Free OpenCon online Conference 25 January focus #K12 and #OER highlights #education #online

The best way to start the year is by promoting Openness either in education, development or academic work. Yes, it is all happening in January, so join or read up, which ever you prefer. Or simply keep informed with the @Open_Con twitter account.

OpenCon18 online on 25 January 2018

Athabasca University is organising a virtual, free K-12 Open Educational Resources Teacher conference on:

Date: January 25, 2018

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. MST (Mountain Standard Time = UTC -7)

Event URL: https://athabascau.adobeconnect.com/k12oc 

More information: http://bolt.athabascau.ca/index.php/oer-teacher-network/satellite-opencon-2017-building-the-k-12-oer-teacher-network/ 

Theme: “Building the K-12 OER Teacher Network”

Hashtag: #K-12OC2018

Open Education Resource (OER) novice and champions are invited. 

As a satellite offering of the OpenCon17 held in Berlin, the OpenCon18 will mark a first for educators, within Alberta and beyond. Presentations will range from OER fundamentals to the current K-12 OER landscape. Schedule:

10:00 – 10:25 MST	Understanding the Commons for K-12	Serena Henderson
10:25 – 10:30	5 min Break
10:30 – 10:55	Go Open: From the Ground Up	Kristina Ishmael Peters & Heather Callihan
10:55 – 11:00	5 min Break
11:00 – 11:25	Simple Curation: Using Online Tools to Collect, Organize, and Share OER Resources	Stephanie Slaton
11:25 – 11:30	5 min Break
11:30 -11:55	Opening Up 1-12 Education in Alberta	Frank McCallum & Lise Pethybridge
11:55 – Noon	5 min Break
12:00 – 12:25	The Multiply K-12 OER Media Project	Connie Blomgren
12:25 – 12:30	5 min Break
12: 30 – 12:55	Sharing K-12 Resources Across Canada: Silos, Gardens, or Open Range?	Randy Labonte

1:45 – 2:00

Building the K-12 OER Teacher Network – Next steps?

Facilitated by Connie Blomgren

Ending our virtual offering will be a unique dialogue – the “Berlin Remix”. A panel discussion has been organized so that the OpenCon18 K-12 Athabasca discussants (and attendees – asked upon registration) to view in advance a 20 minute video clip. This recording was part of the Berlin OpenCon17 conference where an international panel explored the broad topic of Inclusive Education and how OER responds to diversity and inclusion needs within education.

For our panel, the discussants will address this Berlin discussion and will “remix” two questions of OER curriculum creation. Within an OER curricular resource, how can educators consider: Who is missing? and Whose knowledge is reliable?

OER holds opportunity for rethinking how resources are accessed and used by K-12 educators. Come and join the “Berlin Remix” Panel Discussion - and one, some or all of the offerings! We hope to nurture a K-12 OER teacher network – and this virtual conference marks the first step of this journey.

Note: registration is suggested but not required. The K-12 OC will be recorded and archived on the BOLT Multi-author Blog.

http://bolt.athabascau.ca/index.php/oer-teacher-network/satellite-opencon-2017-building-the-k-12-oer-teacher-network/

OpenCon17 highlights

On November 11-13, the fourth annual OpenCon meeting in Berlin, Germany was held. OpenCon 2017 included a diverse set of panels, regional workshops, project presentations, unconference sessions, and a very first OpenCon Do-a-Thon. 

These activities are highlighted on a webpage here, so feel free to spend some time exploring and sharing them. You can also find notes to all sessions here, and a full Youtube playlist from 2017 here.

More on the Do-a-Thon

The OpenCon Do-a-Thon was organised in November 2017 and deserves a bit of extra attention: building off the concept of a hackathon, a do-a-thon is a work-sprint where people from different skill sets work together and collaborate on different challenges and projects. For OpenCon 2017’s do-a-thon, the focus was on building projects and solutions that seek to advance Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. 

More information on the Do-a-Thon can be found here: http://doathon.opencon2017.org/  and to give you an idea of what they did, I am pasting some of the information here (feel free to look at the links, and see what the participants came up with):

1. Anyone can propose a problem to work on.

Is there a big question or challenge you want to tackle in Open Research and Education? Here's a chance to share it with the community and work together on designing a solution. Participants can submit challenges the day of the do-a-thon, but we'd love if folks could submit big questions they want to tackle in advance, too. Find out more about how to submit a challenge here.

2. Anyone can propose a project for others to collaborate on and contribute to.

Have a project idea you want to put into action? Or an existing project that needs development or support? The do-a-thon is a great opportunity to receive support and contributions from collaborators around the world. Learn more about how to propose and lead a project here.

3. Anyone can contribute their skills and ideas to existing challenges and projects.

Participate from wherever you are by contributing to one or more of the do-a-thon projects and challenges submitted. We expect that most of the action will take place on November 13th, but feel free to get in touch with project leads and see how you can help out beforehand! You can explore the growing list of projects and challenges we're working on here.

#edenRW9 A scholarly life online @veletsianos

Finally, I got to meet George Veletsianos (http://www.veletsianos.com/) and the pleasure of hearing his keynote liveblog from EDENRW9. 

open/social/digital scholarship: how does that influence each of our professional practice?

But we as academics are not only online for professional reasons, we are also humans with lives... online. 

Digital residents (individuals that consider the web of part of their live), digital visitors (those who use the web to engage in a particular activity, more practical, less part of life). 

So different people use the web for different purposes in different ways. 

What: share information, collaborative authoring, post draft papers, author open textbooks, open teaching, public P&T materials, crowdsourcing... not always rewarded by the institutes for putting or working online, but the mindset is changing. Online participation is becoming more encouraged by institutes (opportunity). 

Institutions and academics are still looking at social media in different ways.  Social media activities are rife with tensions, dilemmas, and conundrums. 

acceptable identity fragments (Kimmons & Veletsianos, 2016) https://royalroads.academia.edu/GeorgeVeletsianos 

Academics filter their posts to cater to specific groups.... (inge remark: this also means less overlap is happening, so less potential stepping stones). 

Disclosures might be tactical: political, encouraging reflection (Veletsianos & Stewart, 2016). 

When institutions view social media with a functional perspective.. they become part of an audit culture, and a complex data assemblage that confronts the individual academic (burrows, 2012). 

So what does it mean to look at academic impact through social media (see paper on twitter).

A scholarly life online from George Veletsianos

Full #PhD scholarships in Technology Enhanced Learning #onlinelearning #telearning

The Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET) Technology Enhanced Learning Priority Research Area have just released a call for Open Technology Enhanced Learning (OpenTEL) PhD scholarships.

Deadline for application is 31 March 2016. A quick overview of how to apply can be found here (= filling in the application form (is found in the link), and write a 600 - 1000 word proposal; I put my proposal here as an example). What I did (but not sure whether this approach made a difference), was to start from my research idea, and then see whether people with a OU background had done research in the same area. Then I put that research also into my proposal (not only, just a bit to indicate that I did know OU research).  I also contacted a person I knew who worked at the OU, to get a better understanding of what a PhD is like at that institute. Then I referred to that person in my application, just by name to indicate that I was truly actively getting information.
Do it, I did it and it is really worthwhile (strengthening knowledge, great research environment, multiple TEL-laboratories available). Sending a proposal does not take too much time, and it is really worth the effort as this is a worldclass institute for those investigating online learning in all its aspects (mobile learning, MOOC, learning analytics...).

The Centre for Research in Education andEducational Technology at the Open University has an international reputation for the quality of its research. At the Open University research students are provided with a supportive environment and excellent research facilities to ensure a future supply of first class researchers. We are recruiting PhD students in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) who study under guidance from world-class experts in the field. Open Technology Enhanced Learning (OpenTEL) brings together CREET researchers in the Institute of Educational Technology and Faculty of Education and Language Studies with those from Faculty of Business and Law, Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology, the Knowledge Media Institute, Faculty of Science, and the Faculty of Social Sciences. We encourage interdisciplinary research. If you feel that the challenge of research in this exciting and interesting area is for you and you have the drive and intellectual curiosity to pursue postgraduate research, then we look forward to hearing from you!

We are offering up to 4 fully funded full-time studentships for a 1+3 programme (MRes and PhD) or +3 programme (3-year PhD) - the latter is what I am doing, and almost finishing. 

You will have, or expect, a 2:1 or above in an undergraduate degree or a Master’s degree in education (or equivalent), psychology, computer science or another appropriate discipline. For direct entry to PhD you will need to have completed postgraduate study that includes appropriate research methods.

The Open University is one of the UK’s leading research Institutions. In the 2014 REF 72% of its research was rated as “world leading” or “internationally excellent”, in Education we were ranked 2nd for research power, a measure that combines quality and scale.

There is a vibrant international community of students studying our MRes and PhD programmes. The Open University provides excellent support for students and offers a full range of training in computer, library and presentation skills. The studentships are full time at the Milton Keynes campus and students are normally expected to live within commuting distance of Milton Keynes.

Funding is available for UK, EU and International students. Full funding for studentships will include fees and maintenance (£14057 in 2016/17) for either four years (1+3) or three years, depending on satisfactory progress.

Further information, including more details of CREET research, can be found at http://www.open.ac.uk/creet/main/.

Closing date: 31 March 2016

Interviews will commence in early May 2016

For detailed information and how to apply for the studentships go to www3.open.ac.uk/employment, call Anne Foward, Student Coordinator, on 01908 655364 or e-mail CREET-student-enquiries@open.ac.uk.

Equal Opportunity is University Policy.

Research instruments investigating Self-Directed Learning in #MOOCs #SDL

In reply of a question asked by the inspiring colleague and rising academic Bernard Nkuyubwatsi from the university of Leicester, I have grabbed my three research instruments and put them on Academia, here.

These three research instruments, or better: these three inquiry's to collect data related to my research, are related to three phases in my main study:

• Pre-course - using online survey questions;
• During course - using learning logs to capture the actual learning and reasons behind directing the learning as perceived by FutureLearn participants
• Post-course: one-on-one interviews, investigating the reflections learners have after having finished the course. 

These instruments were sent to experienced online learners that were enrolled in FutureLearn courses (three courses were selected: all from a different subject area, and organised by different universities).

As I am writing some parts of my thesis, and I still need to untangle some of the terms used referring to either Self-Directed Learning, Self-Determined Learning, Autonomous learning, Self Learning... I thought it would be good to share this already.

They are part of a research rationale which is partially shared in my probation report which you can find here ... writing updated chapters, but will take some time.

Feedback welcomed on research questions #heutagogy #MOOC

Sharing some of my concerns/doubts/directions on my PhD. Feel free to provide your insights or remarks. 

After considering heutagogy as an addition to my PhD frame, and revisiting potential research questions based on the two pages shared previously and resulting comments , I would like your feedback on the next potential research questions (and dilemma’s).

The provided research questions are followed by a very brief rationale, to (hopefully) allow you to see why I am making certain choices for my research.

Central research question

How do experienced online learners manage self-determined learning when engaged in a MOOC?

Sub-questions (I want to cover: peers/people, technologies/objects, leading to learning success with my sub-questions, as I think those make up the parts of the central question).

• ·         What (if any) are the objectives (question Inge: goals more linked to andragogy, on the other hand goals are broader than objectives) of the learners during their learning journey?
• ·         How do adult learners reach their SDL goals? (question Inge: or should I use more enquiry driven vocabulary for this question, maybe: which personal interests guide SDL?)
• ·         Which technologies do learners use in order to attain SDL success? (e.g. online content, objects, devices)
• ·         Who do learners connect with to reach successful SDL?
• ·         How do learner goals relate to learner outcomes?
• ·         What is the MOOC delivering answers versus outside MOOC delivering answers for SDL ratio? (question Inge: not sure if this question is relevant for SDL, but I cannot dismiss it yet, as I feel there is something of interest in relation to MOOC and SDL, and successful interaction provision)

Brief overview of content that drives my choices for the research question

I have tried to share some brief content here to sketch the background of my research questions.

Central idea

Central to the whole research is the idea put forward by Hase and Kenyon (2001): “the learner decides what and how to learn”. Which brings the learner into a central position and makes the content and actions offered by any one teacher or any one institute outside of the learner secondary to what the learner wants/needs. This consideration makes me think that learning moves even more towards informal learning, as only curricula/courses/modules made by the learner her/himself would ever allow formal learning to answer the learner’s need.

Heutagogy and need for experienced learning

A next step in reformulating the central research question is based on the path moving from pedagogy, to andragogy, to heutagogy. This overview gives rise to my doubts on which vocabulary to use for my research question, as different words are used and they can have different meanings.

The overview below is provided by Lindy McKeown (http://www.blog.lindymckeown.com/?p=52) :
Columns 1 and 2 from Burns, R. (1995). The adult learner at work: a comprehensive guide to the context, psychology and methods of learning for the workplace (1st ed.). Chatswood, N.S.W: Business and Professional Publishing.Column 3 from Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2000).

This means the learner is increasingly more in control of what is learned, and particularly why they want to learn it, and which effort they are willing to put into it.

But the learner can only be in control if s/he has the capacities to do so, which brings me to potential research boundaries for this PhD. Canning (2010) shared a diagram regarding learner expertise for heutagogy. This would offer part of the basis for my decision to only use research participants that have 1 or 3 years or more online learning or social media experience

Target audience selection

The research participants will be selected on the basis of prior experience (rationale briefly mentioned above). Learners that have been using social media or have been engaged in online learning for 1 year or more (I might pull this up to 3 years, but still trying to find more data to support a more specific choice (1 year covers experience, but maybe 3 years indicates online experience having been built up that can be transferred to new learning environments or settings).

In self-determined learning, it is important that learners acquire both competencies and capabilities (Hase & Kenyon, 2000, 2007). Competency can be understood as proven ability in acquiring knowledge and skills, while capability is characterized by learner confidence in his or her competency and, as a result, the ability “to take appropriate and effective action to formulate and solve problems in both familiar and unfamiliar and changing settings” (Cairns, 2000, p. 1, as cited in Gardner, Hase, Gardner, Dunn, & Carryer, 2008, p. 252). Capable people exhibit the following traits:

• ·         self-efficacy, in knowing how to learn and continuously reflect on the learning process;
• ·         communication and teamwork skills, working well with others and being openly communicative;
• ·         creativity, particularly in applying competencies to new and unfamiliar situations and by being adaptable and flexible in approach;
• ·         positive values (Hase & Kenyon, 2000; Kenyon & Hase, 2010; Gardner et al., 2007).

(the above mentioned paragraph comes from the Community of Practice Heutagogy site). But if self-determined learning acquires competency and capability, researching experienced learners and their SDL in MOOC will give insights in how other MOOC learners might guide their SDL to become more experienced learners.

Next steps

Once the research questions are chosen, I will review the used methodology and see if that needs to be adapted and I will write out the questions/instruments to be send to the ethics board.

In parallel I am writing an additional section into my literature review on heutagogy.

References

Blaschke, L. M. (2012). Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 13(1).

Canning, N. (2010). Playing with heutagogy: exploring strategies to empower mature learners in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education,34(1), 59-71.

Gardner, A., Hase, S., Gardner, G., Dunn, S.V., & Carryer, J. (2008). From competence to capability: A study of nurse practitioners in clinical practice. In Journal of Clinical Nursing, 17(2), 250-258. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.206.0188.x

Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2000). From andragogy to heutagogy. In UltiBase Articles. Retrieved fromhttp://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/dec00/hase2.htm

Hase, S. & Kenyon, C. (2007). Heutagogy: A child of complexity theory. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 4(1), 111-119.

Kenyon, C., & Hase, S. (2010, August). Adragogy and heutagogy in postgraduate work. In Meeting the challenges of change in postgraduate education (pp. 165-177).

#CALRG14 impact of #OER and #open course by @BeckPitt & @philosopher1978

From theory to practice: can openness improve the quality of OER research? By Beck (Rebecca) Pitt, Beatriz de-los-arcos, Rob Farrow (twitter Rob here) and (twitter Beck Pitt)

A GREAT session on OER and their impact. Two year project, which partnered up with other foundations. They have a fellowship scheme.

And for those interested in OER research hub videos, look at their YouTube channel (nice list of relevant multimedia content).

How can we make research better is a central question (and nice set of actions, that could be related to any open science/research as a practitioner I think - Inge note)

• all outputs from the project are CC-BY licensed
• share our data and evidence 
• blog progress of research and collaborations
• blog research findings
• use twitter to connect, network and disseminate
• continuous evaluation of work 

Research instruments available in the open

• ethics manual
• interview and focus groups
• sharing practices
• survey questions, etc.

And as such they also only publish in open access journals (hooray!).

OER impact map

School of Open course in progress
P2PUniversity / Creative commons initiative
courses include copyright for educatiors (both AUS and US)
Get CC savvy, open habits: making stuff with the daily create, intro to course.

They made a 4 week course on the subject of OER
based on participation (asking what people wanted to see)
interviews on open research practices and challenges
Course underwent an OU style review
Overall course review and check for consistency, use of external materials, etc.
After that an open review process (note to myself: of interest as a course development/assessment for open MOOC): community review.

course start date: 15 September 2014, and you can take all the materials as a third party and use the course inside your own institution (with CC and BY).

Course composition (one topic, each of the 4 weeks)

1. Week 1 =>what is open research?
2. ethics in the open
3. dissemination
4. reflection

Sharing two slidedecks: one from the talk by Rob Farrow (followed the one from Beck) and one from Beck.

Starting with the slidedeck from Rob on real OER impact (great slidedeck)

Open Research into Open Education: The Role of Mapping and Curation from Robert Farrow

This is not the actual slidedeck of this presentation, but with lots of slides that came up. My notes above hopefully compliment some of the ideas shared by Beck.

The Impact of Open Textbooks in the USA and South Africa: When? Why? How? from Beck Pitt

#CALRG14 Eileen Scanlon narrates her journey of MOOC-in-the-Now

From the CALRG conference in the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. A conference on sharing latest ideas in online learning related fields (broad and interesting). 

First session by EileenScanlon on what she learned as she went on a journey of MOOC-in-the-Now

Eileen is a tower of power and vision, as she is always ready to share latest ideas and insights, amongst who wants to listen. Her talk was of interest. 

My notes are live blognotes with its resulting short or quirky sentences.

Learningat scale (Atlanta)

(in case you want to join the next Learning at Scale (Vancouver, Canada 2015), look at their site here.

Single track conference (so you could go to all the tracks, which was really nice).

Chris dede keynote New wine in no bottles: immersive, personalized ubiquitous learning: thinking outside the box of teaching is essential to realizing learning at scale. Virtual worlds and augmented realities can complement digitized classroom instruction through simulated apprenticeships, embedded support for learning everywhere, and transformed social interactions. Going big also requires thinking small: analyzing diagnostic mircropatterns to customize individual learning, sifting through millions of participants to find the ideal partners to aid each other's growth. To reach massive with universal access and powerful outcomes, we must creatively expand our visions of platforms, pedagogy, and financing.
used metaphors from film and learning sciences

Very lively conference, as people were voicing their ideas, felt they could, all had experience.

Scanlon, McAndrew, O'Shea contribution: distance learning, OER and MOOCs, case study: the open science laboratory

osl cofuonded by the OU with support from Wolfson foundation, built a collection of tools to combine remote access, virtual experimets and citizen sciece into the curriculum

39 applications across the board.

Case study Ednburgh: ESSQ was shared.

Onlinelearning summit (Berkeley)

Invitational only summit (but 150 people)

opened with a conversation between presidetns of Berkely and STanford

John Hennessy We're going to invent the future

Colleges will be taking a more scinetific approach to online learning than in the past relying on their schools of education to measure student learning and provide feedback.

Great session: Eric Grimson (MIT) reflections on EDX: Expand access to education for students worlwide through online learning

while reinventing campus education through blended models

and learn about learning

gave example of undergraduate physics course transformation (also see Breslow et al. In ACML@s - Eileen has the pdf of all the presentations (but not open yet)

Undergraduate required physics course: TEAL style classroom teaching

Group problem solving interspersed with mini

Shared detailed stuff on forums, and other data. Results that it is not a residential experience (a MOOC), if you want to find out what happens in EdX, you can just google report and get it. Very open with detailed information. So seems that there is a difference once something is not for profit.

KenKoedinger was another highlight

Pittsburgh Science Learning Centre, LearnLab

Part of the Simon initiative at Carnegie Mellon University 'exploring the mystery and potential of human learning'

Built on the core principles of learning advanced by CMU's Nobel Laureate and pioneering educator, Herbert A. Simon, whose work linked cognitive models of learning with computation tools, the Simon Initiative makes the learner its focus and measurably improving learning outcomes its goal. The Simon Initiative will harness the university's vast technology-enhanced, educational ecosystem, which goes beyond the university, embraces the whole of society, which makes universities move beyond their individual concerns, very interesting.

Carnegie cognitive tutors KK: makes money from prior research, they kept faith in individual tuition. (Inge look up on Web)

Lyticslab (Stanford): 4 or 5 postgrads got together in september 2012 with focusing on what was needed for them to research MOOC. They ended up asking two main professors to head the lab. So it came from the students.

Candace Thile: new associate professor moving from Carnegie Open Learning Institute

Project to use learning science with open educational delivery

"She will complement the strengths we have in studying the effect of context in learning and research on the role of technology in education, and can tie a lot of these things together. She can help us transform what would otherwise be independent, somewhat fragmented efforts into systematic improvement of this kind of pedagogy' Steele Head of GSE.

At this point the Lytics lab did transform, but it is still of interest.

Guest speakeer at Lytics

Carolyn Roose

Education'sdigital future (Stanford)

Mitchell Stevens (director of digital education)

"With the arrival of online education, the world is on the verge of a "epochal and pivotal moment' in the history of higher education on a scale of importance as deep as the expansion of higher education after World War 2 with the GI bill".

In stanford it looks as a much more instruction led approach, more then EdX. Academically driven.

From this conference, people went to:

Dagstule (where Mike Sharples went), Germany

LAK14

EU MOOCs conference (Lausanne)

coursera conference (London)

FutureLearn Academic Network (FLAN) Led by Eileen, Mike Sharples and Russel Beale

Collaboration between partners

ESRC proposal on the future of higher education

Centre for Open Adaptive Connected Higher education (COACH)

Partners:

University of Edinburgh (Bayne and Heywood)

Carnegie Mellon University (Koedinger and Rose)

Oxford University (Pullman).

New directions, new partnerships

Things are moving very fast, and you need to visit people in order to understand what they are doing, in terms of vision, of research, and look for international partnerships. To infinity and beyond.

Making Learning #data public from @CarnegieMellon

Wonderful article from Inside Higher Ed mentioned that "Carnegie Mellon University will open the world’s largest database on student learning to the public in an effort to identify best practices and standards for using technology in the classroom". The initiative will be called the Simon Initiative, and which will (initially?) build upon the research taking place at the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC) and their partners.

The science of Learning Center or LearnLab will open up their data collected over the last 9 years and publish them on an open wiki. The data already resulted in some insights: reflection increases learning, explaining algebra (and I guess scientific or other ideas) in your own language increases comprehension and retention. Seems of interest to keep an eye out for this Simon Initiative for sure. Learnlab already has this nice feature called data shop which is a data repository and analysis service for the learning science community. And this data shop offers everyone the opportunity to look at public data sets, isn't that GREAT! Have a look, it even has links to papers based upon the data. Really nice.

The article got my attention, as opening up data from which we can all learn will increase chances of moving all of us ahead. Especially if factors or elements that interest us can be put forward as potential meta-data or simply to be used for data mining and getting us the results that matter to our learning/teaching. The approach for this initiative seems to be created by people at the top, as the article mentioned that "to support the open-access initiative, the institution will form a council of higher education leaders, education technology experts and industry representatives to distribute the data and guide the conversation". I hope some of the thoughts or debates coming out of these sessions will also be made public, or that the interested public for this initiative will be able to voice their remarks based on hot discussions. A bit of bottom up views to weave into the top down views.

Carnegie Mellon is one of the institutes I would love to work for. It is just the way they move forward and the attempt they constantly make at using education to lift everyone up.
The Open Learning Initiative which has been doing groundwork on effective online learning, open and free online courses and getting Open Educational Resources (OER) out there for everyone to share and use, is now a key actor in getting learning data out to the public and scientists. Their approach is multidisciplinary which is also always of interest.

In the comments given at the end of the article, people rightfully remark that it would be good if the data would also include data from long lasting online learning providers. This would indeed be a great addition to the open learning data initiative and I hope they will achieve this (I gather this will take time to get everyone in agreement around the table).  

20 strategies for learner interactions in mobile #MOOC

Let's be honest, we all LOVE research *grin*, or facts, or lists, or useful practices ... or practical strategies for that matter. Well, here is a new set of useful strategies for mobile MOOCs, I hope you like it!

In my latest research I focused on the impact of mobile access on learner interactions in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). The research was done to get my Master in Education at Athabasca University. As always all of the Athabasca faculty was supportive to get the research up to their standards (ethical approval, relevant literature...).

The readable and hopefully useful list of 20 mobile strategies to increase learner interaction in a MOOC that came out of my research can be found below in this post, but feel free to read the full thesis here, it has links to ethical procedures (e.g. informed consent form), some web analytics, community of inquiry use to screen learner interactions.... If you want to reference to the strategies, or parts of the thesis, this is the APA reference for it:

de Waard, I. (2013). Impact of mobile access on learner interactions in a MOOC. Retrieved from Athabasca DThesis database http://hdl.handle.net/10791/23 

Abstract of the research 
As mobile access and massive open online courses (MOOCs) become a global reality, the realm of potential distance learners is expanding rapidly. Mobile learning (mLearning) as well as MOOCs are based on similar characteristics as shown in the literature review of this study. They both enhance a community feeling, increasing networking and collaboration; they strengthen lifelong and informal learning, they use social media to a large extend and they are ideal for setting up communicative dialogues. The focus on learner interactions is of interest, as research has shown that dialogue is an important element for learning and knowledge enhancement, and mobile access increases the opportunities to enter into such interactions. This thesis study used a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to investigate the impact of mobile accessibility on learner interaction in a MOOC. The study showed that opening up a MOOC for mobile access has immediate impact on learner interactions, as participants with mobile devices tend to interact more with their fellow learners in comparison to their non-mobile colleagues. This was deduced from the mixed methods approach looking at web-based statistics, an online survey, an analysis using the Community of Inquiry framework and one-on-one interviews with volunteers. The study formulated a set of 20 strategies and possible consequences deriving from the analysis of the impact of mobile accessibility in a MOOC and more specifically how this affects learner interactions. These strategies might optimize the impact of mobile access on learner interactions in an informal, open, online course. Future research needs to support the findings, embracing a larger learner population from a more varied background. Overall, this research hopes to add to the body of knowledge strengthening the field of distance education.

List of 20 mobile related strategies to increase learner interactions in MOOCs:

Design
1. Offer a ubiquitous learning environment based on BYOD design and content, making use of existing ubiquitous tools (social media, e-mail…) so people can switch between devices at their own preference.
2. Create a user-friendly, one button centralized access learning environment. This easy access must be linked to a clear course overview to increase transparency, user-friendliness and provide the learner with a structure that s/he can organize for self-regulating learning purposes.
Self-directed learning 
3. Provide self-directed learning strategies to the learners.
4. Enabling immediate access to content material as well as discussion areas adds to time management options and it enables self-regulated learning.
5. Offer synchronous and asynchronous learner activities within a clearly timed course. This provides the necessary freedom for the learner to access, reflect and possibly react on the subject touched at specific moments during the course.
6. Provide a clear timetable of the course, while embedding time for reflection into the course timeline. This suggested flexible, yet cohort move through the course provides an opportunity to nurture reflection time, which is in direct relation to learner interactions.
7. Embed informality in the course to allow increased, autonomous learner interactions to emerge. This room for emergence is induced by the course being both formal and informal, or informal overall and being mobile. The informal character of a course results in participants feeling more at ease with sharing and producing content and engaging in interactions across all their devices.
Digital skills
8. Increase the necessary digital skills of the learner, providing basic training before the course starts via meaningful content-related actions. If a course is accessible for a multitude of devices, it affects (the need for) digital skills, because multiple devices have multiple characteristics and affordances.
Content 
9. Offer an array of course materials, varying from bite size snacks to big, time consuming content. The mobility of the user results in the ability to access materials in a variety of locations and times. As such a wide array of course materials is needed to cater to the time availability of the learner. Offering the learner a choice to tailor the content to their current possibilities.
10. Provide a sense of ownership about the content and the learning: BYOD, contextualized options, this adds to the overall learner motivation.
Human learning environment
11. Ensure a safe learning environment. This essential to increase learner interactions in general. Tolerance, trust, daring to write in a non-native language and knowing that one can pose every content related question and not being judged for either its simplicity or format must be set early in the course.
12. Provide interaction/communication guidelines stipulating balanced communication allowing a safe discussion area to be ensured. By creating a safe learning environment, a broader perspective of personalities are tempted to engage and interact in the course.
13. Profile a central course person(s) (e.g. central coordinator, course support person) who watches over the interactions and links to each participant personally, ensuring a trusting learning environment with room for cultural and language diversity.
14. Watch over the group-size. Community feeling is increased by an intermediate group-size and learner-centered activities, which in turn affects learner interactions.
15. Allow networks to emerge. A community feeling based upon easy (mobile) access increases the formation of a more durable professional network for those connecting to each other in a way that surpasses the course duration.
Course activities
16. Embed icebreaker activities and/or discussions at the beginning of the course to allow learner interactions to take off. These activities should also be linked to intellectual topics.
17. Ensure discussions or conversation starters. The act of conversation and exchanging ideas leads to more interactions as participants become more familiar with each other on professional grounds.
18. Create meaningful, contextualized, generic, topic related interactions, as they are pivotal to create a course community spirit, because the exchange of professional interests adds to the knowledge need of the learners.
19. Add activities involving non-verbal communication to offer additional understanding, which increases the community feeling, for it might offer an additional insight into dialogue and discussion.
20. Ensure topic relevant learner diversity in examples or actions. Learners can more easily join in those conversations where they detect knowledge niches to which they can provide an answer, strengthening each other.

MOOC completion and drop-out rates

Yesterday Katy Jordan casually send me her blog (Katy is a fellow PhD'r sitting only 7 feet away from me!). It turned out she is working (in her spare time!) on the completion rates in MOOCs. Looking at xMOOCs by Coursera, EdX mainly, and one course by Udacity and MITx.
Katy is clearly an upcoming academic, she is thorough, focused, analytical ... everything you need to make it in the academic world. AND she is now focusing on MOOC, the completion rates in combination with the assessment types. The nice thing is, she shares her findings live, so a true open scientist. Take a look at her analytics at her MOOC project site here.

More openness will increase development in the spirit of MOOC
One of the tough things she is facing is getting the data opened up for her. Getting her hands on learning analytics is not always that easy. There are many reasons for this (she researches for non-US institute, while looking at US xMOOCs so outside the universities providing the courses, privacy issues, platform difficulties, ...).
While MOOCs (cMOOCs in particular) came from the open education movement, and with all MOOCs spreading the word that every student, no matter were should be able to follow a MOOC, one would hope true openness of data would be possible. But, there are technical issues only being realized right now, and there is of course a market were business models that still needs to be fine-tuned (if not set up), and best practices need to be created,... tough barriers for emerging (international) research fields. A cross-continental research project would be wonderful, a bit like CERN and the Large Hydran Collidor, universities from the world collaborating for the good of all!

One of the main MOOC challenges: MOOC drop-out
As drop-out rates are one of the main MOOC challenges, this research is a gift. For insight in the drop-out rates can provide angles for improvement, increased retention ... So, looking forward to follow Katy's research. And have a look at the wonderful set of papers she has written, including using semantic web technologies... inspiring stuff!

To me, I feel that MOOCs are also a way to improve expert learning, so not necessarily linked to assessments and such. It is more about lifelong learning, getting information to enhance personal knowledge for professional reasons. But that ... is another research all together. For at that point, you cannot look at assessments to indicate completion. For the expert MOOCs might have lurkers (= people that do not actively engage in MOOC interactions, but do follow what is going on) that actually have found what they were looking for, learning without interacting, and those lurkers would be part of the learners finishing the course (but how to analyse that?!). 

#aufgs2012 Terry Anderson on living, learning, and research in a #networked age

Terry Anderson speaks on the subject of Living, Learning, and Researching in a Networked Era.

His focus is on openness as a scholar and the evolution of different learning approaches over the last few decades related to this openness. It was an interesting presentation, also of interest from a MOOC perspective.

presentation of his keynote:

Learning, Living and researching in a Networked World from terrya

Some quick live blogging notes (so short and at times chaotic) here:


Picking up from 2004: connectivist learning principles
Learning is a process of connecting information
Learning may rely in non-human appliances
Making connections to objects as well as humans
In the centre of connectivism is sharing, producing content.


Connectivist learning is emergent
In the classic model where a trainer has a very well defined path of transformative learning, there is very little space for emergence, this is the surplus of more open learning.

Each types of learning has its own benefit, so one should be open in any debate with people with different preferences.

Terry gives an overview of MOOCs, giving a quick definition and placing it in recent history.
Questions are still out there: are they useful? Does it have a business model?
Tunes in on coursera, with their courses.

Terry tunes in on the two genre's of MOOCs: cMOOC and xMOOC
original siemens, downes, cornier
coonnectivist learning theory
how can you add recognition to such courses?
aggregates distributed posts, no centre
large enrollment, many 'lurkers' no formal assessment
heavy involvement and communication with 'teacher/facilitator'

xMOOC
scale up into the hundreds of thousands
Based on first behaviour
structured learning activites, instructivist cognitive behaviorist pedagogy
heavey content interaction, little to no teacher-student infrastructure
centralized admin
watch a video

Athabasca MOOC
CDE courses MDDE622 openness in education
AU removing mooc barrier by offerning credit or undergrad courses
connectivist model
Join for free

The modes of interaction by Anderson and Garrison (1998)
Ther is no one solution, it depends on the goal of the course.
The interaction equivalency Theorem by Anderson (2003): one can have meaningful learning if one form is available: student-teacher, student-student, student-content )
For some kind of people and uses is the behaviorist option (student-content) has the most benefit, despite contemporary new pedagogical ideas.

Promising signs of change
ubiqtuity and multi-functionality of web2.0

Living in a networked area
one can be connected overall .... and Mr. google can resolve debates on many occasion :-)
concluding: there is no one solution, one must found out what works out for your own person, your own preferences.

Burt "people who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas" (2005, p. 90)

Terry also focuses on Open Scholar working and publishing.
Stresses the fact that open access press has benefits and still gives you royalties.

The benefits of open access #openeducation

Thanks to Stephen Downes' Ol'Daily I got hold of a wonderful and very insightful blogpost from Laura Czerniewicz. In her blogpost she talks about educational technology for equity. In the post she zooms in on an essay she wrote (the original form of the essay) in which she uses the South African context to look at whose interests educational technology does serve? And also for which ends is it pursued and which of the current trends are most relevant to advancing the equity agenda?  How can equity be kept foregrounded when universities globally, and in Africa in particular are under serious pressure? The current turmoil derives from a complex interplay of factors including the massification of tertiary systems, the impacts of information and communications technology, globalisation and the rise of the knowledge economy.

It is a wonderful post and I use parts of it to respond to a call for the Alpine Rendez-Vous that is planned in ... the Alps by the end of January 2013 and which will focus on combating the educational crisis. In fact, while writing this, I should ask Laura to join in a common workshop.

Laura has a great view on why open access has benefits for all, especially those that are currently under-served. I will refer to her presentation whenever I encounter yet another person who doubts the use of open content:

Why open education matters in South Africa from Laura Czerniewicz

Blogphilosophy #EdX where #MOOC becomes a joint venture

Video streaming by Ustream After reading the launch of EdX with great interest, I feel that the work of a lot of us open learning minded learners has been tamed by big institutes. Utopia has been monetized (although seemingly only limited as it is under the umbrella of non-profit, however I did read Joint Venture in the press release) and put into a stricter model where - if I understand it correctly and please put me straight if I did not get it - the assistants, professors, and grading algorithms of the richer universities will blast away smaller initiatives that are based on peer knowledge exchange, natural learning and human enrichment.

Of course this is me writing, the me who believes that a diversity of approaches is more closely related to human evolution than providing only one model, due to economical potential. A learner should be able to choose the model that fits her/him best.

In the launch of EdX there was a big focus on the fact that enormous research will be done on the nature of learning via the participants that register for the courses. I applaud this with all of my heart, for yes, I do believe in research (not sure if research results are necessarily taken up by policy makers, but ... it has value to me). Only wondering if the EdX research will also be open? So that anyone will be able to benefit from it? That way small schools in less fortunate areas or with underpriveledged students can benefit from it as well. For research results can be embedded in a diversity of approaches if those research results are open for all to read, grasp, build upon.

Nevertheless I am happy to see the conscious choice to put out content open to a global audience on a wide variety of really, really interesting subjects and ... with a certificate option?!!! That is more than most of our educational institutions could/can offer. In fact it looks to me as if this is a major educational magnet that can attract a plethora of students.

The New York times did quote George Siemens, but ... it just is not the same as moving ahead with people that choose another way of teaching/learning because of philosophical reasons. Now all of a sudden the concept of being open, discussing with people who are simply 'in to it' will become a business model. It is good to hear that no profit is expected, but ... it will have a business model and ... that is the way the world turns.

Reading the almost salivating comments of Harvard/MIT people on connecting to the Chinese and Indian learners makes me wonder if the world is better off only using one learning/teaching model? The rich history of pedagogical approaches, embedded in cultures on all continents will again be flatted down into one, overarching model.

Okay... there is only one thing left to do before learning/teaching diversity comes down to the one, global, dominant model: getting the diversity of models gathered in a book. An eBook preferably, giving a voice to the diversity of teaching that happens around the world, in a multitude of cultures, because they can and have been doing it since the dawn of time. Learning is human, as such we are all part of it, and all science related to it should be open, natural and diverse in order to evolve towards a more balanced world for all of us. Maybe I should knock on the door of Stephen Downes and others to reach out to those teachers/sharers of knowledge who live it, love it and teach it ... their way and collaboratively write the book.

#qualitative research: introduction to #grounded #theory and some emotive language use in courses idea

The last couple of months I have been immersed in data analysis research: some qualitative (argh) and some qualitative (well, argh as well). No matter how I twist and turn it, I need to really dig into data analysis to understand how it works and why this type of analysis is a good thing. Let's just say my mind is not naturally equiped for data analysis, although on the other hand I get somewhat of a high when an analysis is done. My MobiMOOC Research Team (MRT) colleagues and I have also been working on a paper regarding emotive language use in an open online course, in order to deduce whether some sentences could be indicators of emerging demotivation and even dropout of an open course. For if this would be the case, course facilitators and even computer data mining programs could be used to pick-up this effechttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift and enter in a motivational conversation with those learners (nice idea). This experience got my eyes opened as I understood how less I understood of qualitative research.

So for all of you that are also struggling, I will gladly share any meaningful resources that might just get us a bit more knowledgeable on data analysis. Starting with one of the most commonly used one's: grounded theory. I found this set of videos on YouTube, these are lectures given by Grahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifham Gibbs, who teaches at the University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom) and with a typical British under-cooled flair (how do those Brits keep their passion so controlled?) he gets the key points across: coding, ethics, approach...

Below you will find the first (5 min) video, but you can also subscribe to the Qualitative Research Channel right here and get all of the videos on the subject.

Btw if anyone knows great resources on data analysis, feel free to share, I can use every bit of it. Now diving back into Creswell (2007) on qualitative methods design.