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Ted Curran

Academic Study of Blackboard vs. Sakai at UNC School of Medicine - 0 views

mfeldstein.com/akai-at-unc-school-of-medicine

shared by Ted Curran on 14 Apr 10 - Cached
  • The battle of the bullet points, where vendors are compared mainly based on long but shallow lists of features, is thankfully going away.
  • The assessment document, then, did not tell the whole story of vendor difference; the means by which a product delivered a solution to a given requirement showed a level of depth not reflected in the assessment document.
  • requirement #89 (the ability to deliver small groups) is marked in the RFP as a requirement fulfilled by both products, but in reality the groups provided in Blackboard do not have the same flexibility as those found within Sakai
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • It is telling that for the SOM, neither cost nor feature set stood out as the biggest difference between competing LMS products, but flexibility.
  • In UNC School of Medicine’s case, Sakai was judged to be more flexible than Blackboard.
Ted Curran

Blackboard vs. Moodle: North Carolina Community Colleges Assessment - 0 views

mfeldstein.com/-community-colleges-assessment

moodle blackboard lms vs assessment

shared by Ted Curran on 23 Apr 10 - Cached
  • “The end-of-term student and instructor surveys showed that Blackboard and Moodle are not that different.” All of these systems are pretty good/bad.
  • “The real difference is found in student perception of their teachers’ comfort level with the application. There exists a significant correlation between student survey scores of both Blackboard and Moodle with the perceived comfort level of instructors using either application. Thus, student perceptions of both CMSs were influenced by instructor experience, training, and skills.” The fact that your faculty reviewers are more familiar with your old system than some of the alternatives may bias their evaluations significantly.
  • “Case studies of four exclusively Moodle institutions indicated that while transition to Moodle was challenging, ultimately the case study students and faculty preferred Moodle over Blackboard.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “The CMS application functionality comparison by online administrators (application and network) and online instructors indicated that Moodle 1.9x has a higher perceived functionality than any version of Blackboard evaluated. The large number of “did not use” responses suggested that neither CMS platform was utilized to full capacity.” Having a system with 39,000 seldom-used features that require a course to learn how to use is not as valuable to you as having a system with 39 features that most people will find useful and can figure out how to use on their own.
  • “The analysis revealed the total pre-transition year cost for all four case study colleges totaled $184,410. There was a 35% increase in total cost in the transition year to $248,300, due to supporting two CMSs simultaneously. Lastly, the post-transition year cost of ownership was $52,296, which accounted for a 72% decrease in total cost compared to that of the pre-transition year. The total cost savings from preto post-transition years for all of the case study colleges was $132,114.” Consider long-run costs as well as short-run costs. Migration may be cheaper than staying put, and the more expensive migration in the short run may be cheaper in the long run.
Ted Curran

http://opencontent.org/definition/ - 0 views

opencontent.org/definition

shared by Ted Curran on 17 Feb 10 - Cached
  • The word has different meanings in different contexts. Our commonsense, every day experience teaches us that "open" is a continuous (not binary) construct. A door can be wide open, mostly open, cracked slightly open, or completely closed. So can your eyes, so can a window, etc.
  • Put simply, the fewer copyright restrictions are placed on the user of a piece of content, the more open the content is.
  • Reuse - the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form (e.g., make a backup copy of the content) Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language) Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup) Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Content is open to the extent that its license allows users to engage in the 4R activities.
  • Ted Curran on 17 Feb 10
     
    .perfect description of "open content"
Ted Curran

'Open Courseware' Idea Spreads - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...27262

shared by Ted Curran on 17 Feb 10 - Cached
  • "People who come to public health are committed to really making a difference in the lives of people," he says. "By and large academics, especially in public health, realize that the availability of the content is going to have a beneficial effect."
  • Copyright is another challenge in running open-courseware projects, the meeting's participants say.
  • Many professors regularly use charts, graphs, or other illustrations they've culled from textbooks or other copyrighted works in slide presentations or handouts. Although using those illustrations in a classroom is allowed under fair-use provisions of copyright law, universities must get permission before putting the same materials online where anyone can see them.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • He says he prefers material on open-courseware sites over that found on professors' Web sites. "There's some level of quality control and general oversight associated" with open courseware, he says. "If I'm just strolling around on the Internet and come across some random professor's Web site," he adds, "it just kind of dilutes my confidence in it, and it makes me spend a lot more time really sitting down and looking for what I like."
  • Though officials hope the materials will have educational benefit, they stress that they are not a substitute for taking courses at the institutions.
Ted Curran

The Transformative Potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) (SPARC) - 0 views

www.arl.org/...ala09mw

shared by Ted Curran on 12 Feb 10 - Cached
  • David Wiley, also a leader of the Cape Town Declaration; Chief Openness Officer for Flat World Knowledge, a new approach to college textbooks offering rigorously reviewed textbooks online free of cost to students (http://www.flatworldknowledge.com); and Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology & Technology at Brigham Young University.
Ted Curran

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration - 0 views

www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration

shared by Ted Curran on 12 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Read the Declaration
  • 1. Educators and learners: First, we encourage educators and learners to actively participate in the emerging open education movement.
  • 2. Open educational resources: Second, we call on educators, authors, publishers and institutions to release their resources openly.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • 3. Open education policy: Third, governments, school boards, colleges and universities should make open education a high priority.
  • These strategies represent more than just the right thing to do. They constitute a wise investment in teaching and learning for the 21st century. They will make it possible to redirect funds from expensive textbooks towards better learning. They will help teachers excel in their work and provide new opportunities for visibility and global impact. They will accelerate innovation in teaching. They will give more control over learning to the learners themselves. These are strategies that make sense for everyone.
Ted Curran

Johansen Dissertation on Sustainability of OCW Available « iterating toward o... - 0 views

opencontent.org/...1231

shared by Ted Curran on 17 Feb 10 - Cached
  • This dissertation is the first piece of empirical work I am aware of that demonstrates clearly that a distance learning program can simultaneously (1) provide a significant public good by publishing opencourseware and (2) be revenue positive while doing it.
  • In other words, Justin’s study not only demonstrates that it is possible to publish opencourseware without requesting donations from users or foundations, it goes further and demonstrates that it is possible to make money publishing opencourseware.
  • Ted Curran on 17 Feb 10
     
    an actual study of the economic sustainability of open courseware distance learning efforts
Ted Curran

Open Textbooks « Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources - 0 views

oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific

textbooks opensource eBooks education oer opencourseware textbook OpenTextBooks

shared by Ted Curran on 07 Apr 11 - Cached
  • Ted Curran on 07 Apr 11
     
    Open Textbooks View over 500 open textbooks in many subject areas: Art Biology & Genetics Business Chemistry Computer Science Economics Education Engineering & Electronics English & Composition Health & Nursing History Languages & Communications Literature Math Music Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Science Sociology Statistics & Probability Find open and free textbooks that may be suitable for use in community college courses from the list of Subjects provided. For descriptions of these open textbooks, see listings in MERLOT and OER Commons. Most of the textbooks on this list have Creative Commons (CC) open licenses or GNU-Free Document License. Others are U.S. government documents in the public domain (PD). Many other textbooks are free to view online but are NOT OPEN for reuse and customization. See Copyrighted Digital Textbooks for a list of learning content without open licenses. Learn more about open textbooks:   FAQs Community College Open Textbook Project OER Commons
Ted Curran

Next Generation Learning Challenges - 0 views

nextgenlearning.org/...creative-commons-and-profit-2

shared by Ted Curran on 07 Apr 11 - No Cached
    • Ted Curran
      Ted Curran on 07 Apr 11
       
      This is a great discussion of how you (the ORIGINATOR of a CC-licensed work) still retain the rights to profit from your work. This might help allay fears that CC licensing work locks authors into giving away IP that they could otherwise make money on.
Ted Curran

oer + opencontent - SWiK - 0 views

swik.net/oer+opencontent

education oer opencontent

shared by Ted Curran on 04 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Ted Curran on 04 Apr 11
     
    Content Tagged with oer + opencontent AcrossWorld Education | Connect. Collaborate. Innovate. Monday, March 28, 2011 opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource education opensource opencontent OER My #CCK11 Talk - Sharing to Connect, Interact and Learn! Thursday, March 17, 2011 opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource sharing opensource opencontent OER openness cck11 elesig OPAL - The Open Educational Quality Initiative Saturday, March 12, 2011 opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource opensource opencontent OER opened EDUCAUSE Review Magazine Thursday, February 10, 2011 Volume 45, Number 4, July/August 2010 | EDUCAUSE Article about OPEN: Open Educational Resources, Open Faculty, etc. opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource opensource opencontent OER Content on Congress 2011 -- THE Journal Tuesday, January 04, 2011 opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource open opensource Conference opencontent OER OpenCourseWare- Open High School of Utah Tuesday, January 04, 2011 opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource open opensource resources opencontent opencourseware OER MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching Saturday, January 01, 2011 opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource Web2.0 open education opencontent higher OER lessonplans The Cape Town Open Education Declaration Thursday, October 21, 2010 "It is at once a statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment. It is meant to spark dialogue, to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow. Open education is a living idea. As the movement grows, this idea will continue to evolve. There will be other visions initiatives and declarations beyond Cape Town. This is exactly the point. The Cape Town signatories have committed to developing further strategies, especially around open technology and teaching practices." opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource education opensource openaccess opencontent OER declaration openeducation Home - OLCOS Thursday, October 21
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