Monthly Archives: June 2009

Community Colleges May Receive Funding From Dept. of Education

Posted on June 29, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed is reporting that the U.S. Department of Education is strongly considering financially supporting free online courses. The funding is meant to support community colleges, many of which have been struggling over the past few years. From the article:

According to the draft materials from the administration, the program would support the development of 20-25 “high quality” courses a year, with a mix of high school and community college courses. Initial preference would go to “career oriented” courses. The courses would be owned by the government and would be free for anyone to take. Courses would be selected competitively, through peer review, for support. And the courses would be “modular” or “object based” such that they would be “interoperable” and could be offered with a variety of technology platforms.

David Wiley provides additional commentary.

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New Issue of IRRODL

Posted on June 29, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Terry Anderson is annoucing a new issue of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL). Articles are freely available in both HTML and PDF as well as MP3. From the blog post:

The issue contains fourteen peer-reviewed research articles, two technical reports, and links to five recordings and Powerpoint slides from research presentations to IRRODL’s sister organization, the Canadian Institute for Distance Education Research (CIDER). It also contains two articles formatted for mobile devices (EPUB), and we welcome feedback, particularly from Amazon Kindle and Stanza users.

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The Future of Learning Institutions

Posted on June 29, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Jane Park at Creative Commons is reporting that HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) has published a new report on the future of education institutions. The report is available as a PDF and is licensed CC BY-NC-ND. From the blog post:

Not coincidentally, one of the ten principles for redesigning learning institutions was open source education: “Traditional learning environments convey knowledge via overwhelmingly copyright-protected publications. Networked learning, contrastingly, is an “open source” culture that seeks to share openly and freely in both creating and distributing knowledge and products.”

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Open Access Publisher Reviews 20 Years of Work

Posted on June 29, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Charles Bailey has published a review of his work in open access in the past 20 years. Bailey’s publications include The Public-Access Computer Systems Review and Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography. The review offers an interesting look at the evolution of open access. From the article:

In June 1989, I launched PACS-L, a LISTSERV mailing list. PACS-L was one of the first library-oriented mailing lists, and, at the time, it was unusual in that it had a broad subject focus (public-access computer systems in libraries, such as online catalogs) rather than a narrow focus on a specific library automation system. Although PACS-L’s greatest contribution may have been in raising librarians’ awareness of the importance and potential of the then fledgling Internet, it was also the platform on which my initial scholarly digital publishing efforts were based.

Thanks to Peter Suber at Open Access News for the link.

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Institute of Education Sciences Now Open Access

Posted on June 26, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Stuart Shieber has a blog post on a new open access policy for the Institute of Education Sciences, which is within the U.S. Department of Education. The policy stipulates that institute-funded research must be made available through the ERIC repository. From the blog post, quoting the policy:

Recipients of awards are expected to publish or otherwise make publicly available the results of the work supported through this program. Institute-funded investigators should submit final, peer-reviewed manuscripts resulting from research supported in whole or in part by the Institute to the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC, http://eric.ed.gov) upon acceptance for publication.

Thanks to Gavin Baker at Open Access News for the link.

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Texas Encourages Electronic Textbooks

Posted on June 26, 2009 by | 3 Comments

Geoffrey H. Fletcher at T.H.E. Journal is reporting on recent legislation in Texas encouraging school districts to move to electronic textbooks. The change is important, as Texas is a large market for textbook publishers. The article also goes into detail regarding new stipulations on the review process, some of which may pose a challenge for open textbook development models. From the article:

Possibly the most important long-term effect of HB 4294, however, may be a subtle one not readily noticed by schools in Texas or across the country. The long-term effect is an alteration of the 50-year-old business model for textbooks of one book per student at a cost of $XX per book. Under HB 4294, the total amount school districts will receive for instructional materials will still be figured on that model. However, once a school district has satisfied its requirement to acquire a classroom set of materials for a subject area, it is free to break from that model and order materials and technological equipment.

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Baruch College Release Copyright in the Classroom Guide

Posted on June 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Wired Campus is reporting that Baruch College (New York) has released a copyright guide for professors. The guide was unavailable when OEN attempted to access it. From the article:

Baruch’s online guide begins with background information on copyrighted material, presented by a computer-animated middle-age man. Instructors can then click through the system’s “Copyright Metro,” which gives step-by-step verbal and written instructions on determining what materials can be used in courses legally.

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JISC Announces OER Program

Posted on June 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Yesterday OEN reported on an interview with JISC’s Executive Director. Today JISC has announced the launch of a large OER program. According to the press release the program will involve a wide range of OER, from full courses to simulations. From the press release, quoting JISC’s Executive Director:

JISC believes in open access and opening up the UK’s resources. This is the first time that a project of this nature will have been undertaken on this scale, collaboratively across an entire national educational sector. Its success will enable researchers, academics and learners to benefit from world class learning resources.

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The Difficulties of Open Content Attribution

Posted on June 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Brian Lamb has a new blog post on the difficulties of attributing open content. The post stems from the recent controversy surrounding the book Free and possible plagiarism. From the blog post:

I don’t think “all contributors” implies that each editor to the relevant passage in Wikipedia would need to named individually. I dare suggest such a requirement would make it nearly impossible to accurately cite a passage (especially given the way MediaWiki tracks edits).

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Open University Turns 40 Today

Posted on June 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Peter Mandelson at The Guardian has an article on the Open University turning 40 today. The Open University has been celebrating throughout this year (as reported by OEN), but today marks the official milestone. From the article:

The Labour prime minister Harold Wilson described the creation of the Open University in 1969 as the greatest achievement of his premiership. Four decades later, on the Open University’s 40th birthday, Wilson seems not only right, but right in ways he could not have imagined.

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