Just had a meeting with some people at Georgetown and bounced this idea off them. They really like it and think it would be a good way to enact change.
One point they made: because we do not have the resources to do a large survey of schools, one professor with lots of political experience suggested we do a Top 10 Report as a beginning (researching and ranking US News' Top 10 Schools). I think this makes a lot of sense because it will still force us to define the methodology and give us experience with the research process, but it will not over-extend us. What's more, once we have this, it could serve as a point to justify some funding to do a larger survey. On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 3:39 PM, D Parker Phinney <[email protected]>wrote: > definitely interested in helping with logistics, including both the > criteria for the report card, as well as any web programming or whatever > that needs to be done. after tuesday, school is out! > > Wesley Chen wrote: > > @Kevin: Right, determining the criteria and their point weight seems to > > be the hardest part. Each category, such as Open Access or Network > > Filtering ought to be broken down into smaller, simple questions like > > "has the university considered Open Access?" or "is the university in > > discussion about implementing OA?" The point is to make the overall > > grading criteria as granular as possible. Besides Y/N questions, I can't > > think of another way to make a objective judgment—using a scale of 1-5 > > clearly isn't an option. So in any subcategory, a YES may yield any > > number of points. This grading system obviously will be finessed later. > > *I think assembling the criteria bank will be the toughest part.* > > > > *...@christina: Sure. Let's say that the overall criteria index is worth > > 50 points. You'd need at least 45 points for an "A"-range grade. > > However, we're running into the same problem of objectiveness if our > > definition of openness isn't based in numbers. So, openness might have > > to be defined by 10 or so Y/N questions. > > > > @Alex: Would appreciate that! > > > > Parker H and I already had a discussion about this recently. I think > > this project has a lot of potential, and I'm glad we're picking up steam > > again. Anyone else who hasn't chimed in on this thread interested in > > forming a more formal committee to work on this? > > > > On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 3:46 PM, Alex Kozak <[email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > ccLearn is starting up a project to create a database for University > > copyright ownership policies in a Semantic MediaWiki format. I > > should be able to give you all more information about that soon so > > that you could use it and/or contribute to it, but it isn't quite > > ready yet. > > > > - Alex > > > > > > On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Kevin Donovan <[email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > I really do like this idea and the idea of a stand-alone Open > > University Report site sounds great. > > > > My main concern (outside scalability) is the criteria by which we > > judge. Ideally, it would be objective so we could cross index > > schools, > > but what would those be besides Y/N indicators? > > > > On 4/27/09, Wesley Chen <[email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > Parker: One of the kids you might remember meeting when I was > at > > > Dartmouth on Sat night worked on GreenReportCard.org a little > > while back. > > > Looking at that site tonight has given me the idea that we > > should try to > > > create a similar score card with a set of standardized > > grading criteria > > > (e.g. administration, licensing, Open Access, etc.). > > > The way our wiki article is structured right now is clunky, > > and the > > > information is admittedly incomplete. How about creating a > > rundown for each > > > school similar to the way GRC does it? It's easier (and more > > fun) to read > > > and write, plus I think it would be far more appealing to the > > non-FC crowd > > > comparing colleges or to those already attending but looking > > to identify > > > areas of improvement at their school. > > > > > > Do you think the report card portion of OU should spin off > > and become its > > > own project and web site? Baby steps first, of course, but I > > think moving in > > > that direction could have great potential. > > > > > > — W > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 8:31 PM, D Parker Phinney > > > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>wrote: > > > > > >> so, some schools are ending for summer very soon. we still > > have a good > > >> 5 weeks here at dartmouth, and we plan on spending part of > > that time > > >> getting together our OU status report (once controversially > > referred to > > >> as a "report card") together. > > >> > > >> i encourage other chapters to try to do the same by the end > > of the > > >> school year. it would be great to get some kind of press > > release or > > >> blog post together early this summer showing where we are > > and what we've > > >> done. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > > http://wiki.freeculture.org/Open_University_individual_university_status_and_information > > >> > > >> > > >> an incomplete report is better than a nonexistent one. > > >> > > >> -- > > >> D Parker Phinney > > >> madebyparker.com <http://madebyparker.com> > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> Discuss mailing list > > >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > >> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > >> > > > > > > > -- > > Sent from my mobile device > > > > Kevin Donovan > > Georgetown '11: SFS > > 630.849.8285 > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Alex Kozak > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > 916.225.2718 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > -- > D Parker Phinney > madebyparker.com > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > -- Kevin Donovan Georgetown '11: SFS 630.849.8285
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