how to talk with instructors about content sharing ken graetz, ph.d. director of e-learning winona...
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How to Talk With Instructors About Content Sharing
Ken Graetz, Ph.D.
Director of e-Learning
Winona State University
Deborah Proctor, Ph.D.
e-Curriculum Director
Minnesota Online, MnSCU
2005 Merlot International Conference Nashville, Tennessee
Quick Poll
How many instructors? How many administrators? How many instructional support staff
members? How many vendor or corporate
representatives? How many develop original, digital,
instructional content
Meet Dr. Greg Elvers
Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Dayton
Teaches Research Methods and Perception
An excellent teacher He knows C#, Java, and ASP.NET Why was he reluctant to share? What made him decide to share?
http://academic.udayton.edu/gregelvers/psy216/activex/CorReg.htm
This Morning’s General Session
How would faculty members on your campuses react to these messages? Balancing a chemical equation is balancing a chemical equation.
English professors might someday send their students’ papers to India to be evaluated.
The demand for instructional content outpaces instructors’ ability to develop it.
White Hat Management/LydiaLearn has 500 developers working on instructional content. This costs money and someone is going to have to pay.
In order to meet the demand for high quality instructional content, a business model will need to be applied.
Faculty members would rather be famous than rich. It is unlikely that anyone will get rich by selling their instructional content.
Overview
What Do We Mean By Content Sharing?
Why Should Instructors Share Their Content?
Why Don’t Instructors Share Their Content?
Facilitating Content Sharing Conversations With administration
With instructors
Discussion
Definitions
Shared Courses/Programs Pre-established courses or
programs, including all course content, delivered by multiple instructors (non-authors)
Shared Content Course content used by
more than one instructor
Content Sharing A content-owner’s decision
to share his/her content with others
1,379 Minnesota students used this
text in FY04
Shared Courses
Shared Content
Definitions: Open Content Sharing
Typically… Instructors as authors
Digital content
No monetary remuneration
Why Share Content?
Strong moral argument for open sharing of instructional materials Supports the principles of public
education
Promotes equal access for all students
It’s the right thing to do for students
Adapted in part from Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002 and www.elearningspace.org/Articles/why_we_should_share.htm
Why Share Content?
Organizational benefits Supports the mission
Adds market value
Creates more collaborative, community-based climate and associated efficiencies
Reduces cost of course preparation
Provides new dashboard measures
Adapted in part from Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002 and www.elearningspace.org/Articles/why_we_should_share.htm
Why Share Content?
Instructor benefits Strengthens collaborative
professional relationships
Encourages contributions from others = workload reduction
Contributes to promotion and tenure
Public recognition
Intrinsic value
Adapted in part from Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002 and www.elearningspace.org/Articles/why_we_should_share.htm
Why Don’t Instructors Share Their Content?
Psychological impediments
Lack of continuous, frontline faculty support
Inhibitory organizational culture and practices
Psychological Impediments
Instructors may be… Anxious about losing expert power
Anxious about losing control over their content
Insecure about the quality of their own content
Distrustful that others won’t contribute; loafers and free-riders
Concerned about other potential negative consequences
Adapted in part from Gorman, C.K. (2002, June 22). Five reasons people don’t tell what they know. Knowledge Management. Retrieved July 13, 2005, from http://www.kmmag.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=960
Psychological Impediments
Expert Power Power that derives from others’
assumption that the power-holder possesses superior skills and abilities (French & Raven, 1959)
Instructors may view the open sharing of original instructional content with other instructors as a threat to their expert power.
Psychological Impediments
Free Riding: You’re Just Going to Eat All My Cookies
Psychological Impediments
Insecure About Quality “No one will want to use it.”
“This is designed for the way I teach.”
“This is just a small thing.”
“Others have probably created something better.”
“It doesn’t look professional.”
“I may have made mistakes.”
Beware of the fundamental attribution error
Lack of Faculty Support
It has never been easier for instructors to author and share content technologically
That does not mean that they will use these tools
Many do not have continuous, professional support for the development, publication, and maintenance of instructional materials
Many are just “taught to fish”
Organizational Culture and Practices
Competitive, individualistic environment of higher education does not smooth the way for sharing
“If the incentives are outwardly said to promote knowledge sharing but the culture of the organization continues to exhibit competitiveness, the knowledge sharing efforts may not be very successful” (Ghosh, 2004)
Organizational Practices and Culture
Rate the extent to which there are strong incentives to collaborate and share knowledge with others in your institution from 1 to 10. Appropriate incentives should: Answer the question, "What's in it for me?" Reinforce the relationship between knowledge sharing and mission
accomplishment Balance recognition for both individual and team contribution Align individual and team efforts with broader institutional goals Make clear the value placed on collaborative work Base on the list of incentives above---Rate your current incentive
structure
http://www.gilgordon.com/downloads/willett.html
Talking to Administrators
Foster a learning organization that promotes… Problem solving
Experimentation
Learning based on prior experience, past history, and best practice
Transfer of knowledge
Talking to Administrators
Create a culture of learning and make it intentional through… Communication Integration into the
organizational plan Allow mistakes to promote
experimentation and learning from them
Examine ideas and best practices from other organizations
View all learning as an investment and consider how it might be leveraged
Talking to Administrators
Organization promotes an understanding of what is proprietary and what is not
Build relationships based on trust and assurances that those sharing will not Misuse information
Take advantage of confidential information
Advance their own agenda at the expense of others
Attack or challenge those who share
Share unreliable or biased information
Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002
Talking to Administrators
Important questions for the organization regarding content repositories Is the content always available and ready to use?
Can the content solve problems and provide solutions?
Is the content repository a useful tool to use in keeping informed, study progress, and gauge professional development?
Will it increase efficiency?
Will it stimulate new knowledge generation in addition to storing existing knowledge?
Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002
Talking to Administrators
Institutions must provide continuous, professional support for the development, publication, and maintenance of instructional materials
Support must be provided by academic experts who will work in the trenches alongside instructors
Services must reduce instructor workload Digitizing non-digital materials Developing content from simple graphics to
complex applications Copyright clearance Publication and maintenance
Talking to Faculty
1. Be Respectful
2. Be Supportive
3. Catalyze Group Conversations Change in group discussion Social comparison and the unidirectional
drive upward
4. Focus On What’s Best for Students
5. Move Beyond Content Sharing and Develop Communities of Practice
Talking to Faculty
Move conversations past the decision to share and toward the collaborative revision and maintenance of instructional content by the community of instructors who use it. Updating and improving old content
Using existing content in new ways
Developing new content
What do our students DO with our content?
Gleitman Westen
3D representation Direction of the impulse Additional information
Refine, Update, and Enhance
http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/Psych402/Biotutorials/2/part1.html
Refine, Update, and Enhance
Gleitman
Westen
Same Content, Different Outcome
Westen
Develop New Content
What Do Our Students DO With Our Content?
“Personalization” goes beyond interactivity
New and emerging tools for students to “mark up” content Microsoft OneNote DyKnow Vision Silicon Chalk
This personalization may have the greatest impact on learning.
Summary
Summary
Thank You
Ken Graetz, Ph.D.
Director of e-Learning
Winona State University
507-457-2339
Deborah Proctor, Ph.D.
e-Curriculum Director
Minnesota Online, MnSCU
651-649-5935
Slides available athttp://elearning.winona.edu/readingroom/merlot2005.pdf
Discussion
Discussion