User:Idevries/ocwc

= Open Design and Development: Processes and Potential= Open Courseware Consortium - Bali May 10 2013

What it is/what it isn't

 * Sponsored by the OER Foundation
 * Collaboration of like-minded institutions
 * Not a university in the institutional sense
 * Virtual presence in WikiEducator wiki (MediaWiki)

Goals

 * Low-cost learning to all students worldwide using OER learning material
 * Courses and programs based solely on OER
 * Pathways to earn credible post-secondary credentials
 * Models of scalable and low cost learner support
 * Opportunities for new business models providing value added services in a disaggregated model

Participation

 * Contribution of two courses


 * 1) ART 100 Art Appreciation (from Saylor.com)
 * 2) Course on Sustainability in the works


 * Ensuring course quality


 * 1) For courses contributed by TRU: Faculty review, standard course approvals
 * 2) For other courses: based on OERu quality processes and granting institutions' alternative credit policies, OERu peer review
 * 3) OERu principle is to respect all participant institutions' own standards and processes


 * Giving credit for courses


 * 1) Options include commercial exams, PLAR (portfolio, assignments, exams, etc.), transfer credit
 * 2) Put course through standard academic approval processes


 * Other institutional support
 * 1) Still at early stage

Processes

 * Principle of rough consensus for general issues
 * Early course prototyping
 * Multiple instructional designers and graphic artist
 * Stages
 * Design blueprint
 * Complete outline
 * Review existing OERs for remix
 * Develop representative sample of materials
 * Complete development
 * Peer review/quality control
 * Training for wiki skills and open licensing was provided for participants

Experiences

 * Wiki environment takes time to learn (flat file structure in a hierarchical universe) - easy to get lost
 * Content conversion onerous (some locked up in PDFs)
 * Needed some "neutralization" (context-specific course structure)
 * Instructional designers thrive on clarity
 * Rethinking everything
 * How will this be used by learners?
 * Who/where are our learners?
 * What might be their motivations?
 * How might they configure (solo, groups, community, etc.)
 * What technology do they have access to?
 * How might an instructor or institution use this course?
 * How can we make it as flexible as possible for others to repurpose - and -
 * Can others help to improve it? (e.g. regional bias)
 * At some point have to "let it go" and see what happens
 * Need to resist urge to start from scratch - we have to figure this out
 * It's a long term project

Potential
Collaboration is a powerful element


 * Complementary strengths evident
 * Generated creative ideas
 * Looking at things from multiple angles
 * Ongoing process of mentoring and sharing
 * Helps maintain focus and energy (all very busy people!)

Common sense of purpose and caring


 * The larger purpose always back of mind
 * Not just putting in work
 * Focusing on needs of learners is more than a cliche

Thinking about education and learning as a community project - grassroots/ecosystem Catalyst for institutional transformation
 * Gets faculty and staff working hands-on with OER and open educational practices
 * E.g. Working with TRU online M.Ed program to incorporate OERu open educational practices course as Special Studies course
 * Can maintain early comfort level within an open yet known environment
 * Flushes out issues that need to be resolved
 * Policy can emerge from collaborative problem solving rather than by fiat
 * Low-risk - high potential engagement
 * Go to Bali and meet really cool people!