A non-linear exploration of the influence of granularity on

OER reuse

Martin Weller

OER Roulette!

My OER experience

OpenLearn

Blog

Sidecap

Granularity

Big and Little OER

Big Little

Institutional Individual

high reputation cheap

good teaching quality, web (2) native

little reversioning required

easily remixed and reused

expensive low production quality

often not web native reputation ‘buyer beware’

reuse limited distributed

My hypothesis

Granularity is a lens through which we can explore many of the issues around open content

Sustainability

Aggregation

Messages

Portals

Context

Working

Time

Projects

Content

Status

Questions

Models of OER sustainability

Centralised Team (MIT) Teaching Duty (USU) Distributed dev (Rice)

(decentralisation)

(cost)

(Wiley)

Research papers

Lectures/Teaching content

Conferences Data

Code

IdeasDebate

Higher Education as long tail production engine

Should we just stop worrying about sustainability and embrace little OER?

Aggregation and Adaptation

(McAndrew et al 2009):

“In relation to repurposing, initially it was thought:

1. that it was not anyone’s current role to remix and reuse;

2. the content provided on the site was of high quality and so discouraged alteration;

3. there were few examples showing the method and value of remixing;

4. the use of unfamiliar formats (such as XML) meant that users were uncertain how to proceed.”

Little OER tends to

• not be explicit learning content – not generated with the aim of being used for learning;

• not specify the learning that will occur • be easily aggregated into a pathway or framework which

is created by the educator.

The Lamb formula

Do you get different types of learning from aggregation and adaptation?

Implicit Message

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jt5bqMqY0 ]

When are these different messages appropriate in learning?

Portals and Sites

[http://ocw.mit.edu]

[http://slideshare.net]

Specific Project Site Third party site

Advantages Greater brand link Greater traffic

Link through to courses Cheaper

Control Greater serendipity

Ability to conduct research Expertise in social software development

Disadvantages Requires specialist team Can lose service

Requires updating No control eg over downtimes

Lower traffic Loss of ownership of data

More expensive Other non-educational content also present

Should we stop building our own OER sites?

Context

“No amount of creativity in the making of an artefact will compensate for the absence of a framework within which to disseminate it. My Facebook postings (of links to my 2 videos) received brief comments from 3 of my 67 ‘friends’. Nothing on Twitter or Youtube. This demotivated me to continue investing the time. If I’d had, say, a teaching forum with students working on intercultural semiotics, I’d have had more of an impact”

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdAkKKxOvu4 ]

Can educational content survive outside of an educational context?

New ways of working

[http://www.slideshare.net/mweller/future-of-education-3475415 ]

[http://www.darcynorman.net/2009/11/24/how-do-you-connect-to-people-online-the-video/

• Distributed

• Free

• Remix/Adapt

• Multi-media

• = New academic skills?

We’ve only just begun – what other ways of working does open content allow?

Time

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoNHIl-QLQ ]

Big OER takes time to produce and ‘scrub’

But can be used as is

= Potential big payoff

Little OER is quick to produce

Takes time to aggregate

= Small payoff per item

Can we quantify these pay-offs?

Project

Organisations understand projects, they have responsibility, budget, objectives.

Pic: Patrick McAndrew

Projects isolate practice

Bottom up/frictionless approach doesn’t fit this model

Can an unproject approach work (particularly in an era of cutbacks)?

ContentContent isn’t everything

But that doesn’t mean it’s nothing

Quick poll

1. Blogs/wikis

2. Quizzes

3. Screencasting

4. Podcasting

When is the personal element appropriate?

Status

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYy7pO_RFVM ]

What is the cultural/social/professional context for reuse?

Questions

Should we just stop worrying about sustainability and embrace little OER?

What is the cultural/social/professional context for reuse?

When is the personal element appropriate?

Can an unproject approach work (particularly in an era of cutbacks)?

Do you get different types of learning from aggregation and adaptation?

Can we quantify these pay-offs?

Can educational content survive outside of an educational context?

We’ve only just begun – what other ways of working does open content allow?

When are these different messages appropriate in learning?

Should we stop building our own OER sites?