Open Education Resources: Be the Change you want to see in the World!
Open Education Resources (OER) is becoming much more pervasive in tertiary education. Developing content which can be shared within one institution, or across continents represents a powerful paradigm shift in the distribution methods of learning content and courseware from traditional publishing models to those which are open and collaborative in nature. Major initiatives from leading institutions to provide open courseware further support the growth of this segment of online learning.
WE extend an open invitation to all educators around the world to join us on WikiEducator to receive a free basic Wiki editing skills online training in exchange for one Open Education Resource (free lesson plan, student guide, teacher handout or other lesson) developed on the Wiki.
I am writing this report of online workshop eL4C40.
I would be happy if Patricia & the participants collaborate on this.--Gita Mathur 06:10, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
Workshop Resources Generated & Report
The expected outcomes of this workshop were to:
- to teach and train the use of the new Rich Text Editing WikiEducator tutorials 1-10;
- explore the concept of open education using an open source software platform and integrated technologies in the process;
- inform about WikiEducator's concept and new developments including inform on active OER content on WE.
EL4C40 was a 10-day basic wiki editing skills Learning4content online Workshop teaching Rich Text Editing under the Learning4Content initiative of the OER Foundation, which took place from June 07-18, 2010.
The workshop was one of the OER Foundation's monthly Learning4Content workshops and was led by Dr. Gita Mathur, Gargi College, India, in addition Patricia Schlicht, kindly offered to assist with facilitating this workshop.
The facilitators used Google Docs to share workshop instructions, to edit and to improve on content, where appropriate.
Participants received instructions daily using Gmail Group emails.
The tutorials and forum discussions were conducted on WikiEducator
The following boxes were created on my userpage:--Gita Mathur 07:56, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
Workshop invite box to register
|Learning4Content Workshop||10-day Online Free Workshop|
June 07 - 18, 2010
Pre-workshop activities for registered participants
WikiEducator eL4C40 Online Workshop - Pre-Workshop Tips
Please Note: You will get a mail on your email ID to confirm. Please answer the mail and then Log into your created account/User Page using your User name and password.
Feedback & Notes from my WikiNeighbours
Welcome to eL4C40
- Hello and welcome to eL4C40, a free online Learning4Content wiki skills workshop.
- You may wish to check the schedule of the workshop, introduce yourself, and check the list of participants.
- Whenever you have the time, click on each of the above links and/or start ahead of time with the Pre-Work and Day 1 activities.
- Enjoy the workshop :-)
- Your facilitators:
Learning Resources Developed for eL4C40
Here is a poster which was sent to friends, students and perspective participants of the eL4C40 workshop. The poster was also printed & displayed in various academic institutions.
Live Session on WIZIQ
EL4C40 had one live online session over one hour on WiZiQ, on Saturday, June 12, the end of week 1. The live session was attended by 23 Learners. Both facilitators attended and presented on experiences, gave guidance or background information.
The recording of the Live Session is available here:
Presentation Slides of Dr. Gita Mathur
Online presentation at the eL4C40 Live Session on 12.6.2010, at 07.00am(IST) at WiZiQ.<Br.> Wiki Skills and Collaborative Development of e-resources:
- See the full size presentation at the above link and a small preview below.
Outcome and Demographics
The workshop consisted of the following demongraphics:
13 countries participated. They were:
- South Africa
Gender distribution by Country
Southeast and South Asia
- Malaysia: 1F
- South Africa: 1F + 1M
- Kenya: 2F = 1M
- First online workshop with 48/66 participants from one country, India.
- Certifications Attained: (Other participants did not reach any certification level)
(Participants you may add your name here after 18 June 2010.)
- Apprentice Level 1 = 10
- Apprentice Level 2 = 6
- WikiBuddy = 8
- Total number of emails received by me regarding the workshop including messages from Wiki Admin for watch pages was an amazing 708 and sent emails 126. That is total emails handled was 708+126= 834! (May 5,2010 till 5:37 june 17, 2010). Add to this the comments & notes added to the userpages of the 66 participants including creating all the newbie pages.--Gita Mathur 14:08, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
- Updated on 24 June, 2010
Received +82 & Sent + 14; 82+14= 96.
834 + 96 = 930 emails
All emails sent to 2 facilitators and 66 participants as a group have been counted as one :-)--Dr. Gita Mathur 04:12, 23 June 2010 (UTC)
I am very grateful to Patricia Schlicht for having come in, to assist with facilitation. I enjoyed the interactions and active participation from her as facilitator, and from participants.
eL4C40 used the Gmail Group email as integrated tool to communicate with participants. While I found, it worked well for communicating instructions, I find the flow of return emails not very user-friendly in Gmail and interactions are more difficult to monitor. I also had more one-on-one time with individual participants compared to before where I would have had both, one-on-one teaching time and group responses that let's others benefit more from the learning experience others have. I had to keep repeating myself many times as participants asked similar questions. Same email to the whole group together makes more sense. Many participants get answers without asking the same question.
While it cuts the incoming email traffic a facilitator normally has to manage, I am not sure if Gmail is the most effective way of communicating with participants. It is a great tool for sharing documents you collectively work on (Google docs) such as instructions before sharing.
Learning Contract is another area WE need to pay attention to. Many participants do not have access to printing & scanning facilities and some work in public computer facility so can not get access to open office either, so the .odt & .pdf formats are not enough. My suggestion is to have an editable contract on WE itself and participants can fill & sign with their wiki signatures.
Overall I am satisfied with the outcome of this workshop and hope to be able to conduct many more. Special thanks once more to Patricia for being the help & support. HER PRESENCE ADDED A LOT OF CONFIDENCE IN ME AS A FACILITATOR.--Gita Mathur 06:55, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
Participants' Comments & Observations
Dear Participants, You can place here on record how your learning experience with the facilitators was. Also add the plus & minus points of eL4C40 in particular, to help us do better in future, You may continue to add general comments for L4C to the workshop discussion pages. THANKS--Gita Mathur 06:35, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
Please add your wiki signatures to all your comments.
(: 'You give a man a fish and he eats for a day. You teach him to fish and he is fed for the rest of his life'. WikiEducator is one way of me satisfying my 'hunger to learn' for life. Thanks a ton, Gita, Patricia and all my wikifriends. I make special mention of Chef James for being very helpful. I do wish that those who did not display their output during the workshop rejoin another time.The tutorials were well planned, interaction with facilitators was very good. I suggest that WE conducts different workshops for beginners and advanced learners. Also there are so much of OERs on WE. Could we have some better system of navigation... with all completed and good resources clubbed together? Looking forth to learning more and contributing my mite to WE. God Bless!!!... Cynthia--Agnes 07:05, 17 June 2010 (UTC))
(: A great session, with a lot of interactivity with the facilitators. All the queries answered in a short while, always encouraging messages, it was a great learning experience with Dr.Gita Mathur and Ms. Patricia. Looking forward to many more sessions. I am sure this course and initiative by WE got sky as limit. KD Shijo) --KD Shijo 15:24, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
(: Although i was unable to give the time that i would have liked to, it was a good learning experience. I guess one must keep learning at our own pace. It was good to see the wikieducator community growing. Kalpana Gupte 09:23, 20 June 2010 (UTC))
(: This online workshop was a great learning experience for me. I have learned a lot during this 10 days workshop thanks to the help and encouragement provided by Dr. Gita Mathur and my fellow wikilearners. I am confident that this effort will continue and WE community will grow as a major tool for provisioning of Free Education Resources.Dr. Laxmi Narayan 10:00, 17 July 2010 (UTC))