This presentation will describe how institutions are effectively using and supporting open Web sites and how such sites intersect with clear trends in higher education. Among the benefits described will be the use of OCW/OER to attract students, serve current students and supplement their learning, support faculty in both course authoring and delivery, facilitate accountability and aid continuous improvement, advance institutional recognition and reputation, support the public service role of institutions, disseminate the results of research and thereby attract research funding, serve as a repository for a wide range of digital assets, serve learning communities of all types, and enhance international service and reputation.
The development of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resource (OER) movements over the last three years indicates that major universities around the world are already or will soon become producers and publishers of OCW and OER and that these efforts will become permanent features of organizational life in these institutions. Continuing educators will gain institutional credibility by initiating open Web sites. The institutional case for OCW/OER is strong and multifaceted.
This presentation will describe how institutions are effectively using and supporting open Web sites and how such sites intersect with clear trends in higher education. Among the benefits described will be the use of OCW/OER to attract students, serve current students and supplement their learning, support faculty in both course authoring and delivery, facilitate accountability and aid continuous improvement, advance institutional recognition and reputation, support the public service role of institutions, disseminate the results of research and thereby attract research funding, serve as a repository for a wide range of digital assets, serve learning communities of all types, and enhance international service and reputation.
This presentation will serve these three purposes and also propose that the OCW Consortium take a leadership role in serving as a clearing house and advocate for the sharing of data and experimental results across institutions, in order to advance the use of open material to fuel education innovation.
This document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and UCI's involvement with them. It begins by providing background on how MOOCs emerged from a combination of open educational resources and a push for lower-cost higher education. It then outlines UCI's open education initiatives and role in several MOOCs to increase the university's exposure, attract students, and further its strategic goals around innovation in learning. The document also explores opportunities for large-scale learning research using MOOC platforms but notes challenges around data ownership and privacy.
In 1990 the Hubble Telescope was launched providing current and future generations of scientists with a view of the cosmos unobstructed by the earth’s atmosphere. Ten years later over 9,000 journal articles had been based on the science delivered by the Hubble. It is the main contention of this presentation that MOOCs (and other forms of Open Educational Resources–OER) will have the same effect on higher education research by providing “massive” responses to exactly the same educational treatments delivered in the same way.
Sustainability as Imperative: The Unavoidable Future for OCWGary Matkin
Online education has clearly become a permanent feature of higher education world-wide. However, as dramatic as the technology-induced changes have been, the pace and impact of technology will intensify over the next fifteen years. Based on currently observable, documented, and quantifiable trends in higher and distance education, this paper will make predictions about the transformations in higher education that are on the horizon, with specific reference to the inexorable expansion of Open Educational Resources (OER), Open CourseWare(OCW), and continuous improvement processes.
The main prediction of this presentation is that, notwithstanding the current confusion over the use of OER and OCW and the present struggles to find resources to sustain the considerable efforts that have been undertaken in the OER movement, OER and OCW are here to stay and will grow rapidly, soon to be a part of every major higher educational institution in the world. The strongest and most obvious trends in higher education all intersect with OER and OCW creating in their addition an “imperative” for these movements.
Internationalizing Learning Concepts through OCW. AIEA 2011Gary Matkin
This presentation addresses the following 2011 Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Annual Conference themes, 1) information technology and international collaboration, 2) strategies of international partnerships and exchange, and 3) joint degrees and off-shore operations. It is based on growing efforts of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to expand its OpenCourseWare (OCW) Web site to include material relevant to international students and teachers. It includes a description of the partnership between UCI and the Fundacão Getulio Vargas, Brazil (FGV) for the development of an international MBA program and the exchange and innovative use of open educational resources (OER) primarily in the form of OCW.
Members of the OCW/OER movement are properly occupied with the current efforts of importance to the movement—increasing the supply and usage of OCW/OER, finding sustainable models, embedding OCW/OER into government and institutional contexts, and seeking ways of certifying knowledge gained through open content. As educators, we are motivated by the high-minded goal of improving access to education throughout the world through technology and free learning opportunities. However, between the focus on issues of immediate concern and the shining light of our overall goal, there is a middle ground that is not well understood by many OCW/OER proponents. That middle ground is composed of large-scale forces that are impacting education and together create an imperative for the OCW/OER movement—a movement that is so important to these trends that the vision we have for the future of OCW/OER is inevitable. This presentation describes these trends and the part that OCW/OER plays in them.
The first and most important trend is the movement toward universal higher education. First identified and described by Martin Trow in 1973, universal higher education is the third stage in the evolution of higher education, following the movement from elite to mass higher education. There are two components for universal higher education. The first is the traditional notion of access by providing access to higher education to people who otherwise could not take part because of geographical or financial issues. The second component is more subtle, but no less important or visible after, the breakdown of boundaries, sequences, and distinctions between learning and life. This presentation will describe how universal higher education is becoming clearly evident and offer some examples of how OCW/OER is a major component in the advancement of universal higher education.
The second trend is the “commoditization” of education. A good or service is “commoditized” when it becomes ubiquitously available at no or very low cost. There are clear patterns of behavior that occur when an important aspect of an industry becomes commoditized. These patterns are evident in the commoditization of content (Google, Wikipedia, YouTube) and communications (Facebook, Skype, Twitter), both of which are important elements of education. Education itself is showing signs of becoming commoditized. Commoditization pushes the “value proposition” to the periphery of the good or service. This presentation will describe that value add shift in higher education, what it means to the OCW/OER movement, and how we can take advantage of this trend.
Advocacy on behalf of the OCW/OER movement is an important role for the OCWC and its members. That advocacy can be most effective when all of us understand the social and economic dynamics that shape our movement. OCW/OER is here to stay in ever greater volume and utility because it is aligned with major social, economic, and edu
The development of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resource (OER) movements over the last three years indicates that major universities around the world are already or will soon become producers and publishers of OCW and OER and that these efforts will become permanent features of organizational life in these institutions. Continuing educators will gain institutional credibility by initiating open Web sites. The institutional case for OCW/OER is strong and multifaceted.
This presentation will describe how institutions are effectively using and supporting open Web sites and how such sites intersect with clear trends in higher education. Among the benefits described will be the use of OCW/OER to attract students, serve current students and supplement their learning, support faculty in both course authoring and delivery, facilitate accountability and aid continuous improvement, advance institutional recognition and reputation, support the public service role of institutions, disseminate the results of research and thereby attract research funding, serve as a repository for a wide range of digital assets, serve learning communities of all types, and enhance international service and reputation.
This presentation will serve these three purposes and also propose that the OCW Consortium take a leadership role in serving as a clearing house and advocate for the sharing of data and experimental results across institutions, in order to advance the use of open material to fuel education innovation.
This document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and UCI's involvement with them. It begins by providing background on how MOOCs emerged from a combination of open educational resources and a push for lower-cost higher education. It then outlines UCI's open education initiatives and role in several MOOCs to increase the university's exposure, attract students, and further its strategic goals around innovation in learning. The document also explores opportunities for large-scale learning research using MOOC platforms but notes challenges around data ownership and privacy.
In 1990 the Hubble Telescope was launched providing current and future generations of scientists with a view of the cosmos unobstructed by the earth’s atmosphere. Ten years later over 9,000 journal articles had been based on the science delivered by the Hubble. It is the main contention of this presentation that MOOCs (and other forms of Open Educational Resources–OER) will have the same effect on higher education research by providing “massive” responses to exactly the same educational treatments delivered in the same way.
Sustainability as Imperative: The Unavoidable Future for OCWGary Matkin
Online education has clearly become a permanent feature of higher education world-wide. However, as dramatic as the technology-induced changes have been, the pace and impact of technology will intensify over the next fifteen years. Based on currently observable, documented, and quantifiable trends in higher and distance education, this paper will make predictions about the transformations in higher education that are on the horizon, with specific reference to the inexorable expansion of Open Educational Resources (OER), Open CourseWare(OCW), and continuous improvement processes.
The main prediction of this presentation is that, notwithstanding the current confusion over the use of OER and OCW and the present struggles to find resources to sustain the considerable efforts that have been undertaken in the OER movement, OER and OCW are here to stay and will grow rapidly, soon to be a part of every major higher educational institution in the world. The strongest and most obvious trends in higher education all intersect with OER and OCW creating in their addition an “imperative” for these movements.
Internationalizing Learning Concepts through OCW. AIEA 2011Gary Matkin
This presentation addresses the following 2011 Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Annual Conference themes, 1) information technology and international collaboration, 2) strategies of international partnerships and exchange, and 3) joint degrees and off-shore operations. It is based on growing efforts of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to expand its OpenCourseWare (OCW) Web site to include material relevant to international students and teachers. It includes a description of the partnership between UCI and the Fundacão Getulio Vargas, Brazil (FGV) for the development of an international MBA program and the exchange and innovative use of open educational resources (OER) primarily in the form of OCW.
Members of the OCW/OER movement are properly occupied with the current efforts of importance to the movement—increasing the supply and usage of OCW/OER, finding sustainable models, embedding OCW/OER into government and institutional contexts, and seeking ways of certifying knowledge gained through open content. As educators, we are motivated by the high-minded goal of improving access to education throughout the world through technology and free learning opportunities. However, between the focus on issues of immediate concern and the shining light of our overall goal, there is a middle ground that is not well understood by many OCW/OER proponents. That middle ground is composed of large-scale forces that are impacting education and together create an imperative for the OCW/OER movement—a movement that is so important to these trends that the vision we have for the future of OCW/OER is inevitable. This presentation describes these trends and the part that OCW/OER plays in them.
The first and most important trend is the movement toward universal higher education. First identified and described by Martin Trow in 1973, universal higher education is the third stage in the evolution of higher education, following the movement from elite to mass higher education. There are two components for universal higher education. The first is the traditional notion of access by providing access to higher education to people who otherwise could not take part because of geographical or financial issues. The second component is more subtle, but no less important or visible after, the breakdown of boundaries, sequences, and distinctions between learning and life. This presentation will describe how universal higher education is becoming clearly evident and offer some examples of how OCW/OER is a major component in the advancement of universal higher education.
The second trend is the “commoditization” of education. A good or service is “commoditized” when it becomes ubiquitously available at no or very low cost. There are clear patterns of behavior that occur when an important aspect of an industry becomes commoditized. These patterns are evident in the commoditization of content (Google, Wikipedia, YouTube) and communications (Facebook, Skype, Twitter), both of which are important elements of education. Education itself is showing signs of becoming commoditized. Commoditization pushes the “value proposition” to the periphery of the good or service. This presentation will describe that value add shift in higher education, what it means to the OCW/OER movement, and how we can take advantage of this trend.
Advocacy on behalf of the OCW/OER movement is an important role for the OCWC and its members. That advocacy can be most effective when all of us understand the social and economic dynamics that shape our movement. OCW/OER is here to stay in ever greater volume and utility because it is aligned with major social, economic, and edu
There are two very powerful trends in higher education that are converging—the commercialization of OpenCourseWare (OCW) and the strong national and international interest in lowering the cost of degree attainment. This presentation will trace the history and then detail the current events leading up to the converging of these two trends as symbolized by several recent announcements about the granting of credit for learning achieved primarily through OCW.
This presentation is intended for UPCEA members who are involved in helping their institutions determine whether to offer or continue to offer MOOCs. It draws on the experience of UC Irvine, an early member of Coursera, which has over ten years of experience in OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER). To begin, the presentation establishes the context for a full understanding of MOOCS, why they developed, what impact they have had so far, and what their effect might be on higher education and the world, but absent the hype and hyperbole that characterizes current discussions around MOOCS. The advantages and disadvantages of being involved with MOOCs and some strategic reasons to engage in MOOCs will be presented, using illustrations from the UCI experience.
This presentation is intended to put the recent U.S. movement toward Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) into perspective, assessing its effects on higher education in the U.S. and around the world. This presentation is informed in part by the University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) long-term involvement in the OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) movements and its more recent experience in producing and offering seven MOOC courses through Coursera. This presentation goes beyond asking questions to making predictions that can guide institutional responses.
The objective of this presentation is to first, set the background, including the most recent events, around MOOCs. Of course, MOOCs are just an extension of a much earlier and deeper movement toward open education, but they represent a very important milestone in the development of universal higher education, where everyone can learn anything, anytime, anywhere, for free. We will also make some predictions, based on solid evidence, about where MOOCs are going and what their effect will be. Then we will develop some institutional strategies that might make sense given the background and predilections.
This presentation provides a summary of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) research and how it’s being organized around the world. MOOCs offer research objects that have the potential to address many of the issues higher education researchers face. They present new and unique opportunities to understand how people learn across a broad spectrum of educational mediums. MOOCs cross the boundaries between formal and informal learning in an unprecedented way, with each MOOC course offering opportunities for researchers to study how people select and engage with learning resources. This presentation will identify important questions: how are these research efforts being focused? What are they trying to learn? What impact are they having? What are they revealing about higher education? It also will explore the current state of MOOC research, summarize the approaches being taken, highlight some of the results that are coming from the research, and make predictions about what we might expect in the future.
The document summarizes a presentation given by Gary Matkin and Carin Nuernberg about lessons learned from offering MOOCs through Coursera. Some key points:
- UCI and Berklee College of Music partnered with Coursera to offer existing and new online courses for free to a global audience. Courses saw high enrollment numbers.
- Factors in course selection included being well-developed online courses and popular subject areas. Faculty adapted courses to the Coursera platform and monitored discussions.
- Students enrolled for skills development, academic preparation, and personal enrichment. Engagement was increased through social elements and peer support.
- Lessons included the importance of high quality content and
MOOCs have helped reveal biases towards degree-oriented education and will help provide answers about evaluating non-degree learning. Non-degree learning is often referred to negatively as "non-credit", "non-degree", or "soft", but institutions of higher education have a legitimate role in non-degree education. MOOCs are shifting from traditional university-level courses to being more modular, targeted sequences aimed at a variety of education levels with the goals of engagement and income generation rather than just visibility.
Beyond Accreditation and Standards: The Distance Educator’s Opportunity for L...Gary Matkin
This presentation will provide practical suggestions for distance educators to take a leadership position amidst the call from accrediting bodies for institutions of higher education to become more accountable and transparent. Presentation will address content management, learner feedback, “openness”, and the establishment of infrastructure to meet these new requirements.
This document summarizes a presentation about how MOOCs can benefit higher education. The presentation discusses the growth of open educational resources and MOOCs, including early repositories, open courseware initiatives, and new MOOC platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. It predicts that MOOCs will proliferate, advance the use of open resources, and increase the acceptance of alternative credentials. MOOCs may help lower costs but platforms will likely monetize through fees for certifications, proctored exams, career services, and selling user data. Universities can benefit from MOOCs by embracing open education, improving teaching, and enhancing their reputation.
MOOCs and the Impact on Higher EducationGary Matkin
This document discusses the future of education and the opportunities and threats presented by new learning technologies. Key points include:
1. Technologies like Wikipedia, Google, iTunes, YouTube have commodified content and communication, which are essential to education.
2. This commodification both threatens traditional universities but also provides huge opportunities if they embrace new models.
3. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and projects from Harvard, MIT and others donating millions show growing proliferation of accessible learning projects beyond conventional boundaries.
This document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and their relevance for organizations. It defines MOOCs and outlines UCT's strategy for offering MOOCs, which aims to position UCT as a world-class university, promote African scholarship, share learning globally, and apply lessons to degree courses. Challenges of MOOCs like limited internet access are addressed. Case studies show how businesses and governments use MOOCs for skills training. Emerging models blend MOOCs with formal courses. MOOCs offer opportunities but require consideration of digital literacy and content suitability.
The Design of Empowering and Inspirational Open Online Learning ExperiencesGeorge Veletsianos
While conversations in the academic world and the mass media continue to focus on the benefits, challenges, opportunities, and future of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), emerging empirical evidence suggests that the realities of open online learning do not fully match the hopes of open online learning (Veletsianos, 2013). One reason that these hopes remain unrealized appears to be the belief that education is a product that can be packaged, automated, and delivered. This perspective allows for massiveness and efficient delivery, but fosters the development of digital learning environments that fail to engender empowering and inspirational learning experiences. In this presentation, I discussed what our research into open learning experiences reveals about inspiration and empowerment.
Dr Li Yuan - MOOCs: Game changer or fringe benefit? sconul
Presentation from Dr Li Yuan, Jisc CETIS, Senior Researcher and Learning Technology Advisor, Institute for Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton, to the SCONUL Conference 20-21 June 2013, Dublin
Online Proctoring: How NOVA Ensures Academic Integrity (Webinar)ProctorU
Dr. William Preston Davis with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has overseen a program that served over 21,000 online students in 2011 and will share what he's learned about distance education. Dr. Davis will discuss how online proctoring has helped shape his school's web-based pedagogy and give details about the important part that testing plays in their program. The discussion will also include how online proctoring with ProctorU fills an important instructional need in their distance learning curriculum.
Open Education Week: MOOCs at UCT
Presentation for Open Education Week, University of Cape Town, 11 March 2015
Sukaina Walji with Laura Czerniewicz, Andrew Deacon, Mary-Ann Fife, Tasneem Jaffer & Janet Small
Centre for Innovation in Learning & Teaching, University of Cape Town
The document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and potential uses of MOOCs. It provides an overview of a seminar on using MOOCs, including definitions of key MOOC concepts and categories of MOOCs. Six potential uses of MOOCs are described: as open educational resources, as part of prescribed tasks, in flipped classrooms, for bridging purposes, as wrapped courses with facilitation, and through partnerships. Examples and survey results from participants are given regarding experiences with and recommendations of MOOCs.
MOOCs and ICT Education: Disruptive or Merely DistractngUna Daly
MOOCs and ICT Education: Disruptive or Merely Distracting
Computer Science and IT courses were the first MOOCs (massively open online courses) from Stanford and MIT and continue to dominate the online education disruption. Less than two years in, Udacity has announced a new focus on corporate and vocational training and Coursera is partnering with the World Bank to create courses relevant to the developing world.
Although these MOOC providers keep redefining their mission, what if any lessons can ICT Educators at community colleges learn from this online education disruption?
Join us for a discussion about how community colleges might develop and utilize MOOC courses and content. Hear early outcomes from colleges that have already engaged in MOOCs and their visions for future online interaction.
A presentation exploring the place of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in a Higher Education context by Laura Czerniewicz and Sukaina Walji from the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, University of Cape Town. Presented at Stellenbosch University Auxin Seminar.
Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium gives an update on the state of the Consortium on May 5 at the OCWC Global Meeting 2011
This document discusses how open courseware (OCW) can help universities meet their goals. It provides an overview of what OCW is and its benefits. Some key points made include:
- OCW allows universities to increase their global reach and reputation by showcasing academic strengths for students, faculty and lifelong learners.
- It supports student recruitment and retention by providing open access to course materials. This enhances advising and evaluations.
- OCW encourages improvements in teaching quality by promoting the development and sharing of high-quality course content and teaching models.
- While legal, faculty and resource concerns present obstacles, over 200 institutions have launched OCW sites through collaborating in the OCW Consortium
This document outlines the agenda and goals of a design jam session focused on developing a shared social network platform to increase sharing of open educational resources (OER) for global health education. The session aims to engage students around the world as content producers and advocates for health OER by brainstorming ways for students to generate, organize, review, and facilitate communities around OER content. Ideas generated at the session will be posted online under a Creative Commons license to continue collaboration on the network design.
There are two very powerful trends in higher education that are converging—the commercialization of OpenCourseWare (OCW) and the strong national and international interest in lowering the cost of degree attainment. This presentation will trace the history and then detail the current events leading up to the converging of these two trends as symbolized by several recent announcements about the granting of credit for learning achieved primarily through OCW.
This presentation is intended for UPCEA members who are involved in helping their institutions determine whether to offer or continue to offer MOOCs. It draws on the experience of UC Irvine, an early member of Coursera, which has over ten years of experience in OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER). To begin, the presentation establishes the context for a full understanding of MOOCS, why they developed, what impact they have had so far, and what their effect might be on higher education and the world, but absent the hype and hyperbole that characterizes current discussions around MOOCS. The advantages and disadvantages of being involved with MOOCs and some strategic reasons to engage in MOOCs will be presented, using illustrations from the UCI experience.
This presentation is intended to put the recent U.S. movement toward Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) into perspective, assessing its effects on higher education in the U.S. and around the world. This presentation is informed in part by the University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) long-term involvement in the OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) movements and its more recent experience in producing and offering seven MOOC courses through Coursera. This presentation goes beyond asking questions to making predictions that can guide institutional responses.
The objective of this presentation is to first, set the background, including the most recent events, around MOOCs. Of course, MOOCs are just an extension of a much earlier and deeper movement toward open education, but they represent a very important milestone in the development of universal higher education, where everyone can learn anything, anytime, anywhere, for free. We will also make some predictions, based on solid evidence, about where MOOCs are going and what their effect will be. Then we will develop some institutional strategies that might make sense given the background and predilections.
This presentation provides a summary of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) research and how it’s being organized around the world. MOOCs offer research objects that have the potential to address many of the issues higher education researchers face. They present new and unique opportunities to understand how people learn across a broad spectrum of educational mediums. MOOCs cross the boundaries between formal and informal learning in an unprecedented way, with each MOOC course offering opportunities for researchers to study how people select and engage with learning resources. This presentation will identify important questions: how are these research efforts being focused? What are they trying to learn? What impact are they having? What are they revealing about higher education? It also will explore the current state of MOOC research, summarize the approaches being taken, highlight some of the results that are coming from the research, and make predictions about what we might expect in the future.
The document summarizes a presentation given by Gary Matkin and Carin Nuernberg about lessons learned from offering MOOCs through Coursera. Some key points:
- UCI and Berklee College of Music partnered with Coursera to offer existing and new online courses for free to a global audience. Courses saw high enrollment numbers.
- Factors in course selection included being well-developed online courses and popular subject areas. Faculty adapted courses to the Coursera platform and monitored discussions.
- Students enrolled for skills development, academic preparation, and personal enrichment. Engagement was increased through social elements and peer support.
- Lessons included the importance of high quality content and
MOOCs have helped reveal biases towards degree-oriented education and will help provide answers about evaluating non-degree learning. Non-degree learning is often referred to negatively as "non-credit", "non-degree", or "soft", but institutions of higher education have a legitimate role in non-degree education. MOOCs are shifting from traditional university-level courses to being more modular, targeted sequences aimed at a variety of education levels with the goals of engagement and income generation rather than just visibility.
Beyond Accreditation and Standards: The Distance Educator’s Opportunity for L...Gary Matkin
This presentation will provide practical suggestions for distance educators to take a leadership position amidst the call from accrediting bodies for institutions of higher education to become more accountable and transparent. Presentation will address content management, learner feedback, “openness”, and the establishment of infrastructure to meet these new requirements.
This document summarizes a presentation about how MOOCs can benefit higher education. The presentation discusses the growth of open educational resources and MOOCs, including early repositories, open courseware initiatives, and new MOOC platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. It predicts that MOOCs will proliferate, advance the use of open resources, and increase the acceptance of alternative credentials. MOOCs may help lower costs but platforms will likely monetize through fees for certifications, proctored exams, career services, and selling user data. Universities can benefit from MOOCs by embracing open education, improving teaching, and enhancing their reputation.
MOOCs and the Impact on Higher EducationGary Matkin
This document discusses the future of education and the opportunities and threats presented by new learning technologies. Key points include:
1. Technologies like Wikipedia, Google, iTunes, YouTube have commodified content and communication, which are essential to education.
2. This commodification both threatens traditional universities but also provides huge opportunities if they embrace new models.
3. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and projects from Harvard, MIT and others donating millions show growing proliferation of accessible learning projects beyond conventional boundaries.
This document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and their relevance for organizations. It defines MOOCs and outlines UCT's strategy for offering MOOCs, which aims to position UCT as a world-class university, promote African scholarship, share learning globally, and apply lessons to degree courses. Challenges of MOOCs like limited internet access are addressed. Case studies show how businesses and governments use MOOCs for skills training. Emerging models blend MOOCs with formal courses. MOOCs offer opportunities but require consideration of digital literacy and content suitability.
The Design of Empowering and Inspirational Open Online Learning ExperiencesGeorge Veletsianos
While conversations in the academic world and the mass media continue to focus on the benefits, challenges, opportunities, and future of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), emerging empirical evidence suggests that the realities of open online learning do not fully match the hopes of open online learning (Veletsianos, 2013). One reason that these hopes remain unrealized appears to be the belief that education is a product that can be packaged, automated, and delivered. This perspective allows for massiveness and efficient delivery, but fosters the development of digital learning environments that fail to engender empowering and inspirational learning experiences. In this presentation, I discussed what our research into open learning experiences reveals about inspiration and empowerment.
Dr Li Yuan - MOOCs: Game changer or fringe benefit? sconul
Presentation from Dr Li Yuan, Jisc CETIS, Senior Researcher and Learning Technology Advisor, Institute for Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton, to the SCONUL Conference 20-21 June 2013, Dublin
Online Proctoring: How NOVA Ensures Academic Integrity (Webinar)ProctorU
Dr. William Preston Davis with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has overseen a program that served over 21,000 online students in 2011 and will share what he's learned about distance education. Dr. Davis will discuss how online proctoring has helped shape his school's web-based pedagogy and give details about the important part that testing plays in their program. The discussion will also include how online proctoring with ProctorU fills an important instructional need in their distance learning curriculum.
Open Education Week: MOOCs at UCT
Presentation for Open Education Week, University of Cape Town, 11 March 2015
Sukaina Walji with Laura Czerniewicz, Andrew Deacon, Mary-Ann Fife, Tasneem Jaffer & Janet Small
Centre for Innovation in Learning & Teaching, University of Cape Town
The document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and potential uses of MOOCs. It provides an overview of a seminar on using MOOCs, including definitions of key MOOC concepts and categories of MOOCs. Six potential uses of MOOCs are described: as open educational resources, as part of prescribed tasks, in flipped classrooms, for bridging purposes, as wrapped courses with facilitation, and through partnerships. Examples and survey results from participants are given regarding experiences with and recommendations of MOOCs.
MOOCs and ICT Education: Disruptive or Merely DistractngUna Daly
MOOCs and ICT Education: Disruptive or Merely Distracting
Computer Science and IT courses were the first MOOCs (massively open online courses) from Stanford and MIT and continue to dominate the online education disruption. Less than two years in, Udacity has announced a new focus on corporate and vocational training and Coursera is partnering with the World Bank to create courses relevant to the developing world.
Although these MOOC providers keep redefining their mission, what if any lessons can ICT Educators at community colleges learn from this online education disruption?
Join us for a discussion about how community colleges might develop and utilize MOOC courses and content. Hear early outcomes from colleges that have already engaged in MOOCs and their visions for future online interaction.
A presentation exploring the place of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in a Higher Education context by Laura Czerniewicz and Sukaina Walji from the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, University of Cape Town. Presented at Stellenbosch University Auxin Seminar.
Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium gives an update on the state of the Consortium on May 5 at the OCWC Global Meeting 2011
This document discusses how open courseware (OCW) can help universities meet their goals. It provides an overview of what OCW is and its benefits. Some key points made include:
- OCW allows universities to increase their global reach and reputation by showcasing academic strengths for students, faculty and lifelong learners.
- It supports student recruitment and retention by providing open access to course materials. This enhances advising and evaluations.
- OCW encourages improvements in teaching quality by promoting the development and sharing of high-quality course content and teaching models.
- While legal, faculty and resource concerns present obstacles, over 200 institutions have launched OCW sites through collaborating in the OCW Consortium
This document outlines the agenda and goals of a design jam session focused on developing a shared social network platform to increase sharing of open educational resources (OER) for global health education. The session aims to engage students around the world as content producers and advocates for health OER by brainstorming ways for students to generate, organize, review, and facilitate communities around OER content. Ideas generated at the session will be posted online under a Creative Commons license to continue collaboration on the network design.
The document discusses the Chinese Top Level Courses Project, which aims to produce high-quality open courses at universities in China. It is a selective and competitive project that identifies exemplary courses at the campus, provincial, and national levels. Selected courses receive financial support to develop online materials and are required to make the course available online for five years. The goals are to encourage full professors to teach undergraduate courses, promote innovative teaching methods using technology, and establish model courses for other professors. A multi-level evaluation process is used to select courses based on criteria like the teaching team, content, instructional design, and student evaluations.
The production of open courses as a transformative practice: A case study of ...Stian Håklev
The document discusses the Chinese Top Level Courses Project, which selects outstanding university courses and makes them openly available online. It aims to encourage full professors to teach undergraduate courses, promote the use of technology in teaching, and foster teaching teams and course redesign. Courses go through a competitive multi-level evaluation process and receive funding if selected. The project is part of China's broader efforts to improve higher education quality and is influenced by trends towards online learning and computer usage in universities. Its future development will relate to ongoing reforms in Chinese education policy.
The Chinese National Top Level Courses Project - using Open Educational Resou...Stian Håklev
The document discusses the Chinese National Top Level Courses Project, which uses Open Educational Resources (OER) to improve quality in higher education in China. It began in 2003 when Chinese universities decided to adopt the OER model inspired by MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative. The Chinese project involves selecting the best courses from universities nationwide and making them available online as open educational resources through the China Open Resources for Education (CORE) program. The goals are to encourage professors to improve their teaching methods and course materials. Over time the project has expanded, with over 1,800 courses available nationally by 2008 through the Chinese Quality OpenCourseWare program.
**Click the tab "Notes on Slide" below for presenter's notes that accompany and explain the slides.**
The African Virtual University is coordinating Phase II of the Multinational Project on Policy and Curriculum Conceptualization. The OCW Consortium was invited to participate as a strategic partner and to provide perspectives on OER globally to consider in the development of this project. This presentation discusses some examples of relevant OER projects in Indonesia and Brazil, and explores questions of extending access to higher education in African countries.
The document discusses the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning with Technology (SoTLT) program at the University of Wisconsin - Extension. It provides an overview of SoTLT's history and activities from 2002-2007. Key events included forming an editorial board, hosting videoconferences and online discussions on teaching and learning topics, creating online communities, and conducting lesson study projects between 2002-2007. The goals of SoTLT were to raise awareness of teaching and learning scholarship and increase collaborative scholarship among academic staff.
This presentation will introduce the exciting terrain of OER, identify the social, technical, legal, and financial motivators that are enabling the movement, and demonstrate how it has the potential to change academic practice and create new avenues for collaboration and feedback. He will argue that in adopting and familiarising oneself with OER practice academics can become ‘global scholars’, embracing Web 2.0 tools and open licensing systems which have the potential to enhance and increase the reach of their knowledge.
The presentation will detail an African university’s journey towards institutionalizing support for open educational resources. The talk intends to provide a base with which OER advocates can encourage African academic leaders to embrace openness and to highlight some of the benefits not only for the global community but also for the institution, students and contributing academic.
This document discusses how open courseware and open sharing of educational resources can help universities advance their missions and connect with institutional goals. It notes that open courseware allows universities to increase their reach by empowering more people with access to education materials. It also provides examples of how open courseware can help with recruitment by building awareness of programs prior to enrollment, help with reputation by showcasing areas of excellence, help with retention by allowing students to better prepare for courses, and help with advising, evaluation and recommendations by providing concrete information about course content and requirements.
Professional Development for Teaching Online and Hybrid Courses in Higher Edu...Dr. Kristin Palmer
This slide deck goes through the professional development options available at the University of Virginia for teaching online and hybrid courses. These options range from self-serve sheets to book clubs, certificate programs and conferences.
Education Principles That Work Ncpsa Bfe Mena 2011espie77
Ms. Jenny Smith
Accreditation International (Ai)
National Council Private School Accreditation (NCPSA)
International Alliance of Regional Accreditors
www.aiaccredits.org
www.ncpsa.org
www.theaccreditationalliance.org
The document discusses the Open Courseware Consortium (OCC), which advances open education through sharing free educational materials online. It summarizes the OCC's history and goals of partnering with community colleges. Specifically, it aims to recruit more community colleges, study the impact of open educational resources, and provide support for using and creating open courseware.
The document discusses the open educational resources (OER) movement and open courseware (OCW) initiatives. It describes how OCW began with MIT seeking to share educational materials online to advance knowledge worldwide. As other institutions realized the benefits of open sharing, the OCW movement grew globally. The OCW Consortium now includes around 100 institutions that have shared over 8,600 courses to support formal and informal learning worldwide.
Credit and Collaboration in MOOCs: Where are we now?tbirdcymru
This presentation provides examples of collaboration and credit opportunities with MOOCs from around the world. It discusses scenarios where universities collaborate on developing and offering shared MOOCs, increasing enrollment for both, and how MOOCs can help non-traditional students earn credit to apply for degrees. Examples highlighted include collaborations between multiple institutions on FutureLearn courses and an online master's program partnership between Georgia Tech, Udacity, and AT&T.
This document discusses virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) as a means to engage faculty in the scholarship of teaching. It aims to understand what factors encourage faculty participation in VCoPs and address sustainability issues. The document outlines the benefits of VCoPs for collaboration, professional development, and building relationships. Key factors for successful VCoPs include motivated faculty champions, appropriate technology infrastructure, and a supportive academic culture. Examples of existing VCoPs are provided.
Open Education Week: Community College OER Innovation PanelUna Daly
Presentation from Open Education Week, March 13, 2013
From a "Basic Arithmetic MOOC” to an “OER-based General Education Certificate”, learn about the innovation at our two-year public colleges and how to best support institutional adoption of OER at your college.
Website: http://oerconsortium.org
How to participate
Webinar time: 19:00-20:00 GMT/UTC
Webinar language: English
PRIOR TO THE MEETING
Test Your Computer Readiness
Use the following link to login to the webinar: http://www.cccconfer.org/MyConfer/GoToMeetingAnonymousely.aspx?MeetingSeriesID=7f5ae919-67a1-4e98-8cf7-861fc0692b93
When prompted, please enter first and last name, email address, and screen name and click on the Connect button to proceed to webinar.
Speakers
Una Daly
MA, Community College Outreach, OpenCourseWare Consortium
Dr. Wm. Preston Davis
Director of Instructional Services, ELI, Northern Virginia Community College
Dr. Donna Gaudet
Math Professor, Scottsdale Community College, Arizona
Quill West
OER Project Director, Tacoma Community College, Washington
The document discusses advancing formal and informal learning through openly sharing and using free, high-quality educational materials organized as courses via the OpenCourseWare Consortium. It aims to expand access to education by showcasing existing course materials and educational quality. The future of OCW includes enhancing self-learning tools, increasing faculty engagement through global issues, and developing new mobile platforms to improve accessibility. Case studies show countries using OER to increase affordable access, supplement curriculum, and advocate for recognizing OER production in university rankings.
Yunnan University: Lessons Learned from the U.S. and California for Yunnan Fa...Gary Matkin
This document summarizes key differences and similarities between higher education in the United States and China from the perspective of an administrator at the University of California, Irvine. It discusses three main points:
1. Major differences between U.S. and Chinese higher education include the lack of a standardized exam like the GAOKAO in the U.S., greater student mobility and diversity of institutions in the U.S., and different sources of funding.
2. Important trends in both countries include expanding access, meeting rural needs, aligning degrees with jobs, and internationalization.
3. The concepts of a "60-year curriculum" and alternative digital credentials are important for lifelong learning and aligning education with workforce
The Present and Future of Alternative Digital CredentialsGary Matkin
Presentation begins with a review of the ICDE report on “The Present and Future of ADCs.” The presentation also will provide an update to the report with specific examples of issues that were highlighted that have already, subsequently to the report, come to our attention.
Career Services for New Generations of UCI Students and EmployersGary Matkin
Presentation describes the importance of the 60-Year Curriculum and the issuance of Alternative Digital Credentials as students move toward graduation to enter the world of work.
The Present and Future of Alternative Digital Credentials. ICDE World ConferenceGary Matkin
This presentation reviews the ICDE report on “The Present and Future of ADCs.” It also provides an update to the report with specific examples of issues that were highlighted that have already, subsequently to the report, come to our attention.
We start with a list of recommendations that reveal the overarching purpose of the report, which encourages and provides guidance to ICDE member institutions who are considering, or have already adopted, ADCs.
Digital credentials known as alternative digital credentials (ADCs) or badges provide portable verification of skills and competencies. They contain metadata about the earner's identity, the issuer, criteria used to assess competency, and can include examples of student work. Some key implementation decisions for institutions include criteria for issuing ADCs, icon design, metadata standards, and choosing an issuing platform. While ADCs can supplement transcripts and promote workforce-relevant learning, issues around proliferation and ensuring competency-based criteria require attention.
Digital Credentials: Why, What, and How. Connecting Learning Outcomes with Em...Gary Matkin
Presented at the UPCEA 2019 Annual Conference.
This presentation introduces the concept of Alternative Digital Credentials (ADC’s), sometimes referred to as “badges.” It discusses what ADCs are, how they are used, why they are important, how they are an imperative for higher education, how employers are beginning to accept and use ADCs, and what the future of ADCs might be. The basic thesis of this presentation is that ADCs are and will be a permanent feature of the higher education landscape and that societies and institutions that fail to adopt and recognize ADCs will lose their competitive advantage in the marketplace and fall short of their social responsibility.
The Present and Future of Alternative Digital Credentials. Gary Matkin
Presented at the Seminar for the Israeli Consortium of Faculty Development Centers (ICFDC).
This presentation introduces the concept of Alternative Digital Credentials (ADC’s), sometimes referred to as “badges.” It discusses what ADCs are, how they are used, why they are important, how they are an imperative for higher education, how employers are beginning to accept and use ADCs, and what the future of ADCs might be. The basic thesis of this presentation is that ADCs are and will be a permanent feature of the higher education landscape and that societies and institutions that fail to adopt and recognize ADCs will lose their competitive advantage in the marketplace and fall short of their social responsibility.
The Present and Future of Alternative Digital Credentials: An Imperative for ...Gary Matkin
This presentation introduces the concept of Alternative Digital Credentials (ADC’s), sometimes referred to as “badges.” It discusses what ADCs are, how they are used, why they are important, how they are an imperative for higher education, how employers are beginning to accept and use ADCs, and what the future of ADCs might be. The basic thesis of this presentation is that ADCs are and will be a permanent feature of the higher education landscape and that societies and institutions that fail to adopt and recognize ADCs will lose their competitive advantage in the marketplace and fall short of their social responsibility.
Operate Your CE Unit Like a Business to Stay in BusinessGary Matkin
The document discusses the inherent barriers to operating a continuing education unit like a business and staying in business. It identifies problems such as a mismatch between income generation and resource allocation, a lack of project/cost accounting and responsiveness. It then provides recommendations on how to mitigate these problems, such as using accruals and deferrals, developing separate budgeting systems, implementing activity-based costing, and creating a market-oriented culture. The document stresses the importance of recognizing and mitigating these barriers through sound financial management, marketing, and educating senior management.
This seminar series is intended to explore new technology and trends in continuing education.
It is consistent with our 2016 strategic priorities (see document).The content management seminar will be followed by a seminar on analytics and how they can be used, and then by other subjects including competency based educational assessment, micro credentialing, and strategic partnership development.This seminar series is seeking input and involvement as we work things out. Out of these seminars will come projects and assignments. You will see what I mean—Larry, Sarah, and I will describe some of the capabilities of the new technologies but you will have to determine how these capabilities can be most useful to you. It is important that we establish roles and responsibilities, and balance user input and the discipline needed to maintain and operate a tech based system. At this seminar I will set the context, Sarah will talk about Canvas and best practices, Larry will talk about the UCI commons we are developing. Then all three of us will try to help you understand the difference between these efforts.
it describes the bony anatomy including the femoral head , acetabulum, labrum . also discusses the capsule , ligaments . muscle that act on the hip joint and the range of motion are outlined. factors affecting hip joint stability and weight transmission through the joint are summarized.
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty, In...Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty,
International FDP on Fundamentals of Research in Social Sciences
at Integral University, Lucknow, 06.06.2024
By Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
This slide is special for master students (MIBS & MIFB) in UUM. Also useful for readers who are interested in the topic of contemporary Islamic banking.
This presentation includes basic of PCOS their pathology and treatment and also Ayurveda correlation of PCOS and Ayurvedic line of treatment mentioned in classics.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
1. Why You Should Immediately Create an
OpenCourseWare Web Site at Your Institution
By Gary. W. Matkin, Ph.D., Dean
Continuing Education, Distance Learning and Summer
Session
University of California, Irvine
University Professional & Continuing Education Association
(UPCEA) Annual Conference
April 6-9, 2011
2. MIT and the Early Institutional
Case
5 Reasons MIT Began
its OCW Initiative
1. To advance education
and widen access
2. To provide greater
opportunity for MIT
faculty to see and reuse
each other’s work
3. To create a good record
of materials
4. To increase contact with
alumni
5. To help MIT students
become better prepared
3. The Global Impact of OCW on
Institutional Reputation & Visibility
Since its launch in 2002, MIT’s OCW has received108
million visits by 77 million visitors
5. The Expanded Institutional Case
1. Serve current students (supports teaching and
learning)
2. Attract new students
3. Support faculty in both course authoring and
delivery
4. Facilitate accountability and aid continuous
improvement
5. Advance institutional recognition and reputation
6. Support the public service role of institutions
7. Disseminate the results of research and thereby
attract research funding
8. Serve as a repository for a wide range of digital
assets
9. Serve learning communities of all types
10. Enhance international service and reputation
11. OCW Stimulates & Facilitates
Accountability & Continuous
Improvement
H.B. No. 2504: Section 51.974.
“Each institution of higher education,
other than a medical and dental unit,
shall make available to the public on
the institution’s Internet website the
following information for each
undergraduate classroom course
offered for credit by the institution.”
17. OCW Advances Institutional
Recognition & Reputation
UCI’s OCW Web Site Attracts Viewers from Around the World
Since its launch in November 2006, UCI’s OCW
Web site has received 450,000 visits from
370,000 visitors
53% of 450,000 visits were from
internationals, from 200 countries around the
world U.S.
Internation
47%
al
53%
27. Gaining Institutional and Faculty
Support for OCW
Create a Web site that you can be proud of
Focus on helping students and faculty — get
them involved
Leverage and support existing units
Build an inventory — spread it around
Create “micro” demonstrations — publicize them
Get media attention — both internal and external
32. Leverage and Support Existing Units
Library
Teaching/Learning technology centers
Development offices
Schools and departments
Research
Information technology operations
36. Join the OCW Consortium Today
For more information about the OCW Consortium
and to start building your OCW Web site, please
contact:
Mary Lou Forward
Executive Director
OpenCourseWare Consortium
mlforwar@ocwconsortium.org
Or visit the OCW Consortium Web site at:
http://ocwconsortium.org
38. Gary W. Matkin, Ph.D.
Dean, Continuing Education, Distance Learning and Summer
Session
University of California, Irvine
Email: gmatkin@uci.edu
Telephone: 949.824.8825
On the Web: http://ocw.uci.edu/
Download this Presentation at:
http://www.slideshare.net/garymatkin
Editor's Notes
The development of the OpenCourseWare(OCW) and Open Educational Resource (OER) movements over the last three years indicates that major universities around the world are already or will soon become producers and publishers of OCW and OER and that these efforts will become permanent features of organizational life in these institutions. Continuing educators will gain institutional credibility by initiating open Web sites. The institutional case for OCW/OER is strong and multifaceted. This presentation will describe how institutions are effectively using and supporting open Websites and how such sites intersect with clear trends in higher education. Among the benefits described will be the use of OCW/OER to attract students, serve current students and supplement their learning, support faculty in both course authoring and delivery, facilitate accountability and aid continuous improvement, advance institutional recognition and reputation, support the public service role of institutions, disseminate the results of research and thereby attract research funding, serve as a repository for a wide range of digital assets, serve learning communities of all types, and enhance international service and reputation. To download this complete presentation, please visit: http://www.slideshare.net/garymatkin/upcea2011
MIT’s establishment of the first institutional-sponsored OCW Web site set the standard and direction for institutional sites around the world. Its initial reasons for establishing the site remain as sound now as they were in the beginning. Charles Vest, then president of MIT, lists five reasons for MIT’s pioneering effort to “give away all its course materials via the Internet” (Vest, 2004):To advance education and widen accessTo provide greater opportunity for MIT faculty to see and reuse each other’s workTo create a good record of materialsTo increase contact with alumniTo help MIT students become better prepared
A well developed OCW Web site has tremendous potential for showing the world the quality and extent of what an institution has to offer. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the founder of institutionalized OCW sites, averages over 1 million unique visits per month to its site, over 56% of which come from overseas. 58% of MIT faculty say that OCW has enhanced the reputation of their departments.
Following MIT’s initiative,hundreds of institutions around the world have recognized the power of OCW and have not only joined the OpenCourseWareConsortium (OCWC) but have contributed to the growing store of open courses in many languages. Collectively, OCWC members have published materials from more than 13,000 courses in 20 languages.
The experience of the last four years has added substance to the case that can be made for institutional involvement in the OER/OCW movements. This experience has supported and reaffirmed all of the early objectives for higher educational institutions to become actively involved in sponsoring and publishing OER/OCW and, in addition, presented new examples of the benefits that institutions can derive from such involvement. As these new uses emerge, so does the justification for the financial support of them, support that results in revenue generation, cost savings, and service improvements that are so compelling as to demand funding and support from institutional leaders. This list builds the case for institutional support of OER/OCW which will be described in the following slides.
There is no more compelling a case to be made for OER/OCW than its ability to serve the core instructional mission of the institution. Charles Vest, in 2004 describes why MIT chose to give its materials away for free and lists two of his five reasons under this category—to provide MIT faculty the opportunity to view each other’s work and to help MIT students be better prepared. In fact, these two reasons are clearly manifested in the MIT experience and in the experience of other universities, some of which have taken an even more active role than MIT. For instance, UC Berkeley has created an infrastructure whereby course lectures are automatically recorded and then posted to iTunes U, available for viewing by students in the course soon after the lecture is complete. Individual students and study groups can review lectures as they prepare for exams. This same service can also serve students who miss a class and, in one case at a major university facing a classroom shortage, an alternative delivery system to the classroom. New York University (NYU) recently video captured lectures in ten courses, added learning assets to them and placed them online in an open format for its fall 2010 term. The professors teaching the courses used the time gained in not having to deliver the lecture for one-on-one interactions. Of course, these examples could be provided by the institution without offering the material in an open format. The advantage of the NYU and UC Berkeley models is that they utilize a free, publically available distribution site (YouTube EDU or iTunes U). These sites are easily accessible by students from anywhere and can remain in place along with later versions of the same course beyond the current term, serving as a continuing reference for subsequent students. And the institution gains the benefits of wide-spread exposure to its instructional product.
The open textbook movement comes into play here also as the distinction between textbooks and Web-based and digitized materials of all types begin to blur. Universities are seeking to provide students with the material needed for their courses in cost effective ways. In 2009, University of California’s (UC) chair and vice chair of the academic senate wrote an “open letter” to the UC faculty saying “now it’s our turn to cut the cost of textbooks for our students.” One way they suggest for cutting such costs is to “try to identify open resources textbooks (OER) or other published material that is freely available in digital form.”
Recent studies by MIT indicate that 79 percent of entering freshman report that they visited the MIT OCW site before deciding to attend MIT. Frequently their parents also visited the site. Seeing “how MIT does it” makes sense as part of the decision-making process.
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) placed a series of public health seminars on its OCW Web site, and professor of public health Oladele Ogunseitan reports that “applications at the undergraduate level and the graduate level have all increased over the past year.” http://learn.uci.edu/ucionline/. Also at UCI, the continuing education unit of the University reports that traffic from its OCW site (http://ocw.uci..edu) is one of the largest sources of referral traffic to its catalog site. It uses its OCW Web site to capture leads for its online courses and programs and as a demonstration site for those who want to understand what kind of experience they will have in an UCI online course.
OCW allows faculty to see the work of other faculty members. Another institution-wide example of aiding course authoring can be seen at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Monterrey, Mexico, with its project known as the “knowledge hub.” To search the knowledge hub, visit http://www.temoa.info/. Temoa is a knowledge hub that provides a catalog of Open Educational Resources (OER) to support the education community. Individual and teams of faculty members have created their own course materials, reviewed open material from other universities, and categorized the material by university course number in a repository ready for the use of both students and faculty. This institutionally sponsored project promises to drive down the time, effort and cost of developing institutional courses by harvesting vetted material from other institutions while making their own material available to others.
In the U.S., the regional accrediting bodies are requiring that desired student outcomes (DSOs) be articulated for each degree program as a whole and for each course. The metrics, preferably external metrics, must be adopted for the measurement of those outcomes and the results of those metrics must be translated into action that improves the university’s educational product. Similar regulations are beginning to be promulgated in Europe partly as a result of the Bologna Process. But the calls for accountability go beyond educational organizations. A recent law passed in the state of Texas, HB2504, requires institutions to post a public Web site for every undergraduate course taught for credit by public institutions (except medical and dental schools). Included in the posting must be the course syllabus, departmental budget (if available) and the curriculum vitae of each regular instructor. The information must be easily accessible to the public no later than seven days after the academic term begins, must be updated as appropriate, and must be maintained for two years. While this is an extreme example, the trend is toward more openness in the instructional function.
OCW allows everyone to see how any particular professor expects to achieve the learning outcomes for a course, to see the design of the course, and to make judgments about both the content (level and extent) of the course and the pedagogical methods used. For the first time, we now have visible demonstrations of how institutions can offer their prospective students (their customers) a clear view of an important part of the product offered for sale—something that campus visits or recruitment literature cannot adequately disclose. Although there is more to a university experience than content and pedagogy, and not all the richness of a pedagogical approach can be displayed in OCW, the trend is clear. In the current environment which explicitly demands accountability and disclosure, it is not a giant leap to predict that some degree of openness as expressed in OCW will quickly make its way into accreditation requirements.
In addition to rigorous standards, increased accountability, and transparency, accrediting agencies are demanding processes for continuous improvement. This chart illustrates one conception of the continuous improvement process. One of the premises of the online learning movement is that the investment in the production of learning/teaching materials can be captured and leveraged through re-use and (as we will see) continuous improvement. So a core technology of any serious and large scale technology-assisted learning organization is a content management system.What is content: it is really anything that can be digitally recorded and filed. For our purposes, of course, we are concentrating on content that will be used in the teaching/learning process. Examples: printed materials, video and audio recordings, charts, simulations, PowerPoint slides.Any content management system must include the capacity to manage the intellectual property rights of contributors to the system. This is known as digital rights management (DRM).Again, for our purposes, any content management system must serve the course authoring system in an efficient manner. The content management system should be capable of accepting and managing content from a wide variety of sources, not only from an internal content management system, but also from any digital material created by instructors, from the huge inventory of open material now available and also from material owned and controlled by others, including the University.The content management system should be able to handle almost any digitized material, text of course, but also video, audio, PowerPoint, flash files, and any combination. By “handle” I mean not only be able to file, but also find and manipulate.Following this logic, a course (or any “learning object”) can be produced from the content in the content management system with the course authoring tool.Students can then take the course. As they proceed through the course, their use of course material and particularly their successin achieving learning objectives, can be collected and analyzed.The data can then be used to modify the content (learning object) to improve it for the next offering.
An OER/OCW Web site immediately pays dividends in terms of recognition at the institutional, school, department, center and individual faculty levels. The impressive statistics of the use of MIT OCW clearly enhanced MIT’s already strong image and recognition. But there are more such examples, including the experience of UCI, which was the first campus in the UC system and the first west coast university to join the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC).
While there are many possible expressions of an institution’s commitment and ability to draw positive effects from openness, the establishment of an institutional open Web site is the most effective way of creating institutional value. UCI’s OCW site features contributions from 66 UCI faculty members,over 50 full open courses, 120 video lectures, 1,000 learning assets and is consistently ranked alongside MIT, Johns Hopkins, and other major institutions within the top ten U.S. OCW Web sites. The existence of an OCW Web site enables the institution to regularly and with little cost provide contributions to the public welfare, attracting positive stories in the news media.
UC Irvine has a regular protocol for republishing material posted on the UCI OCW site to other open sites including YouTube Edu, iTunes U,Merlot, and Connexions. We also publish course links on Facebook, Twitter, and VideoLectures.net. This multiple site exposure increases search engine visibility,driving up coursetraffic to our site.
Similar to the MIT experience, UCI is drawing views to its OCW site from around the world.
The reputation aspects of OCW do not stop at the institutional level. Individual faculty members can also gain very high recognition for their efforts. For instance, Michael Wesch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University has drawn more 11,000,000 views to his video describing Web 2.0 since its launch in December of 2007.
Public and media relations can go a long way in the building an institution’s leadership position in open education. Several UCI faculty members have been featured in the mainstream news media for their contributions to OCW. UCI Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Michael Dennin was featured in the New York Times on April 16, 2010 for his award winning “Science of Superheroes” course.
OER and OCW support the ability of the university to serve the public. While this purpose was an underlying impulse of MIT’s pioneering project, the expression of its OCW did not directly address specific public service efforts. But the large mass of material ultimately produced by MIT naturally put pressure on it to adapt the material for deserving audiences. The most ambitious effort is MIT’s Highlights for High School project, an effort to provide a “lens” on the mass of MIT material in science and mathematics that might be useful to high school teachers and students (http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/).
Another example is UCI’s OER material designed specifically to help California’s K-12 teachers prepare for the state’s examinations in order to teach science and mathematics. Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Boeing Company, UCI’s effort continues to serve thousands of teachers and receives more visits than any other collection of courses on the UCI OCW site (http://learn.uci.edu/ocw/collections.php). UCI’s CSET courses continue to be the some of the most visited courses on its site with over 30,000 visits. Many teachers attribute their success in passing the CSET exams to our preparatory courses.
For research universities, an open site can become a powerful competitive advantage in gaining research funding. All federal agencies and many foundations now emphasize and reward sound plans for getting the results of research funding into practical use as quickly as possible. Sometimes, the creation of high-quality learning materials for use by institutions and individuals is the best mechanism for dissemination, with the greatest impact.
Every large university has many initiatives that call for dissemination of parts of the knowledge base created and maintained by it. Sometimes the need for dissemination is internal, such as the sharing of learning materials among colleagues even when they are in the same department or located close by. But most universities continually produce material useful to the public. For instance, universities often produce learning objects useful to the K-12 educational segment. Even when they can find funding to produce or publish the material, delivery methods remain cumbersome and expensive. The main issue is not so much OER production as its disposition. An institutionally sponsored OER/OCW Web site is a convenient “default” repository, but one that also automatically serves as a low cost publication and dissemination mechanism. With the establishment of an open Web site there is immediately a place for much of the production of the university.
The emergence of learning communities is being stimulated by OER/OCW. The existence of high-quality learning materials available for free, anyplace, anytime has naturally led people to seek some form of valid learning assessment and certification. But there are several more serious efforts at encouraging this kind of learning. For instance Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is organized to help learners connect with subject experts in a temporary learning community, but the effort is searching for ways to legitimize the learning accomplished. The University of the People hopes to gain accreditation for the learning experiences it organizes around courses purchased by other universities. (Abramson, 2010). OpenLearn, an initiative of the Open University (OU) of the UK “is working toward creating a truly interactive and collaborative learning experience.” OU students can meet up in chat rooms to discuss their lessons and the university is working on what will be the educational equivalent of Facebook to allow users to create profiles, find, and communicate with others studying similar material. (Aujla and Terris, 2009). Some instructors are opening their online courses to the world, joining the open teaching movement and spawning the term “Massive Open Online Course” (MOOC). (Parry, 29 August 2010).
Through participation in the OER/OCW movements, institutions become automatic members of a powerful but informal international club and thereby gain international visibility. To remain on the sidelines of OER/OCW risks exclusion from the club or may necessitate a scramble to get in when opportunity knocks. Even an internationally recognized institution such as MIT benefits from this international association. In fact, 58% of MIT faculty believe that the MIT OCW Web site has improved its international reputation. Many national governments, including the U.S., with now a somewhat diminished initiative to foster open education for the community colleges, are adopting OER/OCW as part of a national education strategy. Indeed, the African Virtual University is focused on institutional sharing of resources through an open exchange. With such powerful patrons, universities should prepare themselves for what is inevitable—calls for sharing their instructional materials with the world. The interaction among international partners has already stimulated innovation and excitement. Those features will accelerate the movements further in the very near future.
Fundraising for higher education has never been more important and will eventually include raising funds to support the teaching mission of the university. OCW has quickly, inexpensively and visibly demonstrated the teaching excellence of an institution’s faculty in highly targeted ways. For instance, an open course featuring a lecture by an eminent faculty member in religious studies might show potential donors what their investment would benefit. Short of taking potential donors into the classroom, few tactics work as well as OCW to feature the educational services at the heart of the university.
Here is a brief list of some actions you can take to gain institutional and faculty support of an OCW Web site.
Here is a screen capture of UCI’s OCW site. Note that it is graphically appealing with clear and intuitive “navigational” features such as the list at the top showing “collections”, courses, etc.
By clicking on “courses,” visitors get a list of all the UCI Schools which serves as a rough index of subjects covered. This allows for the logical involvement of the schools that must support this effort.
When a visitor clicks on a particular course from this list, the viewer is connected to a “landing page” with, again, clear instructions and information including a big green button prompting the user to “Begin Course.”
The more faculty that contribute to the site, the more embedded the site will become at your institution. Student use of the site is also an important measure. Creating the possibility of using OCW material in regular classes is a great way to feature the value of OCW. This slide shows a screen capture of a feature story on UCI’s OCW that appeared on Monday, March 28th, on the home page of the UC Irvine Web site. For a link to the complete story, visit http://uci.edu/features/2011/03/feature_ocw_110328.php.
Virtually any unit on campus, academic or administrative, can benefit from an OCW Web site. Attracting the use of the OCW site by strategically selected allies is an important way to gain institutional recognition of the site. Libraries, teaching/learning technology centers, and information technology operations are among those units most likely to feel threatened by OCW. Showing them how OCW can help them is effective in reducing institutional resistance. Aiding development efforts say, by providing free demonstrations of high quality instruction for potential donors, puts OCW at the heart of any university—generating funding. In addition to serving students and faculty in the teaching and learning process, OCW can serve the individual needs of schools and departments. Among those needs, particularly in research universities, is the desire to disseminate the results of research in a forum designed to aid the effective teaching of the new results. Creating user-friendly means of interacting with the OCW site is necessary to keep OCW maintenance costs down.
The best way to get attention for an OCW site is to make sure it has a lot of interesting and useful material in it. Fortunately, such material is more and more available and usually it is relatively inexpensive to acquire and post. Once posted there are ways to republish institutional OER on public utility sites such as YouTube EDU and iTunes U. Video capture of lectures is relatively inexpensive and a readily available source.
Helping a faculty memberpost material useful for students and for deserving audiences creates the possibility for a valuable demonstration of the value of OCW/OEWR. The faculty member can then become an advocate and others can see the results easily. Doing the same kind of demonstration of something useful to a deserving external audience is also highly valuable.
While it may take some work, getting the press and the media to feature a story on how the University is helping the community by providing a valuable free service is a natural and continuing story that should be pushed.
If you’re interested in starting an institutional OCW Web site and joining the OpenCourseWare Consortium, please contact the consortium’s executive director:Mary Lou ForwardExecutive DirectorOCW Consortiummlforwar@ocwconsortium.org
To download this presentation, please visit: http://www.slideshare.net/garymatkin/upcea2011