Meet the Patrons interview with Joe Walsh of The Open College

Under his stewardship, Joe has revolutionised the company’s offering, turning from traditional distance learning to online learning, and fully re-branding from its previous name, OCDL, to The Open College. The Open College courses became FETAC (now QQI) accredited in 2008, progression which has taken the company from just two employees following Joe’s arrival to 20 today, along with more than 40 lecturers delivering learning programmes from all around Ireland. 

Joe admits that the Covid-19 pandemic was something of a watershed moment for the company and the online learning industry writ large. “Before the pandemic, online learning was a black sheep. When Covid hit, we were already fully online and our staff already operated in a hybrid working environment. Suddenly we had no down time. We became very busy but had all the resources in place to manage this extreme event. Now, online education is at the forefront of everything. Our strategic plan is to continue developing online delivery and new programmes in areas that we don’t currently operate in,” he says. 

What are the biggest lessons you learned in your career?

The biggest thing is that I treat everyone with respect. I’m not sure it’s something I had to learn necessarily but treating people as I would like to be treated is a value I live by. 

What was the best advice you ever received?

If you have a big decision to make or something significant you need to communicate, sleep on it. I’m conscious that people can be too quick to act in a fit of emotion. I don’t want to do that. If I’m making a big strategic change, I will give myself the opportunity to sit back and reflect, because often you will find something that you want to tweak. 

How would you define your work style and how has this changed over your career?

I’m hard working, passionate and dedicated, so I always try to apply those traits to how I support my team. It’s not a solo journey. It’s your team that help you achieve. I’m a great advocate for giving my team the tools and the leeway to succeed. The worst thing is micromanagement. It always produces failure. If you’re employing people, you have to let them do what they’re good at. 

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I was very quiet when I was younger and didn’t make my voice heard enough, so I would probably tell my younger self to have faith in your convictions. People will always try to pull you down as you succeed. Don’t let them. Speak up.  

If you had not chosen your current career, what would you love to do?

I always wanted to be a lawyer or a barrister. I still might go down that road. You never know. It’s never too late in life to head in a different direction! 

How has AI impacted your organisation/industry?

AI had a big impact in the early stages because it was primarily used as a cheating resource on course work and exams. We developed all sorts of contingencies to respond to that, but they have had to continually evolve as new methods of cheating have emerged. The latest example is AI washing in which a student can get one AI to write a script. They then give that script to another AI tool and ask it to make the cheating undetectable. Ultimately, the education industry must change. One way is asking students to do online face-to-face assessments to discuss their submissions or flipped classrooms so that a student delivers the content studied rather than the lecturer delivering certain parts. Things are constantly evolving. That’s a good thing, as far as we’re concerned. The more we learn about these tools, the more we see the need to embrace them and show students and lecturers how to use them for the better. Used well, AI can make positive change and make better learning experiences for everybody.

What are the opportunities and/or risks from AI to your business or sector and/or the learning technology industry?

Personalised learning is a big one. Understanding students’ individual learning styles will help lecturers teach better. AI can facilitate that by assessing someone’s learning style and producing different versions of the same course suited to different learning styles. AI will also take a lot of the mundane administrative tasks off the lecturer’s desk, allowing them to use their time to exclusively teach content rather than answer questions in the background or deal with queries. AI tools will never replace lecturers, just enable them to spend more time doing what they do best: teaching. 

From your experience, what are the current trends in learning?

The trend is towards more visual content, specifically short information videos delivered online. People now read less so the demand is for shorter, quicker information bursts and rather than more long-form stuff. That’s the TikTok effect. Learners want to swipe through content more quickly. You can either bemoan that or respond to it in an effective way. That could also mean shorter lectures with more supplementary content which learners can consume afterwards in different mediums.  All that goes back to individual learning style. If someone wants to read, watch, or listen to content, you need to provide access to the same level of information. That all has to be taken into account. 

What are the biggest skills challenges to your business or sector?

There’s a shortage of lecturers who fully understand how to teach online. There are plenty of academics with vast experience in teaching, but they come from the traditional classroom environment. You’re asking a lot from them to go straight online and develop different modes of teaching. That part has been a struggle but we have developed our own inhouse CPD to assist. Lecturers and tutors also need be upskill in terms of AI. The Irish education system is adapting to this, and the Irish university sector has answered that call. 

What book would you recommend on learning, technology, business or understanding people?

Genghis Khan Guide to Business by Brian Warnes. 

A mentor gave me the book many years ago and the information in it is so simple and useful. It’s an old book but the lessons in it are still valid today. Other than that, I read tech-related industry stuff and a lot of science fiction. 

What are your favourite tools and resources in work?

I love playing around with AI tools and design software. I love doing brand imagery and content design. I’m passionate about everything we do being clean and simple and is guided by the principle of less is more. 

Why is membership of Learnovate important to your company? What does Learnovate do well?

Many years ago, we engaged Learnovate on a project to demonstrate the validity of online education. Since then, we’ve done a lot of our own research and development, around how we can use technology better to enhance teaching and learning. Now that we’re Learnovate Patron Members we want to look at all that again. The access to the latest research and development in education is key for us. If we hadn’t engaged Learnovate many years ago to champion online education, who knows where we would be today. Since we first engaged them all those years ago, they’ve grown and expanded with more and more global experts becoming involved. It’s the research and development side that interests us a lot. Being a Patron Member is the right thing for us, and indeed for any education institute or business.