Exclusive Interview with Ms. Jolie Kennedy, PhD candidate in Learning Technologies, University of Minnesota

Dr. Saba:  In recent years, you have been studying the field of educational technology, instructional design and distance education; you are now a doctoral candidate. What prompted you to study this field?

Ms. Kennedy: Our first home computer was a Macintosh Plus. I took it out of the box, set it up, plugged it in, and turned it on. One of the first programs I played was psychology software for creating a personality profile. It was surprisingly accurate. Since that time my love for psychology, technology, and learning has flourished. I love exploring the confluence of psychology and emerging technologies in the context of learning. I value the interdisciplinary nature of the learning technologies field because it affords me the opportunity to combine my interests in psychology, learning, design, technology, research, and theory.

I majored in psychology and minored in sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York. I worked in consumer psychology and market research where I was drawn to the evidence-based decision-making of the research and wanted to apply it in a new context, specifically my growing interest in multimedia web design. While completing a Master of Arts degree in Learning Design and Technology (formerly Educational Technology) from San Diego State University, I was interested in designing games for girls, the gender gap in STEM, and applications of learning technologies in informal spaces.

Through my network in Southern California I landed a position as an instructional designer building exploratory-based simulation training for a financial company. Later I worked with colleagues to develop online leadership training for a major defense-contracting corporation and developing a custom knowledge management portal for an energy corporation. I enjoyed the camaraderie of the design teams and the creative flow of art and science. However, it was my experience at a large university in the South that prompted my interest in researching online learning in higher education.

Dr. Saba: You just completed an in-depth review of literature about MOOCs, a much talked-about subject. What surprised you the most in your findings?

Ms. Kennedy: It surprised me how very little scholarly research had been conducted on MOOCs, particularly the model that has received the most hype, the xMOOC. My review was focused on original research articles written in scholarly peer-reviewed journals rather than conference proceedings, magazines, or blogs. I was surprised that more research was not published from the pioneers of the MOOC models. The flurry of excitement surrounding MOOCs and how they have gained widespread acceptance through conference presentations exemplifies Kuhn’s theory about the structure of scientific revolutions when new paradigms are first vetted among a community and then, by gaining consensus, grow into wider acceptance. However, it is surprising how MOOCs have grown so rapidly without much research on the effectiveness of the models.

The range of definitions about the meaning of openness was also surprising. Openness could be related to educational resources, dialogue, courses, content, and access just to name a few. In conversations about MOOCs there can be an assumption that we are all talking about the same construct when in fact the meanings we assign to the term “MOOC” can look very different for each of us. In short, the concept of openness is open to interpretation.

So much is yet unknown about barriers to persistence in massive courses. The cMOOC model has massive lurkers and the xMOOC model has massive dropouts likely due to the nature of the design. Time, technology, and language were some of the barriers identified as contributing factors. It is surprising that supportive resources and social aspects of MOOCs have not been researched in relation to overcoming barriers to persistence.

Dr. Saba: What recommendations do you have for instructors who would like to become involved in offering MOOCs?

Ms. Kennedy: There are many factors to consider when offering a MOOC. Before getting started, participate in a MOOC or two as a learner to better understand the learner experience. Many universities are affiliated with one of the major MOOC providers and this will be helpful information. The instructor would benefit from teaching a small online course with 20 students before piloting a massive course. This experience will be useful for understanding strategies that work in an online environment before scaling the course to a larger audience. It will be important for the instructor to be realistic about the time that it will take to design, develop, and facilitate the MOOC.

Consider what kind of MOOC to offer. For example, are you interested in offering a decentralized cMOOC on a professional development topic or an xMOOC for traditional college students on a STEM topic? During the design of the course, focus on scoping and sequencing the content based on the learning goals. Active learning strategies, authentic assessments, and cooperative learning groups will help learners stay engaged and motivated. Understanding the learners and their needs will help the instructor to develop ways to support learning such as videos, practice opportunities, and teaching assistants or peer mentors that will encourage students to persist in the course.

Will you want to offer credentialing for your learners? At the LT Media Lab, Doering’s innovative NextEd platform offers four types of recognition including course credit, professional development documentation, continuing education units, or a certification badge. Finally, I recommend that instructors talk with others who have taught MOOCs. These could be colleagues at their organizations or at conferences who have experience using a variety of active learning strategies in a MOOC environment.

Dr. Saba: As a doctoral student you are exposed to the most recent trends in the field; what are they and how do you describe them?

Ms. Kennedy: New media, information management, and the social web appear to be influencing current trends in the learning technologies field. Scholars in this prescriptive science field are in the business of solving pressing problems related to teaching and learning with technology. These issues vary depending on the context, which include K-12 schools, postsecondary institutions, workplace environments, or informal learning spaces. Some of the issues that scholars today are concerned with involve how to prepare young learners to respond to rapid advances in a technologically textured world, ways to harness the affordances of new media for learning, or how to humanize technology. A few examples include iPad implementations, which are a fast growing trend in the K-12 sector. Synchronous and asynchronous video is also a growing trend fueled by new technologies such as Miller’s Flipgrid video wall.

As part of the international expert panel for the New Media Consortium Horizon Project: 2014 Higher Education Edition, I discuss key trends, significant challenges, and important developments such as flipped classrooms, learning analytics, 3D printing, games and gamification, quantified self, and virtual assistants. The Open University Innovating Pedagogy 2013 Report identifies the following as influential to the learning technologies field: MOOCs, badges, learning analytics, seamless learning, crowd learning, digital scholarship, geo-learning, gaming, maker culture, and citizen inquiry. Some of the current trending topics that my colleagues in the Learning Technologies PhD program at the University of Minnesota are interested in exploring include information visualization, haptic learning, MOOCs, motivation and self-regulation in online learning, media literacy, mobile learning, new media studies for faculty, open education, social learning analytics, and S.U.M. (seamless, ubiquitous, mobile) learning.

Dr. Saba:  In addition to MOOCs, what research areas or questions have interested you that you would like to follow in the future?

Ms. Kennedy: A better understanding of the concept of social presence will help the learning technologies field move forward by providing a basis for developing more user-centered online learning environments and learning networks. The great media debate between Clark and Kozma sparked an interest in exploring constructs from a qualitative research perspective, particularly social presence and the social nature of learning. In the same vein, I am interested in online learning communities, collaborative and cooperative learning in online courses, and online communities of practice.

On the design side of the learning technologies field, it would be interesting to explore the application of emotional design in online courses. Research with Norman’s theory of the three levels of emotional design (i.e., visceral, behavioral, and reflective) has potential to inform new online learning spaces. An essential affordance of the new space will be the ability to gather, organize, store, retrieve, and manage vast amounts of data, information, and knowledge. Therefore, new developments in knowledge management and personal information management are very interesting and will be important to the learning technologies field.

On the philosophical side, I’m drawn to Ihde’s philosophy of technology. I see opportunities to put learning technologies in dialogue with post-structural theories to re-imagine the online learning experience. It would be interesting to explore issues of gender, race, culture, orientation, social class, and power through the lens of post-structural theories in the context of online learning.

From the perspective of praxis, I am interested in Schon’s notion of the reflective practitioner. I believe action research and self-studies could help propel online teaching practices in higher education. Online professional development workshops that model facilitation, community building, active learning strategies, and authentic assessments are paramount.

---

Jolie Kennedy is a PhD candidate in Learning Technologies at the University of Minnesota. Her research centers on social presence and emotional design in online learning. She teaches undergraduate online courses in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction that explore technology and ethics in society and the dangers and affordances of the web for learning. She has a graduate degree in learning design and technology from San Diego State University and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Queens College of the City University of New York. She presents on issues related to online learning and online pedagogy at national conferences and has been an invited speaker by the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.