By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Beyond Free - Open Learning in a Networked World
Stephen Downes, Jul 08, 2014, 12th Annual Academic Practise & Technology Conference, University of Greenwich, Greenwich, UK
The evolution of open content and open learning are explored in this presentation that seeks to recapture the essence of what it is that a MOOC is designed to do.
Developing Student Support For Open And Distance Learning: The Empower Project
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Developing Student Support For Open And Distance Learning: The Empower Project
Journal of Interactive Media in Education Latest Articles, 2018/12/18
This article summarizes the EMPOWER project, launched the 2015 by the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU). More...
A New Way to Motivate Faculty Adoption of OER
Ironwood, The Last Open edX Version, To Be Released This February
Big news for Open edX’s developers: Ironwood, the 2019 version of this learning platform, will be released on February. The first release candidate, Ironwood.1rc1, was just made available this week. More...
EdX Launches a Promotional Website About its Open Source Platform
The edX organization has launched a new marketing-oriented website about the open source software called Open edX, which powers its educational portal and is freely available on GitHub. More...
Opensource Apps for Educators
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Opensource Apps for Educators
2018/11/30
I explored this after the link was passed along to me on Mastodon. The idea is that you can log into the service and quickly launch any of a large number of open source applications. It was set up by a group of people in British Columbia. More...
Statewide Data on OER Savings
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Statewide Data on OER Savings
Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed, 2018/11/16
According to this article, " North Dakota students saved more than $1 million on textbooks after the state invested just $110,000 to help instructors use open educational resources. Audit identifies successes and ongoing challenges." It's based on a report (62 page PDF) from the State Auditor's office. More...
L'Université Ouverte de Catalogne - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (U.O.C.)
Plan S for open access is far too risky, say researchers
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Plan S for open access is far too risky, say researchers
Brendan O'Malley, University World News, 2018/11/09
Journal publishers have struck back against Plan S, the requirement that researchers publish findings of publicly funded research in open access journals. According to this article, "700 researchers from across Europe and beyond have signed an open letter criticising Plan S." It's currently 870 researchers, mostly from Europe, and overwhelmingly from chemistry departments. More...
Lumen Seeks Continuous Improvement of OER in Two-Prong Approach
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lumen Seeks Continuous Improvement of OER in Two-Prong Approach
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 2018/11/08
According to this article, Lumen Learning "has launched the 'Learning Challenges Leaderboards' ... as well as RISE and Shine, a community effort to improve the OER." The leaderboards "provide a fine-grained view into the specific skill-level outcomes students struggle with the most." RISE and Sine is "a community-based continuous improvement process." What I find interesting is the vague phrasing of the learning objectives on the leaderboard, using verbs like "explain" and "describe" and "determine" (which at best require a rote response) rather than performance-based objectives, such as "calculate" or "measure" or "model". More...