Syndicated, Virginia Group

Okay, here I go…

I’ve decided to sign up for the AAC&U Faculty Collaborative’s Open Learning Connectivist MOOC, which starts this Monday. Let’s see if I can convince myself that this is a type of procrastinating…

See ya, with more blog posts on open learning and such.

Edit: The RSS feed for Blogger that the friendly people at http://openlearninghub.net/the-stream/i-have-a-blog/specific/ suggest doesn’t work

Open Participants, Syndicated

Hello there #openlearning17

Hello!

I am participating in the class to find some more awesome “faculty development” ideas. Just the #openlearning17 course itself is a good opportunity I can share with faculty here. I need those. I am an instructional designer these last ten years and a high school English teacher the 10 years prior. I love working with people.

While I am looking for good ideas, I also have a couple to share that you might be able to use in some way. So, I’ll do that.


The first is a “reflective writing” challenge that began at Yavapai College in Arizona. Faculty were asked to write 25 sentences a week about teaching and learning for nine weeks on the open web. They did, and so did faculty at other colleges. The link here has more description and links to all the writings. It is still very successful.

Another was to build a group of videos created by faculty about teaching. The vision was a wall of short videos that anyone could pick and choose from and maybe learn something from. There was also the advantage of getting faculty to create video content which was new to many of them. So they not only shared what they do, but learned something new in the process. There are links to the videos created by a few schools there too.

We had tried to get faculty to give us “tours” of their courses and that worked pretty well. I think we did have about 10 one time but some disappeared from faculty YouTube channels and we did not pursue getting them back. I don’t know why. But the idea was good and after a few brave faculty shared their online courses, a few more did.

The first year we did the open house the classes were totally open. Now it looks like college credentials are needed to access them. But the idea of an “Open House” worked really well. http://www.telswebletter.com/openhouse/

If you have any questions about any of those things I’d be happy to answer questions if you have them.

Open Participants, Syndicated

My initial post to the Open Learning Hub

Below is a copy of a blog post that I made on another blog  June 15, 2016. Here’s a link to that blog

For-Profit Involvement in OER – Part 4

I’m genuinely glad that Lumen is doing what they’re doing, and I applaud the announcement this past Monday of the Major National Initiative to Help 38 Community Colleges in 13 States Develop New Degree Programs Using Open Educational Resources. But, I also still have significant reservations about the particular model that’s being used to provide access to the OER. And, I don’t think discussing the model of delivery and the specific nature of how and to where the money flows is merely ‘academic,’ as Dr. Wiley described it in his comment on my previous post, For-Profit Involvement in OER – Part 3. It may be that the Lumen model is exactly what’s needed at this stage in the development of OER, but I’m concerned that without a clearer understanding of the details (like documentation other than what’s on Git hub and a support network other than Lumen staff), we might be missing greater opportunity. Bluntly, I don’t want the purposes of a for-profit company spoiling the possibilities.

 

The really great thing about Lumen’s approach is that it is providing significant immediate savings to students and thereby enhancing the sustainability of the institutions where they’re studying. (Go ahead and quote me.) The for-profit textbook publishers have created a worldwide orchard with a whole lot of low hanging fruit.


Here’s the distinctions I want to make:


  1.  Putting the OER in a separate platform and connecting to the LMS via LTI is only really useful if you want more money going to those that run the separate platform instead of keeping the money for running the LMS. I’m pretty sure that Lumen is already working with Instructure and other LMS purveyors to blur that line even more, which will come with the argument that that is the way of most opportunity which is Dr. Wiley’s proclaimed rationale for Lumen being a for-profit entity.


  1. The supporting functions that are necessary for the continued flourishing of OER can be provided by a for-profit entity, but the best value to community colleges, students and faculty will be when they are provided on a fee for service basis. The structure of the entity providing the supporting functions might be for-profit corporate, for-profit individuals,  non-profit corporate, consortia of governmental orgs, or combinations of the above. The particular mix of combinations matters, too.  The ultimate factoring to per student does not necessarily correlate to quantities. Sometimes it will be cheaper per student for a class of twenty-five students at a four year institution and sometimes it will be cheaper per student for all of the Algebra 1 students in the statewide CC system. As institutions including administration, IT support, faculty, libraries, student services, and students all come to understand all of the moving parts of OER, the institutions will better be able to determine which payment method for OER support is best for their particular circumstances.

As Dr. Wiley has pointed out, there is a need for all types of support. Different recipes produce different cookies. For now, cheers to Lumen and the Major National Initiative to Help 38 Community Colleges in 13 States Develop New Degree Programs Using Open Educational Resources.

Open Participants, Syndicated

OER and equity

or, too verbose for Twitter R Us.

So I read on twitter that “Open educational resources () and open source software are the single best way to ensure for all students.”

Ensure?

Let’s talk about ‘equity’ and the adult ed folks in need of basic literacy and numeracy.

Ensure?

OER are starting to serve some people well.   IT’s an awesome adventure.

However, when I talk about adult ed and literacy and numeracy, I’m referred to OpenStax and OpenEd and… no, those materials are not designed for these folks.   The designers for learning MOOC is a single example of a real effort to get OER  materials designed and delivered to adult ed providers who need it, but it only chips at a few ice flakes on part of the iceberg.

 

I’ve been encouraged to give the #openlearning cMOOC a chance because it might not be as dry as I fear… but then I read statements like that.

It’s analogous to having an amazing library that’s “open to everybody” — well, except it’s in the nicest part of town, with no infrastructure for access and — erm, you don’t even want to be walking down that street if you don’t look like you live there and don’t know the hidden social rules. (And of course you have to have time to get there between shifts, and…)  Still, it’s OPEN!!!

It is open.  IT’s wonderful.   However, it isn’t equity. (Sorry, that’s my mathiness showing.)  And y’all wonder why only folks with graduate educations do MOOCs.

WHen I ask about adult ed and equity, and the answers are all about LTI and sharing protocols — again, I need time and training to even know what that means.   And frankly, based on my experience w/ Canvas…  knowing what they mean doesn’t help.  They’re utterly inadequate.     Getting units after an amount is asking too much. Logging in? THat’s our first weedout of the unworthy.  (The first of *many.* )

Only Canvas is the venue that *is* more open.   MOst “open” stuff that I learned about at the OER conference?  Oh, it’s open … to … faculty.   To major efforts at institutions. Oops.   Equity.  Right.

THen there’s UDL, and all the preaching that it’s best not to apply it retroactively.   This is a golden opportunity, people…. if you really mean that stuff about equity.   LEt’s do!

(And sigh, I did go back and do a note to self on Canvas.  YEs, I was told that ‘don’t assume people who insult and belittle you mean to be negative!’   and I do understand that that’s the culture… but I also know that nobody’s going to so much as notice whether I lurk or not… it’s so much like cycling communities, where people will drop you in a heartbeat and then wonder why no beginners ever go on the rides… they don’t *mean* to put you down but you’re such a Fred!)

The network is the deliverable