Workshop on Using Open Source Educational Technologies and Open Education Resources to support educational design.

Sue Dark
E-learning Office, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

Wayne Mackintosh

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     Last modified: October 25, 2006
     Presentation date: 11/01/2006 10:00 AM in ST Middlesex
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Abstract
Designing and integrating educational resources and learning activities supported by learning technologies can seems a daunting challenge both for educationalists who are used to the classroom and for those in traditional distance teaching and learning settings. How can educators include the dynamic inter-relationships and peer learning opportunities inherent in a face-to-face situation, and also enhance carefully designed distance learning resources to support effective and engaging learning activities? A further challenge in many educational settings is how educators share and utilise the wealth of educational resources available to them, to achieve sustainability and reduce the reliance on designing everything anew.

This workshop provides some insights into how open source educational technologies and open educational resources (OERs) can support these new challenges. Technology barriers are being lowered all the time through the innovative design of educator-friendly authoring tools, such as eXe. The cost barriers are being removed through the increase in excellent open source authoring tools and Learning Management Systems, e.g. Moodle and the growth of initiatives such as the COL Training Resources for Teacher Education (Wikieducator.org) project where OERs can be collaboratively developed, shared and re-used by educators globally.

During this workshop participants will work in groups to embark on four stages of exploration and learning:

1) Using a simple design template to think about designing for engaging online learning activities
2) Exploring the Wikieducator.org site to gain insights into how OERs can be worked on collaboratively by practitioners
3) Using the open source ‘off-line’ authoring tool called eXe to create extra educational resources
4) Using the open source Virtual Learning Environment called ‘Moodle’ to create an ‘e-learning’ course which integrates the ‘classroom dynamics’ of peers working together, with the advantages of providing quality distance learning content resources.

It is also planned that an online OER version of the workshop content is packaged as an IMS/SCORM object and placed on the Wikieducator.org site for re-use by educators after the conference.

Format:

Work in groups of 4-5

Equipment requirements:

5 laptops/PCs + presenter laptop/PC
Datashow projector
Internet connections to PCs/laptops
Content will be partially pre-prepared and pre-loaded onto equipment.

Notes: If internet connections are not available, this workshop could be shortened into a design workshop with use of the eXe authoring tool to create examples of Open Educational Resources. (mini workshop of 75 minutes)