Navigating the new educational landscape in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic requires innovative and inclusive global partners to formulate sustainable action plans and solutions. The higher education industry and its partners have recognized the rising need to create critical professional development and a community of practice for online, blended and digital learning leaders.
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), a global non-profit and collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators, recently published an open knowledge product to be widely and freely accessible for leaders in the field to use. The guide, Advancing Universal Access to Quality Digital Learning Through Global Coalitions and Narrative Practices, is designed to assist educators as they document their current progress and roadmap their future initiatives.
Additionally, OLC’s framework aligns with all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, with an emphasis on quality education. The goal of the OLC guide is to help leaders bring these sustainable goals to fruition by assisting them in creating a foundation for quality and equitable digital learning.
“Our report serves as a concise guide to address the needs of educators seeking to ensure that online, blended, and digital learning is equitable within their own local contexts,” said Madeline Shellgren, OLC Director of Community Strategy and Engagement. “It provides models for professional learning, partnership, and collaboration on digital learning change work through global coalitions.”
The project manifests as two unique but entwined action-oriented initiatives for digital learning change work, explored below:
- The creation of a notable international institute for digital leaders in support of creating access to quality learning across the globe.
- The creation of an open digital storytelling framework that is accessible to all educators seeking to discover, reuse, and remix digital learning change work strategies shared by their global colleagues.
The creation of a notable international institute for digital leaders in support of creating access to quality learning across the globe: In this portion of the research, the OLC gathered the world’s first cohort of the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) Global in 2020. Within the infrastructure of the coalition, the researchers aimed to determine best practices to create a space for leaders around the world to collaborate, prioritize change-work within the program, and provide resources and scholarships to amplify plurality of voices and perspectives globally. Future partners and collaborators are encouraged to use the IELOL framework provided within the report to reflect on their own practices of local and global change work for their online, blended, and digital learning.
The creation of an open digital storytelling framework that is accessible to all educators seeking to discover, reuse, and remix digital learning change work strategies shared by their global colleagues: In this portion of the OLC report, the goal was to explore impactful and sustainable narrative practices that support, amplify, and drive digital learning of quality and equity. To enhance the space for educators to share their progress on addressing endemic inequities within the education system, OLC developed a practice to operationalize these needs through storying, sharing, collaborating, and sustaining. Leaders in the field can gain action-oriented approaches to address varying challenges through the storytelling framework from this section.
As the OLC initiatives evolve, leaders in the higher education community can join the efforts to ensure quality and equitable education. Educators are invited to join the efforts, share their stories, and amplify the stories of others so that the future of learning is accessible and ethical.