Personal Blogs

So really it seems that little OERs are a way of giving structure to all the online chat, blogging, posting and sharing of resources that go on. For me in my FE college context that seems like a manageable step, whereas big OERs would be quite a major innovation.

Martin Weller suggests that little OERs, the long tail of the online resources,  encourage engagement and outreach, as well as increasing openness and the reuse of resources. All of these are desirable.

He also wonders about potential clashes of loyalty and responsibility if something we distribute as an OER (e.g. a blog) offends our employer. That's one to ponder!

by John Baglow

For me, the 3 main issues with OER revolve around what is meant by openness, how open programmes can be sustained and what quality control is possible.

Openness:

The OECD talks about materials being “offered freely”? That might mean:

• no restrictions on who could participate
• without charge
• the user, whether a learner or practitioner, would be free to use and reuse the materials as they wished including making changes.
• there would be no technical barriers to access

George Siemens argued in his online presentation (25 03 12) that the success of OER hinges not so much on the placing of resources online but of making them more-widely accessible.

Issues for my FE college: would we want to make resources available to users? Would that enhance our reputation? Could we then encourage them to join fee-paying courses? Should we share our teaching resources with other practitioners? How useful are shared resources without sharing our experiences of how we use them?

Sustainability The obvious question about OER is what would sustain the OER over time? It seems to me that Stephen Downes is right when he says

“the sustainability of OERs - in a fashion that makes them affordable and usable - requires that we think of OERs as only part of a larger picture, one that includes volunteers and incentives, community and partnerships, coproduction and sharing, distributed management and control.”

In other words, OERs are not just materials deposited online by an institution. To be successful they need to be part of an organic network which capitalises on the way that people interact and collaborate online. Jan Hylen suggests that OER should be provided via user communities. This would enable users to form strong relations with the website. Crucially, the institution can then learn from the community about what works and what doesn’t. He argues that building up such a community would encourage users to return to it.

There may not even be an institution involved. The OER may be

“more of a grass roots activity where individuals contribute with their time, knowledge and resources on a voluntary basis. In this model, production, use and distribution is decentralised, compared to the institutional model where at least production and distribution are centralised“.

Issues for my FE college: If we are not to adopt the status quo option scathingly dismissed by George Siemens, we should explore ways of forming and joining user communities in appropriate subject areas.

Quality Assurance

It is hardly surprising that ideas about quality assurance of OER seem to have a lot in common with quality assurance of any product offered online.

• It may be that the institution’s brand alone is strong enough to reassure users of the materials’ quality.
• there could be a system of user reviews such as on hotel booking sites
• or a more integrated peer review system which gives recognition to creators and helps disseminate the materials.

Issues for my FE college: the college has a strong brand regionally ,based on its face-to-face teaching. We should pilot the use of OERs which include user reviews and peer review

Downes, S. (2007). Models for sustainable open educational resources.

EDUCERI › Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources 2007

http://www.oecd.org/document41/0,3343,en_2649_35845581_38659497_1_1_1_1,00.html

Hylén, J. (2006). Open educational resources: Opportunities and challenges. Proceedings of Open Education, 49-63.

Siemens, G., “Openness and the future of higher education in the age of MOOCs" Webinar, Mon March 25 2013

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

There have been several momentous changes in my teaching career:

• when it became appropriate for my students (or pupils, as they were called then) to call me John instead of 'sir' or Mr. Baglow
• when I stopped being the source of all input into the classroom and realised that the students could be relied on to input material

Am I now on the verge of another watershed? Am I about to start sharing with other practitioners in other colleges the teaching materials and strategies I have developed? That would be quite a step.

The teacher training courses which I am involved with are in direct competition with similar courses at other colleges in the area. That is the main stumbling block, I think. What do others think?

Working in a mooc is quite different to face-to-face learning. In class I can ask my peers for help, support and information and the tutor is also on hand.

In a mooc there are far more people taking the course and I can be in touch with them at any time. I can follow my own inclinations - though I have to be careful to keep on task and not be diverted by some new gizmo.

 

Once again I found having a chat to a few others on H817 yesterday evening was very reassuring and encouraging. We talked about how the group was collaborating on Activity 15. I certainly feel that there is a danger that we are making the activity too academic. It was helpful to talk about how we will try to pull the whole thing together so that our group completes its part of the task.

I really enjoyed last night's video conference with David, Asanka and Trish. I hope we will hear from Antonio soon.

I think video conferencing still can be called 'innovation' while practitioners are still working out what is best practice. Using a new gizmo does not stop being an innovation until it has been assimilated and chewed over by practitioners.

It was helpful that we were given moderator status - I hope we can get that every time!

For me video conferencing is an absolute necessity on an online course. Discussion forums are a key element too, but you can't beat a chat for getting to the heart of what your peers are thinking and feeling. My previous OU tutor thought that video was a distraction but I like it.

 

I spent ages producing this PLE but it was worth it as I have needed to pull all these things together for some time.

I still need to:

• work on Google Reader
• find a better way of storing bookmarks

Any suggestions?

I don't see any way round trying to work out a PLE. As a student I need to keep some sort of handle on how I think I can best learn. And as a teacher-trainer in FE I need to encourage my students to develop their own PLE and to help their own students to do the same.

In my context I think a VLE has some positive points if I work to include the participative aspects e.g. forums, blogs, wikis

I am about to produce an on-line module to deliver some of the PTLLS course in my FE college. There is lots of scope for on-line delivery and I am keen to exchange ideas and experiences with anyone who is interested.

How much of the stand-alone PTLLS have you delivered online?

What platforms are you using?

Have you used a forum?

Have you used online tutorials?

Please join in the exchange of information, views and advice

Friday, 27 April 2012