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

Yue@cl.uh.edu

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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.

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Contents

Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work

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Introduction: Effective Technical Education

Learning and teaching customized to individuals: catering to varying Background Need Interest Capability Learning and Teaching Style

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The Problem Domain

RawEducational

Materials

Courseware

Courseware

Courseware

Issues:•Development•Management•Interoperability•…

Issues:•Quality•Completeness•Richness•Freely Distributable•…

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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.

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Educational Material Development

RawEducational

Materials

Learners/students

Courseware

Instructors

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Existing Internet Resources

Varying quality. Scattered Contents may not be rich. Contents may not be complete. May have copyright problems.

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Desirable Features

Desirable features of educational materials: Quality Comprehensive: completeness Rich content: abundance of materials Freely accessible/distributable Ease of uses

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Current Section

Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work

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One Approach: Repositories

Various kinds of repositories. May address some of the problems But usually not all.

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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/.

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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.

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Merlot (2)

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Merlot (3)

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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.

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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.

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MIT OCW Example

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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.

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Rice's Connexions Project (2)

Coarse-grained object model. Tools for authoring and browsing

courseware. CNXML to capture courseware.

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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.

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Open Source Software (OSS)

Highly successful. Not just a software, but a development

model. Applicable to courseware

development?

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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)

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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.

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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.

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Current Section

Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work

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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

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Model Design

UCHL OCC: Lightweight Tightly modeling sourceforge.net. Educational materials: “cut and paste”. Courseware development: secondary. Courseware hosting: optional.

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Simplified Connexions Objects

Module Course0..*0..*

use

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Connexions Module

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Connexions Design

High consistency and ease of use CNXML to capture knowledge. Suitable for content

development/courseware hosting.

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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.

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UHCL OCC Object Model

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OCC Modules

Modules: independent units for topics and subtopics.

May contain or require other modules. Modules may contain embedded or

external Knowledge Units (KU).

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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.

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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.

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Current Section

Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work

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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.

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OCC Object Contents

Two options: Any format the workgroup of the project

wants to use. OCC's supplied XML.

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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

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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.

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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.

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The UHCL OCC Solution

Copyright: open source Quality: varying Richness: high level of collaboration. Completeness: high level of

collaboration; structures for planning sub-modules.

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Current Section

Introduction Related Work: Existing Models The Basic UHCL OCC Model More UHCL OCC Model Details Conclusions and Future Work

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Conclusions (1)

Presented a model of OCC for developing educational materials based on OSS.

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Conclusions (2)

Individual ideas: nothing new. Putting it together:

Potentials Challenges

Worthy to attempt: sourceforge.net for educational materials.

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Sustainable Business Model?

Low development cost Low maintenance cost Sourceforge.net is a good precedence.

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OCC Team

Kwok-Bun Yue, Andrew Yang and Wei Ding (UHCL)

Ping Chen (UHD).

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Thank you and discussion!