By rubyblossom. via FlickrThere are some exciting things happening in the world of open education resources and
open textbooks. I have worked in the recent past on projects that create or find open education resources, participated in presentations on open textbooks, and this latest project feels like the next step in all of this. I am working as a consultant (
instructional design) on the Kaleidoscope Project. The purpose of the project is to create collaborative efforts between colleges to create courses using existing OERs with each course being developed by at least two partner institutions. A number of our
College of the Redwoods faculty are participating in this grant. The focus on the grant is not the production of open textbooks or course materials (although that is happening anyway) but on design and results:
"Project Kaleidoscope will close the loop on improved course design and student learning. Using OER and a common assessment process will allow faculty teams to improve the course design and learning results based on analysis of embedded assessments and deeper learning results. Actually, the project requires this on-going, iterative review and improvement."
The learning outcomes piece of this is what is going to allow us to track the effectiveness of the materials used. Folks in the OER world have an idea of where this might go, that using open textbooks and learning objects can be just as effective and in many cases, more effective than a commercial textbook. Why? Because learning objectives and outcomes differ from institution to institution based on the needs of the local communities. This is especially true for the community colleges who often have to work on getting students up to speed academically. Faculty already have to adapt and remix commercial texts for the needs of the student populations often in the form of additional, costly supplements or multiple books. What I have been finding in my work with open textbooks is that textbooks are often supplanted (not supplemented) by openly licensed video, audio, images (and yes, open textbooks) making the course even more engaging for the students. When colleges work from the learning objectives and then find openly licensed materials that meet those learning objectives, everyone wins. But we have gone through that phase; it is now time to apply learning analytics to OERs and really show what works, what yet needs to be done, and what is possible.
Partners with the grant include Cerritos College, Chadron State College, College of the Redwoods, Mercy College, Palo Verde College, Santa Ana College, Santiago Canyon College, and Tompkins Cortland College. Advisers to the grant include Norman Bier, the ubiquitous Cable Green, M.S. Vijay Kumar, Terrel Rhodes, and David Wiley. rSmart is supporting the project by hosting the Sakai sites where the courses will live. And Kim Thanos, CCH*, is managing the whole thing on amazingly tight deadlines!
If you are involved in similar research into OERs and learning analytics, I would love to hear about it via email or leave a comment.
Image via WikipediaHP is funding research projects with the University of the People, a tuition free open university. I am not sure about your end of the internet, but I haven't see much out there about this story. This is going to be one of the most significant stories in open learning of the year. There was a story about it at the Chronicle of Higher Ed. Long after the "real" colleges finish debating whether open universities, free universities and alternative schooling is effective or "valid," the graduates of these programs will be taking their portfolios into the workplace of major corporations. With open universities, MOOCs (massively open online courses), and other alternatives in education coming out of a combination of traditional schools and social networks, the education landscape is changing. This is no longer about creating free content. This is no longer about credentials, although students can go to the University of the People and get a bachelor's degree in computer science online at little cost. There is a $50 application fee and small fees around the grading of tests. They also offer Associate degrees in computer science and Associate and Bachelor's in Business Administration. What makes this story so significant is that the president of the college Shai Reshef, is not just interested in getting people educated but getting them jobs as well. The real revolution in education is not going to take place in the usual universities, it is going to happen when the highly motivated, self-directed learners from places like Wikiversity and U of P move into management of corporations. University of the People also offers general studies courses which I like because their students still get a chance to study history and the world around them.
