Published by FUNGLODE and GFDD
Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo
www.funglode.org
Global Foundation for Democracy and Development
www.globalfoundationdd.org

Distance Education Challenges
Copyright © 2012 por FUNGLODE - GFDD.
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-9945-412-60-4
Printed by World Press in the USA

www.gfddpublications.org

Credits

Editor-in-Chief
Natasha Despotovic

Supervising Editor
Semiramis de Miranda

Editor
Miryam López
Maureen Meehan

Graphic Design
Maria Montas

Collaborators
Yamile Eusebio
Asunción Sanz

www.gfddpublications.org

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction Series Research and Ideas

Keynote speech by
Dr. Heitor Gurgulino de Souza,
"Distance Education Challenges"

About Dr. Heitor Gurgulino de Souza

About Virtual Educa Caribe

RESEARCH AND IDEAS

INTRODUCTION

Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), in the United States of America, and Fundación Global Demcracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), headquartered in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, are dedicated to promoting research and awareness in the areas crucial to the democratic, social and economic sustainable development of the Dominican Republic and the world. The two think tanks organize meetings and educational programs as well as generate studies and publications that contribute to the development of new perspectives, searching for innovative solutions and creating transformative initiatives.

GFDD and FUNGLODE are honored to present the publications series Research and Ideas. The series includes research papers, articles, speeches and keynote addresses that discuss critical issues of the contemporary world from national, regional and global points of view.

These selected works present scrupulous analysis, introduce innovative ideas and transmit inspiration. We hope they will contribute to a better understanding of the world, empowering us to act in a more informed, efficient and harmonious way.

Natasha Despotovic
Executive Director, GFDD

DISTANCE EDUCATION CHALLENGES

Keynote speech by

Dr. Heitor Gurgulino de Souza,

delivered at the opening of

Virtual Educa Caribe 2011,

International Forum on Education, Professional

Development and Continuing Education

FUNGLODE

March 9, 2011

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

I could not turn down the invitation to join Virtual Educa Caribe on this occasion, to make a few comments and observations on the development of Distance Education, from the perspective of an old timer. I will also look at some of the challenges it faces, as reflected in the sub-topics chosen for this event.

I remember very well, back in 1970 when, in my capacity as the first Rector of the Federal University of São Carlos in São Paulo, I was approached by the President of the Council of Rectors of Brazilian Universities who asked me to help organize an International Conference on "New Technologies Applied to Higher Education" for all universities in Brazil. What a challenge! My colleagues and I from our Alma Mater did a lot of work. We began by identifying leaders from around the world who could come to Brazil and tell us what they were doing, including their successes and failures, so that we could learn from them. Tat helped us immensely at that time. I spoke to Sir Walter Perry, founder of the Open University in the U.K., and invited him to come but he had a previous commitment and could not join us then, although he came to Brazil, later on. We were able, however, to have many experts from different countries attend the conference. They covered such areas as Programmed Instruction, Project Logo, Project of the MITRE Corporation, CAI, CMI, TV, etc. In those days, Brazil was the only country that had a good Distance Education program in which we used radio and printed materials which we sent to the students by mail! I also remember a Vice-President of a us Community College who attended the Conference. He told us that they only had 3,000 computers on their campus and were raising funds to purchase more. A Brazilian Rector thought he must have made a mistake and meant to say they had 300 computers rather than three thousand! After all, in those days, all the Brazilian universities combined did not own 3,000 computers.

We were very behind in the number of computers we had in Brazil at that time, although we were operating a very advanced and successful project using satellites (when they were available over Brazil) that we used to re-transmit educational programs for a certain number of hours each day. The program was called Project SACI. To make a long story short, two years later, we approved a report in the Federal Council of Education, where I was a member at the time, recommending to the Ministry of Education and the Government to set up an "Open University" in Brazil. Tat was in 1972, and due to lack of money prompted by budget cuts with the change of government, the official project was never implemented. Other distance education activities, however, did get under way around the country and enrollment in them slowly grew over these years. Now, more than 35 years later, we finally have the official "Universidade Aberta do Brasil" (Open University of Brazil) functioning well and growing very fast.

During this period, the number of universities and other higher education institutions and their enrollment has grown enormously, not only in our country, but all over the world. The growth is such that today, more than 130 million students are enrolled in more than 10,000 Higher Education institutions and Universities worldwide. Just three countries alone, China, India and the USA, have more than 50 million students enrolled in higher education institutions in 2010.

My own country, Brazil, had close to 6 million students enrolled in 2009 and out of this total, 840,000 were enrolled in Distance Education programs, offered with the official approval of the Ministry of Education. This number represented only 16% of the total enrollment but has grown substantially over the past ten years. A much larger number of students in Brazil have been studying, for many years, in "informal institutions and programs" of Distance Education. Some of them are called "Corporate Universities," some are public, some are private; they are spread out throughout the country.

This growth was so impressive that I recently found a magazine in a São Paulo taxi with the headline: "Education and Technology – Innovative Actions Show How Technology is Changing the Face of Education." Similar examples of all types of Distance Education course offerings are now available everywhere in Brazil. While the more than 6 million students enrolled in higher education may seem like a large number and since we have only 186 Universities, 127 University Centers, 1,966 Faculties and 35 Federal Institutes of Technology, when one compares that number with our total population and enrollment in neighboring Chile and Argentina, the total number of higher education students in Brazil today should be double the current number!

In other words, our system of higher education, which practically doubled in the last decade, must continue to grow much more in the coming years. Distance Education will certainly play a very important role in this future growth. I am quite sure that the same situation is occurring in many other countries, and probably also here in the Dominican Republic. Virtual Educa events, held in Spain and in different Latin American countries, have been tracking the growth and development of Distance Education, every year for the last 10 years.

But there are still many challenges ahead and I will now mention some of them which are being faced in Brazil as well as other countries.

First, I would like to talk about innovation, which has become a buzzword these days around the world. Nevertheless, innovation is considered necessary in all segments of our societies, including our governments, public and private enterprises as well as in education. Innovation particularly applies to Distance Education, the focus of our attention here for the next two days. Innovation, in a broad sense, refers to a new product or process as well as a new quality or functionality as yet unknown. One of the major stumbling blocks to achieve innovation, however, is the lack of adequately trained human resources. Innovation has its basis in knowledge insofar as no one can be innovative in an unfamiliar area or one which he/she does not have ample understanding. While innovation can also involve technology and machines, it can go beyond that and develop management and business models.

How do our universities fare in this new context of a world centered on innovation? Over the past 100 years at least, universities in general have trained professionals, carried out research and done extension work. Present and future universities will progressively take on the role of becoming centers for the introduction and encouragement of innovation, in addition to teaching and research.

Let me give some concrete examples: the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States has always promoted and supported scientific and technological development by providing grants to researchers from universities all over the country. Its last Strategic Plan addresses many key issues but includes the following: "Build strong foundations and foster innovation to improve K-12 teaching, learning and evaluation in science and mathematics; advance the fundamental knowledge based on learning, spanning a broad spectrum from animals and humans to machines; integrate research with education and engage and inform the public in science and engineering through informal education," all the while expressing a very serious interest in education as it did years ago in the Sputnik era. In addition, part of President Obama's plans for enhancing educational technology is the proposed creation of a new "National Center for Advanced Research and Information in Digital Technologies" that will finance research in teaching and learning. President Obama has also proposed "to win the future through expanded wireless access" in order to reach 98% of all Americans within five years with a $3 billion dollar Wireless Innovation (win) Fund established "to support basic research, experimentation and applied development in a number of areas including education." With all this interest and support, many important new innovations in education certainly will take place in the USA in the years ahead.

But let's also look at what is happening in China. Its expenditures in R&D rose from 1.25% of its GDP in 2004, to 1.5 % in 2008; China's GDP has also dramatically increased in that period. Although it has not reached its goal of 2.0 % of GDP set for 2010, the amount accounts for 12% of global R&D expenditures. China is planning to invest $8 billion dollars in R&D in various companies until 2020, to promote innovations! Such efforts are also underway in the European Union with similar large investments towards promoting innovation in industry, government, society and… in education.

As a matter of fact, in most industrialized countries all over the world, the scenario is very similar despite the huge global economic crisis that has had a major impact in 2008/2009. Over the next 10 years, Germany intends to invest 18 billion euros in higher education and research. France is investing 35 billion euros in its universities and museums, and 6 billion euros for a new super campus in Paris/Saclay. In Denmark, 3.8 billion us dollars have been approved for r&d, which means they will reach 1.04% of their GDP. Even in Brazil, despite this year's huge budget cuts of 50 billion Brazilian reals (about 30 billion us dollars) proposed by President Dilma Roussef, our MCT (Ministry of Science and Technology) through FINEP, a government Agency, will have about 2.5 billion us dollars to support innovation projects in private enterprises. In fact, FINEP's ultimate goal is to help and encourage private enterprises to invest more than the current 0.65 % of the GDP in R&D, in an effort to reach 0.9 % or 1% of the GDP by 2014. Fifty percent of those funds will come from FINEP and 50% from the businesses themselves. Even with this, since Brazil has no tradition of investment in innovation, we will still be well below international standards: in the USA, the government puts in more than 70%, Europe 60% and Korea about 80% of the funds needed. There are also expectations that National Bank for Economic and Social Development, known as the BNDES, will open lines of credit for specific innovation projects. Our Universities are being called upon to partner with public and private enterprises to help in these efforts. Recently, the MCT met with BRASCOM, the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communications, and produced data showing that Brazil will need 750 thousand new professionals in these fields in order to maintain growth. The Minister informed the Association that there is already a project underway to train those needed professionals "online." He added that, both CNPQ and capes, are already providing numerous fellowships for human resources development in ICT and other areas. In 2010, for example, in the PACTI (Plan of Action on Science, Technology and Innovation), both institutions granted 155,000 fellowships toward the preparation of Masters and PHDs in Brazil and abroad. This was done with an investment of $2.8 billion reals (US$ 1.7 billion). I don't think it's necessary to further discuss the importance of investing in innovation. The question is what is the status of our effort to develop innovation in education and, in particular, Distance Education? Although there are many projects in this area underway in Europe and Asia, let me highlight some new developments in the USA: The "Next Generation Learning Challenges," a major program supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has just selected 47 finalists that will soon receive grants to develop projects using data about student performance to enhance teaching and learning. We can certainly take advantage of the development of these projects because many of them deal with innovation related to education and distance education. Those new projects I have mentioned will be further tested in the coming years. Many others surely exist today and you may be familiar with them in your specialty areas. Let me quote from a very successful one entitled: "Low Tech Lecture Goes the Distance" in which Prof. Andrew Wasser, of Carnegie Mellon University, used a simple live-streaming technique of a lecture as an effective tool.

He and his colleagues have spent the last 10 years perfecting it. The judicious use of this type of delivery has made "the distance learning experience almost as good" as the classroom experience, in the MS of the University's Information Technology Program. Actual campus-based lectures are video-captured then posted online, with fully searchable transcripts. They are also distributed as DVD's to students around the world. "The low-tech approach offers a greater scope for accommodating a range of learning styles and lifestyle demands which add to both the appeal and success of the program." Professor Wasser will address this subject in a workshop to be held this month in California. Many other successful innovative programs could be mentioned, but time constraints prevent me from doing so.

What are the new trends on the horizon for Higher Education? The 2011 Horizon Report mentions six innovative technologies to keep an eye on that will be in use in the next few years: 1) mobile devices; 2) game-based learning and learning analytics, using data to track student progress; 3) game-playing itself; 4) the use of electronic books; 5) augmented reality, laying virtual information over actual location such as an interactive, mobile-based museum map; 6) gesture-based computing which incorporates human movement, useful in training of simulations that could allow students to virtually practice surgery. I would also like to point out that Web 2.0, 4G cell network (soon to become 5, 6 or 7G and so on) and the affordability of the devices now in every hand, home and classroom, are already changing the way people interact everywhere. The integration of the media offers major possibilities and is already impacting the educational process.

Events such as Facebook, now connecting 500 million users worldwide, will continue to grow and shape the way people learn, teach and communicate with each other.

At Abu Dhabi University, they are already developing a pilot project on how the use of mobile phones can help students in Distance Education programs. Half the class will use the mobile phones and the other half will continue to attend classes normally. I understand that the experiment is also being carried out in the USA. Let's wait for the results of the project so that we can learn more from it.

In Pakistan, the Bunyad Foundation has started a small program with UNESCO's support, assisting adolescent girls to gain literacy with the help of mobile phones and… it worked! An interesting innovation in Distance Education is being implemented at the Kentucky Jefferson Community College in the US. It is called "Learn Anytime" and is being done with students who are not in a class, course or group. They can enroll anytime and finish their studies at their own pace. But, of course, there is a lot more work for the teacher. I can also provide more details if anyone is interested in this innovative approach to online teaching.

The African Virtual University, funded by the World Bank with its headquarters in Kenya, is operating in more than 30 African countries with a network of online institutions on the continent. It has recently created a portal of Open Educational Resources (http://oer.avu.org ) developed in partnership with 12 universities and is accessible everywhere in the world. It also provides opportunities for the incorporation of innovation in its portal.

Finally, I should mention that, at a recent meeting in California of TED (Technology, Entertaining, Design), in the online forum of the TED-ED Brain Trust, you can see discussions on how to reform teaching through the use of video and other technology, some of which are versions intended for high-school students. At that event, Bill Gates also presented a speaker who has produced more than 2,000 short educational videos, which professors can assign as homework for students thus gaining free time for the development of more student projects.

As I mentioned earlier, Virtual Educa has done an excellent job over the last 10 years of providing opportunities for all of us to learn from innovations, new experiences and successful practices, particularly from Spain and our Latin American region. CREAD has also been doing continuous work on the continent for the last 20 years as has ICDE, from a worldwide perspective, for the last 40 years. But many other organizations have also come into the picture.

Two years ago, the State of Qatar started the World Innovation Summit for Education (wise), attracting more than 1,000 participants from all over the world. Held with the assistance and support from the IAUP, IIE and other partners, the goal of these meetings is to hear selected speakers present their innovations. I was invited and attended both years and can assure you that I learned a lot. And this year – very good news – wise will begin to offer an annual $500,000 prize for innovative work in education. It is, shall we say, a kind of "Nobel Prize," not yet offered in Sweden, to this important priority area for innovations all over the world.

Now let me turn to another challenge to education and to Distance Education - training and the retraining teachers. I will begin by describing one particular situation in Brazil. I refer to the exams given by the International Evaluation Program of Students (PISA), applied by the OECD in many countries, to 15-year-old students at the end of their middle school period. These exams are given in reading, mathematics and science. There was small improvement vis-à-vis previous exams, but our students still ended up in the 53rd position out of a total of 65 countries evaluated in reading and science and number 57 in Mathematics. The first places in the PISA exams were occupied by students from South Korea, Finland, Hong Kong and Singapore. Recently, Chinese students have taken the first place in these exams. Where are we failing? The OECD Report raises two basic questions: 1) What are we paying our teachers in comparison to other professionals with similar, high level education in our societies? Should our government, on federal, state and municipal levels, organize broad-based motivational programs for our teachers, with continuous re-training and developmental workshops and/or provide stimulus for Master's Degree programs in different specialties and, most importantly, improve their salaries when appropriate so that teachers can be dedicated full time to their careers? I am very happy to report to you that capes in Brazil, has started an "online" program this year which offers a Professional Master's degree in Mathematics to over 1,120 teachers from around the country. This program has the support of 54 campuses of public universities, fellowships and the participation of teachers who give face-to-face classes on the weekends. It is indeed a very good first step to be followed by other recommendations. It will take time, but it is definitively a move in the right direction. The second question that OECD has asked is: Would you like for your son or daughter to become a teacher? Certainly the answer is no, especially if you belong to a socio-economic class that is better served in our societies. How can we change this picture? The answer is simple: teachers' salaries must be competitive within the labor market. We must provide incentives so that our good students who receive Bachelor's or "Licenciatura" degrees at our universities are interested and motivated to pursue a teaching career in our elementary and secondary schools. Of course, our schools also need to meet other conditions. They need to have proper and well-maintained facilities, labs, libraries and they need for students and teachers to remain there for the required number of hours per day at school, preferably full-time. And, of course, our schools need to have excellent, educated and efficient management personnel and staff. It is not likely that thousands of schools in our country can benefit simultaneously from such a program, but the important thing is to start and then set targets for future years. The worst thing is to stay where we are now and have to regret the results of the PISA exams when they are publicly released. We should also re-examine the current curricula for the training of our teachers in our education programs. We must do much more research on the "teaching and learning" questions. This is a real challenge for education as well as for Distance Education, not only in Brazil, but everywhere. More can be said about this challenge but time is of the essence now, so I will move on, and be brief, to my last and complex challenge: quality.

It is, I believe, of universal consensus, that the numbers have increased at all levels of education and that the quantitative battle is being won everywhere. Notwithstanding, there are still serious concerns that quality has suffered everywhere! How to deal with this challenge? Many books have been written about quality, how to understand it, how to measure it, how to improve it; this refers to education in general. In relation to e-learning, the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in 2009 has said: "Quality Assurance (QA) in e-learning is of growing interest to policy makers as e-learning has become one of the main vehicles for cross-border higher education." For several years now, UNESCO and ICDE have discussed and finally approved a joint statement on the conditions necessary to assure the maintenance of quality, cross-border Distance Education. They have stated: "Quality must be assured and demonstrated in measurable ways to ensure that, in a global perspective, learners acquire the knowledge they need to assure that they are stakeholders of this process." Quality depends on many factors but certainly the first is the quality of the teachers, a fundamental requirement, as stated earlier. But other elements are also needed: updated equipment, broadband access, appropriate methodologies, continuous support of qualified tutors (no matter where they are located), reading material, periodic classroom exams, appropriate curricula content, periodic evaluation of the courses and general conditions of functioning as well as properly adjusted costs, availability of fellowships or costs paid by employers, since many students are already working. Motivation among students is essential, otherwise the drop-out rate is very high, as past experience has shown. To allow us to have and maintain quality, we should constantly "exchange expertise in QA (Quality Assurance) of e-learning and keep up with new developments; update criteria based on innovations; keep an inventory on how to organize QA in e-learning within different contexts and look at the best examples of implementation. Finally, to discuss international delivery: how to address quality in the international cooperation of delivery; single mode delivery and delivery in partnership; ensure quality partnerships and collect best practices." These recommendations came from a task force created by UNESCO, ICDE and others in 2009 but are still very valid today.

If I had more time, I could give you examples of other lessons we have learned, but, I must conclude by stating that:

Our common goal is to always achieve the highest quality in whatever we do in education in general and in Distance Education in particular. The measurement of our success will come with the exponential increase in the number of people we teach or touch and the resulting quality of those individuals as a consequence of our efforts.

When I was in Asia, as the Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan, I learned one of their wise proverbs: "For every long journey, there is always the first step." We have taken our first steps in this life-long journey to improve education and Distance Education. All of you should join in, either as innovators or observers and critics of our products, so that we can truly advance our education for the benefit of future generations.

ABOUT DR. HEITOR GURGULINO DE SOUZA

Former Rector of the United Nations University (1987-1997), in Japan and Special Advisor to the Director General of UNESCO, in Paris (19881999). Vice-President of IAUP (International Association of University Presidents) (1999-2002), Sec. General Elect (2005-2008) and Sec. General (2008-2011). Currently Sec. Gen. Emeritus of the IAUP (from 2011). Received a BS degree in Math/Physics from Mackenzie Uniersity, São Paulo (1950). Specialization courses in Solid State Physics and Nuclear Physics and research in Physics at ITA/ Brazil, University of Kansas/USA and at University of São Paulo (from 1951-1958). Since 1959, was appointed Professor of Physics at State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Campus of Rio Claro. During 1962-1969 (on leave of absence) at the Scientific Affairs Department of OAS (Organization of American States), Washington, DC - USA, helped organize a large Regional Program for S&T Development for Latin America. In 1970, was first Rector of the Federal University of São Carlos, São Paulo. From 1972-74, was Director, Department of University Affairs, of the Ministry of Education. From 1975-78, was Director of CNPQ (National Council of Scientific and Technological Development), in Brasilia. From 1974-77, Chaired the Inter-American Committee on S&T of OAS in Washington, DC. By Presidential appointment was a Member of the Federal Council of Education (1974-1986) and VicePresident of the Council.(1976-1978). Started teaching career in 1951, as Instructor, Physics Department, of the famous ITA (Aeronautical Institute of Engineering) in São José dos Campos, São Paulo and was Assistant Professor of Physics, ITA (1955-1958). Professor Gurgulino holds many Doctor Honoris Causa degrees: UAG, Mexico (1984); UFES, Brazil (1986); California State University, USA (1997); UFSCAR, Brazil (2009); IESB, Brasilia (2010). Is an elected Member, Brazilian Academy of Education (2002); Member, Brazilian Physical Society (1951); Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences (SBPC) (1961). Member, American Physical Society (1956); Member Council of Rectors of Brazilian Universities (1970-1974); Member, Club of Rome (1996). Currently is Vice-President of the Club of Rome, in Switzerland. Received National Order of Educational Merit (1972) and National Order of Scientific Merit (1996). Gran Official, Orden del Merito de Duarte, Sánchez y Mella (Duarte, Sánchez y Mella Merit) - República Dominicana (2010). Gurgulino is author of many articles in the fields of physics, uses of S&T for development, University administration and on United Nations issues.

ABOUT VIRTUAL EDUCA CARIBE

Virtual Educa Caribbean is the Regional Chapter of the Virtual Educa Ibero-American Program, officially endorsed as part of the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government.

The mission of Virtual Educa Caribbean is to unite representatives from public, private and non-governmental sectors within the Ibero-American context with the objective of introducing best practices, researching cases and exchanging experiences, in a synergy of effort, on how to train human resources in new technologies in a successful and efficient manner so as to enable them to become part of the labor force, to promote innovation and to contribute to sustainable development.

Virtual Educa Caribbean aspires to create new alliances on a national and international level, to promote the multiplication of successful practices and to establish bases for permanent exchange.

Brief History

The Virtual Educa Caribbean initiative was launched at the VI Annual Virtual Educa Meeting in Mexico City in June, 2005.

The agreement of collaboration between the Virtual Educa Ibero-American Program and FUNGLODE/GFDD was signed in Santo Domingo on February 17, 2006.

The founders and principal sponsors of Virtual Educa Caribbean are the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD). Its headquarters is located in the FUNGLODE office in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.

www.virtualeducacaribe.org