Fw: 4th week of the Virtual Forum on OER: Quality Assurance and OER
Professor Olugbemiro Jegede
------Original Message------
From: Professor Olugbemiro Jegede
To: VF on ACDE
ReplyTo: jeg...@gmail.com
Sent: Jun 23, 2008 7:27 PM
Subject: 4th week of the Virtual Forum on OER: Quality Assurance and OER
Let me warmly welcome you all to the last (4th) sub-theme and final week in our Virtuial Forum discussion on OER. I do hope that the enthusiasm and vibrancy enjoyed by the earlier three sub-themes will also run through this one.
More than any other area in ODL, quality assurance continues to be pointed to as its archilles heel. No matter how well thought out the use of OER in ODL is, no matter the elaborate plan and co-operation in its implementation, if it is not quality assured, we might as well forget it.
Given the very wide range of issues regarding quality assurance, it could take us weeks to even scratch the surface. We definitely do not have more than a week so we need to use the time qualitatively. May I therefore suggest that we select a few and most germaine issues to discuss while others should be left for the f2f conference.
First, what are the criteria to use to judge a quality OER? If anybody and everbody can freely build an OER how do we assure quality as they are built? With so much variations between institutions, between practitioners and between learners and learning styles how can we point to an internationally accepted guidelines for judging quality? How do all these affect the quality of materials designed? How do they affect examinations and assessment? How do they affect the quality of learner support services available to students?
Let me pause here for reactions and comments.
Thank you very much.
Prof Olugbemiro Jegede
Vice Chancellor, NOUN
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
Terry Anderson
not dominating the discourse!
Quality is a very slippery topic and certainly has cultural and
bureaucratic dimensions. I was just reviewing Keat's (2003) "model for
open content in African universities" at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_2/keats/
and surprised to see almost no reference to quality control other
than that "Peer review is a powerful means of quality assurance" I
guess he assumes that in the co production courses of distributed
production team by qualified developers will informally keep quality
standards high. He also the involvement of end users (teachers and
students) and the continuous production models often associated with
OERs. I also noted that some jurisdictions are talking about
measuring the quality by the output (acquired competencies/capacities
of learners) and de-emphasizing quality of the many and variable
inputs (textbooks, support services etc). Finally, I note the cost of
any quality system must not exceed the value of the service. Too
often I fear we invest backwards assessing what we already are doing,
without investing in innovations and change models with capacity to
help guide us through times of rapid and perhaps continuous change.
All of which is to say, that I am not a huge fan of quality control
systems, but I look forward to learning more from yoru expereinces.
Terry Anderson
Terry Anderson
ter...@athabascau.ca
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myani Bukar
I think the question of the yardstick to benchmark the quality of OER
borders on the question os standardization and regularization. These
are efforts that can easily be taken care of in a one dimensional
world, however the scenario changes on the online platform.
That having been said, i think a good way to handle it is to look
instead at developing a critical assessment capacity at the
receiver/user/learner end of OERs. The users (be they institutions or
individuals) should decide what best suits their use and what doesnt.
This might be a sort of shot gun technique but i think it could be
helpful in the short run even as efforts are made for a more permanent
and all pervading solution.
Thanks
Myani T. Bukar,esq.
Manager & e Learning Instructor
Virtual Library
Odade Consulting