Archive for July 2007

Another indication of the spread of high-speed internet access, this from the International Telecommunication Union:

In 2002, broadband services were available in just 81 countries, mostly industrialized OECD countries, transition economies in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and some developing countries in Asia-Pacific. By 2006, the number of countries with commercial broadband service had more than doubled to reach a total of 166 countries, with a number of operators in African countries launching broadband services, including in Botswana, Ghana, Rwanda and Libya.

In all, the article reports that 170 countries now have at least some broadband access. This doesn’t mean that open educational resource projects can assume high speed access for end users, but it does offer opportunities for transferring and updating locally cached copies of resources. The growth in access is pretty dramatic, although I’m assuming broadband penetration in most countries is extremely low. (via Information Policy)

Here’s a nice snapshot of the current state of the Open Access movement:

More than 1,000 journals are now using Open Journal Systems (OJS).

Of these:
99% are academic
49% are fully open access
40% are delayed open access
11% have yet to publish their first issue
NOT ONE JOURNAL USING OJS was found to be entirely subscription-bound

Disciplinary breakdown:
50% - sciences
23% - social sciences
14% - humanities
12% - interdisciplinary
1% - non academic

I’m occasionally asked whether I think the Open Access movement is picking up momentum or not, and I don’t have a good answer because I’m not close enough to the action. This are good data points, and it’s encouraging that there are (apparently) more in the pipeline. (via Open Access News).

“Localization” is a term you’ll hear often in the open educational resources world, so it’s worth a post to sketch out a few aspects of the issue. Localization refers to the process of taking an educational resource developed for one context, and making it appropriate for one or more other contexts. Examples of localization include translation of materials into other languages, updating content to reflect field developments, and converting a lesson from MS Office format to html embedded in a Blackboard site.

There are at least four uber-categories of localizations:

• Currency: Updating materials to reflect new knowledge in the field.
• Cultural adaptations: Modifications made to render materials more culturally appropriate, such as translation into other languages and substitution of referenced examples (such as commercial products) with more familiar equivalents.
• Academic adaptations: Materials created within one academic system are often modified to fit into a new system, accounting for student skill level and preparedness, subject sequencing, and time available.
• Technical adaptations: Modifications made to adjust for the technical platform on which the content is delivered, such as the conversion of materials created in MS Word for classroom use to html formats intended for distance learning.

This of course barely scratches the surface of the complexities surrounding localization, but it’s a start at least.

The link to information on China in the previous post reminded me of one of my favorite open educational resources, the CIA World Factbook. The open educational resources movement has gained such momentum worldwide that it quickly outran my rusty geographical knowledge. The World Factbook has been a great resource for brushing up in a hurry and is a refernce I use quite often. One of the best parts about it is the frequency with which it gets updated.

Here’s another memo from Pew’s Internet & American Life project, which is actually about China. The numberrs when it comes to China always stagger me. The report predicts strong growth in Internet usage in China, where currently only ten percent of the population is online. As detailed below, the demography is interesting:

In China, just over 10% of the population uses the internet, according to the latest government accounting. Users are relatively young, male, urban, and are disproportionately composed of students. Just over 70% of the user population is under age 30 and almost 60% are men. The penetration rate in urban areas is about 20%, compared with just over 3% in rural areas. Among occupations, students make up nearly a third of Chinese internet users, and business workers account for 30% more. The rest are a mixture of self-employed, non-profit workers, the unemployed, teachers, government workers, and army personnel. Peasants or farmers account for only about 0.4% of the online population.

China is already an important piece of the open educational resources movement, with projects like CORE sharing vast amounts of educational materials created natively in Chinese and translated to Chinese from other languages. The influx of new Chinese users will no doubt transform the Internet as a whole (as Pew predicts), but given the enormity of the educational challenges there, I expect the impact on open and distance education to be even more pronounced.

Tip of the hat to Open Access News on this one: Public Library of Science has launched a user rating system on PLoS ONE. From their guidelines for rating:

PLoS ONE allows users to rate articles for subjective “quality”. Scientific work can be measured on a number of scales and to reflect this, articles can be rated in three separate categories: Insight, Reliability, and Style. Rating is done on a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest rating.

1. Insight: This provides a measure of how thought-provoking a user found an article or how much it advances our scientific understanding. The scale for Insight ranges from 1, Bland, a report which provides no more than an incremental advance on the published literature; to 5, Profound, a report which substantially deepens or alters current thinking.
2. Reliability: This provides a measure of how secure a user feels the results and conclusion in a study are. The scale for Reliability ranges from 1, Tenuous, the study is preliminary and will need confirmation; to 5, Unassailable, the results are of high quality, the reasoning is tight, and the conclusions are completely solid.
3. Style: This provides a measure of how well performed and presented a user considers a study to be. The scale for Style ranges from 1, Crude, the technical accomplishment and presentation of the study is adequate at best; to 5, Elegant, the study satisfyingly presents the results of technically accomplished and expertly executed experiments.

Rating systems for online educational resources have been hard to pull off in other contexts, but because this system deals with relatively large pieces of content and because of the specificity of the rating system, I am inclined to think this version has a relatively good chance of success.

A timely article in govtech.com today about just the point I was making. India has gotten into the open education arena with a project announced by NPTEL that shares courses which are designed for independent online learning. NPTEL is the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning, and here is their description of the project from their site:

The main objective of NPTEL program is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum based video and web courses. This is being carried out by IITs (Seven), IISc Bangalore and other premier institutions as a collaborative project. At IIT Madras, the project is evolving and it is our intent to provide learning materials, digitally taped classroom lectures, supplementary materials and links to state-of-the art research materials in every subject possible. Currently samples from approximately 70 courses offered by faculty in various departments and to students at all levels (B.Tech, M.Tech, M.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.) are given here. Approximately 140 courses are in various stages of preparation and distribution through internet.

This is a great illustration of how institutions with different focuses create OERs of different flavors. Most OCWs create sites containing materials for classroom-based instruction, but there are several great examples now of institutions with expertise in distance learning that are producing materials that support independent online learning–including OU UK’s OpenLearn project, UC Irvine’s OCW, and now NPTEL’s site.

When I wrote recently about influences on the open educational resources movement, I discussed educational technology from the perspective of the learning object concept only.  Since then, I’ve felt the need to circle back and say that the whole concept of distance learning has a strong influence on the OER movement as well.  Many people have come into the field with an interest and background in distance learning, and others from the perspective of sharing materials from classroom based courses.

Most OCWs are examples of open sharing of classroom-based materials, where no assumption is made that the materials by themselves are sufficient to support independent learning.  Other projects, such as CMU’s Open Learning Initiative are specifically designed to support independent online learning.  Understanding the perspective of particular project on this issue can also be helpful in understanding how the resources can best be used.

The Pew Internet & American Life site is one of my favorites. Here’s a quick shot of data from a memo that’s just been released:

47% of adults have high-speed internet connections at home as of early March 2007, up five percentage points from a year earlier.

Obviously, one goal of open education is to reach those who don’t have advantages like high-speed access to the internet, but increasing access to broadband can only magnify the impact of open educational resources.

Penn State’s Terra Incognita has a nice summary of some of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) initiatives UNESCO has undertaken in the education space, as well as a suggested roadmap for future activities. The posting has two parts: the first part describes the past and current UNESCO FOSS activities and the second part suggests a new activity aimed at building an integrated FOSS Education solution targeting universities. I’ve mentioned before the forums that UNESCO has supported, which I’ve found to be particularly useful, but this gives a somewhat wider look at UNESCO’s activities and the interrelationships between open source software and open educaitonal resources.

Not too many people are aware that Google’s Advanced Search page has a filter to allow you to search for openly licensed content that’s been tagged with the Creative Commons license code. The feature, called “Usage Rights,” is the second to last option in the first box on the Advance Search page. Here’s how Google describes the service on the related More Info page:

Our “Usage Rights” feature helps you find published content — including music, photos, movies, books, and educational materials — that you can share or modify above and beyond fair use.

If you set the search filter to “free to use or share,” you’ll get results that you can copy or redistribute. If you set the filter to “free to modify,” you’ll get results that you can use, share, or modify. (Please be sure to select “even commercially” if you want to use a work commercially.) If you leave the filter at “not filtered by license,” you’ll simply get standard, unfiltered Google results.

Please note:

The “Usage Rights” feature identifies websites whose owners have indicated that they carry a Creative Commons ( http://creativecommons.org/ ) license. By returning these search results, Google isn’t making any representation that the linked content is actually or lawfully offered under a Creative Commons license. It’s up to you to verify the terms under which the content is made available and to make your own assessment as to whether these terms are lawfully applied to the content.

This can be a really handy tool to know about, as comprehensive portals to open educational content are still developing.

Often open sharing and traditional copyright are mistakenly thought of as being somehow at odds. I’ve heard the Creative Commons folks say more than once that CC depends on strong copyright law and isn’t effective where intellectual property law is weak. D’Arcy Norman has a nice post illustrating just exactly why ownership is so important–you can’t share what you don’t own.

The Open Learner is pointing out an open access initiative at OSU Press. the site includes about 60 titles, mostly in the humanities. Every time I see another of these open access efforts, I think again there should be a registry of open access books and articles that can be cross-referenced against citations in opencourseware publications. There may be little crossover at this point, but over time, there will hopefully be a critical mass on both sides of the equation that will lead to significantly more benefit from both resources.

I’ve heard Terry Fisher of the Berkman Center speak on occasion about his proposed system for changing the way royalties are collected and distributed. His ideas always struck me as “Nice in theory, but how would they ever be implemented?” Turns out Terry has been working on that one as well. Noank Media is the new company he’s launched and probably the most intriguing of the for-profit forays into open content (the Noank system carries both open and copyrighted content). Maybe beyond the scope of a blog posting to explain the full system, but here’s the copy from their home page:

In brief, here’s how the system works: In each country, copyright owners (record companies, music publishers, film studios, etc.) authorize Noank to distribute digital copies of their works. Noank, in turn, enters into contracts with major network service providers: broadband consumer ISPs; mobile phone providers; and universities. Noank provides the service providers’ end-users with unlimited downloading, streaming, and copying licenses. In return, each access provider pays Noank a fee on behalf of each of its end-users (consumers, students, employees). 85% of the money collected from these content fees is distributed to content copyright owners. A small software program on the users’ device counts the content use. That information (automatically aggregated to protect users’ privacy) is used to determine the amount of money paid to each copyright owner.

For the past two years, the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning at Utah State University in Logan has hosted its annual OpenEducation conference, which has fast become an important stop on the open education community circuit. The 2007 edition, coming up September 26-29, promises to be more of the same; in the past, conference themes have largely addressed issues of OER licensing and production, but the focus this time on end user issues of how open educational resources and localized and used in learning.

Current list of keynote speakers includes:

• Fred Mednick, a principal for almost 20 years, founded Teachers Without Borders in order to address a pressing need for durable educational change and solutions, worldwide, at the secondary level.
• Manohar Bhattarai. Serving currently as a full-time Member of High Level Commission for Information Technology, an ICT policy and strategy body formed under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Nepal, Manohar has been actively involved in developing strategies for social appropriation of ICTs in Nepal.
• Ramita Shrestha. Since 2004, Ramita has managed a small technology center for rural villagers to gain access to critical content for development
• Brian Lamb, the Emerging Technologies Discoordinator at the Office of Learning Technology at The University of British Columbia. He has spoken and written extensively on cool stuff!

The OpenCourseWare Consortium will be holding it’s semiannual meeting in conjunction with OpenEducaiton again, so it’s also a great opportunity to connect with folks in OCW circles as well.

There are many people who talk about the value of collaborative and community creation, but none so convincingly as Yale economist Yochai Benkler. If you get the chance to see him speak, don’t miss it. If you don’t have the chance, then definitely read his latest book, the Wealth of Networks, which is available through bookstores, online and otherwise, and also as a free PDF from his web site.

Wealth of Networks documents the emergence of what Benkeler calls the “networked information economy,” where information is not produced and distributed centrally, but rather emerges from various market-driven and nonmarket sources. He then traces how this new economy affects what he calls “a series of commitments of a wide range of liberal democracies,” including individual freedom, a more genuinely participatory political system, a critical culture, and social justice. Finally he sets out an agenda for seizing this moment in history and harnessing the power of the networked information economy to create positive political and cultural change.

The book runs 473 pages and is packed with detail, examples, and some of the most thoughtful and carefully crafted arguments supporting the power of collaborative creation in the digital sphere. A deep read, but well worth the effort.

If you’re looking to get more involved with the OpenCourseWare community as a user, producer, or supporter of OCW, the new forum on the OCW Consortium portal is a great place to start. The forum provides spaces for community members to connect around issues of how to create and use OpenCourseWare content, and also hosts many of the discussions regarding the development and management of the Consortium itself. A browse through the ongoing discussions is a great way to get a better feel for whether the Consortium is a good fit for your institution.

The Columbia University Libraries news site is reporting that Google has awarded Columbia University Digital Knowledge Ventures (DKV) a $50,450 grant to support preparation and submission of video content from Columbia for the Google Video site. Here’s CUL News’ summary of the content to be included:

New content will include a number of events from the Earth Institute at Columbia University, including the Distinguished Lecture Series and the Seminars on Sustainable Development designed for general audiences from experts on current pressing global issues.

Course content will include the Frontiers of Science course, part of Columbia’s unique core curriculum for incoming students. Each semester, scientists in different disciplines deliver a series of three lectures each describing the background, context, and current state of an area of research.

It’s great to see Columbia getting into the open education mix, of course, but maybe the more interesting thing here: It will be worth keeping an eye on how things play out as Apple and Google both position themselves as the place to go for open educational video.

The Open University UK’s OpenLearn project is hosting its first conference, OpenLearn 2007: Researching Open Content in Education, October 30-31st in Milton Keynes, United kingdom. Here’s how they describe the event:

New opportunities to learn at a distance are broadening the ways in which people can engage in learning, whilst new technologies mean that learning can increasingly take place within a global community. Open and free educational resources are an important component in this expanded world of learning and major initiatives are now underway to provide them.

If you are interested in the research and business challenges involved in providing, using and sustaining free and open resources then OpenLearn 2007 invites you to participate and contribute to an event that will open up the findings of those working in this challenging area and consider how we can develop research in open content.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the people at OpenLearn and they have a top shelf group of researchers there, working to understand the OER world. This promises to be the most rigorous look yet at how open materials are being produced, used, and sustained. Should be well worth the price of admission.

The open access journal movement is one that I’ve been watching over the fence as I’ve been working primarily to open access to teaching materials. The idea with open access journals is that the academic publishing model is essentially broken, with institution–through their faculty–creating journal articles, giving them to journal publishers for free, then paying outrageous subscription rates for access to that very same content. Open access journal seek to short-circuit this cycle, by providing alternative publication opportunities that publish the materials freely and openly.

The challenge for OA journals is that educators continue to publish in the established subscription-based journals because those are the one with the prestige, the ones that lead to tenure, promotion and recognition in the field. I’ve often said that it’s not the academic publication model that is broken, but rather the tenure and promotion model–academic journals are simply exhibiting rational responses to irrational behavior. Over time, the hope is that open access journal will begin to develop the level of prestige necessary to compete with the big traditional journals, something that may already be beginning to happen with the Public Library of Science.

If you are interested in learning more about the open access publishing movement, a good place to start is the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition web site. Spac provides resources for libraries, authors, publishers and media, as well as news and updates from the world of open access publishing.

Thus far, open access publishing and open teaching materials initiatives such as OpenCourseWares have developed in parallel, without much interaction. I’m keeping an eye out for convergences, though, especially if OA publishing gains traction and more an more of the references in courseware are to openly available journal articles.