Tracking Online Students in Canada and the USA: Results and Methodological Issues
Friday, October 5, 2018
Dr. Tony Bates described his ongoing work on the national survey of online and distance education in Canadian universities and colleges, and outlined opportunities for MET students and alumni to participate in supervised research studies (ETEC 580 projects!) investigating the data. This presentation covered three separate studies of online learning: one about online learning in Canadian universities and colleges; one about online learning in Canadian schools; and one about online learning in universities and colleges in the USA. As well as reporting the results of these recent surveys, methodological issues and possible research opportunities for MET students were discussed.
Dr. Tony Bates
Tony Bates is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Chang School of Continuing Education, Ryerson University and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the De Groote School of Business at McMaster University. He is also a Research Associate at Contact North|Contact Nord. He has almost 50 years experience in using technology for teaching, starting in 1969, at the UK Open University, where he became a full professor in educational media research.
In 1989, he emigrated to Canada, to take the position of Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Information Technology at the Open Learning Agency, Vancouver. In 1995 he moved to the University of British Columbia, to become Director of Distance Education and Technology. On retirement from UBC in 2003, he started his own consulting company, specializing in the planning and management of learning technologies in post-secondary education. He has worked as a consultant in over 40 countries. He has received honorary degrees from six universities for his research in distance education.
He is the author of twelve books on learning technology, online learning and distance education, including his latest online, open textbook for faculty and instructors, ‘Teaching in a Digital Age’. The book, first published in April 2015, has been downloaded over 150,000 times and is being translated into ten languages.
In 2017 he led a team of independent Canadian researchers that conducted a national survey of online and distance education in Canadian universities and colleges.
- Results of the Canadian post-secondary studies.
- Results of the Canadian k-12 studies.
- Results of the USA post-secondary studies.
Visit his website for online learning and distance education resources, www.tonybates.ca