Thoughts on quality

EL4C53 - WikiEducator Learning4Content Workshop
June 6, 2012 to June 15,2012

Another free WikiEducator Online Workshop under the Learning4Content project

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Discussion

Consider the following questions, add your name as a heading and let us know what you think: Do you have any concerns about the quality of educational resources developed using an open authoring approach? If so, what are your concerns? If not, how does an open authoring approach contribute to high quality learning materials? In your opinion, should closed or open authoring approaches be used in the development of learning resources for use in education? Give reasons for your view? What mechanisms can be adopted to assure quality of educational content developed in wiki environments? Use the "insert signature" button in your toolbar to sign your post. (You may want to open a copy of these questions in a new window or tab, to avoid scrolling up and down while typing your answers. Remember to hit the save button.) Once you have laid out your thoughts here, you are invited to join the attempt to synthesize the various perspectives into one coherent document.

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   John PT

Do you have any concerns about the quality of educational resources developed using an open authoring approach? If so, what are your concerns? If not, how does an open authoring approach contribute to high quality learning materials?

I believe that the open authoring  approach will not pose any concern on the quality of educational resources developed. 
With open authoring, the content is refined through expert reviews and editing  on a wider scale into a high quality educational         resource, prior to the release. Any controversy after the release will also be minimal.        

In your opinion, should closed or open authoring approaches be used in the development of learning resources for use in education? Give reasons for your view?

Yes, because of the high quality that can be achieved for the learning resources.  However, for the educational resources, there may be a limitation at the moment with available experts in all the fields to maintain the high quality and uniformity required for the educational resources.

'''What mechanisms can be adopted to assure quality of educational content developed in wiki environments?

With the OER gathering more momentum and the Wikieducator community expanding worldwide,  sufficient expertise will be available in all the fields to  enhance the quality of educational resources through open authoring approach. However, ways and means to bring in high quality experts to the OER fold, need to be explored and accelerated.
 

John PT        --Ptjohn 13:27, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

 

Example

Do you have any concerns about the quality of educational resources developed using an open authoring approach? If so, what are your concerns? If not, how does an open authoring approach contribute to high quality learning materials?

Yes..I am concerned about the "quality" factor whilst developing the OER. Standards should be prevalent to keep a check on the quality metric and not to deter the open authorship initiative. "Open" is equivalent to "free" underpins the very idea of OA models. As such, a growing public domain which relies on creativity, originality and technological expertise should b promoted.

In your opinion, should closed or open authoring approaches be used in the development of learning resources for use in education? Give reasons for your view?

Yes..definitely! As mentioned earlier, traditional publishing incurs a tremendous cost on the author / creator. To add to this, re-use of one's own scholarly material which calls for copyright permission from the respective publisher is a major factor. Hence, open authorship as a robust mechanism should be always promoted subject to certain acceptable and time-tested standards.

What mechanisms can be adopted to assure quality of educational content developed in wiki environments?

Sense of ownership - which is an inherent quality for research-takers is a must-must

Credentials and expertise should be verified

Experience adds to the quality of educational content

Basic knowledge about concepts such as digital copyright and Green/Gold Open Access Publishing models

Open authoring

1. I don't have any concerns about the quality of educational resources developed using an open authoring approach as my experiences so far with such resources has proven to me that sometimes they are far superior because they are well thought out and collaborated on. Open resources are not always governed by workplace and institution politics in the sense of "this must be in it" so I think people are more inspired, creative and innovative.
2. I believe educational resources should be developed with an open authoring approach as it is collaborative and constructive. I believe it helps educators to learn even more about what it is they are developing resources for as well. I think all educational resources should be open for use in all other educational setting as both staff and students benefit from the learning and teaching of others. Education is about expanding the horizons and opportunities given to students and I believe open educational resources makes this possible.
3. I strongly believe that the collaborative development of wiki resources should involve a clear determination of roles within the wiki environment. Roles mean that everyone knows what they are to do and help produce. Individually, I think there should be a quality assurance checklist or similar to evaluate the value of the wiki resource and whether it is a quality education resource. Measrue it against what outcomes should be achieved for example.

--Kristina.hollis 03:21, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

--Janvier Nkurunziza 11:09, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I believe open authoring can turn teaching and learning upside down.For centuries, learning has been teacher-centered, though things are changing in some parts of the world. I also trust people learn better by teaching(the learning pyramid).

Authoring in wikis:

Research studies account for a lot of wiki potential. It fulfils the requirements for collaborative learning for different reasons: the shared goal like building the wiki itself and the text-based content that users develop. Its format lends itself to means of constructing ideas which participants want to share with each other in the form of a shared document that can be reviewed any time.

Karthik S. Acharya

1. In internet we can find plenty of educational resources, which were uploaded, created or narrated by a person or group of person having common interest. The article or the educational material will be concentrated only on the view of the narrator, it won’t satisfy a reader or an educator or a student who has a different view. Lack of perspective may cause the educational material incomplete. We can find no where a fully completed or a cosmopolitan educational material in a particular article. I believe, in the case of open authoring an educational material can get universal acceptance in some day at least for the then moment. Contribution of each one can refine the article, improve its quality. The only concern is, an edit without an Admin supervision can literally cause problems.

2. With a Supervision over the edit, open authoring approach will be the best for developing learning resources. An article overlooked many experts will be far better than an article narrated by an expert.

3. It is true that most of the educational contents in the wiki educator is far from its completion. If an article remains only with its heading for a period wiki educator Admin should take initiatives to narrate the article. Supervision over each and every edit is a must.--Kartiq 16:16, 9 June 2012 (UTC)