is there evidence of their learning
effectiveness?
A. That's part of what makes the OLI [Open Learning
Initiative, based at Carnegie Mellon University] so unique, is that built into
the environment itself, that accomplishes the teaching, is the mechanism for
assessment. ... They have given a control group and a variable group the same
final, and found that the students using OLI aren't hurt in the slightest by not
having had the same level of in-person instruction—that the system did just as
well, if not better, at teaching them this material. ... Beyond those two
studies, there really hasn't been a systematic appraisal of learning outcomes
based on openly available material writ large. No one disputes that these
open-courseware initiatives have done much good. But it's impossible, with the
currently available data, to determine how much good.
Randolph Hollingsworth on 04 Mar 11Randy Bass, Assistant Provost and English prof, Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), Georgetown University worked with Malcoml Brown (Director of ELI) on Evidence of Impact project - "what are the conditions for the most meaningful learning inside and outside the formal curriculum?" and "How do emerging digital tools make it possible to see and capture evidence of meaningful learning in new ways?" Post-Course Era = end of self-contained course at center of curric