Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER MARCH 2018 FEATURES 21 vation, there is no evidence that course-level innovation happens less frequently than innovation in any other field — including those considered to be considerably less inert than academia. New techniques for polling learners, drawing them into the socialized and disciplined dialogue of the classroom, and making them co-accountable for the efficiency of the learning production function of their program, are finding their ways in graduate and undergraduate courses alike. e burgeoning wave of invest- ment in "EDTech" — educational technologies meant to increase the effectiveness of learning through personalization of con- tent and context — suggests peda- gogical innovation is alive. Alive, yes, but where is it? And, more importantly, why does all of this innovation not translate into a radical transformation of learning practices across the field? Why does the industry increas- ingly appear to live up to manage- ment consultant Peter Drucker's indictment of it as the "largest burden on the backs of taxpay- ers," stimulating increasingly shrill calls for radical technology-based transformation? Platforms as drivers of transformative innovation A large part of the answer lies in plain sight. Local, de-synchronized, segre- gated innovation needs an open, integrative platform to generate both internal momentum and an industry-wide transformation. Advances in telecommunica- tions — we are now working on 5G systems — provide a telling example. In the educational field, the Learning Management Engine (LME) provides the equivalent in- novation platform that promises to aggregate and integrate across isolated innovations in learning and instructional design. It provides a locus of innova- tion that allows both learners and instructors to understand the best ways to learn, and to teach — while at the same time teaching and learning. A recent, large-scale study jointly undertaken by the Rot- man School of Management and Harvard Business School has identified the massive gaps in skills learned and skills trans- ferred that besets the higher education field, showing that the most effective forms of learning are personalized to the learner, socialized to her learning group, and contextualized to her work and life environment. at is precisely what a learner- centric LME will do: It will allow instructors to collaboratively and interactively design content and learning experiences adaptive to the preferences, backgrounds, cognitive and affective styles of learners, by interfacing to platforms and applications used in recruitment, admissions and alumni relations that track learner backgrounds, interests and employment patterns , while at the same time allowing instructors to do quick A/B testing of content and learning experience designs. Data analytics — proprietary and closed in current systems, but open in the learner-centric LME — will allow for continuous tracking of learner profiles and learning-oriented behaviours and learning outcomes, and for in-depth understanding of what- w o rk s - fo r- w h o m - a n d - w h e n when it comes to the design of learner-instructor and learner- learner interactions. Unlike current LMEs, which do not allow for instantaneous in-band transfers of data between the core engine and other learn- ing-enhancing applications, the learner-centric LME will enable instructors and learners alike to use and share learning apps in the same learning environment, thus deepening collaboration among instructors and programs and tapping into the burgeoning ecosystem of EDTech applica- tions that is currently "waiting on the sidelines" and being only sporadically used. With the flexible allocation of decision rights to learners and in- structors and the free flow of data and content across programs and schools, a real "learning innova- tion ecosystem" will be enabled. Higher education is a densely and tightly coupled network of ac- tivities and tasks, which include selecting and motivating learn- ers, informing and testing them, connecting them to instructors, content and other learners — all while heeding the metronome of the academic year and program guidelines. Learner-centric LMEs will en- able a flexible allocation and re- allocation of decision rights over the learning process: Whereas current LMEs give the prepon- derance of authority over class constitution, allowable content sharing, analytics, co-horting, apps deployment and interfacing to administrators and developers, a learner-centric LME will allow instructors and learners to col- laborate in the design of the learn- ing experience itself, by selecting the additional applications, data analytics, testing protocols and whole-course/whole class designs that best fit their learning and in- structional objectives. Even without any of the im- provements in the learning pro- duction function promised — and likely over-promised — by pun- dits and gadflies in the "new AI" movement, proven, reliable tech- niques like collaborative filtering can be deployed in the learner- centric LME to produce the so- cial multiplier of learning efficacy that has been amply documented in empirical research. Why is the transition taking so long? Once articulated, a learner- centric LME seems oddly obvious as a large piece of the solution to filling the "innovation hole" of higher education. Why are we not there yet, despite having par-coursed four generations of learning- management systems and engines — and the ratification of a new standard (Learning Technologies Interoperability) designed to assure the very kind of openness to applications and analytics we currently lack? A quick look at the evolution of the LMS/LME industry gives us the requisite hints. e industry is heavily concentrated around entrenched providers of admin- centric LMS platforms that are not interoperable, closed to state- of-the-art analytics engines, and closed to learning applications that are originating in the Web 2.0+ environment of socialized, network-based learning. Although some of them started from open source platforms (such as Canvas and Moodle), they de- veloped interstitial modules for data transfer and interoperability that make their current instantia- tions de facto closed, which allows them to charge universities richly for analytics on their own learner- relevant data sets. And they have succeeded by ex- ploiting the significant asymme- tries of information and technical expertise between university ad- ministrators and academics and their own technical teams. Indeed, academia seems prone to this peculiar dynamic: Aca- demic researchers serve as pro bono reviewers on articles that appear in journals sold by their publishers back to universities at astounding margins — a dynamic that new platform initiatives like Montreal's Open Neuroscience have been set up to address. Solution at hand A problem suitably posed is three- quarters solved. Given the current landscape of innovation, the pres- sures on universities to deliver a learner skill base commensurate with the costs of higher education, the awareness we have of the skills gap and the skills-transfer gap in educationm and the availability of a bona fide standard allowing for the free flow of information and the free inter-operability of learning and analytics platforms, it seems that a solution is readily at hand. e success of large-scale platforms — such as Coursera, EDX and Microsoft-LinkedIn learning — to bring together learners, instructors and content in open formats point the way to a solution to the "innovation gap" whose implementation is now at hand. is article originally appeared in Rotman Management, the magazine of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Mihnea Moldoveanu is a Desautels profes- sor of integrative thinking, professor of business economics, vice-dean of learning, innovation and executive programs, director of the Desautels Centre for Integrative inking, di- rector of the Mind Brain Behavior Hive and academic director of the Self Development Lab and the Lead- ership Development Lab at the Rot- man School of Management, as well a visiting professor at Harvard Business School in Boston, Mass. CLASSES BEGIN MAY 15 centennialcollege.ca/part-time The Canadian Employee Relocation Council – Professional Certifi cation Program DISCOVER A CAREER IN WORKFORCE MOBILITY Eligible for Professional Development Hours See where experience takes you. Local, de-synchronized, segregated innovation needs an open, integrative platform for both internal momentum and industry-wide transformation. < pg. 20

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