Paul Bacsich, Sero Consulting

1. Mapping OER via semantic wikis
Paul Bacsich, Sero Consulting
Open Education Global
Banff, Canada
23 April 2015

2. Outline of presentation
• The POERUP project
• Mapping ‘initiatives’
• Mapping tools
– Custom software
– Mapping from MediaWiki
– Mapping from Semantic MediaWiki
• Next steps
• www.slideshare.net/pbacsich/oec15-map-paul-final
2

3. Context and rationale for POERUP (4 yrs ago)
• Over ten years of the OER movement
• OER repositories in many countries, yet…
• Lack of uptake by teachers and learners
• Foreseen lack of funding (in EU)
• Shift from development to community building and
articulation of OER practice
3

4. POERUP outputs
• Inventory and map of 501 OER & MOOC initiatives worldwide
• 33 country reports – most updated in 2014
• 7 case studies including Wikiwijs, ALISON (Ireland), OER U
(global) and FutureLearn (UK mostly)
• 3 EU-level policy documents for universities, VET and schools
• 8 policy documents for UK (England, Scotland, Wales), Ireland,
France, Netherlands, Poland and Canada
• At least 300 more initiatives tabulated but not mapped
4

5. Mapping ‘initiatives’
• What is an ‘initiative’ in the OER world?
• Institution?
• Programme? Course/module?? MOOC????
• Programme/project?
• Is POERUP an ‘initiative’? Is SharedOER??
5

6. What is an initiative’s ‘location’?
• What is its ‘location’?
• Owning institution’s location?
• Or department/building?
• Privacy/security issues for small institutions or
individuals
6

7. Larger-scale geography
• Country (or autonomous entity)
• Continent
• Georegion?
• Region (subregion) – not what you think?
• City?
• Political regions e.g. EU…
7

8. What else to collect? (35+ fields)
• ‘Only what aids understanding’
• And is ‘easy to collect’
• THUS
– Language(s)
– Educational level
– Start and ‘end’ year
• NOT contact name/email, and…?
8

9. Custom Map Tool
• ‘noSQL’ software: MongoDB
• Loaded from an Excel spreadsheet (as used for
Google Maps)
• Custom App
• Developed by Dick Moore
• Demo at www.poerup.org.uk
9

10. Static maps from wiki
• MediaWiki extension for Google Maps
• Driven from a MediaWiki page
• Actually some searchability, quite useful
• Demo of static map at
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Mega_Map_
Searchable
10

11. Semantic Maps extension of Semantic Wiki
• Semantic Wiki explained
– Embeds Predicate Calculus into wikis
– Triple ‘university’ ‘has country’ ‘Wales’ maps to
– Property [[Has country::Wales]] in page University
• Extension allows [[Has geocode::51.2,-115.6]]
– And then maps it!!
11

12. So have we avoided custom code?
Cue for demonstrations at
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Search

13. Weaknesses
• Semantic MediaWiki not very efficient
• Some lowish numerical limits, undocumented,
on size and complexity of search
• In reality still need to maintain a database to
load the wiki pages
– And bulk loading of wiki pages not without
problems and Excel 2007 ‘bugs’ (8-bit text)
13

14. On the other hand
• Very useful for simple searches
• Compound ‘AND’ searches can be done
• ‘OR’ searches can also be hand-crafted
• But still quite a lot of hand-crafting (not
coding)
14

15. Next steps
• Software:
– Hewlett-funded OER Map service now becoming available from HBZ
• Content:
– A lot of unmapped Initiatives in POERUP (‘only’ 501 done)
– SharedOER has developed a new table of OER-related exam/syllabus
initiatives
– ADOERUP has updated the list of Adult Education OER initiatives
with 8 new EU Member State reports
– SEQUENT has a table of Quality Agencies (and ENQA has a map)
– OpenDOAR has 3000+ Open Access initiatives…
– And distance learning? (not much progress since Re.ViCa)
15

16. Conclusions on how to map
• Semantic Maps in Semantic MediaWiki takes
one a long way
– And it could be longer if SMW were improved
• But custom software will win out
– IF you have the funds to develop and maintain it
• OER mapping is just one of the mapping
challenges in open and distance learning
16

17. Conclusions on whether to map
• Not clear yet it gives new insights
• Yet like all infographics it can enliven data
• BUT THE REAL CHALLENGE STILL IS
– Not how to do it, but
– Who will collect and update the data?
– And why will they do that?
– And who again will quality assure that process?
17

18. Thank you for listening
Paul Bacsich, paul.bacsich@sero.co.uk
Sero Consulting, for the POERUP team
http://www.poerup.info
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/File:POERUP_
D2.1_edition_2.pdf