SCoPE+-+OER+session

Structure for the Seminar

3 weeks - **January 19 - February 8, 2009**

(//idea - give out a copy of the "OER Handbook for Educators" for the best post each week?//) =Week One - Finding & Using OER Resources= __**starter questions**__ >>
 * What are OER's? What does it mean for something to be open?
 * is http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=subject&cpid=22 open? difference between "open access" and fully "open"
 * Where do you currently go to find OE Resources?
 * group activity - build wiki page of classified collections
 * - likes/dislikes, pros & cons of each example. Maybe do a poll on what collection/example people like best? or top three examples?
 * What are some of the problems you face in finding OE Resources?
 * How much time do you spend looking for appropriate OERs? When you find them, where do you store them?
 * Have you ever modified someone else's work for your own use? If not, why not? If so, how did it work out? Were there things that made it easier?


 * __Goals/Points to bring out__**
 * different kinds of open
 * cf three meanings of 'open' - legally, socially, technologically: http://openeducationnews.org/2009/01/08/the-three-meanings-of-openness/
 * 4 Rs of Reuse
 * Reuse
 * Redistribute
 * Revise
 * Remix
 * **Meaningfully editable?** (e.g. HTML vs. JPG/PDF of notes or printed text)
 * **Self-sourced?** Ready-to-edit and ready-to-use? (e.g. HTML –> HTML vs. fla –> swf )
 * **Access to editing tools?** (e.g. HTML vs. MS OneNote)
 * **Level of expertise?**
 * cf. http://flexknowlogy.learningfield.org/2009/01/15/ipt-692r-notes-thurs-jan-15-2009/
 * issues with just using Google
 * issues with any of the OER collection approaches
 * help specific people in specific disciplines identify useful collections
 * constrained search; oer wiki search page, freelearning.ca, build your own
 * social bookmarking, 'shared items' or blogs - developing a *networked* way of capturing what you find so others can benefit, and benefitting from what others have found
 * difference between linking and copying
 * Fair dealing - exerting our EXISTING rights

=Week 2 - Creating OER=
 * __starter questions__**
 * Why create and share OER?
 * OER Benefits
 * How do you currently author your course content? Would it be easy to share your course content now without a lot of additional work?
 * Why is creating your own course content in a way that is easily shareable and reusable a good thing to do for your own purposes?
 * What's stopping you, for instance, from developing your course content in wikieducator and linking to it (or importing it) from there into your LMS?
 * How to sustain OER efforts?

> marginal cost derivative of the routinely used course preparation and management systems. Increase the amount of course > preparation and management systems that service closed and open institutional courseware." - from http://www.oerderves.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/a-review-of-the-open-educational-resources-oer-movement_final.pdf
 * __Goals/Points to bring out__**
 * the LMS is where OER goes to die; standards are an ineffectual way to address this; open is as open does
 * simple open content publishing/republishing
 * http://opencontentdiy.wordpress.com/
 * http://newmediaocw.wordpress.com/
 * http://bavatuesdays.com/proud-spammer-of-open-university-courses/
 * http://openlearnigg.corank.com/
 * http://eduglu.learningparty.net/
 * http://ucalgaryblogs.ca/2008/09/09/embedding-a-wiki-page-in-a-blog-post/
 * educommons; metamod's moodle ocw module
 * the basic conditions of openness/remixability/mashability (cf.http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/The+%27Educational+Browser%27+-+The+Movie+Script)
 * decomposable/non-crufty URLs
 * persistent URLs!
 * linkability in general (the more precise the better)
 * RSS feeds
 * clean XHTML
 * Microformats where they make sense [e.g. REL for tag links]
 * REST-based web services
 * "Situate OER collections not as distinct from the courseware environment for the formally enrolled students but as a low
 * cf. http://flexknowlogy.learningfield.org/2009/01/27/on-the-sustainability-of-oer-projects/

=Week 3 - Ways to Share; Other Issues with OER=
 * __starter questions__**
 * Where have you tried to share your OE Resource?
 * What's been your experience in trying to share an OER?
 * What's stopping you from sharing?
 * http://mfeldstein.com/open-education-skeptic-we-are-all-prof-gradgrind-now/ - Education is not just resources, and OER marginalizes the importance of good teachers; "At the moment, teaching skills are still essential and scarce resources. I won’t have a high comfort level with open education as anything more than a supplement around the edges of traditional channels for formal education until that issue is addressed head-on."
 * So...how can we change our educational practices (not just the content) to become more open?
 * cf. MOOC (CCK08), Wiley's "Open Education" courses
 * similarly, OERs that result from an instructor-led course being 'published' are often not ideal for a prime use case screnario, student self-study? How to make such material more useful for individual learners? How to connet individual learners with each other?
 * Licensing - which license would you consider, and why?
 * if you chose an NC variant, would you be ok with someone who used your materials in a community activist course but charged a nominal fee (e.g. $25) for the entire course (not just your materials)
 * if you chose an NC variant, would you be ok with someone using it in a wikispaces wiki who had NOT paid to have the advertising turned off
 * if you chose a 'No Derivatives' version, why? Is it still truly 'Open'?
 * if you chose a Share-Alike version, why?
 * Internationalization/Localization - how to make OERs more useful to people of different languages and cultural situations?
 * cf http://www.edtechpost.ca/wordpress/2008/12/17/virtuous-cycle-of-localization/ for one crazy idea
 * Imagine your ideal future for OER - what would you like to do about it in the next 5 years? your institution? your country? internationally?


 * __Goals/Points to bring out__**
 * Networks vs Institutions
 * reputation; in a world of infinite copyability, value lies in being copied, not in erecting barriers that create illusion of scarcity
 * bringing our learning and research practices together with our teaching; modeling expertise, out in the open
 * network effects, serendipity
 * licensing - are ANY of them actually the problem? Is it 'NC'? Is it 'SA'? Is it permitting derivative works?

An OER Reading List

 * "Open Educational Resources Handbook for Educators" - http://www.wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator (printable version available at http://www.lulu.com/content/3597933)
 * "Giving Knowledge for Free" OECD, 2007. http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9607041E.PDF
 * "A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities, " Atkins, Brown, and Hammond Report to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. http://www.oerderves.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/a-review-of-the-open-educational-resources-oer-movement_final.pdf
 * "Opening Up Education" Kumar, Iiyoshi, eds. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11309
 * "Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources ." Downes, International Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, 2007. http://ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p029-044Downes.pdf

Other Resources

 * Wikieducator OER Tutorial - http://www.wikieducator.org/Open_Educational_Content
 * WIkiversity Course - Composing free and open online educational resources - http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Composing_free_and_open_online_educational_resources
 * Introduction to OER self-paced course - http://cnx.org/content/col10413/latest/
 * Open Elearning Content Observatory Service - http://www.olcos.org/
 * "Openness, Localization, and the Future of Learning Objects, " Wiley. http://opencontent.org/presentations/bcnet07/
 * "History of OER" David Wiley, http://openeducation.blip.tv/file/1645455/