1 web-based open content communities for technical education by kwok-bun yue (joint work with andrew...
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Web-Based Open Content Communities for Technical EducationBy Kwok-Bun Yue
(joint work with Andrew Yang, Wei Ding & Ping Chen)
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Innovation 2004 at NASA JSC Gilruth Center
August 20, 2004
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Abstracts
Describe a model for building an Open Content Community (OCC) for developing educational materials. Based on the Open Source Software
(OSS) model. High degree of collaboration. Comprehensive. Content rich. Freely distributable.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Contents
Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Introduction: Effective Technical Education
Learning and teaching customized to individuals: catering to varying Background Need Interest Capability Learning and Teaching Style
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
The Problem Domain
RawEducational
Materials
Courseware
Courseware
Courseware
Issues:•Development•Management•Interoperability•…
Issues:•Quality•Completeness•Richness•Freely Distributable•…
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Courseware Development
Development/Management: e.g. CMS/LMS such as WebCT, Blackboard, etc.
Interoperability/reusability: knowledge captures; e.g. SCORM, OKI, etc.
A lot of activities: but not our basic concern.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Educational Material Development
RawEducational
Materials
Learners/students
Courseware
Instructors
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Existing Internet Resources
Varying quality. Scattered Contents may not be rich. Contents may not be complete. May have copyright problems.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Desirable Features
Desirable features of educational materials: Quality Comprehensive: completeness Rich content: abundance of materials Freely accessible/distributable Ease of uses
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Current Section
Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
One Approach: Repositories
Various kinds of repositories. May address some of the problems But usually not all.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Educational Repositories
Comparing different models/sites: Merlot: http://www.merlot.org/Home.po. MIT’s Open CourseWare:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html. Rice’s Connexion Project:
http://cnx.rice.edu/.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Merlot (1)
Free annotations and reviewed links to external resources.
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po; example resource link.
Addressed: Quality: peer review by panels. Richness: repository.
Not well addressed: copyright, completeness, ease of uses.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
MIT Open CourseWare (1)
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html About 500 open courseware now. All 2,000 courses open by 2007. Open license based on Creative Commons. Extremely successful:
Wired magazine article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/mit_pr.html MIT’s full commitment and well funded.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
MIT Open Courseware (2)
High quality Open source-like copyright Ease of use: especially for students Richness: limited by courses Completeness: topics limited by MIT
offering; contents set by MIT authors Collaboration: within MIT. Community: not interactive.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Rice's Connexions Project (1)
http://cnx.rice.edu/index_html; an example: CNXML.
Collaborative, community-driven approach for courseware development.
Module-based and open source. Connexions modules:
http://cnx.rice.edu/content/view.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Rice's Connexions Project (2)
Coarse-grained object model. Tools for authoring and browsing
courseware. CNXML to capture courseware.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Rice's Connexions Project (3)
Quality: post-publication community-based reviews; smaller sets of authors.
Richness: limited by modules. Copyright: open source Ease of uses: dedicated tools with high
consistency. Completeness: depends on
developers; no structure for support.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Open Source Software (OSS)
Highly successful. Not just a software, but a development
model. Applicable to courseware
development?
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
SourceForge.net
http://sourceforge.net/ Community-based site for open source
software (OSS) development. Provides services, tools, visibility, etc,
to OSS projects. April 28, 2004:
Hosted Projects: 80,230 (+12,000 in 7 months)
Registered Users: 837,960 (+140,000)
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Some OSS Lessons
Community-based: sourceforge.net. High degree of collaboration. Maintained by dedicated developers. Natural evolution: survival of the
fitness. Low cost of entry => natural evolution. Flexibility => natural evolution.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Brief Summary
Many repositories with different models.
Each has its strength and weakness. None (except Rice’s Connexions)
close to OSS in building a OSS-like community.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Current Section
Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
The UHCL OCC model
Similar approach to Rice's Connexion project: Community-based Open source
Differences: Different use case model Object model
Finer grain More flexible structure
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Model Design
UCHL OCC: Lightweight Tightly modeling sourceforge.net. Educational materials: “cut and paste”. Courseware development: secondary. Courseware hosting: optional.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Simplified Connexions Objects
Module Course0..*0..*
use
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Connexions Design
High consistency and ease of use CNXML to capture knowledge. Suitable for content
development/courseware hosting.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Potential Issues in Connexions
Higher cost of entry: developers need to develop an entire module; cannot contribute just an example or a case study, for example; have pros & cons.
Lower degree of collaboration. Lack of structures in modules:
To enhance completeness For browsing.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC Modules
Modules: independent units for topics and subtopics.
May contain or require other modules. Modules may contain embedded or
external Knowledge Units (KU).
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC KU
Knowledge Units (KU) are actual educational contents: lecture notes, exercises, examples, assignments, resource links, case studies, etc.
KU exist independently by themselves. A KU can be used by many modules.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC Courses
Courses are collections of modules and KUs.
Unlike Rice's Connexions, courses are not necessarily hosted in the OCC site.
Instructors pick, mix and modify to build their own courses.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Current Section
Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC users
Workgroups: create and manage the projects; plan required modules.
Developers: develop modules and KU. Instructors: access OCC repository to
create courses; share experience. Regular users: access OCC repository
to learn.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC Object Contents
Two options: Any format the workgroup of the project
wants to use. OCC's supplied XML.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC Site
Features (model after sourceforge.net): Support the OCC model. Version Controls. Community building tools: help wanted,
module/KU request, bug fixes, etc. Quality Control: pre- and post-publication
reviews. Browsing and searching features Promotional features
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC Quality Control
Support both kinds of review: Pre-publications Post-publications
OCC provides a range of pre-publication review mechanisms for projects to use.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Benefits of the UHCL OCC model
Low cost of entry Finer objects More flexibility: workgroups select the best
format/process for their projects. High degree collaboration Structures to plan sub-modules for
completeness Complementary to other approach,
such as Rice’s Connexions.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
The UHCL OCC Solution
Copyright: open source Quality: varying Richness: high level of collaboration. Completeness: high level of
collaboration; structures for planning sub-modules.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Current Section
Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Conclusions (1)
Presented a model of OCC for developing educational materials based on OSS.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Conclusions (2)
Individual ideas: nothing new. Putting it together:
Potentials Challenges
Worthy to attempt: sourceforge.net for educational materials.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Sustainable Business Model?
Low development cost Low maintenance cost Sourceforge.net is a good precedence.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
OCC Team
Kwok-Bun Yue, Andrew Yang and Wei Ding (UHCL)
Ping Chen (UHD).
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
What Have Been Done?
Have built a beta prototype system: Support the basic OCC model Some form of version control. Some community building tools: helps
wanted; module request. Some browsing and searching features Some promotional features
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Publications
Yue, K., Yang, T., Ding, W. & Chen, P., A model for open content communities to support effective learning and teaching, Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Web-based Communities 2004, pp 533-536, Lisbon, Portugal, April 2004.
Yue, K., Yang, T., Ding, W. & Chen, P., Open Courseware and Computer Science Education, accepted by the Thirteenth Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges: Rocky Mountain Conference, October 22-23, 2004, Utah Valley State College, Orem, Utah.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Future Work
Build a more stable OCC prototype with a fuller set of features.
Invite developers/instructors to start projects.
Get seed funding. Write technical papers.
May 2004 http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue;
Summary
OCC has the potentials to change how course material is developed.
OCC may complement other approaches.
The OCC team is working on various technical issues and proposal development.
