Re: [WikiEducator] Resource Repository

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:41:19 -0700

I think that the effort to get institutions to allocate time and resources to OER development is an excellent idea.   In addition, I hope you will work with them to put OER course and materials development into the criteria they use for promotion and tenure.   I think that many university faculty members are reluctant to invest too much time in outside course development because it does not "count" toward retaining and succeeding in our jobs.  While many people who are piecing together a variety of jobs would probably appreciate the money, others who have full time work would probably appreciate having their volunteer efforts recognized by their institutions.  I know I would.  J.

[email protected] wrote: -----
To: [email protected]
From: Wayne Mackintosh
Sent by: [email protected]
Date: 07/02/2010 10:41PM
Subject: Re: [WikiEducator] Resource Repository

Hi Cynthia, Joyce, Alison and Mallabibro

All very good suggestions -- WE must get better at indexing, categorising and labelling the degrees of completeness of our OER assets . In part -- this is a problem of our exponential growth in that our capacity to respond meaningfully to these needs has not kept pace with our growth. In some respects, this is a good problem to have :-).

Thinking strategically

Apology for the long response --- but this is an important issue for both WikiEducator and the OER Foundation. I'd like to share some of our strategic thinking.

WikiEducator uses an apprenticeship model in that users can improve their competencies across a wide range of relevant areas  (eg learning design, technology, visual design, intellectual property issues etc.) Since our inception WE've made a commitment to help and support all educators, irrespective of their levels of expertise and prefer not to exercise value judgements in the quality of content unless the user specially opts into a quality review process. I think that investing in people through community development will achieve sustainable results for the future.

WE have two immediate challenges:

  1. The complexity and inertia required to develop high quality learning materials, when compared, for instance to an encyclopedia article. The effort required to author an open textbook is considerably more than collaborating on an article on Apples. Many contributors start with excitement to develop a new course or textbook only to loose energy and impetus. As a result we have a number of incomplete projects. Not all bad -- at least there is a starting point for future contributors.
  2. Technology solutions geared to the needs of educators. (This refers to the usability of our technologies but also the  requirements which are unique to formal educational contexts.)  The Mediawiki software engine is very powerful and it is possible to find a number of workaround  solutions to many of these challenges, for example tweaking the extensive range of Mediawiki extensions that are available to address these needs. The downside is that many of these fixes require a level of technical competence for the user above the levels of the average wiki Newbie.
What are we doing to address these needs?

The OER Foundation is committed to finding solutions to these challenges. Strategically, I think we need to focus on two priorities:

  1. Increasing our capacity to compete the development of high quality OERs, designed for maximum reuse potential (both in terms of pedagogy and delivery technology (e.g. using the same OER resources for print, online etc.). There are two things we can do to increase our capacity -- a) extend our training opportunities to advance the skills of Wikieducators around the world to develop high quality materials and b) Increase the available time educators can spend on developing OER. In this regard, the OER Foundation has a two pronged strategy. First we will focus on raising sufficient financial resources to compensate authors for completing high priority content needs by paying for their time. Second, through our institutional membership models we encourage and reward institutions for allocating staff time to OER development as part of their jobs. So for example, you will see that our Gold level membership is cheaper than our Silver level membership because gold members allocate staff time to OER development. (http://wikieducator.org/OERF:Join). Our FTE4WikiEducator membership category is also designed to increase the available time for OER development and reuse.
  2. Smart technology solutions. WE also need to invest time and money into the software refinements which will enable us to achieve our objectives. Our fund raising strategies and membership models will succeed in helping us to improve our technologies. The OER Foundation is not wedded to any specific technology --- if its open source and it will help us achieve the vision of free education resources for all students of the world -- then we implement a tapestry of appropriate technical solutions to support our work.
We are very serious about getting OER right and have spent considerable time and effort in getting the organisational foundations and infrastructure right to achieve these objectives. The OER Foundation will be publishing its inaugural annual report in the near future and you will see that we have a very sold base to provide leadership, international networking and support for educators and educational institutions to achieve their objectives through OER :-).

Exciting times!

Cheers
Wayne



On 3 July 2010 10:36, MALLAMIBRO <[email protected]> wrote:
I'd suggest an index be created of works on WE, classified by therir
levels of  completeness.
Members interested in editing or in adding to such works could then
have an easier way of finding them.
It could be a good idea to introduce a "join a project" section to the
L4C workshops where every participant will be expected to join in
working on one of the projects requiring cleanups or additions.
Ibrahim K. Oyekanmi

On 7/2/10, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am not sure I am talking about a top down approach.  My model would
> emphasize initial author control (at least at first).  The primary author
> would determine when to submit a piece for wide distribution, the process
> you are suggesting could then be implemented, and these edited resources
> could be presented in an easily searchable format.  The broad wikieducator
> could still be made accessible for those with the time and inclination to
> mine it but such a preliminary screening/editing process would be helpful to
> many people for whom time is an extremely valuable commodity.  J.
>
> -----[email protected] wrote: -----
>>
>> To: [email protected]
>> From: Alison Snieckus
>> Sent by: [email protected]
>> Date: 07/02/2010 09:52AM
>> Subject: Re: [WikiEducator] Resource Repository
>>
>> Hi Cynthia and Joyce,
>>
>> I also agree that it's difficult to find quality resources on
>> WikiEducator. But they are there! And as WE grow and expand in membership,
>> these high quality resources are sure to as well.
>>
>> An effort was started awhile back, before I joined, to create a way to
>> identify, organize and feature quality WE resources. It's called the
>> Quality Assurance Framework.
>>
>> I don't think the program was ever implemented, at least in any major way.
>> I'd be interested to be part of a group to get a QA framework (like the
>> one outlined) working on WE, maybe beginning with a limited pilot.
>>
>> Anyone else interested?
>> Alison
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:15 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> I agree that there is too much to search through now so this sounds like
>>> a good idea to me.  Give the authors the opportunity to put completed
>>> work somewhere that is easily accessible yet still editable by people who
>>> want to adapt it to their own circumstances?   J.
>>>
>>> -----[email protected] wrote: -----
>>>>
>>>> To: WikiEducator <[email protected]>
>>>> From: Cynthia
>>>> Sent by: [email protected]
>>>> Date: 07/01/2010 10:32PM
>>>> Subject: [WikiEducator] Resource Repository
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dear friends,
>>>> There is so much on WE. Many contributions are fabulous. Sadly a good
>>>> number are incomplete or poorly done. Of course editing them is an
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> option. I wonder if we could have a WE library for completely done
>>>> good works to be featured? or is there such a repository? If one were
>>>> to look out for good and complete matter, he/she needn't sift through
>>>>
>>>> incomplete or mediocre work. Please guide as I am only a month old at
>>>>
>>>> WE.
>>>> User Name: Agnes
>>>> Cynthia D'Costa
>>>>
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>>
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--
Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D.
Director,
International Centre for Open Education,
Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand.
Board of Directors, OER Foundation.
Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org
Mobile +64 21 2436 380
User Page: http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg
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