New Comments : OU IdeaScale

Comment by k.mills

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 PDT

How about at least making course materials available to Alumni through Open Learn. If they retained their OUCU or OU Open ID wouldn't this be a good way to ensure they still have access to online course materials after their course has finished? Many students complain about the lack off access at the end of the course, especially given that if they had done an offline/blended course they'd have books to keep.

Comment by g.peters

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Anytime starts does seem to divide the distance learning community. I have colleagues in Canada who won't hear of anything else.
For my money an approach which allows students to start doing something as soon as they wish and gets going properly as soon as there is a cohort has the best of most worlds.

Comment by
Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT
Teach online to compete, British universities told

Anthea Lipsett
Tuesday May 13, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

"Universities should make their course materials freely available online, according to a paper for the latest edition of ppr, the publication of influential thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2279637,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull

The paper in question is this one: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcz4t3dt_83cx9hq3c7 "Open Source and the Benefits of Education" by Leo Max Pollak

Comment by j.h.bretts

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I think making all materials available as open content would be a step too far - but certainly all level 1 and 2. My caveat would be that the website should be made more user friendly - some aspectrs of it are rather clunkly.

Comment by Patrick McAndrew

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Well I am biased working on OpenLearn but i do think choosing to release materials wholesale would open up opportunities and new ways to work with people. I agree that we would need to improve publishing and delivery through OpenLearn but as a position to take it could be liberating and could generate income through offering alternative ways to become an OU member as well as lead to drawing people into learning in more formal ways.

Comment by j.darch

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

All three, but most importantly, students should not be forced to use a particular operating system, in my opinion, unless using some specialist software only available for Windows, for example. Most courses seem to only require a browser and office suite, of which there are many good free versions.

Comment by Tony Hirst

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I know several people who recruit students onto OU courses under the YASS scheme, and my experience is that a certain proportion of those students actually study e.g. short courses "full time" over a short period, rather than over the 10 weeks the courses nominally run for.

As for peer support - this can take different forms: 1) active conversations with other students; 2) tracking other students conversations as a lurker; 3) using course conferences/forums as a searchable FAQ database,

For students who prefer mode 3 in the list above, then access to archived conferences could be valuable?

Comment by Tony Hirst

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Do you mean for staff on site, staff at home, or students?

Comment by l.j.beaman

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Interesting and slightly ironic that people are concerned that the only people responding would be "web savvy" and into the online experience when we are continually moving in that direction and becoming ever-increasingly online with course delivery. ELQ is making faculties and course teams think very hard about what they offer almost so that a course is no different than any other commercial product - I have heard people say that certain low popularity or niche courses available or in the works will be cut in favour of more popular (and likely bland and generic) courses with popular titles to increase subscription.

So I think it could be a valuable tool to see what a certin type of person is interested in but, like any one tool, would not be wholly representative.

Comment by l.j.beaman

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

A nice idea but perhaps too idealistic. I'd love to see it happen but I'd love them to expand the service first to take in Central MK and start earlier. They're really missing a trick there.

You think organisers that omit the centre and therefore omit any semblence of profit would invest in a green bus?

They could totally pack that coach on a couple of services in the morning and late afternoon and get steady trade throughout the rest of the day which could help generate funds for a green bus. Another oversight is that there is a separate minibus that drives between main campus and east campus throughout the day (i see the point for post and moving equipment and for disabled people etc but anyone else and I call that being lazy).

Why don't they integrate the two? Bus starts at station, goes via CMK to main campus, over to east campus and back and then back down through CMK to the station. Everybody covered with one service instead of two. ELQ has prompted tightening of purse strings which I feel was very much overdue. We are a very wasteful organisation despite our best intentions.

I do my bit for the environment by living in the centre and not owning a car. I can therefore walk everywhere to do my shopping, get entertainment and leisure etc. I sometimes cycle but generally take a bus to work, with a lot of other people, and take a sporadic train and plane journey.

I think a genuinely good bus service would be fantastic, all the better if it was green (we'd do so much for the environment without a green bus if there was a better regular service).

Comment by l.j.beaman

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Has no-one heard of VMware Fusion and other similar apps? You can emulate a windows environment on a Mac so I don't see why that isn't the solution. I don't think you can expect every bit of pc software to also be created compatible for Mac. Macs account for a relativley small amount of the market and get a lot of software later than PC apart from software from giants such as Adobe so they should be used to it.

Surely the OU could get a very good price on VMWare Fusion and OEM copies of XP due to economies of scale. A copy could be sent to anyone with a Mac and never would any Mac users moan again (well, don't bet on it).

I don't really rate Macs for an everyday machine, not finding them as flexible as a PC or with anywhere near as much 3rd party software. For a professional environment they are fine as they are robust and offer arguably better stability than a pc due to their carefully selected components, meaning there is typically less to go wrong. But then you pay a premium for that...

Comment by a.l.mcdermott

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Defnitely a good idea - would really help get people talking about ways to cut costs and improve our surroundings. I definitely agree with the watercooler idea too - don't SRS have 'coolers' built into the wall which are actually only connected to a drinking water supply from the mains? I think they have one of these in Berril cafe as well - the water quality is not noticeably different and it would save us thousands per year - though I'm sure we are probably tied into some long contract with PowWow!
:-)

Comment by Laura Dewis

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

But then where would the water cooler conversations take place? In Ideascale I guess! I think using it to reduce unnecessary spend is a great idea. I'd also like to see that when savings are made, some of that money goes towards supporting good ideas to improve our working lives. When things get tougher financially for an institution, its important to maintain morale.

Comment by m.hauck

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Considering myself one of the stakeholders I'd say that the questions are straight to the point, but maybe slighlty leading into one direction ;-) It is definiutely a good start though. We might want to drill down a bit deeper with regard to what we ask, if this takes off. But I am sure you already have a whole lot off additional issues we should be considering ready to be "powerleagued"!

Comment by Tita Beaven

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

At the moment OpenLearn is not very good with the highly interactive materials that we produce for some courses, such as language courses (and I suspect things like maths too). It is not a platform that does justice to the quality of some of our materials, so even for "marketing" it is not necessarily a great tool...

Comment by Peter Twining

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

If we are serious about OpenLearn then this would be the logical thing to do - at the moment there is a danger that folk think what we are really doing is using OpenLearn as a marketting device. Of course if we were providing electronic versions of all our course content on OpenLearn that would not prevent us from selling 'hard copies', support, access to focussed expertly moderated discussions, assessment, consultancy services, etc.. So maybe the best advert for our courses would be to provide all the content electronically for free ...

Comment by Alex Little

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

perhaps not offer completely flexible dates, but we should certainly offer more than just once-a-year start dates for as many courses as possible.
An alternative (as I *think* the OU Netherlands operates) is to start a course once 'enough' people have registered. So you could say that a course will have a guaranteed start within (e.g.) 3 months, but if (e.g.) 200 people register before then it will start straight away, then another 3 month registration period opens. Maybe not an ideal solution (and might not suit all courses, especially course with very low student numbers), but at least it offers more flexibility for students. It keeps the possibilities open for collaborative work and not as much work for E+A as totally flexible start dates. Might (possibly) help to spread the workload for ALs and E+A?
This alternative would've certainly suited me in the past where I've wanted to study a course, but found it doesn't start for another 7-8-9 months!
Alex

Comment by Ros Bell

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I do like the idea of the OU getting feedback on its courses (current or proposed courses), and ideascale looks like a possible medium for doing that. But I have reservations about using it as a voting mechanism for the web-savvy to vote in the courses that sound most attractive to them.
Ros

Comment by Nigel G

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I agree with Laura - using this technology means that course design would be skewed towards a market who favour this kind of technology. Nothing wring with that as such except there is still a big lump of folk - probably in our WP constituency - who don't play on the web (yet!)

Comment by keith williams

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

The OU does offer its CPD courses on a start anytime basis, they are shortish in duration ( 30 learning hours) and intended to be quick updates or skills/knowledge gap filling that might be identified in say a CDSA type review.
It's nice to think that it's the interaction with others through tutorials etc that keeps students going through our conventional courses but maybe its the assessment timetable that is the big motivational driver,
Would be interesting to try anytime start but with timetabled assessment. Sign up, select the time you want to complete in say 3 months, six months whatever and the system then contructs your personalised deadline schedule holds you to with enforced cut off dates etc
I suppose the system could also match you up with other recent starters as study buddies if the social contact were important to you

Moodle can't do it, I've asked.

Problem with all these is the who dunnit factor for E+A with flexible start and finish dates would we need an corresponding infinity of exams?

Keith

Comment by Liam Green-Hughes

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I don't agree that Mac owners should get priority over Linux users. If we go that direction it will just make it harder to support Linux in the future as we will be increasing problems by concerning ourselves with two lots of proprietary software rather than taking an approach early of concentrating on platform neutral approaches. As for first class we should stop distributing the client as it has a web front end now that will cover the basic functionality. Firstclass isn't great anyway (I have suffered it as a user) so best to find a new approach.

Comment by Rebecca Ferguson

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

If everyone starts at different times they lose the possibility of interacting and building understanding together - whether via Moodle, FirstClass, email or wikis.

Comment by Ches Lincoln

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I do see the point about Linux support but that's more for the future - its a growing, rather than pre-existing market. We have an estimated 10-15% Mac owners NOW so if effort has to be rationed then I would suggest they have to have priority. I do agree that the ideal is to have software that works across all three platforms - like FirstClass does for us now - but it does have to work equally well across platforms and not be dependent on other software. There's no point, for instance, having something that works within a browser but only certain makes and flavours of browser.

Comment by jinky32

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Hi Steph, great idea. i might drop alison a line :) good to see you here too. please pass the link around and get people involved.

p.s. jinky32 = stuart brown

Comment by Liam Green-Hughes

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

I agree with Andrew B., Linux is the future with a whole new class of affordable computers being powered by it. Instead it would be better to use software that works across multiple platforms.

Comment by Tony Hirst

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Would it be possible to set up different course category areas loosely related to programme/degree areas, that could be used to identify new course ideas in programme areas? Not sure how you'd then support ideas for new programme areas, rather than courses, though?

Comment by Richard Sweet

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Nice idea in a perfect world, but the OU makes money out of selling materials and is going to need all the income it can get from alternative sources. OU materials are pretty common in other universities' libraries - would they still be there if available online?

Comment by Laura Dewis

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

It should in the future when it is easier (and probably more useful) to do so because of the way the materials are designed and cleared. But if they all go up the delivery mechanism to the user has to be simplified. The university also has to monetize the non-copyable/ non digital aspects of its work more effectively through making this knowledge freely available to the masses.

Comment by jinky32

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

@Martin - good point. perhaps separating out potential courses would be best. you could then ask psychology students to vote only on potential psychology courses etc. There then might be a general area where you can vote on general courses that you might find interesting that do not relate to your current studies.

@Laura - yeah, good point too. Any votes would just be indicative of support, but i take you're point that they would just be indicative of what web-savvy users think. however surely this is the case with any type of feedback? If we ask students to participate in feedback via sesame we're just hearing from those who bother to read sesame, if we ask people to fill in a q/airre we're just hearing from people who feel happy sharing their opinions in this way. something like this would just form a small part of the overall picture

Comment by Laura Dewis

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Hmmm... don't know how to vote on this. I need an on the fence option for my comment type. Won't we only be able to see the courses that the web savvy like? It would be good to see there was definite interest in a course but you wouldn't be able to say that those that got buried don't have a market. You might just have to accept some courses attract luddite students. Also you'd want to collect data on where these users came from - continuing students, new students, international visitors. I do like the idea of a Dragons Den for academics though... ;)

Comment by Martin Le Voi

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

OK, a possible problem.

Psychology courses are massively popular. A single set of voting on all courses *might* mean they are dominated by psychology courses at the top. Does this mean other courses should/would not be pursued?

Martin

Comment by Andrew B

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Yes, but perhaps support for machines running linux should be prioritised given the availability of cheap laptops running the linux operating system.

Comment by jinky32

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

There are details of the study on the Knowledge network http://kn.open.ac.uk/workspace.cfm?wpid=8516