Final Week

Final Project Blog Post

1.        This workshop is offered through our Teaching and Learning Center as professional development for faculty. Administration on our campus is interested in supporting efforts to decrease the cost of instructional materials borne by students. While many faculty members are in favor of reducing the cost of materials for students, they remain skeptical about the quality levels of OER and/or the time investment required for incorporating OER into their courses. The learning expectations for this workshop for administration is that there will be an increase, however small, in the use of OER on our campus through an increase in knowledge and relevant applications of the resources presented in this workshop. Faculty must perceive a high level of utility for the information presented and be able to immediately apply the learning to enhance their courses with OER.

These learners are instructors at our institution and possess graduate-level education, master’s and doctorate degrees little or no previous experience or knowledge using OER repositories and a range from basic to advanced knowledge or interest in open educational resources. We anticipate that some participants may have a misunderstanding about what OER truly means, such as confusing OER with no-cost. During this session, learners can also expect to increase their knowledge and skill in locating interactive learning materials (ILM) to incorporate into course content and activities. Preferred learning styles will vary, and we will try to offer some varied activities to accommodate differences in learning styles.

The workshop, Exploring OER Repositories, will be conducted in a 2-hour session in a computer lab equipped with computers and software applications similar to those used by the learners at their work stations. Learners will have the option to use their own laptops instead of lab computers if they choose to do so. We anticipate a small audience, 5 or fewer, of adult learners will attend the session. The physical elements that might affect this class include the possibility that people may leave and arrive during different times of the session. Also, we anticipate that the learners will all be looking for different materials/subjects, which could pose challenges.

2.       At the completion of this workshop, faculty members should be able to:

1.       Identify major repositories of Open Educational Resources (OER) and how to use them to locate learning materials to enhance content for their courses

2.       Conduct a search in each of the repositories for discipline-specific materials, applying demonstrated search strategies

3.       Identify types of OER and their potential to support student engagement

4.       Utilize useful criteria to evalutate materials found in OER repositories

5.       Evaluate ADA accessibility of OER materials found in OER repositories

6.       Develop a preliminary understanding of applying proper licensing and attribution to OER

3.       Formative Assessment: Upon completion of the training workshop, participants will be asked to fill out an evaluation to identify their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the training. The results of this evaluation can be used to revise aspects of the training that are identified as ineffective or lacking clarity.

For this training workshop, successful completion of the hands-on activities will be a measure of these goals. The workshop will offer opportunities to share search experiences and results, while receiving instructor/ peer feedback on improving search strategies.

4.       We will use aspects of all of the learning theories in our presentation, but the main theory will be Cognitivism. We plan to use a hook at the beginning of the session, which will also act as a motivation element for our learners. Ideally, we would like to find a hook that showcases an Interactive Learning Material (ILM) found in an OER repository. ILMs are any type of learning object which engages students and assists them in better understanding course content through interactive means, i.e. games, practice exercise, simulations, etc. Once we have gained their attention through these ILMs and show the potential that they offer for motivating students, we will get into the meat of our presentation – identify, search, and evaluate OERs.

Then, we will employ additional elements of Cognitivism in our instruction, specifically by presenting information in an organized and sequenced manner. For each OER repository, we will talk about the defining elements of each repository, do some sample searches, and allow time for the learners to do searches for discipline-specific materials for their course, then reconvene to discuss our results

5.      We plan to use an emerging education technology tool as a hook to grab our participants’ attention at the beginning of the session. Prior to the session, we are going to find an appropriate Open Interactive Learning Material (ILM) that will demonstrate how effective these ILMs can be in capturing students’ interest and facilitating learning. Even though our faculty participants are voluntarily attending this session, we thought it was important to demonstrate how ILMs can be great tools to encourage students to interact directly with the material, and therefore learn. We think this will serve as a great motivator for our faculty participants to explore what Open materials exist in their discipline. Hopefully, it will also demonstrate some of the many different options for incorporating games, tutorials, etc. into their courses.

6.     I think the thing I found most useful was how the course was structured, i.e. that we applied these Instructional Design principles to a real-life scenario. Going into this course, I had some familiarity with ID concepts, but I had never applied them to my own work. Having an end goal in mind made it easier to explore ID concepts in a practical way. I think the concept that will stick with me most is backward design; it has made me reconsider how I approach instruction, by making sure that I think first of the goals for the course, workshop, etc. before proceeding to how the material will be presented. I struggled most with learning theories, in this class. I think that I have a decent handle on them now, but I’m still not entirely sure of the intricacies of each theory.

7.    I did find my coursemates’ blogs helpful, especially in the first week. It was very informative to read about everyone’s processes, successes, concerns, etc. I will be honest that I found it harder to keep up with the blogs as the class progressed. Because there are so many people in the class, and we met for such a short period of time, it was difficult for me to keep track of people from week to week. So, although I did find some of the posts particularly helpful, I can’t recall which ones these were. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and I found the interactions between professors and classmates very helpful. 

Week 4

Our workshop lines up perfectly with the Open Content section (pages 40-42) of the NMC Horizon Report Library Edition. We will discuss how to find and evaluate Open Education resources in our session, and we feel comfortable exploring ways participants can reuse and remix the materials they find.

We plan to use an emerging education technology tool as a hook to grab our participants’ attention at the beginning of the session. Prior to the session, we are going to find an appropriate Open Interactive Learning Material (ILM) that will demonstrate how effective these ILMs can be in capturing students’ interest and facilitating learning. Even though our faculty participants are voluntarily attending this session, we thought it was important to demonstrate how ILMs can be great tools to encourage students to interact directly with the material, and therefore learn. We think this will serve as a great motivator for our faculty participants to explore what Open materials exist in their discipline. Hopefully, it will also demonstrate some of the many different options for incorporating games, tutorials, etc. into their courses.

 

Beyond that, the other technology we will be using will be fairly standard. We will be using the Internet to search OER and IL M repositories and PowerPoint to outline our presentation.

 

 

Week 3

We will use aspects of all of the learning theories in our presentation, but the main theory will be Cognitivism. We plan to use a hook at the beginning of the session, which will also act as a motivation element for our learners. Ideally, we would like to find a hook that showcases an Interactive Learning Material (ILM) found in an OER repository. ILMs are any type of learning object which engages students and assists them in better understanding course content through interactive means, i.e. games, practice exercise, simulations, etc. Once we have gained their attention through these ILMs and show the potential that they offer for motivating students, we will get into the meat of our presentation – identify, search, and evaluate OERs.

Then, we will employ additional elements of Cognitivism in our instruction, specifically by presenting information in an organized and sequenced manner. For each OER repository, we will talk about the defining elements of each repository, do some sample searches, and allow time for the learners to do searches for discipline-specific materials for their course, then reconvene to discuss our results.  

We will rely on our professors’ previous knowledge in this course. As the subject matter experts, they will be well suited to evaluate the quality of the OER materials that we find. We plan to help guide them through the searching process.  

This is an optional workshop, so we anticipate our participants will have a high level of intrinsic motivation. The participants are faculty members who are already using OER in their courses, or who would like to explore the possibility. We also plan to incorporate extrinsic motivations, too. Our hook will be an attention-getter and provide them with a goal – that they can find similar relevant ILMs and OERs for use in there courses.  

Week 2

Page # 15 Worksheet

Exploring OER Repositories Workshop

1. Forward-Looking Assessment Formulate one or two ideas for forward-looking assessment. Identify a situation in which students are likely to use what they have learned, and try to replicate that situation with a question, problem, or issue.

This workshop will provide a relevant, meaningful situation for interested faculty to perform searches of major OER repositories to locate OER to enhance course content and subsequently engage students. In the training, faculty will have the opportunity to immediately apply techniques demonstrated via verbal and visual demonstration using hands-on, relevant searches for OER, subsequent evaluation of OER materials, and identification of licensing and application of appropriate attribution.

2. Criteria & Standards Select one of your main learning goals, and identify at least two criteria that would distinguish exceptional achievement from poor performance. Then write two or three levels of standards for each of these criteria.

We feel that simply completing all of the steps in this voluntary workshop is an exceptional achievement, because it shows the faculty members are interested in expanding their knowledge base and learning new skills. We don’t anticipate any poor performers in the workshop. The faculty will be able to see for themselves whether they are successful. They will have lots of immediate feedback, both from their peers and from the instructors.

Because OER repositories have differing levels of content for different disciplines, we are aware that some faculty members might not be able to initially find quality resources for their courses in some of the repositories. We are most concerned with exploring the type of resources that are available and making sure that faculty feel comfortable searching these various repositories.

3. Self-Assessment What opportunities can you create for students to engage in self-assessment of their performance?

The workshop will offer opportunities to share search experiences and results, while receiving instructor/ peer feedback on improving search strategies.

4. “FIDeLity” Feedback What procedures can you develop that will allow you to give students feedback that is: Frequent Immediate Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria and standards Lovingly delivered

Feedback will be immediate, during each stage of the workshop. We have a collegial, professional relationship with all of the faculty who will attend, and we will provide a warm learning environment. We will encourage them to contact us in the future if they need additional help or guidance.

Learning goals for course:

At the completion of this workshop, faculty members should be able to:

1.       Identify major repositories of Open Educational Resources (OER) and how to use them to locate learning materials to enhance content for their courses

2.       Conduct a search in each of the repositories for discipline-specific materials, applying demonstrated search strategies

3.       Identify types of OER and their potential to support student engagement

4.       Utilize useful criteria to evalutate materials found in OER repositories

5.       Evaluate ADA accessibility of OER materials found in OER repositories

6.       Develop a preliminary understanding of applying proper licensing and attribution to OER

Ways of assessing this kind of learning:

For this training workshop, successful completion of the hands-on activities will be a measure of these goals.

Formative Assessment: Upon completion of the training workshop, participants will be asked to fill out an evaluation to identify their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the training. The results of this evaluation can be used to revise aspects of the training that are identified as ineffective or lacking clarity.

Actual teaching-learning activities:

Participants will practice search strategy steps which have been presented via verbal and LCD-projected visual demonstration of search strategy steps required to find quality OER materials.

Participants will receive immediate feedback throughout the workshop.

Helpful resources (e.g. people, things): 

Computer lab, technology for visual demonstration, computers for hands-on learning, peers to provide feedback, caring instructors. 

Week 1

Answers to worksheet on page 7:

1. Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation
The workshop, Exploring OER Repositories, will be conducted in a 2-hour session in a computer lab equipped with computers and software applications similar to those used by the learners at their work stations. Learners will have the option to use their own laptops instead of lab computers if they choose to do so. We anticipate a small audience, 5 or fewer, of adult learners will attend the session. The physical elements that might affect this class include the possibility that people may leave and arrive during different times of the session. Also, we anticipate that the learners will all be looking for different materials/subjects, which could pose challenges.

2. General Context of the Learning Situation
This workshop is offered through our Teaching and Learning Center as professional development for faculty. Administration on our campus is interested in supporting efforts to decrease the cost of instructional materials borne by students. While many faculty members are in favor of reducing the cost of materials for students, they remain skeptical about the quality levels of OER and/or the time investment required for incorporating OER into their courses. The learning expectations for this workshop for administration is that there will be an increase, however small, in the use of OER on our campus through an increase in knowledge and relevant applications of the resources presented in this workshop. Faculty must perceive a high level of utility for the information presented and be able to immediately apply the learning to enhance their courses with OER.

3. Nature of the Subject Is this subject primarily theoretical, practical, or a combination?
There are indeed controversies occurring regarding OER, and we are as interested as anyone to explore and discover if the promise of OER can deliver. Promotion of OER focuses mostly on the benefit to students in textbook cost savings. However, the idea of faculty collaboration and continuous building upon and improvement of content seems like the more exciting, but less touted golden promise. For this workshop, we will take an approach of  practical, informational “how-to” steps of locating OER and steer clear of the pros and cons debate.

4. Characteristics of the Learners
These learners are instructors at our institution and possess graduate-level education, master’s and doctorate degrees little or no previous experience or knowledge using OER repositories and a range from basic to advanced knowledge or interest in open educational resources. We anticipate that some participants may have a misunderstanding about what OER truly means, such as confusing OER with no-cost. During this session, learners can also expect to increase their knowledge and skill in locating interactive learning materials (ILM) to incorporate into course content and activities. Preferred learning styles will vary, and we will try to offer some varied activities to accommodate differences in learning styles.

5. Characteristics of the Teacher
We are fairly new to this topic of OER repository exploration, so we will be learning a lot as we prepare for and conduct this training. We both have some background with OER licensing, attribution, and searching, but minimal experience with effectively searching and locating ILMs and other resources in OER repositories. We both hold graduate degrees, are professional staff providing support for faculty and/or staff, and have excellent customer service skills. We each have some experience either in teaching or training capacities, but have some trepidation for presenting this topic given our lack of familiarity and comfort with the topic. We are also a bit concerned about how to make this session interactive and engaging, when the majority of the session will be focused on looking at resources.

Answers to worksheet on pages 11-12:
A year (or more) after this course is over, we want and hope that the session participants will be successfully locating and implementing materials from OER repositories and enthusiastically sharing  their knowledge with colleagues in ways that foster a culture of open education on our campus.

Foundational Knowledge
We would like session participants to feel comfortable with the key repositories for their discipline, gain searching skills that can be applied for various platforms, understand the strengths and weaknesses of various repositories, and be familiar with CC and proper licensing and attribution.

Application Goals
We would like students to apply all three types of thinking:

Critical – evaluating whether the resources they found are quality.

Practical – advancing their search skills.

Creative – conceptualizing how they would use these OER materials in a future course. Also, thinking about how they would use a new type of material in their teaching (this would particularly apply to ILMs).

Integration Goals
The main goal is to provide relevant information so that session participants can locate and incorporate relevant resources into the courses they teach.

Human Dimensions Goals
Drawing from what other professionals/academics have developed (and potentially building upon it) can make these professors realize that they are part of a global learning community and that they have valuable things to contribute. We would like them to recognize a potential for collaboration and explore the role they can play in contributing to shared content.

Caring Goals
Excitement

Opportunities to collaborate

Providing their students with resources to enhance their learning

"Learning-How-to-Learn" Goals
We would like participants to leave the session with a willingness to explore a different education model besides publisher materials and traditional approaches. We aim for session participants to be familiar with other resources and how to integrate them into a course.