Session 1 for Education E-107, Open Education Practice and Potential, Spring 2011 (Harvard University Extension) taught by M.S. Vijay Kumar and Brandon Muramatsu.

1. EDUC E-107
Spring 2011
Unless otherwise specified, Copyright 2011, Vijay Kumar and Brandon Muramatsu.
Unless otherwise specified this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United
States License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/).
Cite as: Kumar, V. & Muramatsu, B. (2011). Open Education” Practice and Potential.
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2.  Login to Elluminate!
 EDUC E-107 Elluminate Session
 https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?
sid=2007009&password=M.D9EF85A78C5461586E2B16D
3693E4E
 If you’re having problems with Elluminate,
email Brandon at mura@mit.edu
 Other technical problems?
 Call (617) 998-8571
Mondays through Fridays, 5 pm to midnight
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flickr/mag3737 cc-by-nc-sa

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5.  Open education builds upon the best traditions of
educational innovation and the open source
movement. It is a field that foresees remarkable
transformations in institutions and teaching and
learning at all levels. It examines the various
dimensions of open education from traditional to
contemporary. It explores the micro impacts
impacts at the course, curriculum, and program
levels as well as the macro impacts, those at the
university and national educational policy levels.
Finally, the course examines the remarkable
transformative potential of open education on
individuals and institutions.
Course Website: Education E-107
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77233
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6.  Explore, together, what Open Education is, and
what it could be…
◦ Through presentations, conversations, readings and
assignments
 By the end of the course…
◦ You should have a good understanding of how the
Open Education field has evolved and is evolving
◦ Implications for educational change
◦ And how you personally can participate in effecting
Open Education in your job, at your institution and in
your life.
 Have fun and enjoy the discussions!
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7. Brandon Muramatsu
mura@mit.edu
M.S. Vijay Kumar
vkumar@mit.edu
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9.  Chronicle of Higher Education
“Online learning enthusiasts could get a windfall of
federal money under a $2-billion grant program that the
Obama Administration described on Thursday. But how
big the windfall will be—if it comes at all—remains
unclear.
One thing is for sure: The four-year program, designed to
expand job training at community colleges, signals a
major endorsement of the movement to freely share
learning materials on the Internet.
…
And it demands open access to everything: “All online
and technology-enabled courses must permit free public
use and distribution, including the ability to re-use course
modules, via an online repository for learning materials
to be established by the federal government.”
Source: Parry, M. (2011, January 22). “$2-Billion Federal Program Could Be ‘Windfall’ for Open Online Learning.” Retrieved January 26,
2011 from The Chronicle of Higher Education website:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/2-billion-federal-program-could-be-windfall-for-open-online-learning/29167
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10.  Newsweek
“Washington’s Open Course Library is the
largest state-funded effort in the nation to make
core college course materials available on the
Web for $30 or less per class. Financed with
$750,000 from the state of Washington and a
matching grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the goal isn’t just to reduce student
costs, says program architect Cable Green. It’s
also to create engaging, interactive learning
materials that will help improve course
completion rates. By the time the project is
completed in 2012, digitized textbook
equivalents for some 81 high-enrollment classes
will be available online for the more than 400,000
students enrolled in Washington’s network of
community and technical colleges.”
Source: Hamilton, A. (2011, January 25). “Who Needs Textbooks? How Washington State is redesigning textbooks for the digital age.”
Retrieved January 26, 2011 from Newsweek website: http://education.newsweek.com/2011/01/25/who-needs-textbooks.print.html
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12.  Welcome
 Logistics
◦ Getting up and running with Elluminate
◦ Course expectations
◦ Getting to know each other and our interests
 Understanding open education in a
historical context
 Understanding the macro significance of
open education
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13.  Is everyone logged into Elluminate?
 Hopefully everyone has a microphone and
has configured it…
◦ If you can’t login, or don’t have a microphone,
email Brandon at mura@mit.edu
 <Obligatory shuffling as everyone gets
things to work>
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15.  We’ve designed the course seminar-style
◦ We want to have engaging discussions with the
class
◦ We value your input on the class and the
directions we take, we’ve invited guest speakers
but are flexible in the topics we cover
 We want this to be an enjoyable experience
◦ Be professional, but keep it light
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16.  Participation
◦ This course is based on a high degree of
participation, both from online and local students
◦ We appreciate it when you take the initiative to
lead discussions, pose questions, etc.
◦ Participate via Elluminate
 Student Elluminate monitor: Each session we’ll
have a student assigned to monitor the Elluminate
chat and help moderate the discussion
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17.  Class Sessions
◦ 2 hours in length
◦ Download and review slides
 Posted no later than 3pm Eastern on day of class
(except for the first week)
◦ Be ready to start at 5:30pm Eastern
 We’ll be logging in as early as 5pm Eastern
◦ Most classes will have…
 30 minutes of wrap-up discussions and assignment from
the previous week, and introduction to the current week
 60 minutes of presentation and questions and answers
with the speaker(s)
 30 minutes of continued discussions and going over the
assignment due the following week
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18.  Communications
◦ Please follow professional practices (netiquette)
◦ Email and the course website will be our primary
methods of communication
◦ We’ll try to respond to emails within 48 hours,
usually sooner
 Vijay Kumar, vkumar@mit.edu
 Brandon Muramatsu, mura@mit.edu
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19.  Readings
◦ We expect you to do the readings before each
class session
 Guest speakers
◦ We’ve asked a number of our colleagues to
serve as guest speakers
◦ Readings will help prepare you for the guest
speakers
◦ Please ask questions, our guest speakers are
experts and leaders in open education
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20.  Assignments
◦ Assignments will be due by midnight Eastern
Time on the Tuesday before class via the drop-
box on the course website’s Assignments page
◦ We’ll accept late assignments, follow the
instructions on the course website
◦ Please include your name and email address on
each assignment, and include your lastname in
the filename
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21.  Midterm and Final Projects
◦ Action plan for how you can implement Open
Education in your coursework, teaching and
outreach activities, or at your organization
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22.  Student profiles
◦ If you’re comfortable sharing, please upload a
photo to your profile
◦ Instructions to update your profile are at:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?
keyword=course_isites_help&pageid=icb.page147823
 Sharing student work
◦ Discussion of sharing your work with your
classmates
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23.  Offline discussion
◦ What are your thoughts?
◦ Forum?
◦ Blog post and comments?
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24.  25% Class Participation
 25% Assignments
 20% Midterm Project
 30% Final Project
◦ No final exam, but a final project presentation
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27.  Introduce yourselves
◦ What’s your background?
◦ What do you hope to get from the class? Is there
something you are specifically interested in?
◦ What’s one thing interesting thing about yourself
to help us get to know you better?
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28.  “I’d also like to know what people mean
when they talk about the open education
“movement.” Is it really an idea that is
taking hold in many higher learning
institutions and is here to stay? Or is it an
idea that seems promising now, but will end
up going nowhere? What institutions
besides universities are offering open
education? Who is their target audience?”
◦ Guest speakers from K-12, higher education
and international perspectives
Source: E107 Students. (2011). Assignment 0 Responses.
Open Education Practice and Potential. Spring 2011. 28

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30.  Open Education is not new
◦ Primarily access to education opportunity
◦ “University without walls”, “Universities without
borders”
◦ Not just formal education at traditional colleges
and universities
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31.  Discussion
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32.  Largely influenced by open source software
movement and its implications for not just
education opportunity…but also quality
 Implications for profound change about how
we think about education
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33.  Discussion
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34.  “Open” is now central to discourse of
educational change…
◦ NGLC, and U.S. vocational education
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36.  What are the key concepts or learnings from
the readings?
◦ (I.e., how did this literature help with the
understanding what Open Education is/ What its
value is/could be.?)
 Is there anything you vehemently agree or
disagree with?
 Provide an example from your vantage point
and experience that supports your assertions.
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