OERu/Planning/16 Feb 2012: Agenda and notes

Date: 2/16/2012 (EST) Present: Kevin Bell, Irwin Devries, Rory McGreal, Wayne Mackintosh. Apology: Angela Murphy

Review of the program as a whole

 * Do we have a Bachelors in General Studies? – What constitutes a Bachelors in General Studies (in the OERu members’ eyes?)

Discussion


 * Propose mapping of members who have / haven't a bachelors in General studies or similar credential. ** Deadline 2 weeks - (discussion for 2 weeks developing a straw dog then review.
 * Everything as open as possible. Anchor partners have final say - end point one month.

Developing the OERu delivery model(s) for prototypes -- Decision?
Discussion


 * Review / decision (or is it institution by institution?) of means of connectivity and communicatio amoung OERu participants
 * Scalability of models – dependent on pedagogy / delivery model of partners – Wayne – less concerned about pedagogy as critical path issue -- learners can learn in spite of teaching.
 * Prototypes – ultimately will need to develop some sort of solution that deals with scale.
 * Sub discussions around logic model. Learning design – each partner has to develop a representative section of their course – get the delivery models out there – give feedback etc. Develop synergies etc. Jim’s course already out there – would love to see it. Intro. to Art appreciation course.
 * Portal page set up – Next step, design blueprint – what each course has in mind – two-week deadline. Feb 29th
 * Representative sample – do-able target: 4 -6 weeks. Showing learning cycle / key elements (eg 3 notional learning hours).

Extra courses not nominated as prototypes
Rory asked about AU developing courses not nominated as prototypes and wants to get them in


 * Additional OERu courses can be accommodated and developed in parallel with prototypes.

E-Portfolios – yes/no – which one(s) / Systems
I like Wayne’s questions:
 * Would all anchor partners be comfortable using an externally hosted e-portfolio system for assessment towards formal credit?
 * Is it possible to design integrated e-portfolio activities (i.e. embedded in the learning resources) which are technology agnostic. In other words, that the anchor partner can choose their preferred e-portfolio technology?
 * How mature is the interoperability among different e-portfolio systems i.e. the ability for a learner to export their eportfolio for any system?
 * Are there creative solutions we should be thinking about for learners to "collect" evidence of their learning distributed on the web?

Discussion


 * Wayne – ultimately – if any institution wants us to host an open e-portfolio system – OERu can do that – but don't think a dedicated solution is necessarily the best choice (eg interoperability with local OERu partner technologies and learner choice for own tools). Challenge for a functional solution is – not too difficult to resolve – What is needed is a checklist of eportfolio activities and accessible URLs of the learning artifacts produced by learners irrespective of the tool. OER learners in theory are not registered users of the anchor partner until they request assessment from anchor partner. Busy collecting user stories – what are the things that an OERu e-portfolio system needs. Some people will want a core technology / other institutions will want autonomy for their own technologies.

Plagiarism / Authenticity – check and systems – plan to review / decision time
Issue: Is the student who request assessment / credentialing services the student who did the work.


 * Import question for each institution to consider -- can be an emotive issue.
 * Cross-crediting issue. No anchor partner that is part of the network will accept practices which may jeopardize their stature or accreditation status.
 * Let OERu people talk about it – let the network come up with their own solutions -- i.e. the local assessment requirements that meet local standards and policies.
 * Run this as a parallel planning discussion.
 * Suggested that an experienced interviewer can easily detect whether student actually did the portfolio work.

OERu Evaluation process
Wayne has emailed Angela, Wayne to follow up again and touch base with Angela to scope an achievable evaluation.