Feedback Please!
ki...@msu.edu
My name is Sunnie Kim and I work with Chris at MSU Global (Michigan
State University). I am excited to join this group and participate in
dialogue about OER. I have recently been introduced to the concept
through Chris and think it is a interesting concept and lofty
endeavor.
My colleague Gwyn and I have recently begun putting up content on
WikiEducator from our "International Business and Certified Global
Business Professional" program. This was our first attempt at anything
"wiki" so it was an exciting (and sometimes excruciating : ) )
process.
We were wondering if members from this group could take a look at what
we have up so far and give us some feedback. We would appreciate any
thoughts or ideas on how to enhance our content/pages. The URL for our
pages is: http://www.wikieducator.org/MSU_Global.
We look forward to hearing from you! Thanks!
Sunnie
mackiwg
Welcome to WikiEducator! - its great to have you on board!
Yes, I saw your work in the recent changes list and I'm most impressed
considering that this is your first attempt. You're a wiki natural!
I'm on leave at the moment - but will take a peek and offer a few
suggestions - keep a look out on the individual talk pages of your
materials.
Chat to you soon.
Wayne
mackiwg
I've provided a little feedback on the relevant discussion pages of
your project.
Hope this helps!
Wayne
Leigh Blackall
I think it is more useful to try and develop resources that are not too attached to any one educational context.. in your case MSU. I imagine that these resources would be very useful to someone teaching or learning at MSU, but outside that context - quite difficult to use. You have created MSU Global, and then used "/" to ensure that all the other content remains relational to that "home page". My guess is because you want these resources to be most useful to MSU students and teachers... we also grapple with this issue at Otago Polytechnic, and in most cases actually find it quite useful to actively de-contextualise our resources so that they are as generic as can be (therefore more reusable) and free from useless educational administration stuff like - activity 1, module 4578, unit 2, etc...
Statement 1 (Credit reposrts) is where it happens in my view and should be out from the subdomain you have given it. It should be the first place a person lands on if they search for "Credit reports..." it is a page immediately guides someone through with objectives, resources and activities, and is a learning experience quite independent from the MSU Context... or any other formal educational context. Not to say that those formal contexts aren't available, just that they are developed separately to resources...
Here is what I have done to your Statement 1 to "actively contextualise" it. I think it will now be more easily found, more possible to collaborate in development, and more useful to people outside (and perhaps even inside MSU) http://www.wikieducator.org/Credit_reports
--
Leigh Blackall
+64(0)21736539
skype - leigh_blackall
http://leighblackall.wikispaces.org/
Sunnie
Thank you so much for your great feedback and suggestions. I am
definitely going to start using the templates and Leigh, the context-
free format does seem so much more accessible. I have to go back now
and discuss your suggestions with the group. I'll keep all y'all
updated on the progress.
Thanks again for your help!
Sunnie.
On May 19, 2:34 am, "Leigh Blackall" <leighblack...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Sunnie, I quickly went through it and found Statement
> 1<http://www.wikieducator.org/MSU_Global/International_Business_and_the...>which
> is where it all happens for me! The rest should be there to support
> this page, which is actually Credit reports.
>
> I think it is more useful to try and develop resources that are not too
> attached to any one educational context.. in your case MSU. I imagine that
> these resources would be very useful to someone teaching or learning at MSU,
> but outside that context - quite difficult to use. You have created MSU
> Global, and then used "/" to ensure that all the other content remains
> relational to that "home page". My guess is because you want these resources
> to be most useful to MSU students and teachers... we also grapple with this
> issue at Otago Polytechnic, and in most cases actually find it quite useful
> to actively de-contextualise our resources so that they are as generic as
> can be (therefore more reusable) and free from useless educational
> administration stuff like - activity 1, module 4578, unit 2, etc...
>
> Statement 1 (Credit reposrts) is where it happens in my view and should be
> out from the subdomain you have given it. It should be the first place a
> person lands on if they search for "Credit reports..." it is a page
> immediately guides someone through with objectives, resources and
> activities, and is a learning experience quite independent from the MSU
> Context... or any other formal educational context. Not to say that those
> formal contexts aren't available, just that they are developed separately to
> resources...
>
> Here is what I have done to your Statement 1 to "actively contextualise" it.
> I think it will now be more easily found, more possible to collaborate in
> development, and more useful to people outside (and perhaps even inside MSU)http://www.wikieducator.org/Credit_reports
>
Leigh Blackall
I get an email from one of our lecturers who is developing our tourism course in Wikieducator. Excitedly she emails me to say she has found an already developed resource called applying effective communication skills. In that link you can see a resource that is heavily contextualised to something called VUSSC. When what it really is is Applying Effective Communication Skills. Then it goes further with Introduction to Unit 1. Objectives for unit 1.. and so on. I am compelled to decontextualise this resource the same way I did with Sussie's page so that it is more easily reused and remixed with other courses... see the structure idea I floated a while ago.
It will be impossible to get agreement on any one structure, and it may be that my suggestion is not workable for people who need to tie in learning processes and activities with content. Personally I think it is a shame that we tend to do this as an almost "courseware" default. So I 'spose its up to me to decontextualise courseware like this into units etc, so that it can be more easily recontextualised into other areas, like our own Tourism courses.
For example: http://www.wikieducator.org/Applying_Effective_Communication_Skills_in_Tourism
brings the most important thing of this VUSSC/somthing/something else/apply_effective_communication_skills into a place on its own as a "course document" pointing out to a list of "objectives" which are called units in my language. Multiple course documents can exist, and these would make up the VUSSC course, or our Tourism course, or another designer's idea of a good course. The units (which are empty read links at present) will have have resources and learning activities to support the detailed explanation of the objective, all of which already exists in the original VUSSC module.
Leigh Blackall
The VUSSC module simply becomes a resource in the resource list page that supports the unit page we have on communication skills...
Brent
brent.
mackiwg
I think decontextualisation is a very constructive aspect of free
content development. It's a very good example of the principles of
self-organisation in action - something which we encourage and foster
in the WikiEducator community.
In hindsight - the notion of reusable learning objects are in their
infancy and I suppose were in a learn-by-doing modality here. Its
closely aligned with the forces of the free software movement we know
as forking. Do you fork a software development to facilitate
customisation - or do you stay with the core trunk to benefit from the
advantages of a larger community?
I do agree that the navigation and structure of content in the wiki
need's improvement and this is something we will need to address over
time as experience with free content development improves.
I see the need for a qualifications framework type of ontology
supported with technologies like Omegawiki - However, we don't have
these challenges sorted yet. They'll come in time and that's why
discussions like this are so important.
I agree that the communication skills content should be communcation
skills in WikiEducator and not necessarily .../VUSSC/
Communication_skills. However, this is just a database url and can
easily be shifter in the future. What's more important is the content
and figuring out the best ways to structure this within a meaningful
ontology in the Wiki.
My sense is to let this evolve dynamically. This is the advantage of a
growing community - these problems get solved from the foundation of
community experience rather than an imposed hierarchy.
It would be pretty cool to see participation and collaborative
development in this content development outside the VUSSC participants
- that way we make a stronger case for a more practicable ontological
structure in WikiEducator.
Cheers
Wayne
Leigh Blackall
mackiwg
being developed, consider this option as well.
There will be a Boot camp in Trinidad during the first three weeks in
June where representatives from 15 plus countries will be working
together on improving these materials.
Would be pretty neat if a few folk from NZ joined in the process from
afar - providing critical feedback on the design, modifying materials
etc.
Once this is done - its relatively easy to "decontextualise" and we
can all learn from the process - which can feed back into future VUSSC
content developments. Porting the resources into a content structure
that sits outside the VUSSC path name is trivial. The advantage we
have with VUSSC is that a community of 27 countries exists and is
committed to developing content collaboratively.
Would be a pity to duplicate effort - especially when this is one of
the major selling points of OERs <smile>.
Would be keen to hear your thoughts.
Cheers
Wayne
Brent
You should take a look at this: http://www.wikieducator.org/Learning_Design#The_Design_Decision_Guide
i regards to you idea about creating basic highly reusable templates for contextualization. There's little documentation at the moment, but try creating a new Learning Design guide and you might see how it could work well for your approach. We could probably automate the creation of such a tool for each content outline in the form of a simpler template syntax, so that the someone creates a reusable page/outline of the learning, adds a template for creating another page from this outline with stuff to fill in around it. That way the original/page is always preserved but one can easily use it to start the contextualisation process....
hopefully in the next few weeks we'll be adding some documentation on how to use this tool for creating the Design Decision Guides.
Also, the Template:Learning_Design may also be able to be adapted to assist your scheme quite nicely as well... but I'd need to take a closer look at your posts, etc.. to see just how that one fits in.
brent.