torsdag den 4. april 2013

Activity 10. Applying sustainability models


  1. Was the sustainability model for each OER initiative apparent?
    -Change MOOC
    -    Coursera
    -    Jorum
    -    Open Learn
  2. Did Wiley’s models cover all approaches or did you think a different model was operating for one or more of them?


 Tabel with the OER projects in Wiley's models
I found it difficult to find all the information to place the four OER projects in Wileys model. 

 Change Mooc is the most difficult to fit in the model, because it a very small scale OER provider compared to MIT, USU and Rice. 
The three facilitators of Change Mooc are in total control over the content (who will be their video guest of the week). They put all of their production on the web, like MIT, but you can't compared them to such a big scale project. 
No information about salary to the professors or researchers that introduce their central contribution to the field. Nor to the facilitators themselves. 

 Coursera doesn't produce courses but provide them. We do not know the average price of the courses they're providing.

 Jorum provides a system to share OERs. They don't produce any courses. And they do not control the courses on their platform. They didn't give any information about the average price per OER. 

 Open Learn is a part of Open University and provides some of their courses like USU. I didn't find a price per course.  

Due to lack of time I do not write an entire text for activity 10. I just post my notes below.

Source: Wiley (2007), On the Sustainability of Open Educational Resource Initiatives in Higher Education. (Page 5):
"Many of the open educational resource projects currently underway receive targeted external funding in support of their work. Specifically, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has put millions of dollars into university-based open educational resource projects around the world. Given the current budget climate for education, a concern naturally arises about the future of the university-based open educational resource projects. What will happen when the targeted external dollars dry up? Will the initiatives themselves also dry up? How are these initiatives to sustain themselves over time?

"In order to answer these questions we must understand at a minimum (1) the different types of open educational resource initiatives underway in higher education and (2) the different costs associated with supporting these different types of projects. We will then be prepared to consider the long-term sustainability of these different projects." 
"Sustainability might be defined as the ability of a project to continue its operations. So the definition of sustainability should include the idea of accomplishing goals in addition to ideas related to longevity. Hereafter, sustainability will be defined as an open educational resource project’s ongoing ability to meet its goals."



 Coursera
Ressource: Learning
Goals: https://www.coursera.org/about:

"We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.
Through this, we hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in."

Funding: (Foundation model.)

Remarks:
Couseras funders accept it will take time before they start to earn money on the project. Right now they have several ideas of how to make a profit on Cousera. 

The have a team of 38 persons to take care of engineering, design, course operations, business development, administration and recruitment.

Coursera has welldefined goals and realistic (I think) economic visions to continue in the future.
Cousera has a high sustainability. 
Change MOOC:
Ressource: Learning
Goals: http://change.mooc.ca/index.html
"This course will introduce participants to the major contributions being made to the field of instructional technology by researchers today. Each week, a new professor or researcher will introduce his or her central contribution to the field."

Funding: 
I think the facilitators do this mooc for free. They use free online tools:
"Through out this "course" participants will use a variety of technologies, for example, blogs, Second Life, RSS Readers, UStream, etc. Course resources will be provided using gRSShopper and online seminars delivered using Elluminate."


Remarks;
Several of the links are dead. It can be a result of nobody with the responsibility to maintain the OER.  

I find the sustainability for Change Mooc very low due to the lack of maintenance / accessibility.
Jorum 
Ressource: Learning and teaching

 Goals: http://www.jorum.ac.uk/about-us, http://www.jorum.ac.uk/powered
"Jorum is a Jisc funded Service in Development in UK Further and Higher Education, to collect and share learning and teaching materials, allowing their reuse and repurposing. "
"We have been working closely with our community to understand their requirements beyond those met by the Jorum core offer. Across the education sector there is a demand at a local level to manage, share or promote OER and Jorum has the capability to support these needs, using the existing Jorum infrastructure to create new services. In essence, we can help your community or organisation to manage, share and promote its OER, minimising the hassle and the cost to you, enabling you to focus on building your content and community."
Funding: (Foundation model)

  • "This free online repository service forms a key part of the Jisc Information Environment, and is intended to become part of the wider landscape of repositories being developed institutionally, locally, regionally or across subject areas." http://www.jorum.ac.uk/about-us

Remarks:
Jorum is run by Mimas, based at the University of Manchester and stands out from the other open education initiatives by focussing on how to facilitate platforms to share OER content rather that develop or collect OERs.  It's an approach to help users to find the ressources. It's easy to use their search funktion and their archive contains ressources in different medias (high granularity). I find the sustanibility is high.

Open Learn


Ressource: Learning

Goals: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/about-openlearn/frequently-asked-questions-on-openlearn
"Our shared vision was free online education, open to anyone, anywhere in the world. OpenLearn is the result and we have since reached over 23 million people."
Funding: (Foundation model and Voluntary support model.)
"We launched OpenLearn back in October 2006 thanks to a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation"
"In developing OpenLearn, The Open University is very grateful for the generous support of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The philosophy of open content mirrors exactly The Open University's founding principles of widening access to high quality educational opportunities. Through OpenLearn, the University expects to contribute significantly to the development of both the quality and reach of open educational resources delivery at an international level.The generosity of our users, supporters and partners will help our dedicated staff to continue the academic, pedagogic, technological and research activities that support OpenLearn." 
Remarks:

Indsendt af kl.
Etiketter: , , ,

Ingen kommentarer:

Send en kommentar

Abonner på: Kommentarer til indlægget (Atom)