OER Quality Standards
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, October 16, 2012.

If we agree that the only measure of quality of an open educational resource (OER) is "Degree to which the OER facilitates student learning" the David Wiley's table makes sense. Otherwise, we might want to reconsider. For example, an OER might facilitate learning - but of information that is known to be false (or worse: propaganda). That is not "better". Moreover, the degree to which it is true, measured via a standard of precision, is also important. The relevance of the truth also matters. That is why such criteria as 'author qualifications' are used to evaluate OERs. Though I would agree, Wiley's straw man example - "an OER written by a top author that is 700 pages long and chock full or gorgeous artwork, simulations, and video?" - would certainly be a bad one. I have nothing against quality. But I don't think it is simply defined via a single metric.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, Video, Simulations, Marketing, Quality, Online Learning]

Texas MOOCs for Credit?
Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, October 16, 2012.

A MOOC for credit? This article breathlessly looks at the possibility that the University of Texas System might parlay its EdX membership into for-credit courses. The author is apparently unaware that MOOCs have been offered for-credit since the very beginning - the very first MOOC, CCK08 had a number of for-credit students, as have all CCK MOOCs since. The ds106 courses have also had students enrolled for credit.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Membership]

Textbook Publisher Pearson Takes Down 1.5 Million Teacher And Student Blogs With A Single DMCA Notice
Tim Cushing, TechDirt, October 15, 2012.

Pearson has been making itself look like a friend to education in recent days, announcing (as described by Audrey Watters) its learning management system, OpenClass, is "free," "open to everyone," and more. "No licensing costs, no costs for maintenance, and no costs for hosting. So this is a freer offer than Moodle is." Ah, but then there's the stick at the other end of the carrot. A report surfaces Monday that James Farmer's eduBlogs servers - and 1.4 million blogs - were taken down as a result of a Pearson DMCA complaint. How serious was the complaint? As Farmer summarizes: "one of our teachers, in 2007, had shared a copy of Beck’s Hopelessness Scale with his class, a 20 question list, totalling some 279 words, published in 1974, that Pearson would like you to pay $120 for." Really, Pearson? Anyhow, it's still in Google cache (I saved a copy to my desktop, because I like to be a rebel, to live on the edge, you know). So, now I think I know why Pearson wants to offer free hosting to educators: so they can take it away. It all makes so much sense. I'd cry in my beer, but they'd probably file a takedown notice on the tears.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Web Logs, Patents, Google, Copyrights, Wikipedia]