Hi Joyce, I'm copying your insightful response to Tony Bates<http://www.tonybates.ca/2011/10/05/introducing-the-oeru-and-some-questions/>' blog post to the OER-university group as well. There are members on the OERu group who are not subscribed to the WE list.
I would also recommend that you consider posting your text below as a comment on Tony's blog as well. It would be good for Tony's blog readers to consider your thoughts. My reflections: - Building on the foresight of Ernest Boyer - -there is no institution in the world which compares to the innovations and leadership of an open curriculum. The idea of customized degree programs offered at a distance was revolutionary back in the early 1970s and still is today in many parts of the world. ESC was smart enough not to innovate on two many fronts -- learners attain credible credentials which are respected by society and the economy. - While the OERu network will still need to plan the detail of how credit transfer, prior learning assessment (PLA) etc may work - -I imagine that a mix of course credit transfer, PLA and a hybridized OERu version of e-portfolios based on e-tivities may emerge and provide mechanisms for using existing protocols for recognising credit across institutions in the network. Think of OERu-learning as a network of courses and institutions who have set up pre-articulation agreements for the course where we agree on: the graduate profiles or learning outcomes of the shared networked courses, the validity and credibility of the assessment procedures within the constraints of our regional or national accreditation bodies. The advantage of this evolution is that we can bring down costs in a way which which will scale. However, more importantly we work withing existing institutional policies and avoid the time it will take to change policy. The point is we can serve millions of learners with this model today. In time our institutional policies will mature and become more responsive to the realities of learning from social media. Athabasca University is leading a research project exploring these questions. I'm one of the researchers in this international project. When I return from my next international mission we will be posting more about the project and we intend to work transparently. A candidate for our WikiRearcher site ;-) - I'm fascinated by the opportunities that openness and transparency may bring to the international practice of PLA and for this reason, we are tremendously fortunate to have and experienced pioneer in the OERu network. Institutions like Thompson Rivers, Athabasca University and Otago Polytechic all have progressive PLA implementations - -so it will be very interesting to contrast and compare this models as see what emerges in the future. Exciting times ... Wayne On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 6:51 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Wayne and all: I am co-chair with Dr. Ellen Murphy of a task force at > the Empire State College Center for Distance Learning charged with providing > direction for our OER-u development and want to make sure that our efforts > are moving in parallel with the OER-u effort. > > Speaking for what I know of ESC faculty and traditions (and not speaking > for Empire State College administration) I imagine that while ESC will be > willing participants in creating new courses or converting existing ones for > the OER-u credential you are envisioning, we will also be interested in > continuing to use our existing PLA process to grant personalized Prior > Learning Assessments, based on student documentation as we have for forty > years now (only in today's world we will probably use e-portfolios created > by students as documentation for PLA). These e-portfolios would document > the students' college level learning from a variety of sources including the > MIT stuff etc. that students (presumably helped by volunteers) would > assemble along with a summary of their learning and present to ESC for > evaluation at a reasonable evaluation cost. I am reasonably sure that > anything with a recommendation for credit would transfer into ESC for > students who come to us. > > For those not planning to become ESC students it is my understanding that > we are discussing whether or not we could open our PLA process to students > who would then take our recommendations to other anchor partners who agree > to accept them. I imagine acceptance of our PLA assessments will be > something each partner institution will have to decide on. At the present > time we formally grant the PLA credit to students before graduation...they > cannot transfer it to other institutions. > > In answer to Dr. Bates blog question about making PLA evaluation criteria > available to students prior to submission of their requests, our current > practice is to hire experts in the field of the Prior Learning Assessment > (PLA) request to evaluate the student's documentation of their learning. > These evaluators then conduct an oral conversation with the student to > determine credit recommendations. This has been systematized in a very > efficient computer based process thanks to Dr. Nan Travers who is charge of > assessment. This approach has worked well for us for years but may be a bit > hard to scale. > > Since the evaluation process is tailored to each student by individual > evaluators it would be difficult to provide specific questions except for a > hand full of frequently requested topics where we do have guidelines. Our > flexibility with PLA probably makes us fairly unique among the anchor > institutions many of whom seem to rely on examinations which we almost never > use...but I hope our process can be integrated into the long range plans > because it truly does offer students many opportunities to attain credit for > unique college level learning. I am sharing this with everyone with the > usual caveat that I speak for myself as a long time Empire State College > faculty member with a special interest in self-direction and prior learning > assessment and not for anyone else at the college. I am extremely excited > about the OER-u and hopes this explains the ESC world a bit better, from a > faculty member's perspective. Let's build the future. Dr. Joyce McKnight, > Associate Professor, SUNY/Empire State College > > [email protected] wrote: ----- > > To: WikiEducator <[email protected]>, > [email protected] > From: Wayne Mackintosh ** > Sent by: [email protected] > Date: 10/05/2011 10:56PM > Cc: Tony Bates <[email protected]> > Subject: [WikiEducator] Tony Bates asks some questions about OERu -- Let's > help Tony and ourselves find the answers > > > Hi Everyone > > Tony Bates <http://www.tonybates.ca/>, who many of you will know, is a > global leader and thinker in e-learning, open distance learning and > effective integration of technology in education. Tony has decades of > experience and is a very respected scholar around the world. > > Tony asks some questions about the OERu in an excellent blog post: > > *Introducing the OERu --- and some > questions*<http://www.tonybates.ca/2011/10/05/introducing-the-oeru-and-some-questions/> > > I have taken the time to respond to some of these questions. I found this > to be a very productive exercise in testing our strategic thinking which > underpins the OER Tertiary Education Network and the OERu concept. Do I have > this right? How can we improve on our strategy? > > I encourage you to help Tony answer his questions, and in so doing we are > helping ourselves. > > I reiterate my closing thought. > > "*With your help we can build a world were every student can have free > learning opportunities with pathways to earn credible credentials. Together, > we can make the future happen!*" > > Looking forward to the discussions which will follow. I'll see you in > Tony's blog. > > Cheers > Wayne > > > -- > Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D. > Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org> > Director, International Centre for Open Education, > Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. > Founder and elected Community Council Member, > WikiEducator<http://www.wikieducator.org> > Mobile +64 21 2436 380 > Skype: WGMNZ1 > Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/Mackiwg> | > identi.ca<http://identi.ca/waynemackintosh> > Wikiblog <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg/Blog> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]** > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] -- Wayne Mackintosh <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg>, Ph.D. Director OER Foundation <http://www.oerfoundation.org> Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. Founder and elected Community Council Member, WikiEducator<http://www.wikieducator.org> Mobile +64 21 2436 380 Skype: WGMNZ1 Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/Mackiwg> | identi.ca<http://identi.ca/waynemackintosh> Wikiblog <http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg/Blog> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
