OER Community Meeting Attendees Project Template
From OER Commons Wiki
Please use the OER storytelling template below to share your OER Project Basics with the other members of this group.
Instructions: Simply create a wiki account, click edit, and enter your answers to each question. There are currently five tables for five separate projects, and more tables can be easily added below. If you prefer, send your completed answers to amee at iskme dot org and we will add them to the group template.
Project 1: MIT OpenCourseWare
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | First courses published 9/02 |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | http://ocw.mit.edu |
| Where is your project based? | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | To provide free resources for formal and informal educators and learners. |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | 1) Publish materials from virtually all of MIT's courses. 2) Foster the use of our materials and the growth of the OpenCourseWare movement. |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | We've published materials from substantially all of MITs courses, and have turned our attention to updating and enhancing the materials and to building new services on top of the publication. We've supported more than 200 universities in openly sharing their content, and their are now materials from approximately 7,000 courses published globally. |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | Grand idea: To close the gap globally between the desire to learn and the opportunity to do so. MIT OCW provides content in support of this goal. Content, tools, learning experiences and certification are all required to achieve the grand idea. |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | courseware, engineering, science (answers provided by Steve Carson - scarson@mit.edu - 11/6/08) |
Project 2: OER in Health Initiative (OCWC)
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | May 2008 |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | http://www.ocwconsortium.org/health/ |
| Where is your project based? | Global. Virtual. |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | To help fill the educational gap for health education in the developing world. |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | To collaborate on OER projects that bring Health-related OER educational materials (mostly as OCW -- or open courses) to the developing world. |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | We currently have formed a few committees: 1) A position paper committee to draft a whitepaper on the concept/costs/benefits of Health OER. 2) A fundraising committee to seek out foundations we can partner with, 3) a "How to do Health OER" cookbook committee, and 4) a conference committee to identify strategic conference we can use to promote the idea of Health OER. |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | For me, the "grand idea" for the OER community is to collaborate on specific projects that meet multiple needs of interested parties. So perhaps we could collaborate on conference participation or creation, PR/marketing, contests, "how to" documentation, developing foundation partnerships, etc. |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | OER, health, OCW, OCWC, medicine, education, medical, developing world, courses, courseware, opencourseware |
Project 3: OpenLearn
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Project started April 2006, website launched October 2006 |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn |
| Where is your project based? | The Open University in the UK |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | To make freely available on the internet, to anyone who can access them, a selection of self study higher education learning resources from the OU, and provide on-line tools to manage learning and support the development of collaborative learning communities that use, re-use, rework or remix the resources or add their own resources. |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | The major planned outcomes were:
1. Enhanced learning experiences for users of OERs; 2. Greater involvement in higher education by under-represented groups and empowerment for various support networks that work with them; 3. Enhanced knowledge and understanding of OER delivery, how it can be effective, and the contribution it can make to further development of e-learning; 4. Enhanced understanding of sustainable and scaleable models of OER delivery. |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | We are using quantitatiave and qualitative measures. The quantitative focus on number of users, where they come from, what they do on the site, where they go, what they take away in terms of content and/or tools and what they do with that content and with those tools. Site analytics and surveys are the data collection methods used. The qualitative focus on case studies of individual, group and organisational users either through invitations to tell us their stories, interviews, moderating and recording seminars and workshops and observations of activity on the site or in controlled settings. |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | OERs are about opening up education through many planned and unplanned activities through the more open sharing of content, tools, ideas and practices. OpenLearn is contributing by providing content in various formats allied with social computing tools and technologies to provide the seeds and seedbed for experimenting and researching planned and unplanned activities at opening up education. |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Open education, collaboration, widening participation |
Project 4: OER Commons
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Began work September 2005, Public Launch February 2007 |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | http://www.oercommons.org |
| Where is your project based? | Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), Half Moon Bay, CA, US |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | To create a centralized searchable knowledge base for OER materials and projects |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | To aggregate, curate, enrich, and organize OER metadata for enhanced discoverability and use; To facilitate and encourage engagement with and understanding of OER, metadata, and resource creation, use, sharing and reuse globally, by growing a knowledge base, conducting research, and taking on an educative role with participants and providers. |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | We have both quantitative and qualitative goals and measures. Growth in number of collections included, (e.g., started at 10 in June 2006, now at 120); growth in number of resources included, starting at 5000 in October 2006, now at nearly 24,000; growth in number of sites and federated searches that reuse our metadata; growth in awareness through trainings, workshops, conference presentations, site visits, e-newsletters, blogs, press, etc. (e.g. e-newsletter started at 200 in February 2007, now over 8000); growth in strategic partners and funders who are seeking out our educative and research frameworks and platform implementations (e.g. we have multiple partners and funders using our models); and the growth of our initiative as a research node and program developer for supporting OER case studies, stories, and project documentation and continuous improvement. |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | The grand idea for OER is to facilitate equitable access to high-quality education and a more equal playing field for participation in learning; the OER Commons initiative intends then to bring more people to more resources that are meant to be shared and improved upon; and, that through our educative and research roles, we help educators, learners, and content providers learn how and why to become more engaged, collaborative, and innovative participants. |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | knowledge_sharing, discoverability, widening_participation (contributed by Amee Godwin, ISKME, Nov. 24, 2008) |
Project 5: OCW@UCI
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Started: 11/07 |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | http://ocw.uci.edu |
| Where is your project based? | Project 5: University of California, Irvine, US |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | Participation in the OER movement is entirely consistent with the mission, goals, and values of the University of California which has a tradition of openness, public service, and high quality educational offerings and instruction for the public good. More specifically we intend to draw favorable attention not only to the specific items on our OCW website, but also on the many programs and UCI activities they represent, including the fee-based continuing education offerings of the campus. We also hope that our site will become a well recognized repository for faculty-developed material. |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | First we hope that the number of courses and amount of material on our site doubles for the first four years of its existence. Second, we hope that the number of visitors, visits, and the duration of visits increases at the same rate. Third, we hope that the number of faculty contributing to the site increases by 20 faculty per year after the first year. Fourth, we expect to garner a steady stream of positive press and public relations. |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | So far we are meeting all of our goals. The metrics we are using are:
Number of courses and amount of course material (measured in number of pages) available on the site Number of visitors to the site Number of returning visitors to the site Average duration of visits Number of visitors viewing substantial portions of the open courses Amount of favorable publicity generated by the OCW effort Number of faculty involved in OCW Amount of reuse by UCI faculty in regular courses Amount of extramural funding attracted by the OCW effort |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | UCI is contributing to the OER movement by doing what universities are designed to do, to produce coherent, well designed learning experiences of relatively lengthy duration (at the course level), and to make those university-level learning experiences available to the world through the most effective and prestigious university collective. The UCI OCW site attracts thousands of visitors each month and serves as a portal to the many offerings, opportunities, and resources available from the campus. |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Project 5: OpenCourseWare (OCW), Open Educational Resources (OER), Free Online Courses (contributed by Gary W. Matkin, Dean, Continuing Education, Nov. 24, 2008) |
Project 6: The Open Learning Initiative
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | October 2002 |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | http://www.cmu.edu/oli |
| Where is your project based? | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA USA |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | To provide access to high quality post-secondary education to those who otherwise would not have access due to geographic, economic or social barriers, |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | 1) Produce exemplars of scientifically based online courses and course materials that A) enact instruction: they offer information, activities, practice and feedback — all arranged so that students can learn even if they do not have the benefit of an instructor or classmates and B) support improvement in traditional instructor-led instruction. 2) Provide free and open access to these courses and course materials. 3) Develop a community of use, research and development that contributes to the evaluation, continuous improvement, and ongoing growth of the courses and materials. |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) |
We have produced several exemplars of scientifically based online learning environments. Our evaluators have conducted several studies that show that, when used in stand-alone mode, the courses support learners to learn the topic as well or better than learners in a traditional course. Studies have also shown that the courses can be used to accelerate learning. We have developed a set of tools and process that support others to develop OLI type learning environments and conduct workshops for groups who are interested in developing and evaluating such environments. We use a variety of methods to measure outcomes including case studies, formal learning studies, learning effectiveness studies and studies on conditions of travel and adaptation. As learners work through the OLI courses, we collect real-time interaction level data of student use and learning and we use this data to inform further course improvements, answer fundamental research questions in the science of learning and to evaluate use. Some examples of the metrics we track to evaluate use are: numbers of learners, numbers of instructors, numbers of institutions, length of learning sessions, progress through material, numbers of engaged interaction with specific learning activities, learning curve analysis, correlations between use of specific learning activities designed to teach specific topics and performance on assessments of those topics. |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | Grand idea: To increase useful knowledge in the world and to more equitably distribute that knowledge. OLI has developed a process and tools for development, delivery and evaluation of learning environments that have the potential to increase access to and effectiveness in higher education. |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Open Educational Resources, Learning Science, Online Courses |
Project 7: Enter the title of your project here
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| Where is your project based? | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Project 7: Enter your answer here |
Project 8: Enter the title of your project here
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| Where is your project based? | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Project 8: Enter your answer here |
Project 9: Enter the title of your project here
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| Where is your project based? | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Project 9: Enter your answer here |
Project 10: Enter the title of your project here
| Project Basics Questions | Your Answers |
|---|---|
| When was your project started (month/year)? | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| What is the URL/website address to your project? | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| Where is your project based? | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| Why was your project initiated? (What need was it trying to meet?) | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| What key goals have you set for your project? | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| How are you progressing towards those goals and how are you measuring the outcomes? (e.g. specific metrics, creating case studies, etc.) | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| How do you think your project fits into the collective goal for OER? (In other words, what do you see as the "grand idea" for OER and how does your project fit into that idea?) | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
| What three keywords best describe your project? | Project 10: Enter your answer here |
