Roland van Oostveen

Ontario Tech University | UOIT · Faculty of Education

Over the past decades, educational pedagogies have been shaped by many theorists and frameworks. For the purpose of this paper, the researchers define educational pedagogy through a lens that is influenced by Paulo Freire. For instance, educational pedagogy can be defined as seeking a balance within the tension between freedom and authority, while...

The increased drive towards digital economies, coupled with the transition to online modes of educational access and work during the COVID-19 global pandemic, necessitated a heightened focus on being able to assess digital competencies. Organizations such as the World Economic Forum and Conference Board of Canada state that developing critical thin...

Continuous digital skill development is important in today's workforce due to ever-evolving technologies and workforce expectations. This study examines the development of technological skills through a combination of research process frameworks and constructionist creation tasks. This framework was designed to remove barriers often seen as inhibit...

Over the past decades, educational pedagogies have been shaped by many theorists and frameworks. For the purpose of this paper, the researchers define educational pedagogy through a lens that is influenced by Paulo Freire. For instance, educational pedagogy can be defined as seeking a balance within the tension between freedom and authority, while...

Healthcare professionals must be able to work in multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). The purpose of this editorial is to explain how healthcare professionals (can) contribute to the effectiveness of MDT, through the use of activity theory (collective work activity shared by others who are motivated by a purpose mediated by tools in order to achieve a s...

Recent world events have shifted our educational focus to a greater emphasis on online learning and working environments. Given the immediate and emergency moves to online learning, the effectiveness of these shifts has come into question in many institutions of higher education. What has become clear is that the longer the pandemic lasts, the more...

The growing global attention to online learning, particularly in light of COVID-19, has spurred interest in systematic, robust, and pedagogically sound approaches to online learning like the fully online learning community (FOLC) model. FOLC consists of three overlapping dimensions—social presence, cognitive presence, and collaborative learning—whi...

This paper considers the potential for Repertory Grid Triadic Elicitation Technique (RGT) to serve as a pedagogical model enabling learner communities across diverse fields to elicit conceptual structures to sustain future-oriented learning that operationalizes "a meta-reflection view". The authors survey investigations from fields sharing a common...

This study aims to provide support for the efficacy of the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) Model by examining communication between participants within a series of recorded online focus groups and by investigating the behaviours that are undertaken by participants. A coding system based on body language expressions is proposed as an outcome...

This study aims to explore the efficacy of the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) Model by examining communication and behaviours undertaken between participants within a series of recorded online focus groups. A coding system based on body language expressions is proposed as an outcome of this study to determine the effect of the role(s) of em...

With the growing global attention to online learning, particularly in response to the COVID-19 situation, educators have developed systematic, robust, and pedagogically sound approaches to online learning. This chapter describes one such model, the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model. This model, which may be implemented within fully onlin...

Online learning courses have been mandated for high school students in the province of Ontario, and in light of the COVID-19 situation, much of the K-12 moved to online learning opportunities. It is generally understood that the initial offering of courses did not meet the needs of the learners. In an effort to provide an alternate way forward, the...

Within Industry 4.0 research, the spotlight shines on technological and organisational challenges. This study shifts the focus to worker readiness, beginning with an analysis of twenty-three models to establish the state of research. Findings demonstrate that existing models are mostly early-stage proposals addressing competences featured in mainst...

Participation in 21st-century society is increasingly dependent upon competencies related to the use of digital technologies for a wide variety of purposes. A person's competence in the use of digital technologies has implications for a wide variety of contexts and situations, including learning in physical as well as virtual spaces, career choices...

Participation in 4th Industrial Revolution society is increasingly dependent upon competencies related to the use of digital technologies for a wide variety of purposes. A person’s competence in the use of digital technologies has implications for a wide variety of contexts and situations, including learning in physical as well as virtual spaces, c...

Fully Online Learning Communities (FOLC) are digital sandboxes for collaborative learning where participants actively engage in the creation of the environment. This project is part of a collection of investigations by the EILAB on various aspects of the FOLC model. The intent is to better understand participant readiness and success through empiri...

The Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model was developed at Ontario Tech University and is focussed, in part, on Moore's Transactional Distance Theory, which suggests that the psychological distance between individuals in the digital space should be minimized to decrease miscommunication and misunderstandings. It is evident that communication...

This study investigates engineering in the context of career focused education. Often the technical and mathematical sciences on which engineering courses are built do not explain the landscape of practice. The main objective is to capture the knowledge and meaning an undergraduate student constructs from the social interactions and experiences in...

Online learning courses have recently been mandated for high school students in the province of Ontario. While there are few details, it is generally understood that the initial offering of courses may not meet the needs of the learners. In an effort to provide an alternate way forward, the Fully Online Learning Community Model (FOLC) was offered t...

The acquisition of cross-disciplinary skills and competencies such as complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity have become increasingly important as a consequence of the complex and crucial issues that must be grappled with as humanity moves into the 4th Industrial Revolution. Yet these same skills and competencies are frequently n...

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development calls for immediate paradigmatic shifts in how educational institutions and the broader society address employment skills. A wide variety of local and global sources, including trade magazines, government sites, and pan-governmental sites, echo this urgent call, recommending increased empha...

Within Industry 4.0 research, the spotlight shines on technological and organisational challenges. This study shifts the focus to worker readiness, beginning with an analysis of twenty-three models to establish the state of research. Findings demonstrate that existing models are mostly early-stage proposals addressing competences featured in mainst...

The Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model is intended to operate within a co-created Digital Space to (a) reduce transactional distance, and (b) incorporate newcomers into an established learning community. An operationalized version of the General Technology Competency and Use (GTCU) framework was used with a convenience sample of Ontario T...

The Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model is intended to operate within a co-created Digital Space to (a) reduce transactional distance, and (b) incorporate newcomers into an established learning community. An operationalized version of the General Technology Competency and Use (GTCU) framework was used with a convenience sample of Ontario T...

Online learning opportunities have become an expected part of higher education in North America. In a survey conducted by the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association (CDLRA, 2019), the authors state that there were over 1.3 million online course registirations in Canadian higher educational institutions in 2018 and in that same year nearly 2...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calls for immediate paradigmatic shifts in how educational institutions and the broader society address employment skills. A wide variety of local and global sources, including trade magazines, government sites, and pan-governmental sites, echo this urgent call, recommending increased emphas...

Current research has indicated that resilience, grit and growth mindset are psychological characteristics beneficial to learning (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews & Kelly, 2007; Kamtsios & Karagiannopoulou, 2012; Yeager & Dweck, 2012). This paper addresses a significant gap in the literature, that being that little research has connected the concepts...

The first of a series of workshops used to support Additional Qualification course designers/facilitators using the FOLC model. Other workshop titles in the series include: FOLC Workshop - Are you ready? Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) Readiness Workshop FOLC Concepts and Processes: Assessment in Online Learning FOLC Concepts and Processes:...

The Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC), developed at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), is a social-constructivist model, addressing a paradigm shift in employment skills, and supporting key elements of transformational learning. Adopting a Problem-based Learning (PBL) approach to activity design, FOLC has served as basis...

Redefinition of teaching and learning in the online environment using the Fully Online Learning Community Model

Teaching, and education in general, remain firmly rooted in the practices of the past and continue to resist the implementation of strategies and theories arising from educational research. Consequently, significant reforms have been slow to take hold in educational systems around the world. Much of the reluctance can be attributed to a widely-held...

Introducing the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) Model

It was noted that students in Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC)-based programs felt close to each other despite never having been physically co-located (vanOostveen, Childs, Clarkson, & Flynn, 2015). It is postulated that this reported closeness is a result of (a) decreased transactional distance (Moore, 1993) (b) the use of video and audio (w...

In order to participate in the co-creation of the digital space inherent in Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) environments (vanOostveen, DiGiuseppe, Barber, Blayone & Childs, 2016), learners must be familiar with the types of web-based tools that are available, and how they can be used to support collaborative learning. Bower (2015) states tha...

The increasing use of computer-based technologies in all sectors of modern economies requiresthat workers be not only capable of using existing technologies but also adept in learning to useemerging technologies as necessary. It is incumbent upon higher education institutions todevelop programmes that will prepare graduates to respond to these chan...

Higher education (HE) is increasingly being called upon to modify and adapt in response to the complexity of the issues faced by contemporary society. With increased pressure to enhance learner access to educational opportunities and address issues of equity regardless of physical location or socioeconomic status (Rohs & anz, 2015), HE institutions...

Post-secondary institutions around the world are increasingly integrating digital technologies in courses and programs. As students and faculty become progressively immersed in an academic digital world, there is growing need to become adept at navigating through digital environments to garner material and virtual resources through utilization of t...

This case study examines student perceptions of online learning within an undergraduate course (Psychological Foundations of Learning with Digital Technology) at a Canadian university. The learning environment designed for this course was guided by the Fully Online Learning Community model and operationalized using four theoretical pillars: (a) aut...

The Global Education Learning Observatory (GELO), currently in development in the Educational Informatics Laboratory (EILab) of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, is an international online platform enabling individuals and groups in formal and informal educational settings to measure digital compet...

Post-Secondary institutions continue to migrate online learning and learning tools to digital media. By doing so, universities such as the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) can reach students who generally could not access the institution by traditional means. In a collaboration with the Education Informatics Laboratory (EILab), researchers f...

The Global Education Learning Observatory (GELO), currently in development in the Educational Informatics Laboratory (EILab) of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, is an international online platform enabling individuals and groups in formal and informal educational settings to measure digital compet...

This study profiles the digital readiness of university students in Georgia and Ukraine for fully online collaborative learning, theorized as an educational pathway to democratic transformation. The Digital Competency Profiler was used to gather data from 150 students in Georgia and 129 in Ukraine about their digital competences. The analysis group...

Abstract: A teacher's efficacy belief is a perception of his or her potential to facilitate student learning and engagement (Bandura, 1971, 1977). However, investigators studying this notion by probing and capturing shifts in teacher cognition about it have confronted persistent measurement problems (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001). As learne...

Abstract: A teacher's efficacy belief is a perception of his or her potential to facilitate student learning and engagement (Bandura, 1971, 1977). However, investigators studying this notion by probing and capturing shifts in teacher cognition about it have confronted persistent measurement problems (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001). As learne...

Describes the FOLC Model

Higher education institutions are increasingly turning to online learning options for their students. The use of video and audio (webcams and mic/headsets) can support the development of a feeling of closeness between students in fully online learning communities (FOLC) (vanOostveen, Childs, Clarkson, & Flynn, 2015). This research examines an aspec...

This workshop will provide an overview of the theoretical underpinnings and description of the FOLC model and its component parts. Through small group activities, participants will examine and discuss propositional definitions for the FOLC components. Participants will complete the FOLCS online self-assessment instrument and discuss their experienc...

The Digital Competency Profiler (DCP) is an online application for survey- ing the technology preferences and abilities of students in higher education. To explore the DCP as a digital-learning-readiness tool, a mixed-methods research design was developed for relating self-reported digital competencies and online-learning activity. To this end, thr...

This workshop is intended for individuals and institutions interested in taking a look at fully online learning with community supports; those interested in assessment tools that speak to the readiness for participation in fully online learning environments, and those involved in the creation of supports required by institutions for students, facul...

This paper presents the Global Education Learning Observatory, GELO, offered as an international platform which can be used to (i) measure digital competencies for individuals or groups in formal educational institutions and informal settings; (ii) provide access to tools that measure digital competencies and readiness for online learning, for indi...

The integration of digital technologies at institutions of higher education are profoundly influencing formal learning on a global scale. Social-constructivist models of fully online learning are well-positioned to address the demands of government, and economic and social-development organizations for civically-engaged individuals with strong prob...

Online learning is having profound effects on institutions of higher education. It has been reported that in the U.S. in 2013, 33.5% of higher education students took at least one online course (Allen & Seaman, 2014). While online courses are highly variable with respect to how they are constructed, ranging from blended learning, where students com...

New directions in higher education demand significant shifts in pedagogy and the effective use of technology for learning. Today, in the 21st Century, the broader goals of post-secondary education— often characterized in terms of a liberal arts orientation—are being shaped by powerful social and economic forces which are increasingly determining th...

Online learning is becoming ever more common in post-secondary education (Allen & Seaman, 2014), with courses and programs offered in fully synchronous (virtual classroom only), fully asynchronous (blog/discussion board, etc. only), or hybrid (combination of synchronous and asynchronous) modalities (Hrastinski, 2008). Regardless of the modality, le...

The impact the of techology on the teaching, learning, and infrastructure of higher education institutions has been substantive over the past three decades. Most institutions have adopted digital technology, from simply using the web as a means of distributing materials to students, to institutions with maturing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and vir...

Collaborative-constructivist online learning appears well-aligned with Ukraine’s post-revolutionary aspirations for globalized and transformed, higher education. This study explores digital competencies of students and professors at Kyiv National Economic University, Ukraine, to probe readiness for fully online collaborative learning. The General T...

Within Industry 4.0 research, the spotlight shines on technological and organisational challenges. This study shifts the focus to workforce readiness, beginning with a structured analysis of twenty-three readiness models to establish the state of research. A key finding is that existing models foreground technical, social and personal competencies...

This workshop will be a hands-on session for those who are interested in collecting PCP data from focus groups in fully online learning contexts. Using the affordances of Adobe Connect (an audio/video conferencing tool), we will run through a mock-up of a repertory grid session about the use of technological affordances in learning environments. We...

This workshop will serve as an introductory exploration of the WebGrid Plus (Repertory Grid) suite of tools that are available on a couple of Canadian university websites. The suite of tools was developed by Drs. Mildred Shaw and Brian Gaines and can be used in a variety of ways to support individual, group or community elicitation and analyses of...

This brief paper reports on one part of a case study conducted in the Faculty of Education of a mid-sized university in the province of Ontario, Canada. This online course— part of the faculty's Bachelor of Arts in Educational Studies and Digital Technology (BA-ESDT) program—was focused on Problem-Based Learning (PBL); included both synchronous and...

Initial plans for this project arose from a need to address issues of professional development of science and technology teachers that went beyond the norm available within school board settings. Two teams of 4 teachers responded to an invitation to participate in a collaborative action research project. Collaborative action research was chosen in...

This paper presents the Fully Online Learning Community, FOLC, model, offered as a transitional model for institutions addressing the challenges faced by higher education in terms of developing best practices in pedagogy and the implementation of online learning. Founded on the ideal that education is a fundamental human right, this paper describes...

Over the past thirty years, institutions of higher learning across the world have been increasingly embracing digital technology for teaching and learning. Many institutions have begun to offer mobile, hybrid, and online courses and programs for enhanced relevance and accessibility. Universities and colleges may employ educational digital technolog...

Over the past thirty years, institutions of higher learning across the world have increasingly embraced digital technology for teaching and learning. Many institutions have begun to offer mobile, hybrid, and online courses and programs for enhanced relevance and accessibility. Universities and colleges employ digital technology through learning man...

Online learning is having profound effects on institutions of higher education. Allen & Seaman (2014) report that in the U.S. in 2013, 33.5% of higher education students took at least one online course. While online courses are highly variable with respect to how they are constructed, ranging from blended learning, where students complete in-class...

This study explores expert perceptions of teaching in a social-constructivist pilot online course based on the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model (VanOostveen, DiGiuseppe, Barber, Blayone, & Childs, 2016), and conducted within the framework of a Canada-Ukraine research partnership. The pilot course was intended to investigate democratized...

A video presentation available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_xOb3LpLfY#t=3h4m56s.

This paper presents the Fully Online Learning Community, FOLC, model, offered as a transitional model for institutions addressing the challenges faced by higher education in terms of developing best practices in pedagogy and the implementation of online learning. Founded on the ideal that education is a fundamental human right, this paper describes...