to leverage foresight, embrace digital transformation, drive affordable learning, all while pivoting to the new normal of supporting our learners for the future. This includes supporting the economy with reskilling, upskilling and micro-credential learning, supporting economic resiliency with international learners and local workers, and scaling digital transformation and digital by design education.

Microcredentials Plus™

The world of micro-credentials continues to progress. Following this year’s successful Micro-Credential Forum eCampusOntario continues to support the further development of micro-credentials as a core component of a modernized postsecondary education system. 

Last week’s Ontario Budget emphasized Ontario’s Micro-Credential Strategy with continued investment in the Micro-Credential Challenge Fund. And work is proceeding on a Micro-Credential Quality Assurance Framework here in Ontario. 

On the eCampusOntario Micro-Credentials Portal there are over 1800 OSAP-eligible micro-credentials. Some of these may stack into further certifications. We are continuing to develop the portal and for us, finding a way to denote where stackable micro-credentials ladder into other, more macro credentials, is important. 

These MCs should be called Micro-credentials Plus™ (MC+). 

Micro-credentials Plus™ would clearly signal to the learner that the micro-credentials they are considering ladder into further learning. The plus (+) means it is an additive learning experience; it builds on the learning path one is on; it adds up to helping to learn more in a given area. 

The stackability of micro-credentials is an important avenue for developing the full potential of microlearning. 

Stackability refers to the additive potential of micro-credentials when these are used to combine or stack into larger credentials (diplomas, certificates, degrees). As we outlined in our report with the Future Skills Centre and the Diversity Institute, “Micro-credentials are not intended to replace traditional forms of higher education; rather, they are often designed to be connected to or integrated into an established post-secondary education system. This describes the characteristic of stackability” (p 13). 

Currently not all micro-credentials are stackable. This makes sense as they are still relatively new. But there are many options currently that are changing the ways in which micro-credentials can fit into the wider educational toolbox. 

Here are some examples of stackable micro-credentials: 

• eCampusOntario has a stackable suite of micro-credentials that support faculty professional learning for digital fluency. The Ontario Extend micro-credential gives people advanced standing in the Conestoga College Certificate in Post-Secondary Teaching. 
• Humber College and the Future Skills Centre partnered on the development of Digital Fluency Stackable Micro-credentials for the Workforce 
• Centennial College offers options for stackable micro-credentials – not all are stackable, but where feasible they are and this is a good way to frame the role of micro-credentials for learners  
• Four of the eCampusOntario pilot micro-credentials are stackable:  
• OCAD University and Myant, Inc developed the stackable Human Centred Design Micro-certification, funded by eCampusOntario, was featured at this year’s Forum 
• Ontario Tech University and their partner Lakeridge Health created a stackable micro-certification program, “Interprofessional Practice in Healthcare on Care and Safety” 
• Sault College and Project Learning Tree Canada developed a stackable micro-credential program for various competencies related to Indigenous rights and relationship-building in the forestry sector 
• York University and Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada created stackable micro-credentials in patient navigation. 

And while stackability is important in the continued evolution of micro-credentials, this alone is not a defining feature. Turning once more to our report The Future is Micro: 

Overall, we heard that for micro-credentials to reach more learners, they need to have stand-alone value outside of stackability toward a larger credential. While the option of stackability may provide learners with more choice—for example, to continue or return to a learning pathway started through a microcredential—the message was that it should not come at the expense of a micro-credential that has value on its own.  (p28)

Finally, here’s a great overview by Kevin Weaver, president of Georgian College, on 6 Common Misconceptions About Microcredentials and Stackable Credentialing. 

Micro-credentials Plus™can be one way to signal the potential stackability of learning. Doing so empowers learners to continue in lifelong learning. 

The Spark of Ingenuity: Empowering learners with options

The 7th annual eCampusOntario Micro-Credentials Forum – Pathways for Jobs – concluded today. Over three half days we engaged with hundreds from across Ontario, Canada and indeed the world on how micro-credentials are reshaping the face of education today. 

It was gratifying to get to spend time together as a community, to share stories, experiences and ideas; and to collaborate on a common vision for the future.

Key takeaways include:

• Empowering learners with options is an important foundational value of micro-credentials.
• Listening to learners and employers is essential to standing up relevant and timely programs. 
• There are opportunities to build on the needs of learners with stacking micro-credentials and to use these to promote further engagement.
• Providing badges and other visible ways of demonstrating completion on platforms like LinkedIn is important for promoting conspicuous contribution and employer and learner engagement. 
• Micro-credentials support a No Wrong Door approach to education: any point of access to education and pathways for career progression. 

Calls to action:

• Sectors such as the mobility industry – led by OVIN – have articulated a clear vision for the skills and competencies employers need., Educational institutions have an opportunity to meet these needs today.
• More broadly there is a need for PSE to engage with employers and partners in new, more agile ways. 
• Micro-credentials have an “iPad conundrum”: People want them but might not know what they are.

eCampusOntario is the clutch that enables many gears (employers, educators, institutions) to enact the smooth transmission of knowledge. The eCampusOntario Micro-Credentials Framework has provided the blueprint for the Canadian conception of what a micro-credential is.We have tools to construct micro-credentials, and we help broker partnerships between employers and institutions. 

We look forward to continuing to support the future of education with options for learning. 

Below is a more detailed summary:

The theme of the 2023 Micro-credentials Forum was “Pathways for Jobs.” As a frame for our discussion here are a few facts that make the focus on how micro-credentials help put people into programs and into jobs timely. 

• Canada has the second highest level of tertiary education in the OECD. 
• Highest in the G7 – 66.4% of our population has a tertiary credential.
• The majority of students entering tertiary education are mature learners. 
• The PSE system was designed for direct entry from high school. These are now the (small) minority of learners entering PSE
• These learners will continue to access tertiary education in order to reskill, upskill and pivot their personal career paths. 
• Indigenous and immigrant learners are the two growing demographics that will be seeking tertiary education
• For Indigenous learners micro-credentials are important avenues of access
• Many newcomers to Canada already possess tertiary credentials; they need fast routes to labour market participation 
• Fundamentally, Micro-credentials support agile participation in the innovation economy and our collective ability to address key challenges in the world today
• Climate change
• New technology integration
• The Intangibles economy

These are all important shifts that we are collectively responding to. These shifts all emphasize the importance of providing new forms of education, like micro-credentials, to support social, economic and cultural resilience.  

Day one featured really thoughtful presentations by Tricia Williams, PhD and Sanjeev Gill whose presentations each discussed the importance of partnerships between institutions and businesses. There was great discussion about better linking of employers and institutions and the business models of providing micro-credential continuing education, and an exemplary model of this with the RapidSkills program at Georgian College, presented by Holly Burch-Hie, Mary Johnston, and Stephannie Schlichter. eCampusOntario's Alex Hughes, PhD provided insights into the forthcoming report our Research and Foresight team is producing on learner perceptions of micro-credential wallets - stay tuned for the release of this important look into the future of digital credentials!

Our second day, held online, featured engaging presentations broadcast live from the collective studios of the eCampusOntario annual Micro-Credential Forum.

Thank you to Rowan Smith and Rebecca Jamieson from Six Nations Polytechnic for opening the day with a welcome and land acknowledgement. I greatly appreciated your opening remarks and encouraging us to open our hearts and minds to learning.  It was a great way to start the afternoon of discussions.

Thank you to the Honourable Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities | Collèges et Universités for opening remarks about the importance of micro-credentials and how Ontario is leading the country in supporting agile educational options for learners. The Ontario Micro-Credential Strategy is helping to ensure that Ontario remains a competitive jurisdiction – able to help people rapidly retrain and reskill for all sectors of the economy.

And thank you to Steven Murphy, PhD, ICD.D, co-chair of eCampusOntario and president of Ontario Tech University. Your remarks about how we are collectively rethinking traditional credentials and how micro-credentials work effectively with traditional credentials are timely as we realize this opportunity space.

We had excellent presentations from Raed Kadri and Amanda Sayers from the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network who talked about how they are putting in place the conditions for success across the spectrum of inputs to the automotive industry: mobility as a sector, enabled by technology and fuelled by a complex amalgam of people, ideas, raw elements and minerals and the know how and drive to excel, together. As Raed said, "allowing innovation to thrive" is essential, and by working together we will succeed.

Adam Hopkins and Ashley Maracle from First Nations Technical Institute provided excellent insights into linking traditional ways of knowing and learning to micro-credentials with their approach to learning bundles. They also talked about their approach to PLRR: Prior Learning Recognition and Renewal – what a great way to acknowledge the experiences and gifts folks bring to learning.

Allyson Pele from the Northwest Business Centre demonstrated not only that the scale of entrepreneurship in Ontario is really vast, but also the power of micro-credentials to spark ingenuity. Micro-credentials are pathways for jobs, but these are for the job makers - the entrepreneurs - as well as the job takers. Both are essential.

We ended the afternoon with a masterclass presentation from Melanie Gomez-Murphy and Michelle Mouton from TALENT™ (Ontario Tech Talent). Theirs was "a story about relationships" - a common theme in the development of partnerships and the importance of listening – to the needs of learners, to the needs of businesses, and the particular contexts in which people live and work.

Our third day of the 7th Annual Micro-Credential Forum was opened with an address by Deputy Minster Shannon Fuller from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. Deputy Fuller outlined how micro-credentials are helping people build the skills they need for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Everyone’s path is different and the focus on providing options for learning is important. The many components to Ontario’s Micro-Credential Strategy provide needed supports for learners, institutions and partners to access education in new ways. “We all share a commitment to everyone from all walks of life,” she noted, and “PSE does not stop at the completion of a degree or diploma.” 

Empowering learners with options is an important foundational value of micro-credentials. When micro-credentials are offered online and face to face learners benefit- this helps increase participation in education and ensures that there are opportunities for all learners to build their skills.

We heard from Evan Tapper, Director of Continuing Education at OCAD University, who spoke about the importance of industry partnerships and outlined some of the challenges around objectives, priorities and timelines. Evan focused on the important context of creative entrepreneurs and those who are participating in the gig economy. This is a really important validation of the role of micro-credentials in being pathways for jobs – the spark of ingenuity for entrepreneurship. On a related note check out this recent research by Matthias Oschinski on The Skill Utilization of Gig Workers – it is some really interesting relevant research.

Jonathan Bauer and Nadine Ogborn from RRC Polytech discussed their partnership with Skip the Dishes in their discussion Micro-credentialing for Gap Training. RRC provides education and training and pathways for additional learning. They discussed what I would call the iPad conundrum: People wanted them but didn’t necessarily know what they were. 

This is a “known known” in many respects – microcredentials are a name for something people understand well – continuing and lifelong education. There are many important concepts that accrue to the use of the term micro-credentials, so marketing and communications are important to ensure we share a common understanding of what they are and their potential. 

For micro-credentials RRC focuses on assessed learning as important to defining what a micro-credentials is. This is congruent with the eCampusOntario Micro-Credentials Framework which has provided the blueprint for the Canadian conception of what a micro-credential is. Also important is their point that digital badges provide a really concrete and visible way to demonstrate completion of the micro-credential.

A few presentations focused on supporting faculty. This included Alexandre Bekhradi, Anne-Marie Cantin and Anthony Miron from the Université de Hearst who spoke about their experience on the Co-development of a micro-credential on effective supervision for internships. They provided a great network effect model for supervising internships. 

Nicole Drake and Kathryn Brillinger from Conestoga College spoke about Using Stackable Micro-Credentials for Innovative Faculty Development. Their model is a really excellent and explicit way to ensure that all faculty are able to be content experts and expert teachers. This is such an important avenue for developing our teaching talent. 

Conestoga College is a leader in offering micro-credentials, especially as it relates to faculty development. They are a great partner in our Ontario Extend program; people who complete the full Extend micro-credential gain advanced standing in the Conestoga College Certificate in Post-Secondary Teaching.

John Lewis, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and Alexis Berolatti of BCDiploma discussed Micro-credentials: the pathway from a learner-focused experience to innovative new blockchain tools. Again, meeting the needs of learners with Relevant and Targeted content, and Funding opportunities – including OSAP eligibility and reasonably priced where not OSAP eligible – is essential. Authentic assessments that reflect workplace deliverables provides a great focus on really relevant learning. And employer endorsements of many of the micro-credentials offered

They showed how sharing micro-credentials on LinkedIn supports further pathways and conspicuous contribution of upskilling and career progression – learners are enthusiastic and positive about their learning and really good organic marketing for the programs. Alexis Berolatti reminded us that the market for micro-credentials is global. Encouraging learners to present their micro-credentials on their LinkedIn profile helps these learners, but also our institutions that offer them. Blockchain-based platforms that use the Open Badge Data Model is important for ensuring that a basic amount of information is presented in any digital portfolio. Complementary attributes further enhance the value of the presentation of a digital artefact. The value of using the blockchain to distribute your micro-credentials is that that are then verifiable, sustainable, trusted and tamper proof (eCampusOntario provide BCDiploma for our members).

The Forum closed with a panel discussing Credit Pathways and Laddering Panel: Building the Micro-credential Learning Journey and Pathways Forward, featuring ONCAT’s Adrienne Galway, John Reid from Yukon University, Sheila Leblanc from the University of Calgary, and William Gage from York University.

Discussion was excellent and focused on recognizing what learners want and what employers want. An intentional approach to design will help employers understand what the students have done and help the students articulate what they have learned. Micro-credentials can help institutions think more overtly about how they work with employers. Creating doorways to education instead of pathways (Sheila Leblanc’s point) will help reframe how we can collectively get better at becoming a more responsive educational system if we are to play a meaningful role in the professional and work force development ecosystem.

The 2023 Micro-Credential Forum was closed by Rowan Smith who noted he has had the opportunity to learn as a young person what the PSE system is becoming. Thank you again Rowan for helping us frame the event.

And that’s a wrap for this year. It was a great series of discussions. 

Thank you all for participating and thank you to the eCampusOntario team for standing up such a best-in-class discussion on the future of education.

On marketing and micro-credentials

I had the great pleasure of being a guest on the Marketing News Canada podcast with marketing and  podcast expert Darian Kovacs from Jelly Academy. We talked about

• How the rise of micro-credentials is similar to streaming music 
• The importance of micro-credentials in upgrading and upskilling one's career, and how it serves as a form of continuing education 
• The demand for both a combination of technical and soft skills

It was a great discussion about the importance of micro-credentials and the role of collaboration and innovation in post-secondary education. 

And in an esprit de l'escalier I am really interested in discussing and learning more about the role of marketing and education more broadly, particularly as it relates to partnerships that support collaborative innovation, upskilling outcomes and work integrated learning. 

My thanks to Darian and Jelly Academy for the opportunity to join the discussion. 

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Micro-Credentials are having their Napster Moment

Micro-Credentials are having their Napster Moment

Micro-credentials offer important ways to give educational options to people – those that are reskilling or upskilling, or learning about a new topic of interest. 

Moving forward through the rearview mirror

Micro-credentials are disrupting traditional forms of education. 

Micro-credentials are not necessarily new. 

What is new is how micro-credentials are part of a wider cultural movement toward more granular forms of disaggregation as applied to learning.

Lessons on disruption from the music industry

In the early days of the internet, Napster emerged as a pirating website that incentivized a more atomic model of music consumption. Where you previously had to buy an album if you liked a song on it, post-Napster you could access individual songs. This disrupted the music industry significantly as it called into question many aspects of control over who has the right to say how music is consumed. Music was collected and released on albums, though the 45” single is perhaps the micro-credential version of traditional music. Regardless, initial monetization of this model by the music industry included Digital Rights Management (DRM), which failed. 

Then came iTunes and the ability to buy a song for $.99, followed by other streaming services – Rdio, Pandora, Spotify et al.  The disaggregation of the macro music monopoly was complete. 

The future of music was micro. Fast forward to now, and most music is streamed.

Meso: The mixtape as metaphor

The middle, mediating ground here is the mixtape. Music lovers would take songs from various albums and curate these into personalized collections. Napster built on the curatorial context of the mixtape, and presaged streaming, which is a mixtape at scale, enabled by digital technology. 

Micro-credentials, as part of a history of education, help people demonstrate their learning history but more importantly refer to the skills and competencies they have acquired. Micro-credentials can be bundled into larger curated credential/competency demonstrations. In this case, a learner’s digital credential wallet or passport is like a mixtape. The validation of their skills is this mixtape being played and heard.

Macro: Impacts on skills and education

Micro-credentials are to traditional forms of education what streaming is to music now. This is change, and it is disruption, but it is centred on the learner. 

This moment of micro-credentials means it is time to make space for new forms of learning that are agile and flexible.

Les micro-crédits ont leur moment Napster

Les microcrédits présentent des options éducatives significatives pour les personnes qui se recyclent, qui se perfectionnent ou qui cherchent à se renseigner sur un sujet d'intérêt. 

Les micro-crédits bouleversent les formes traditionnelles d'éducation.

Les micro-crédits ne sont pas nécessairement nouveaux.

Ce qui est nouveau, c'est la façon dont les microcrédits participent à un mouvement culturel plus large, vers des formes de désagrégation utilitaires appliquées à l'apprentissage.

Les leçons de l'industrie de la musique en matière de perturbation

Au tout début d'Internet, Napster est apparu comme un site de piratage qui a encouragé un modèle de consommation musicale plus ciblé. Alors qu'auparavant il fallait acheter un album si on aimait une chanson, avec Napster on pouvait accéder aux seules chansons souhaitées. 

Cette évolution a considérablement perturbé l'industrie musicale, car elle a remis en question de nombreux aspects du contrôle de la consommation musicale. 

À l’époque, la musique était réunie et publiée sur des albums, malgré que le 45 tours pouvait en être considéré comme la version microcréditée. Quoi qu'il en soit, la monétisation initiale de ce modèle par l'industrie de la musique intégrait la gestion des droits numériques (DRM), une approche qui a échouée. 

Puis iTunes et la possibilité d'acheter une chanson pour 0,99 $ sont arrivés, suivis par d'autres services de streaming - Rdio, Pandora, Spotify et autres. La désagrégation du macro-monopole de la musique était terminée. 

L'avenir de la musique se profilait à travers l’offre ciblée des pièces voulues. Aujourd'hui, on constate que la majorité de la musique est ruisselée précisément et sur demande.

Méso : la liste d’écoute comme métaphore

Les listes d’écoute se sont rapidement imposées comme solution intermédiaire. Les amateurs de musique prenaient des chansons de différents albums et les conservaient dans des collections personnalisées. Napster s'est appuyé sur le contexte de conservation de la liste d’écoute et a conçu l’idée du streaming, le ruissellement qui est une liste d’écoute à grande échelle rendue possible par le numérique. 

Les microcrédits appartiennent maintenant à l'histoire de l'éducation. Ils aident les gens à démontrer leur parcours d'apprentissage, mais surtout à référer aux aptitudes et aux compétences qu'ils ont acquises. Les microcrédits peuvent être regroupés dans des démonstrations plus larges de crédits et de compétences. Dans ce cas, le portefolio ou le passeport numérique d'un apprenant est comme une liste d’écoute. La validation des compétences d’un individu consiste à faire la lecture de cette liste d’écoute particulière, faite de crédits et de compétences.

Macro : Impacts sur les compétences et l'éducation

Les micro-crédits sont donc aux formes traditionnelles d'éducation ce que le streaming est à la musique aujourd'hui. Il s'agit d'une perturbation qui est centrée sur l'apprenant.

Cet avènement des micro-crédits constitue un moment particulier dans l’évolution de l’éducation, indiquant qu’est venu le temps de faire place à de nouvelles formes d'apprentissage, plus agiles et plus flexibles.

Connecting Partners for COVID-19 Response and Recovery

Today marked the announcement of a new research partnership model developed in partnership with the City of Toronto, the 8 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Greater Toronto Area, eCampus Ontario, along with our research funding partners Mitacs, OCE, NSERC, NRC-IRAP and Magnet. The announcement was conducted by Mayor John Tory, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Research and Innovation Ali Ehsassi, and Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano. 

When COVID-19 struck the City of Toronto and the eight Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Toronto started working together to support Toronto rebuild and recovery efforts. This includes mobilizing the capacity of the faculty and students at GTA HEIs to support capacity development for the City of Toronto and GTA businesses. The City of Toronto Mayor’s Task Force for Economic Support & Recovery — HEIs, led by Councillor Jennifer McKelvie, convened the Academic Institutions Task Force. One key remit of this Task Force was to develop partnerships between HEIs and the City of Toronto to support local businesses and organizations. In order to meet this objective, the partnership model was put forward as a solution to rapidly connect the expertise in the HEIs to City of Toronto COVID-19 research needs.

Under the direction of Manjit Jheeta, Director, Toronto Office of Partnerships, the eight GTA HEIs established the Toronto Collaboration Platform (TOCP) to support City of Toronto recovery and rebuild efforts, leveraging the design work conducted to date. The Collaborative helped to source faculty and student experts from across the eight HEIs to support City of Toronto staff in addressing important and urgent project needs.

An important facet of this partnership is that students are participating in all aspects of projects, from conducting the R&D activities under the supervision of our expert faculty, to project management, teamwork and communications. Students are paid as research assistants, and also receive a micro-credential as part of their participation.

It was a natural fit for eCampusOntario to help coordinate this important technology-enabled effort between three levels of government and Toronto’s colleges and universities. We are connecting our city’s best expertise to help mitigate the impact of COVID 19 on its citizens.

eCampusOntario not only helps bring together partnerships like these, but also designs and manages the technology that connects our brightest higher education researchers with our municipal leaders.

As the convenor for Ontario post-secondary education, eCampusOntario helps connect and support this kind of research and experiential learning that is essential to help in our province’s pandemic recovery.

Together we can build effective solutions for our current challenges that will help create jobs and keep people safe.

Read more about these projects on the City of Toronto website.

More information on the innovative Toronto Collaboration Platform is at this website.

Virtual learning is real learning

Sharing my TESS 2020 opening remarks as we kicked off TESS2020 today. If you missed day 1 you can catch some of the presentations on our social – it was an exemplary day.

Thank you for joining us at The Technology and Education Seminar and Showcase 2020!

We at eCampusOntario are delighted you’ve taken the time to be part of TESS this year. I’d like to extend a special welcome to our colleagues from Kenjgewin Teg, who recently joined eCampusOntario as our 46th member and, significantly, our first member Indigenous Institute. 

As Lutfiyya and Daniel have said we have a great lineup – discussions, panel presentations, and breaks with a variety of entertainment. We have benefitted from support and help from many people – not the least of which is our fantastic team who have worked behind the scenes to make this event what it will be. We are also indebted to Jennifer Gordon from Humber College who provided key input and advice on running a virtual conference – thanks Jennifer. 

In this virtual conference we are all convening from different places. This is one of the things that makes the online environment special. The land acknowledgement Daniel read is an important way for us to begin our proceedings-- and we can build on today’s acknowledgement. Each of us can acknowledge the traditional territories from which we join the event today. To do this, I’ll ask you to go to the site posted in the chat

https://native-land.ca/territory-acknowledgement/

and find out which traditional territories you are on. Then please share this with everyone through the chat. 

I happen to be in east Toronto: the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabewaki, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, part of the larger Mississauga nation. I’ve lived in many places in Canada, and was born in Saskatchewan, on Treaty 4 territory, traditional home of the Cree, Blackfoot and Sioux. 

It is important to acknowledge our relationship to the land and those that have lived here before us. Doing so is an important reminder of our responsibility to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls To Action.

This social context informs our work. It includes the imperative to join the fight against anti-Black racism and anti-BIPOC racism, and to support Equity, Decolonization, Diversity and Inclusion in everything we do. 

Above all, we can seize this moment to rebuild and support an environment that prioritizes inclusion, representation and voice. 

Taking time to remember and invoke the land outside is an important way to remind ourselves that our lives are so much more than technology at a time when so much (including this conference) is mediated by screens. 

This is a significant time for all of us. We collectively have been navigating unprecedented changes due to COVID 19. We know that the pandemic has disproportionately affected those already experiencing marginalization. And so our theme this year – Humanizing Learning – is an appropriate way to think about the ways in which we can work together to make learning as human as it can be.

Because most of us are now teaching and learning online as our default mode, we are navigating the different tools and approaches we can use to help ensure our online courses are as engaging as our face to face ones. 

We have to remember a very important point: Virtual learning is real learning. 

Many of you joining us today are leaders in creating innovative, interactive and above all high-quality online learning experiences that result in meaningful learner engagement. We have the ability to ensure not only that our learners can access these quality experiences, but they can do so as part of their lifelong learning journey.

The online learning experiences continue to get better and better, precisely because we convene at conferences like this and share our stories, our successes, and our failures. These events – virtual or otherwise, are important conduits for our own professional development, that in turn have positive effects on our collective ability to model learning as an active way of engaged living. 

Our sector – with rest of the world – went through a sudden pivot when the pandemic first hit. You are all to be commended for navigating this sudden turn. The work we have done together over the past five years provided our sector with guidance and leadership on creating quality online learning environments, which greatly benefited this sudden shift to remote learning.

We now turn to the challenge of scale: how do we build on the work we have done, to continue to provide high quality learning environments that generate enthusiasm, engagement, and a sense of connection in our learners. We can do this by embracing the principles of human centred design that remind us to put the needs of the learner and the social contexts in which we all live at the centre of our curriculum design. 

So welcome to TESS 2020 – I am certain you will enjoy the program!

The Future is Micro: Learning that is developmental, iterative, and experiential

Micro-credentials are having their moment. For those of us who have been working with them for some time it seems like this has been a moment a long time coming. 

I’ve been giving micro-credentials a lot of thought lately as we here at eCampusOntario start to ramp up our work in the space. Our micro-credentials Framework offers a highly useful guide to implementing these, and has been used by the 36 pilots we have funded across a range of industries. And the eCampusOntario fourth annual micro-credential forum will take place in February 2021: have a look at the 2020 Forum re-cap page to learn more. 

Micro-credentials offer iterative and agile ways for learners to mark milestones in their learning journey. In an ideal world these will always ladder into successive credentials that enable learners to build on their knowledge and skills throughout their lifetime. We already have models of practice for this in the ways that we can transfer from diplomas to degrees.

If I think about the credentials I have earned that have formal recognition these are broken into two types: those that have been part of a laddered series of credentials (BA, MA, PhD) that form the basis for my formal education, and those that I have earned through professional development that I have earned throughout my career. These credentials have been developmental, and iterative. 

The path from formal credentials to professional development

But learning is much more than formal programming, as important as this is. Informal learning has played (and continues to play) a significant role in my developmental journey. In this sense my formal credentials are complemented by the experiential aspects of service to my community and my participation in communities of practice. This experiential learning is significant as it represents the wider constellation of experiences I have had that have all contributed in meaningful ways to my overall professional development, and my development as a human being. 

The constellation of credentials and experiential learning

I had the occasion yesterday to catch up with a colleague with whom I worked many years ago. We were discussing micro-credentials and reminiscing about when we first connected on these back in 2012. And last week I was interviewed by my friend and colleague Laurie Harrison as part of our upcoming TESS conference (next week! Register here). We chatted about the work we used to do together (I worked for Laurie at the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre back in the early 2000s). This included creating short, online courses for teachers working to integrate people with special needs in the classroom as part of the Special Needs Opportunity Windows (SNOW). We didn’t call these micro-credentials at the time, but that’s what they were. 

The difference now is that we are working as a system (or set of systems) to more rigorously stand up micro-credentials as viable pathways to learning, be this for formal or informal learning, as well as for reskilling and retraining. This latter point is very key to helping our society in the pandemic rebuild and recovery. There have been many people laid off, furloughed or otherwise under- or unemployed, including due to changes being wrought because of automation. Micro-credentials offer a viable and valid model for ensuring that learners can access vital learning to support career progression and transition. Scaffolding learning in this way helps us ensure our recovery and rebuild is as inclusive as can be.

There is much work to be done on micro-credentials, and eCampusOntario is here to help. I am confident that we can work together to ensure access to education as part of our role in supporting the postsecondary system. As our SXD Lab puts it: our goal is to promote and enable purposeful learning for a meaningful life through the ongoing development of prepared citizens to participate meaningfully in the economy.