I Learn the Meaning of a New Word - My Decision-Making Simulation Activity

  So, here we are at the end of week one of our open education experience. There has been a lot of reading and absorption of new ideas and methodology. I feel like I have come a long way, but, as Tony C. posted on the wikieducator feed, it is taking quite a lot of time - glad I haven't had much on...

 Anyway, here is the new word - Zeitgeist: The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. (definition generated by asking Google 'What is zeitgeist?')

This term came up in one of the readings under Futures Thinking for Academic Libraries and I think it is useful for the whole area of scenario planning. We can be so influenced by the defining mood that it is very hard to rise above that to look at alternative futures that may possibly be characterised by a whole different set of ideas and beliefs. Or, as a senior colleague has said - 'if that is where you want to go, you shouldn't be starting from here'.

A useful site I found was http://cals.arizona.edu/dean/planning/H-E-scenarios.html where the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences collected a number of scenarios for higher ed, published for different parts of the world, under the title Higher Education Scenarios.

Decision-making Context: I am taking the position of a team leader within the Library, Teaching and Learning Group of a university. (This is an actual role that I hold). The university is characterised as a land-based institution, drawing national and international enrollment (levels 2 -10) from those interested in areas related to the land - from valuation and property studies through landscape architecture, agricultural science, tourism, the rural value chain etc. The research base is internationally recognised and world-leading scientists research and teach there. The university has recently moved to an "open unless" policy, and is moving towards a blended teaching approach. It has two main campuses and a number of joint projects and programmes with other higher education institutions.

 

Scenario Overview: For this exercise I have chosen the Four Future Scenarios for Higher Education from the OECD. I have selected Scenario Two - Serving Local Communities. For the purposes of this scenario, most higher educational institutions are focused on local and national needs and imperatives. Most institutions are researching in humanities and social sciences, with much science subject to national security. Teaching is a major objective, funding is good and recreational courses are encouraged. The scenario notes related issues around migration, anti-globalisation, and in increased role for higher education in fostering social cohesion. All the scenarios in this set really made me think about directions, but this one seemed to have the most distinct challenges and opportunities for my setting.

Strategic Decisions: My brainstorm list turned out rather long (really enjoyed that part) and getting it down to two areas was actually annoying as I had to sacrifice some that I was rather fond of. The 'how' decisions are those that I rated highest.

• How would we provide services to a 'split' organisation? In this scenario, because of the university's particular focus, we would be teaching in our wider subject areas, but would be researching and also doing some teaching in the nationally strategic areas. There would be differences in how the teaching was supported and delivered because some areas would be commercially sensitive and the courses might be restricted. We might teach those students using a less collaborative approach. For the local and regional delivery, we would be funded and supported on an entirely different model to the governmental expectations. I wonder if it would be a bit like health service models where funding must be allocated according to those areas. We would probably have to disaggregate some current services and be transparently accountable in showing the distribution and the return on investment. We might not be able to source so much international information content and end up holding and distributing more printed resources  scanned via our LMS.  The learning services would be delivered both face to face on our campuses and at other regional hubs, and also via online programmes set up in collaboration with industry partners. We would need to intensify the support for teaching and evaluation of teaching to demonstrate to ourselves and others that what was taught and the teaching methods were appropriate in an atmosphere of lifelong learning.

• How would we encourage appropriate agreements and partnerships? We would be enhancing our regional partnerships as this would be demanded by regional interest groups. Because of the emphasis on response to our communities, we would need to deepen current relationships with the Canterbury Tertiary Alliance and with Core Education, those with Ngai Tahu via Te Tapuae o Rehua  etc. and build more community alliances equivalent to that with the Te Waihora Ellesmere Trust or Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, Rod Donald Trust etc. Building new relationships with industries that would allow us to have more staff to work on resources for our learning websites and who would provide shared resources for students to access would be important due to the expected collaborative attitude. We would have to build a learning environment that drew on retired staff to assist in the recreational courses, either in person or via class forum or video-conferencing. This would all have to be done within the wider university context, which I think would be more relaxed due to the adequacy of funding available in this model.

 Use of Decisions: Decision One could not be used in Scenario One, Three or Four, as the models do not demand a decision to split the learning, teaching and research approach, nor would the funding require that particular kind of split approach. In the other models, a much more joined up service could be provided by Library, Teaching and Learning. Scenario Two puts us in a particularly difficult position due to the current ways in which we utilise and benefit from international collaboration on a daily basis.

Decision Two would work across all the scenarios, as all models would require careful consideration of appropriate agreements and partnerships, though the decisions made on their nature would be quite different. Some partnerships would not be formed or would be dissolved under particular scenarios.

All scenarios permit a strategic decision to move further forward in directions of a blended approach to teaching, increased use of technology and appropriate distance delivery. All scenarios seem to permit univeristies retention of research-led teaching, though Scenario Two is the bleakest in this respect. All scenarios permit respect of students' learning and support for that learning and the skills that are required for retention and synthesis of discipline knowledge. 

Music listened to while preparing this blog post: Have you seen her by MC Hammer. I put this on repeat and it is great to aid concentration.