Interviews

What’s the current state of e-learning in Japan?

When I went back to Japan, while my main job was to do research, I started teaching at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies. I was amazed by the differences in learning style between Japanese and American students. Japanese students are, in a sense, very traditional. They’re accustomed to the lecture style of teaching and learning, so, even at university they still expect teachers to lecture, while they sit and take notes and that’s the whole purpose of the teaching courses. I really want to change that, into a more project-based learning, a more student-centered learning.

...learning through collaborative content?

Yes, the way to introduce it is through collaboration with students in another country, in another university and to help my students in my university collaborate in some area of research. I want my students to experience a more active learning. So that’s my whole motivation for this kind of project. Learning by discussing research, learning by gathering and sharing information, communicating what they find... That sort of thing. It’s pretty common in the United States as well as in Western countries, but it’s not very common in Japan, where it’s more lecture-based.

How do you plan on bringing this collaborative style to Japan?

Well, I’m so impressed here, everything you do here is really active learning, the student is the center of the whole learning system, and you create environments for students to get engaged in learning, so I think that should be the way to go in the future. One thing is to change the assessment method, because it’s just multiple choice exams where students only focus on memorizing facts. It’s very commonly done, for example in university entrance exams, but that’s not what current society is demanding. You can search for facts on the Internet very quickly, you don’t have to memorize them. What’s needed is the skill to gather and comment on information in a meaningful way for others. That’s a more important skill and I think if students aren’t given the opportunity to do this, our role as educators is to grant opportunities to do so, to get better at doing so.

What’s the purpose of your current visit?

This is a tour to visit different open universities. Before coming here I had already visited two open universities. One in Germany, which was quite a traditional distance education institution, no comparison with this one [UOC]. Also, I headed to the Open University of the Netherlands and tomorrow we’ll be going to UNED and the last one we’ll be going to is the Hellenic Open University in Greece. The whole purpose is to find out about the educational model of an open university. We want to transform the Open University of Japan into a more Internet-based institution, broadcasting lectures, creating interactive learning. I’d like to see which model will work in our context. We’ve seen many different models and there are different stages of development. We can’t be like you overnight but we can aspire to provide more student-centered and active learning and I think your institution has a really good perspective on the new educational model.

Well, at least there must be something from your experience you could bring to the UOC?

Tough question! I could think of many, many ways to improve open education in Japan, but I think you’ve done pretty well. There are innovative research institutions, but the innovative research is not really connected to practice, but here I see actual research being implemented into the practice and that’s a very good model. It must be difficult for already established institutions but you have the advantage of being newer. From the very beginning you’ve had that vision of an innovative model. I hope in the near future we can be as innovative.

How do you see the future of distance learning in terms of globalization?

Right now, I’m very envious of Europe, with the beginning of this interlaced system of education. I know there are many issues to be solved, but I think it’s a really good movement, because students have the freedom to go anywhere they want to study without being stuck in a certain country. They can pick the courses they want and the places they want to be in. In that sense in Asia, and in Japan, we’re very behind. Although it may be physically difficult, we can start virtually, and virtual mobility and collaboration between students is what I’d like to promote as the starting point in a global educational market.