Research

George has written a great response to my Feelings about MOOCs. He quickly zeroes in on my main argument about MOOCs, and elaborates. [David] suggests that MOOCs are a poor fit for people who aren’t academically prepared. It’s an important consideration. If, in our attempt to open education, we throw barriers in front of learners, we are defeating our goals. I’m not sure how David defines a “prepared learner”. By “well prepared,” I mean someone who has had the necessary prerequisite learning experiences and who has succeeded in those experiences. A person who is well prepared is ready for the current learning experience in terms of prerequisite knowledge and skills. ...

For some time now I’ve been concerned because we don’t understand openness. A recent conversation involving Tony, Rory, and Terry demonstrated this confusion, even among (rightly) respected experts in the field. The crux of Rory’s response to Tony’s original post is instructive. Over and over again, he dismisses Tony’s criticisms by saying ’this is not an argument against OER.’ Rory is claiming that criticisms of OER that don’t actually have anything to do with OER are terribly unfair. It should go without saying that claiming benefits for OER that don’t have anything to do with OER is also unfair. Consequently, before we can talk about importance, value, contribution, impact, or make any other evaluative statements about OER, we have to be crystal clear about what open means in this context, and how open educational resources are different from educational resources. ...

I’m simply ecstatic to say that this deal is finally done! Rather than write up my own announcement, I’ll reuse Timothy Vollmer’s. Today Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the solicitation for grant applications under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program (TAACCCT). Over the course of 4 years, the program will invest $2 billion “to provide community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education with funds to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs.” The program supports President Obama’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 by helping to increase the number of workers who attain degrees, certificates and other industry recognized credentials. The first round of funding will be $500 million over the next year. Applications to the solicitation are now open, and will be due April 21, 2011. ...

Qatar Foundation International has a new posting for an ICT Officer that mentions OER specifically. I know some of the people at QFI and they’re fabulous. This sounds like a great opportunity for someone… Officer, Information Communications Technologies A critical element of QFI’s developmental approach is to apply the best & most appropriate technologies to enhance our programs, e.g. OER, hybrid language translation, mobile APPs, etc. In addition, QFI has brought together several thought leaders in technology to form a Technology Program Advisory Group (TPAG). The organization seeks to acquire the internal staff capacity to analyze with honesty and intellectual rigor the effective application of ICT to its programs. ...

Former COSLers Joel Duffin and Justin Ball are continuing their work on tools that make OER more valuable and useful. The OER Recommender (now part of the Folksemantic project) is one of the premiere tools in their bag. If you’ve visited an OER that uses the recommendation service (see “Related Resources” on the right of my Blogs, Wikis, and New Media for Learning page at USU OCW), you know that with one line of javascript you can provide automated recommendations of related OERs to any site. It’s one of the coolest OER services around. ...

David Porter asks for research about the sustainability of open educational resources. Here is a list of our articles that appeared in peer-reviewed journals last year on the topic of sustainability of OER (with links to publicly available versions in the BYU Institutional Repository): A Sustainable Model for OpenCourseWare Development Johansen, Justin and Wiley, David http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/2353 Keywords: OpenCourseWare; sustainability; open educational resources; development; cost Description/Abstract: The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the cost of converting BYU Independent Study’s e-learning courses into OpenCourseWare, (b) assess the impact of opening those courses on paid enrollment in the credit-bearing versions of the courses, and (c) use these data to judge whether or not an OpenCourseWare program could be financially self-sustaining over the long-term without grant monies or other subsidies. The findings strongly suggest that the BYU Independent Study model of publishing OpenCourseWare is financially self-sustaining, allowing the institution to provide a significant public good while generating new revenue and meeting its ongoing financial obligations. ...

A draft of the OpenEd 2010 conference program is now available for review. I post it while still in draft form because so many people are asking for it. So, following the mantra “release early, release often,” please have a look at the program while realizing it is still subject to change! The final program should be available shortly…

I’m at the AECT Board of Director’s meeting / Research Symposium this week. Rick Schwier (@schwier) is presenting about learning in formal, non-formal, and informal environments. Listening to him talk helped me crystalize something I already sort of knew but had never but into words to my satisfaction. IF people construct meaning based on their own prior knowledge and past experience, and IF a wide variety of tools and content like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, OpenCourseWare, blogs, etc., are significant, important parts of some people’s every day lives, and ...

I’m very happy to announce that BYU has just received a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The pilot project will examine the deeper learning and cost savings that can be achieved when open textbooks replace traditional, expensive textbooks in public high school science classrooms. 15-20 public high school science teachers in Utah will replace their expensive, traditional textbooks with open textbooks from CK12.org for the 2010-2011 school year. Approximately 2,000 students will be impacted by the changes. Most will use printed versions of the books, while a few hundred students in one-to-one schools will use the online versions of the books on netbooks or iPads. Teachers will continue to supplement the CK12 books with additional resources and activities just as they have historically supplemented expensive, traditional textbooks. ...