Reading List

This new series is on my reading list now:

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/

It's pm strategies for increasing community college students' success.  From the Community College Research Center at Columbia.

Lisa

Why the Federal OER funds will be wasted - another reason

http://www.imsglobal.org/community/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=58&threadid=592&enterthread=y    (HT Stephen Downes)

Well, it was an interesting week in the USA. One in which President Obama pledged in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal to put in place a new directive that a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to "remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive." And then just a little later in the week the announcement from the Department of Labor and Department of Education of a potentially groundbreaking program for Community Colleges and Open Educational Resources (OER) - TAACCCT - that contains within it a clear violation of the President's new mandate - namely that something called SCORM - a government controlled and regulated standard that is about ten years behind the industry - be the required format for content developed in the program.

This requirement seriously jeopardizes the success of the TAACCCT program with respect to the content created being easily customizable, reusable, and remixable.

The TAACCCT program invests in the creation of online courses and resources for community colleges to make available to enhance work force development - which is of course very positive. The required use of Creative Commons licensing on the courses in the solicitation is a major potential breakthrough in that regard.

But in the fine print is the requirement to use SCORM - an antiquated content format developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The SCORM requirement is a ticking time bomb with respect to being able to meet the need to reuse and remix the TAACCCT-created digital courses and resources - which is a key expectation of the program. SCORM will add enormous cost to the creation of the courses and to the platforms that must deliver them. This is a marquee example of over regulation with additional cost and no gain.

I too have tried to work with SCORM objects -- far too much hassle for too little return.  Generally they don't connect to LMS grade books.  They have to go back to a "developer" for revision and updates.  I hate to be so negative, but how many community colleges have SCORM programmers on staff?  I kind of doubt the major publishers need to be worried about this initiative.

Presentations in an LMS

A question on the WCET listserv today sparked a discussion on Powerpoint presentations in LMS's.  My feel is that you can't simply upload the slides from a F2F presentation.  Slides are meant to be used with someone speaking.  If they are good slides they really don't stand alone without the speech that goes with them.  My preference for a presentation with slides is Voice Thread. Voice Thread is very easy to use.  You upload your slides/photos/whatever and then record your speech for each slide.  You can record and re-record until you have it exactly the way you want it to be.  

My kids, on the other hand, really like Prezi.  They love the way you move around in Prezi, that it is a map and not particularly linear.  Unfortunately, you lose the audio again in Prezi, and that means it is text-based.  I prefer pictures, so I need some audio.

$2B in Federal Funds for OER objects

While I can get excited about this, in general I think it's a lousy idea.   Someone, somewhere is paying for content development.  This move completes the disconnect between the people using the content and the people paying for its development, although I suppose taxpayers are buying it and taxpayers are using it....  sort of anyway.  What a huge increase in the direct intervention of the Federal government into higher education though!   Higher education still costs what it cost before this program, but the information to students is now wrong -- they don't see the costs as clearly as in the past, and neither does society.  That makes it more likely "we" will make the wrong decisions, invest the wrong amount of our resources in the wrong places.

I also wonder about maintenance -- government tends to be pretty good at finding the $$ to build buildings, but is typically lousy at maintenance.  Learning objects and learning resources typically require quite a lot of maintenance.  I am sure someone believes they can build a learning object around say basic algebra and then won't have to touch it again for years and years.  I don't believe that is a realistic assumption though.  Technology changes even if algebra doesn't.  I can't play the original Pac-Man on my laptop anymore even if I wanted to.  Some of the subjects mentioned do change -- biology surely incorporates new information even at lower levels.  Econ wasn't mentioned, but it is taught differently now than it was when I was in school.  Math should be taught via applications, but applications change and need to be updated.

Last, I am a customer of publishers in a different way from the way I am a customer of the government.  I firmly believe even major publishers are more responsive to the needs and wants of their customers than the Federal government.  The government gets my tax dollars whether or not they produce what I want -- the publisher does not.  The profit motive, while much maligned in too many blogs, ensures that publishers listen to their customers.

On the other hand, I think this is the project Darcy Hardy went to Washington to work on.  She should be very good at finding and fixing the problems.

New federal education fund grants $2 billion to create OER resources in community colleges

The Department of Labor and the Department of Education today announced a new education fund that will grant $2 billion to create OER materials for career training programs in community colleges. According to Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program (TAACCCT) will invest $2 billion over the next four years into grants that will “provide community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education with funds to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs.”

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/26100

I have to think about this over the weekend and blog about it Monday.

Lisa

The Granny Cloud

I wasn't going to post today, but I did my first volunteer session with the Soles and Somes project and then I read Stephen Downes comments and links to another post on "The Granny Cloud".  Erin (daughter) and I both participated in a session this afternoon.  I'm a little uncertain myself about the whole Granny cloud thing and she is definitely not a granny, but we had a good time talking to 3 12 year olds in Bogota, Columbia today.  I'm glad we had Columbians instead of Indians as the children spoke very little English.  Both Erin and I speak a little Spanish - enough to have a getting acquainted sort of conversation.  We got a huge kick out of it and now I am thinking about how I will plan the second session next week.  I think the goal here is to get the children to speak some English.  We did some of that, but need some games or something that will encourage it.

Lisa

UMBC's "Check My Activity" Tool

While going through my Twitter account (I actually forgot I had one), I found a tweet by Rovy Branon about a pilot project at the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus. The University created a custom software tool and incorporated it into their Blackboard courses that allows students to compare their use of various resources in the course management system with other students' resource use and anonymous grade information. Not surprising, it seems, is the research data that said, "Analysis of 1,461 courses using Blackboard in spring 2010 showed that D and F students used the course management system 47 percent less than students earning a C or higher." (http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/VideoDemoofUMBCsCheckMyActivit/219113).