1 Open Government MOOC 2016

Course syllabus OG101x - 2016

Open Government

2016 edX MOOC

2 Open Government MOOC 2016

2016 colophon

This course was produced, written & designed by:

Marijn Janssen Anneke Zuiderwijk Danika Marquis Martijn Pronk

© TU Delft 2016

With contributions of:

Keith Jeffery (Cardiff University) Tomasz Janowski (United Nations University) Bastiaan van Loenen (Delft University of Technology) Iryna Susha (Örebro University) Amr Ali-Eldin (Mansoura University & Leiden University) Rhythima Shinde (Delft University of Technology) The Delft Design Approach MOOC team With illustrations by:

Annemarie van der Linde (Van Wijk Media and Consulting)

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Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 4

1.1 Relevance ......................................... .......................................................................................... 4 1.2 Learning objectives ............................... .................................................................................... 4 1.3 Instructors ....................................... ........................................................................................... 4

2. STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE ......................................................................................... 5

2.1 Planning .......................................... ............................................................................................ 5 2.2 What is expected each week ........................ ............................................................................ 7

3. DELIVERABLES ....................................................................................................................... 8

3.1 Templates ......................................... .......................................................................................... 8 3.2 How to upload your work ........................... ............................................................................... 8 3.3 Sharing your ideas and using social media ......... .................................................................. 8 3.4 Assessments ....................................... ....................................................................................... 8

4. DISCUSSION FORUM GUIDELINES ................................................................................. 9

5. GRADING AND CERTIFICATION .................................................................................... 10

5.1 Grading ........................................... .......................................................................................... 10 5.2 Certification ..................................... ......................................................................................... 10

6. HOW TO GET MOST OUT OF THIS COURSE ............................................................ 11

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1. Introduction Welcome to the Open Government MOOC! This MOOC introduces you to the foundations, objectives, benefits, barriers and potential negative effects of an Open Government. In the following weeks we will help you grasp the key principles surrounding Open Government. The topics of the course are applied to concrete cases, which you will be asked to analyze and discuss with your peers.

1.1 Relevance Governments from all over the world have acknowledged the need for becoming more open. Open and accountable governance is considered as the very foundation of a democracy. Therefore, mechanisms for ensuring effective public oversight are paramount. This requires openness, or the opening of government. ‘Open government’ efforts are about opening the black-box by creating transparency and stimulating engagement with citizens and businesses to make clear what is going on inside the government, but also to influence what is going on.

1.2 Learning objectives The main Learning Objectives (LOs) of this course are:

• LO1: You are able to describe basic concepts related to Open Government.

• LO2: You are able to identify a particular real open government case. • LO3: You are able to describe basic concepts related to Open Government Data. • LO4: You are able to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative

effects of a particular open government case. • LO5: You are able to analyze and discuss public values and best practices related to

open government.

1.3 Instructors This MOOC has been developed by Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, with contributions by experts in the field of Open Government from various other universities world-wide (including Cardiff University, United Nations University, Mansoura University and Örebro University). The main instructors of this course are employed at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. The faculty combines insights from the engineering sciences with insights from the humanities and the social sciences, and this MOOC will therefore not only focus on technical or social aspects, but will take a socio-technical view on Open Government. This view is essential for developing robust models and designs in order to solve the complex challenges of today’s networked, urbanized knowledge society.

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2. Structure of the course The Open Government MOOC is structured along five Learning Objectives and runs over a period of five weeks. In the first four weeks we focus on the content of the course, while the conclusions and the exam are central to the fifth week of the course. In each week, there will be videos, assignments, papers and quizzes. The following section gives you an idea of the planning and of what you can expect each week.

2.1 Planning The Figure below shows the structure of the course.

Before the course starts: Welcome! Before the course starts, you will get familiar with the contents and structure of the course in the ‘welcome’ section. In addition, Video 1.0 provides an overview of the Open Government MOOC, and highlights what is expected from you in this course. It summarizes the key parts of this syllabus. Week 1 - Introduction to Open Government (March 14- 20, 2016) The course material will be released each week on Mondays. In the first week of the course we introduce the concept of Open Government. So what is an Open Government? And what are its key characteristics? Moreover, we discuss various developments in the evolution of digital governments towards an Open Government. Then we analyze technology developments influencing Open Government, and thereafter the stakeholders of Open Government and the policy-making cycle. In the assignment of this week (Assignment 1) we examine a real Open Government case, and we encourage you to discuss this case on the forum devoted to this. A video with instructions for Assignment 1 is available. This week aims to attain the following Learning Objectives (LO):

• LO1: You are able to describe basic concepts related to Open Government. • LO2: You are able to identify a particular real open government case.

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Week 2 - Opening and Reusing Government Data (March 21-27, 2016) In this week we focus on one particular aspect of the Open Government movement, namely Open Government Data. We define and provide examples of Open Government Data, and we explain the processes that take place from data collection at the side of the government through governmental data publication and to subsequent data use. In addition, we have a look at considerations for opening government data, and at open data portals that are used to make government data available. Moreover, we provide feedback on Assignment 1 and we introduce Assignment 2. Assignment 2 includes the completion of a survey that helps to identify benefits of realizing the particular open government case from Assignment 1, on barriers for realizing the case, and on (potential) negative effects of the case for governments and society. A video with instructions for completing Assignment 2 is available. This week has the following learning objectives:

• LO3: You are able to describe basic concepts related to Open Government Data. • LO4: You are able to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative

effects of a particular open government case, including technological and legal aspects.

Week 3. Technical and legal aspects (March 28 – Apr il 3, 2016) In this week we examine technical and legal aspects of government information sharing. First, we focus on the use of research data by governments, and the way that this data can be analysed through Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and we discuss metadata for open government data, and we investigate technologies for linking big and open data. Second, legal aspects of governmental information sharing are described, such as directives to stimulate Open Government. In addition, we further study and evaluate a particular open government case (Assignment 3a, which will be continued in week 4), and we encourage you to discuss this evaluation through group discussions on the forum. This week aims to attain the following learning objectives.

• LO3: You are able to describe basic concepts related to Open Government Data. • LO4: You are able to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative

effects of a particular open government case. Week 4. Open government and public values (April 4- 10, 2016) Public values of open government are central to the fourth week of the Open Government MOOC. This week focuses specifically on the public values surrounding transparency, participation and privacy, although the examination and sharing of other public values is also included. Moreover, you will complete Assignment 3b in this week. In this week we focus on the following learning objectives.

• LO4: You are able to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative effects of a particular open government case.

• LO5: You are able to analyze and discuss public values and best practices related to open government.

Week 5. Conclusions (April 11-17, 2016) This fifth week concludes the Open Government MOOC. We reflect on the five learning objectives and look ahead at the MC question exam that needs to be completed on April 17 at latest.

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2.2 What is expected each week As shown in Video 1.0, each week of the course has more or less the same structure. Below you can see what content you can expect every week and what kind of activities are expected from you. There are five learning objectives in total. Some learning objectives will be covered by multiple weeks. Two learning objectives are central to each week. During the course, you will complete three assignments. Explanations of each assignment are available on the EdX platform. There are three types of videos in this course:

• Lecture videos. The topic and related methods and/ or tools are introduced in a number of videos by the related lecturer.

• Assignment explanation videos . Each of the three assignments is explained in an assignment explanation video.

• Feedback videos . After you have completed your assignments, we provide you with feedback on your assignment in a video devoted to this topic.

Various papers are provided with interesting information about the course topics.

• Mandatory paper . In weeks 1, 2 and 3, you will be asked to read a mandatory paper about the topic of that week.

• Optional papers (master track). For those who are interested in reading more about Open Government, please follow the master track and study the optional papers. The master track is not assessed and is completely voluntary.

Assignment

Videos

Papers

Learning Objectives

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3. Deliverables

3.1 Templates For the assignments, a specific template should be used. You can find these templates in the assignment descriptions.

3.2 How to upload your work There are multiple ways to upload your work. In the assignments, we will ask you to upload your work in the following ways.

• Copy-pasting to the forum . For Assignment 1 and 3 you will be asked to copy and paste information to the forum related to that particular assignment.

• Worldmap . For Assignment 1 we will also ask you to place your Open Government case on the “worldmap”. This edX feature allows you to see all contributions from around the world. You can only upload the title of the Open Government case selected in Assignment 1 on the worldmap.

• Submitting your survey responses. For Assignment 2 you will be asked to complete a survey that guides your efforts in assessing an Open Government case. Please make sure that you complete the entire survey and do not forget to click the ‘submit-button’ at the end.

Please follow the detailed instructions in the assignment descriptions. Note that we will respect your privacy. We will not quote individual contributions without your consent.

3.3 Sharing your ideas and using social media If you want to get direct feedback from your peers in an open conversation we advise you to use the discussion forum. The discussion forum can be found on the edX platform (for guidelines see chapter 5). On Twitter we created a group in which you can also share your ideas. It is called: “Open Government MOOC” and uses the hash tag #OpenDataX. The Twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/OpenDataX.

3.4 Assessments Your work will be assessed through quizzes, assignments (including a peer-review assignment) or a multiple choice exam. In Table 1 you can find when which assessment will be performed. Between brackets we depict the percentage to which the assessment counts for the final grade.

Week Graded quizzes Assignment Multiple Choice Exam Week 1 Quiz 1 (10%) Assignment 1 (10%) - Week 2 Quiz 2 (10%) Assignment 2 (10%) - Week 3 Quiz 3 (10%) Assignment 3a (10%) - Week 4 Quiz 4 (10%) Assignment 3b (10%) - Week 5 - - Final exam (20%)

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4. Discussion forum guidelines The discussion forum is an important tool on the edX platform for you to share and discuss your insights, exercises and reflections. It allows you to learn from your peers (and allows your peers to learn from you). In this course, an important part of the learning happens on the discussion forum. The forum is all about showing your work to your peers and inviting them to give feedback. Sharing on the Discussion Forum will also give us the possibility to reflect on your work in the Feedback Videos. We stimulate a positive, constructive atmosphere. Please attend to the rules provided below to make this course a pleasant experience for everyone!

• Be respectful to your peers. Please, show respect to your fellow participants. We encourage debate and discussion but only when that is done in a polite and respectful manner. We do not tolerate rude behavior, condescending or abusive words. Instances will be reported and removed.

• Be constructive in your feedback. Learning in an online community is about interacting with each other. When commenting or providing feedback on work of others be constructive and whenever possible provide suggestions for improvement.

• Be sensitive to your peers’ background and culture. This is a global forum with participants from around the world. This means that your fellow participants come from very diverse cultures and backgrounds. Please be sensitive to this when discussing your own work or results of others.

• Post appropriate content. Content that violates the Terms of Service is not permitted. You may not post inappropriate (e.g. pornographic) or copyrighted content, advertise or promote outside products or organizations, or spam the forums with repeat content.

The course staff will be proactive in removing posts and responses in the discussion forum that have stepped over the line. Remember that the edX Honor Code applies even outside of www.edx.org. Repeated violations of these guidelines may result in your progress being erased and/or your account being deactivated.

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5. Grading and certification

5.1 Grading The graded quizzes, the assignments and the multiple choice exam together determine whether you will pass the course or not (see the figure below). In total you will be asked to successfully make 4 short quizzes, 3 assignments and 1 final exam. In order to successfully pass the course we stimulate you to make all of them.

The final mark is determined by the following elements: • 4 quizzes . Graded Multiple Choice (MC) questions are asked in each quiz. The

questions concern the lecture videos and the mandatory papers. The graded questions comprise 40% of the final mark (10% for each of the four quizzes). There are also ungraded questions, which are just for practicing and for testing whether you understood the video and paper content, and they will not be assessed.

• 3 assignments . The assignments together comprise 40% of the final mark (10% for assignments 1, 2, 3a and 3b each).

• 1 final exam . The final exam consists of 20 multiple choice questions in week 5 (20% of the final mark). MC questions are asked about the videos and the mandatory papers).

The points earned through the three measures will be counted and this results in the final mark.

5.2 Certification When you have earned 60% or more of the total score, you will receive a certificate at the end of this course. You can see your progress in the Progress tab on edX. There is an ID verified option available for $50,-. Doing the course for fun is totally fine, but sometimes you need to complete a course to get a better job or to include in a college application. Besides, working towards a verified certificate has proven to keep students more motivated. If you want to, you can change your registration on the site.

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6. How to get most out of this course We have designed this course to give you the opportunity to learn all about Open Government and to apply what you have learned in a series of exercises. Of course, every participant in this course has her or his own unique goals for what they want to get out of it. So, please spend your time accordingly. The basic idea is: you will get out of the course what you put in! If you do the assignments and share and discuss your experiences with your peers, you will really be able to internalize some of the skills that we teach. But that does not mean that you will not get any value out of simply watching the videos and doing some follow-up reading based on our reading tips. Here are some tips for the most effective ways to engage with this course.

• Get to know your peers! Share your experiences and exercise results on the forum. Post your questions on the forum as well and discuss them together.

• Look at the exercises at the beginning of each course week (we release on Mondays). That way you will know what to get out of the video lectures and additional reading in relation to the exercises.

• Think of the assignments as part of an Open Government project in which you want to analyze cases valuable for real users rather than something you turn in for a grade.

• If you get stuck during an assignment, leave it alo ne for a while . It is very normal that you get stuck from time to time, and the trick is to find a strategy that gets you going again. You might want to watch the video lectures again or skip forward to the assignment video to get inspired. Or you may want to share your problem on the forum to discuss it with your peers. They might have good suggestions to get going again!

• There are no right or wrong answers , but there may be more or less valuable and/ or meaningful ideas. In order to explain the merits of an idea, it’s important to back it up with evidence from your field work or with an explanation why your idea, concept or case is valuable to the involved stakeholders. This helps the person giving the feedback to solidify their understanding of a concept.

• Give your peers the kind of constructive feedback that you would want to receive. Do not just point out the negative parts of someone’s work, but instead provide suggestions for how he or she could improve it. Try to both point out things that are well done and things that could be improved (and suggestions for how they might do that!).

• If possible follow this course together with your colleagues or other people who you can meet physically. Experiences from other online courses show that it is very motivating to do the course together.

• Have fun! In this course you have the freedom to choose your own direction. You have the opportunity to analyze cases for a challenge that you formulate yourself and for a stakeholder group that you choose. Please do not do things just because we ask you to. Do them because you see the value and enjoy analyzing and examining a meaningful Open Government case!

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Good luck!