Notes on the draft Module 1
I would very much appreciate comments and suggestions for improvement.
- The activities are based on the grid developed in the Blueprint section of the prototype planning page for this course.
- The page will need to be broken down into individual pages. However for the moment it is easier to work on the entire document as a whole and it can be divided later. Also I need to learn more yet about the structure of the course on the wiki. I'm not sure how the links carry over when the content is moved around.
- I'm still working on inserting the photographs. Update:
Halfway there! DONE! Loading pix from Mediawiki works great.--Irwin DeVries 06:12, 3 May 2012 (UTC)
- It seems to me that the intent behind OERs is diminished if we try to completely overhaul the materials. With that in mind I've taken a minimalist approach to redesigning it for the OERu context. However, there were many assumptions around having access to a discussion board, along with frequent access to and marking by an instructor. This has had to be reworked.
- TI've restructured the activities basically from the perspective of the student without verbage as to the behind-the-scenes operation of the course. Because of the many unknowns regarding such things as the delivery platform, access to peers, availability of tutors, etc., the state of the FAQ, I've tried to leave the wording around such matters as neutral as possible so that different environments and tools can be provided with little if any adjustments. Also, because students may want to study individually or may do so by necessity, the course defaults to independent study but builds in an option for peer contacts.
- For learners who are not seeking credit but studying this course out of interest, there are "Extended" activities that encourage them to continue to explore and work beyond the boundaries of the course. However, these additional pieces may also be used for evaluation by crediting institutions. --Irwin DeVries 20:14, 29 April 2012 (UTC)
Thanks Irwin,
Very constructive questions -- thanks for posting and sharing these with the group.
- Agreed it will be necessary to break down the resources into sub-pages. This is why developing a draft table of contents is useful -- because it helps to take decisions on the structure of the wiki pages.
- External links will copy over to the final destination in the wiki without problems. However, internal wiki links are usually absolute, so you need to consider this when setting up the pages. It's advisable to have the course structure in the wiki sorted before assigning internal wiki links especially where these are dependent on the prefix of urls for sub-pages.
- You're doing a good job of the images so far. You've figured out that if the source image is available on the Wikimedia commons -- its easy to integrate in WikiEducator using the identical file name and this automatically inserts all the metadata.
- Uploading the materials with the intent for reuse in different contexts is smart -- so I like the minimalist approach. Neutral wording without referring to specific delivery technologies will enhance flexibility and use of the course by different OERu partners. There are a few tricks we can use (transclution) which will facilitate maintenance and reuse for different purposes. You will learn more about this as we progress.
- You will see that I've already edited your page by adding pedagogical templates for objectives and activities which improves the layout. This needs basic knowledge of wiki-text (rather than rich editing) - but easy to master and we have good tutorials. This would be a good topic to join one of Jim's regular office hours sessions. Feel free to contact us to give you a few pointers.
I anticipated these types of questions, and that was the intention of setting up a Style guide for OERu course development. In true open source tradition - -I prefer starting from a blank slate so we can build this collectively (of course, we're more than happy to share our experiences gained from WikiEducator course development :-)). Clearly we are now at the point where we can collectively start collaborating on the style guide.
There are a few suggestions for optimal placement of the wiki pages and how best to structure these. However. for the benefit of all prototype developments, I'll include these in the Style guide as we progress.
It is useful to develop wiki pages in a Sandbox area -- the convention in WikiEducator is to do this as a sub-page of your own Userpage before copying them over to the final destination page for the OERu courses. However, there are a few issues we should discuss on how best to deal with the copyright attributions within a wiki environment. I'll add these to the style pages.
Good post and excited to see the progress :-).
You have done a great job with the first Module Irwin and thanks for sharing your redevelopment process. We are still in the process of removing the New Zealand bi-cultural context of our management course and finding open access readings to replace the prescribed text. Hope next week to start converting the HTML into wiki markup with Wayne's and Jim's help.
One of our challenges is also finding a way to provide the learners with a discussion space for the course as most of the modules/ topics have problem solving activities that are integrated with discussions. Not sure if the wiki discussion page will be able to achieve that and if it is easy enough to use. Suggestions from more experienced wiki users are welcomed as I think it is preferable not to add another learning [platform / space like Moodle just to manage discussions.--Vasi Doncheva 22:07, 1 May 2012 (UTC)
