eLearningEuropa’s call for papers on OER.
The Open University of Israel launched their OCW in March, with plans to publish course materials and more than 250 complete textbooks. Here is their announcement:
OCW at the Open University of Israel: free public access to on-line academic digital books and study materials
The Open University of Israel (OUI) is the largest university and academic publisher in Israel. With more than 40,000 students, it offers 650 courses in all major disciplines, and prints over a million copies of its textbooks annually. The university has a robust Hebrew-based home-grown LMS and it offers a rich variety of on-line learning models, including Web 2.0 applications. We use a hybrid (or blended) pedagogical model (Bonk, 2006) which combines distance a-synchronous tutoring with face-to-face sessions, some by video broadcasting to study centers and to students’ homes via their broadband web access.
In May 2008 the OUI launched the “Pe’er” OCW project (in Hebrew: “Opening Treasures of the Mind”, http://ocw.openu.ac.il/), with the intention to give free and open access to its learning materials and to a selected collection of its books. The project is was funded by the Rothchild Foundation and is conceptually similar to the OU-UK’s OpenLearn and to MIT’s OCW projects. The unique aspect of the OUI’s endeavor is the conversion of full titles from print to e-books and to audio books (in MP3 format). We began with 10 titles and will be opening more than 250 of our textbooks in 50 different courses to be freely available on-line. Many of the titles are supplemented by video lectures by the course designers or by other experts.
Additionally, the course core materials will be supplemented by reusable learning objects prepared by the teaching staff at OUI, like on-line quizzes, lecture summaries, presentations, dictionaries, and video-recordings of live sessions. The different items that will be made available to students and the to the general public, in the spirit of OCW. The Open University requires user registration in order to be able to assess public usage and user profiles. Our vision is to enable users to access OUI learning materials on mobile platforms and to add translated versions of the courses, initially in Arabic and Russian, for potential international audience.
For those interested, here is my presentation from the Dalian conference.
OCW Community,
I am VERY pleased to announce the opening of a new full time position within the OCWC — the OCWC Director of Marketing and Outreach (listed below). If any of you are interested in this position — or know of a strong candidate — please contact me immediately. We are looking to fill this position within the next 4 weeks.
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The OCWC Director of Marketing and Outreach, in close consultation with the OCWC Director and the OCWC Board of Directors, is generally responsible for the oversight and execution of marketing, public relations and outreach activities within the Consortium. The principal responsibilities of the OpenCourseWare Consortium Director of Marketing and Outreach are: Continue reading…
For those interested, CMU is offering some summer workshops on their OLI approach to OCW.
Check it out if you are interested.
This is an amazing potential resource for both OER and OCW.
Check it out. iCue. Registration is required.
From here…
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to those licensed to use them. Available online from the European Commission’s e-learning portal eLearningEuropa, OERs offer numerous advantages and opportunities for teachers and learners. Continue reading…
In Spain last week for the presentation of awards to Spain’s top ocw courses in Valencia at the Junta General de Accionistas Universia (more about that in a later post), I had the pleasure of viewing an exhibition of the finalists in the Education Category of this year’s Fototalentos Contest. Fototalentos ‘08 is the first of what we hope will grow into an annual event, attracting photographic talent from all over the world. This year fosuses on three themes:
- sustainability (finalists were on display at the Universidad de Zaragoza April 18-30)
- education (finalists on display at the Universidad de Valencia May 5-17)
- co-existence (finalists will be on display at the Universidad de Cádiz May 23 through June 6)
Like Universia, this contest is sponsored by the Fundacion Banco Santander, and Universia’s staff have provided valuable logistical support in processing and displaying the 15,937 entries which came in. You can view each of those entries at the Fototalentos site, and you can vote among the finalists through the end of this month. The winners will be notified June 9-13.
Primeras Clases. Fototalentos ‘08 entry. |
I was particularly struck by this photo, entitled “Primeras clases,” not because it is necessarily the best in the education category (I’m not trying to influence voting here), but because of what it says about the risks involved in teaching.As a mother, my first reaction is alarm as I envision all the different ways this scenario could end bady, all the different injuries that might be sustained, all the different inconveniences that might be incurred as those injuries are accomodated. Mom’s are like that, even educator moms who are into openness.
But then even I am able to witness the trust with which the little girl leans into her father’s body, trust strong enough that she can lift one foot off the book rack. She has one foot off the rack, and he has two feet off the ground, his body distorted as he curves to balance her weight with his own and with that of the machine that supports them both on uneven ground. |
And isn’t this what we do in education, especially open education? We take risks; we bend ourselves and our content to meet the needs of the learning environment. We steer the flimsy and often faulty vehicles of our various disciplines across terrain which may or may not be suited to our purposes. And we do so in hope of sharing that thrill of the balancing act, that moment of connection that overcomes all the costs and risks and reasons why it shouldn’t be so.
That thrill isn’t all that open education is about, and it may not even be what this photo is about, but it made me glad of the chance to view this quite amazing collection of photos in Valencia. I’ll be visiting the website to see the other two collections, and I invite you to do so as well.
OCWC Members,
As part of the OCWC incorporation process — it is important that we now formalize the various OCWC working committees, and begin to staff them with volunteers. Committee work (I might mention) is the only material cost of OCWC membership at this point — so we are hopeful that many of you will be willing/able to volunteer some of your time and talents to help make the OCWC successful. Continue reading…
