Cormac, Leigh, Simon, Others... Thanks for the great feedback. I certainly hope some others jump in...
Cormac, There is a body of work where the evaluation of a persons contribution is evaluated via software; it's not so advanced that it can target a single person and evaluate what they have done... probably one day (soon), see these two references; http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/projects/history_flow/ http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~luca/papers/07/wikiwww2007.pdf I think we could do with a Wiki based Open Educational Resource Maturity Model (WOERMM). I start to touch on this in a paper I wrote a few months back; http://www.rawsthorne.org/docs/PeterRawsthorne.QualityOERbasedWikis.pdf I'll definitely invest the time and read terry's paper. Peter On Mar 24, 5:22 pm, "Cormac Lawler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for this thread Peter. :-) I think that what you envisage is possible > - ie creating an international accredited institution that would award > academic degrees on the basis of a set of work (OERs, blog posts, papers > etc) - let's call it an "e-Portfolio" (in the current UK government lingo). > However I would envisage a number of issues: > * Authorship - if you are creating a resource on, for example, a wiki, how > is someone evaluating your work to know that this work is your own work? Or > how much of it is yours? Digging through a page history can be a lot of work > - would we expect the evaluator to do this? And this idea of authoring > materials leading to accreditation - does *everyone* developing a certain > amount and standard of OER materials automatically get a degree? (What then > constitutes "OER" - any article on Wikipedia, etc etc?) > > * Academic standards - notoriously varied across national educational > systems. It would be a huge challenge to such an institution - though it is > already being addressed within the OER movement. > > * Evaluation/supervision - someone is going to have to be the person to say: > "yes, this person deserves a degree/PhD..". I would say, especially at PhD > level, that this person would need to be familiar with your work, and not be > simply handed a portfolio after three years - and I would then argue that > this would constitute a form of supervision (ongoing critical dialogue) - > perhaps in the network-based way you envisaged. There seems to be a > significant "other people's time" element to all this. Which brings me to.. > > * Money - I know you didn't mention this explicitly - but did you envisage > all this to be free? Subsidised? Paid for by whom? > > I'll just add a slightly different slant on this discussion - education is > obsessed with formal accreditation - but perhaps there might be another > model - one of recognition. Perhaps after working on a solid body of OERs > and published papers etc, you don't get a PhD, but you might be a damn sight > more eligible to get a job with a certain employer institution that is > open-minded enough to recognise this particular work done. I think Teemu > Leinonen has written about this before (perhaps on his blog > <http://flosse.dicole.org/>, though I'm not sure). Sure, this option is far > weaker than the current accreditation model - but it just might become an > option in certain contexts. > > In any case, I'm only throwing these ideas into the pot - but it's a great > discussion to be having! > > Cheers, > > Cormac > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 5:00 PM, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Leigh and others who may be interested, > > > Thanks for this reply. So what your saying is that Otago will give me > > credit for a WikiEd course that is designed around the NZQA as long as > > I give them money. Is it a graduate level course? Is Otago working > > toward being able to complete WikiEd courses and get a graduate level > > degree? Can I transfer this credit to another institution for my > > graduate level degree? It would seem to me that what Otago is doing is > > great, and a step in the right direction but it is still essentially > > using WikiEd as a LMS (or part of their LMS for I still have to > > complete assessment activities) and I still have to pay for the > > credential... Please correct me if I have misunderstood... I'd change > > your last statement to say "Learning and education is free, assessment > > and credential still costs" > > > Anyhow, I want to dive deeper on this topic. I want to discuss if > > people think it is possible to create an international accredited > > institution that gave me a graduate level degree based on my > > completion / creation of OER (and related published research)? Maybe > > the international institution is a social network with a top quality > > reputation. i.e. if your level of scholarship is recognized by this > > "institution / social network" then it is considered the same as a PhD > > from Athabasca University... lets call it Open Access Accreditation... > > Isn't this the natural progression from connectionist (see siemens) > > approaches? > > > It would seem that an institution like UNESCO or ICDE is where this > > could start and with the writing coming from these institutions > > regarding OER they (I believe) should be addressing the issue. I've > > been reading papers from these institutions for a while and everything > > still assumes the OER are utilized within existing institutions and > > existing courses and existing programs and in the end you still have > > to pay for assessment and the credential. In particular, the roadmap > > from the OLCOShttp://www.olcos.org/cms/upload/docs/olcos_roadmap.pdf > > seems to be a deep dive into all this, yet they still assume loads of > > affiliations and partnerships with existing Universities. Essentially > > you still have to pay to get assessed and credentialed even though you > > are using OER created by someone only loosely affiliated with the > > university granting the credential. Why? > > > You could assume a PhD is the equivalent of 2-3 years of full-time > > work, for easy math lets 5000 hours. Let's say I am prepared to work > > 16 hrs a week for 46 weeks a year for seven years (5152 hours total). > > And during this time I create a solid amount (potentially a complete > > Masters degree amount) of OER (with accompanying collaborative > > research papers) on WikiEducator and Wikiversity. Shouldn't I be able > > to take all this work and be given a PhD? Universities provide > > honorary doctorates; why not use this same structure to offer a PhD to > > someone who completes what I previously suggested? Or would the > > reputation I created on WikiEducator and Wikiversity by > > collaboratively creating a PhD effort equivalent in OER be the same as > > having a PhD? In fact could this not be the new PhD? And in the end I > > would have saved myself the 40k - 100k $ that I paid to an institution > > for a credential (not including 5152 hrs of lost salary). And I could > > do all this in a truly self directed manner without having to be > > "supervised" by a tenured academic. When I know that most of my > > supervision is going to come from the social network anyway... > > > Or maybe what I am asking is; what role does the graduate level > > university play in a Connectivist world filled with quality OER, hard > > work and an active social network? > > > Thanks for your time, > > > Peter > > > On Mar 24, 2:52 am, "Leigh Blackall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Internationally recognised competency standards like the ones used in > > Aust', > > > NZ and South Africa and then Recognition of Prior Learning RPL services. > > > > Otago Polytechnic has RPL services. Any day now we expect a person who > > has > > > done a course on Wikied that is designed around competency/assessment > > > standards that we recognise (NZQA) we will be able to accredit their > > > learning if they wish. It wouldn't be free however. > > > > Learning is still free, education still costs. > > > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 8:30 AM, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > What would it take to create an international accredited university > > > > that gave graduate level degrees based on the completion / creation of > > > > OER? And if this was possible, would it cost anything? > > > > -- > > > -- > > > Leigh Blackall > > > +64(0)21736539 > > > skype - leigh_blackall > > > SL - Leroy Goalposthttp://learnonline.wordpress.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
