Forging new pathways of research and innovation in open and distance learning

Learning Reprioritised: Supporting the ODeL Student by Developing a Personal Information
Management Systems and Strategies Program (PIMSS)
Ignatius G.P. Gous
depends on what they already know, but on what they are likely to learn.”
(Chamorro-Premuzic & Swan, 2016)
They add “In other words, higher career security is a function of employability, and that in
turn depends on learnability. Thus Eric Schmidt notes that a major pillar in Google’s
recruitment strategy is to hire “learning animals,” while EY recruiters observe that “to be a
standout, candidates need to demonstrate technical knowledge in their discipline, but also a
passion for asking the kind of insightful questions that have the power to unlock deeper
insights and innovation for our clients. Sadly, most organizations have yet to wake up to this
reality, so they continue to pay too much attention to academic qualifications and hard skills,
as if what entry-level employees had learned during university actually equipped them for
today’s job market. Although learnability does boost academic performance, just because
someone is job-ready when they obtain their educational credentials does not mean that they
are also learning-ready.” (Chamorro-Premuzic & Swan, 2016).
In similar vein, Bersin (2016) adds “Since we now expect learning to be as simple and
compelling as watching YouTube, hundreds of video-based content providers and MOOCs
offer free bite-sized content for us to consume on our phones while sitting in the coffee shop
or standing in the subway. But corporate learning management systems remain slow, hard to
use, and difficult to maintain. They’re getting in the way of employee development instead of
supporting it. At the same time, the demand for learning is greater than ever: Bersin by
Deloitte’s latest research with Glassdoor shows that learning and career opportunities are the
biggest drivers of employees’ willingness to recommend their company as a great place to
work for people under age 40.”.
What industry wants is people with the ability to learn.
What Management Wants: Timeous Completion
The prestige but especially funding of institutions of higher learning is linked to students who
graduate successfully and in an acceptable timeframe.
Challenges to management and their institutions are the high drop-out rate, especially of
distance education institutions (Kritzinger & Loock, 2012). According so Simpson (2013)
“there is a ‘distance education deficit’ with many distance institutions having less than onequarter
of the graduation rates of conventional institutions. … one reason for the deficit is the
‘category error’ of confusing teaching with learning, and that institutions have focused too
much on the provision of teaching materials, especially online, and too little on motivating
students to learn.”
Linked to this is a mixed, almost confusing, bag of results. Effective learning does take place –
sometimes in spite of inadequate teaching, sometimes as the result of good teaching, and often
as the result of brute brain power. Confusingly, ineffective learning also occurs – sometimes in
Reaching from the roots – 9 th EDEN Research Workshop Proceedings, 2016, Oldenburg 283
ISBN 978-615-5511-12-7