Educational material for free (cyber-) university - summary of responses

[Gunnar Stefansson]

Hi,

A while ago I posted queries in a few newsgroups and mailing lists
concerning the feasibility of aggregating existing "open content"
educational material in "source" form in order to set up a completely
free and open environment to exchange such materials and make it
accessible to students. Included in the environment would be enough
to make this work like a formal enrollment of the student in a
university, with quizzes, grades etc. One would have to have some
form of access restrictions, e.g. so that only a registered instructor
could set up quizzes and change a live tutorial (my initial suggestion
would be that if someone defines a new tutorial, then that someone
also controls whether other people can change it but anyone can copy
the source of the whole thing). My vision was that instructors would
like to be able to access each other's teaching material to either use
it directly (in which only PDF or HTML is needed) or to use it as a
basis for further development (in which access to LaTeX, groff etc is
needed).

I have enough responses to indicate that there is some interest in
this topic, i.e. there are certainly instructors who would like
access to this kind of a repository and there are also instructors who
would like to participate by contributing their material.

However, the number of responses is not phenomenal. In particular one
can e.g. not go to a funding agency and ask for a grant to assist with
massive incorporation of material or a major programming effort in
light of the reponses. However, this suggests that one can take a
somewhat more relaxed approach and simply set up the programs, define
formats etc for the repository and make it userfriendly enough to be
presentable to a larger audience - and inserting a handful of example
tutorials. Since the basic formats already exist (as seen in links
from http://www.tutor-web.info), the important part is to make the
system user-friendly for instructors who want to use it as a
repository and to set up a handful of example tutorials in English.

I have taken this next step and applied for a number of minor grants
for programming (converting from a file system to Plone/Zope which
seems an obvious CMS for the job) and setting up a few courses. Some
of these have already come out positive and I have enough to get
started by hiring some summer students. I will come back and make a
new announcement when I have something new to announce:-)

Thanks to all who responded

Cheers

Gunnar

PS Although I started this mainly in stats, the system is intended to
be general and includes some math, CIS and fishery science from the
start.

PPS This is sent separately by e-mail to those who responded or I have
been in contact with, since some (most) of you are clearly not
subscribers to the lists. My apologies if this results in duplicates.

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[Reef Fish]

Post by Gunnar Stefansson
Hi,
A while ago I posted queries in a few newsgroups and mailing lists
concerning the feasibility of aggregating existing "open content"
educational material in "source" form in order to set up a completely
free and open environment to exchange such materials and make it
accessible to students. Included in the environment would be enough
to make this work like a formal enrollment of the student in a
university, with quizzes, grades etc. One would have to have some
form of access restrictions, e.g. so that only a registered instructor
could set up quizzes and change a live tutorial (my initial suggestion
would be that if someone defines a new tutorial, then that someone
also controls whether other people can change it but anyone can copy
the source of the whole thing). My vision was that instructors would
like to be able to access each other's teaching material to either use
it directly (in which only PDF or HTML is needed) or to use it as a
basis for further development (in which access to LaTeX, groff etc is
needed).

Your goals are noble; and your vision Utopiac; unfortunately you
grossly underestimated the logistic problems associated with
every aspect of your proposal.

For example, I have discussed statistical topics and posed quiz
problems for such elementary terms as "linear models" in
multiple regression analysis, and found that the most prolific
and long-time participant of the sci.stat.math group FAILING
most of the standard elementary statistics course materials!

Post by Gunnar Stefansson
I have enough responses to indicate that there is some interest in
this topic, i.e. there are certainly instructors who would like
access to this kind of a repository and there are also instructors who
would like to participate by contributing their material.

I've participated in enough statistical topics in the sci.stat.* groups

since 2005 to have come to the unmistakable conclusion that MOST
of the participants (including some instructors and professors) in the
ngs are unqualified and incompetent in the subject! But the ngs
are an OPEN FORUM. All I could do is to warn others of their
Quackery and Malpractices, but could do no more.

They would be the ones most likely to flood your depository with
their Quackery and malpractices.

I left your cross-posted groups intact since your idea is a general one
that supposedly apply to all. However, of the 5 groups, I ONLY READ
and participate in the sci.stat.math group.

-- Bob.

Post by Gunnar Stefansson
However, the number of responses is not phenomenal. In particular one
can e.g. not go to a funding agency and ask for a grant to assist with
massive incorporation of material or a major programming effort in
light of the reponses. However, this suggests that one can take a
somewhat more relaxed approach and simply set up the programs, define
formats etc for the repository and make it userfriendly enough to be
presentable to a larger audience - and inserting a handful of example
tutorials. Since the basic formats already exist (as seen in links
from http://www.tutor-web.info), the important part is to make the
system user-friendly for instructors who want to use it as a
repository and to set up a handful of example tutorials in English.
I have taken this next step and applied for a number of minor grants
for programming (converting from a file system to Plone/Zope which
seems an obvious CMS for the job) and setting up a few courses. Some
of these have already come out positive and I have enough to get
started by hiring some summer students. I will come back and make a
new announcement when I have something new to announce:-)
Thanks to all who responded
Cheers
Gunnar
PS Although I started this mainly in stats, the system is intended to
be general and includes some math, CIS and fishery science from the
start.
PPS This is sent separately by e-mail to those who responded or I have
been in contact with, since some (most) of you are clearly not
subscribers to the lists. My apologies if this results in duplicates.
--
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marine Research Institute Univ. of Iceland
P.O. Box 1390 Science Institute
121 Reykjavik, Iceland Dunhaga 5, 107 Reykjavik,
Iceland
Phone [phone] [phone]
This e-mail address is subject to SPAM filtering, also stopping e-mail
from badly set up servers. In case of problems reply to