Northern Michigan University history professor Kathryn Johnson has conducted four oral history interviews with global pioneers in open, distance and digital education. They include Professor Asha Kanwar, former president of the Commonwealth of Learning,; Professor Alejandro Pisanty, a Mexican scholar and early advocate for educational technology; Dr. Tony Bates, whom she describes as one of “the godfathers of distance education in Canada”; and Professor Rosibel Vicquez Abarca, a prominent leader in the field in Costa Rica. All will soon be published in scholarly journals, including one for which Johnson serves as the oral history section editor.
“All of these interviews, and even the opportunity to be the first oral history section editor of a new open-access journal, came about because of contacts I've developed from attending international conferences in the field,” Johnson said. “NMU funded my travel to all of those conferences, which is simply amazing, and I can't begin to express my gratitude for that.”
As a doctoral student at Athabasca University in Canada, Johnson had the opportunity to facilitate six Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for the Commonwealth of Learning during the initial COVID-19 global shutdown.
“I was deeply inspired by thousands of teachers from places like Jamaica, Kenya and India, who were quickly learning technology-enabled and blended-learning best practices—the exact opposite of emergency remote teaching—to immediately respond to their classroom needs, while also sharing with each other resources already employed by those involved with open universities that have proven track records of excellence in distance education,” Johnson said.
“This experience set me down a path of learning more about the history of open universities and has underpinned the research agenda I envision for the next 10 years or so. There are very few scholars involved in documenting and disseminating the history of open and distance education, so I also aspire to recruit a new generation of researchers into this field. Conducting oral history interviews for publication is a privilege with an added layer of responsibility when it comes to editing for accuracy and meaning. Thus far, each of the four interviewees have been kind, appreciative of the opportunity to share their experiences, and generous with their time.”
In the interview with Bates, a retired scholar from the UK who spent much of his career in Canada while consulting internationally, major topics included the impact of neoliberalism on higher distance education, comparative differences of open learning systems in various countries, and the origins of the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association which analyzes digital learning trends across the provinces.
Johnson interviewed Kanwar, the former president of the Commonwealth of Learning, an intergovernmental organization focused on advancing open and distance learning worldwide, and also a prominent advocate for using open education to promote sustainability. Kanwar shared insights from her leadership experiences in India, Africa and at the Commonwealth of Learning's international headquarters. It is unusual to have a co-interviewer, Johnson added, but for the Kanwar interview, she mentored Berrin Cefa, a doctoral candidate and managing editor of the Journal of Open, Distance, and Digital Education (JODDE), in oral history methodology.
Johnson also interviewed Pisanty, who has been involved in distance education since the 1970s, with a background in chemistry, computer science and internet governance. He has served on multiple global boards and was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2021.
Pisanty spoke about the history of distance education in Mexico and how he pioneered the country's internet adoption policies. In his interview, he offered personal reflections and historical context about the evolution of distance learning in Mexico. This article was published in the "American Journal of Distance Education."
The interview with Abarca, a high-level administrator at Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) in Costa Rica with expertise in human geography, discusses how her academic lens provides a unique perspective on the development of distance education systems in Costa Rica, particularly regarding gender, regional economic development, Indigenous culture and prisoner education. That interview is scheduled to appear in the "International Women Online Distance Education Journal."
Johnson asserts that looking into the history of open and distance education helps today's policymakers and educators learn from past efforts, especially the broader strategies and institutional actions that aimed to break down barriers to higher education for nontraditional students during times of major educational growth.
“Globally, those conditions have changed over time with less public funding available, while the needs for reskilling and upskilling have only increased,” Johnson said. “It's important to document the voices that have navigated those macro changes while remaining firmly committed to the mission of democratizing knowledge and helping their societies by promoting lifelong learning in ways that are convenient and cost-effective.”
Prepared by former student writer Brynn Turnquist and Kristi Evans.