In this activity we are asked to read a blog post by Robin DeRosa then consider how a course we have studied (maybe this one) could use such an approach. What might be the drawbacks and benefits? DeRosa (2016) describes the process of creating two OERs (textbooks). The initial motivation was to save students some money from their reading list. The result of the student’s participation in the project has had much greater consequences than saving money. Textbook 1: Consolidate…

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In this activity we are asked to create a visual representation of the tools, resources and people in our PLNs. I have chosen to use H5P to highlight some of the connections I make. At the top are the various external organisations and people I interact with. This is not only in educational settings but those who provide learning opportunities for me as I do for them. In the middle section my workplace context and at the bottom some of…

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For activity 14 I have chosen to compare the technological, pedagogical and general philosophical approach of the Digital Storytelling (DS106) course to “How To Teach Online: Providing Continuity for Students” (HTTO) provided by FutureLearn (2020). Technology DS106: The Digital Storytelling course DS106 provided by UMW (2020). This is a for-credit course running alongside a MOOC allowing open participation in the course. The MOOC website is constructed as a ‘hub’ type of website. There is a lot of information on the…

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“Before we examine MOOCs in more detail, briefly consider if the MOOC approach could be adopted in your own area of education or training.” Having reviewed the referenced material this week, I am sure that MOOCs could be adopted in my context of a Further Education College. Indeed, we have hosted open, online courses before. They were small taster courses so therefore could not be described as massive! The common issues surrounding MOOCs will need to be addressed. These include…

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In activity 11 we are asked to compare the advantages and disadvantages of ‘big OER’ and ‘little OER’ approaches. Weller (2010) describes traditional (big) OER as education providers producing high quality outputs tied to budgets, timescales and project constraints. Weller (2012) goes on to describe ‘Frictionless’ sharing. This approach refers to the low barrier of entry for scholars to create educational content then distribute at will through, for example, social networking. Big OER producers include: • Universities such as Open…

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In activity 10 we are asked to consider four providers of OERs to determine which of Wiley’s models apply to them: Coursera BCcampus FutureLearn OpenLearn Coursera I think Coursera is using the MIT model with elements of the Rice Model.  Course material is presented from a number of collaborating companies and institutions (190+ according to the website (Coursera, 2020)). Coursera employ a large staff including engineers, marketing and content strategists. This reinforces the idea that Coursera collate and distribute course…

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I have used Creative Commons licenses in the past. As a musician I tend to release material under the CC-BY-NC license. If anyone happens to want to use my music in a commercial setting (and they do) there is a means for them to pay for that. Everyone else is free to download the music for free, adapt it and even give it away to friends for no cost beyond the bandwidth to download. For any education materials I may…

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I have constructed an outline for a ‘digital skills’ course for new staff members in our organisation.  This five week course should ensure that new staff members understand the basics of using computers in our environment including productivity applications, security and how the web can be used to enhance their work. My delivery schedule for the 5 weeks is: Week 1 – Introduction to the basics of computing As this is for new staff, I wanted to include a basic…

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My own view on the three key issues in OERs are openness (sharing of knowledge and resources), access (the ability of individuals to access education) and transition (from informal to formal learning). Openness The ability to discover, use, reuse and redistribute resources is an important one for our Further Education context.  Wiley (2010) suggests that sharing and openness are the basis of education itself.   One of the challenges appears to be sharing of resources once they have been acquired…

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Here is my response to Activity 3: Representing open education. I wanted to create some sort of interactive content but I wasn’t sure what. I thought some sort of decision tree would be good so I sketched out quite a few options on paper but I kept finding it didn’t make sense. In the end I compared 5 areas of open vs. closed material and used the Juxtaposition tool in h5p to present this. Drag the slider from right to…

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