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COL is "Keeping Doors Open"...and the world is very thankful! |
| Wednesday, March 25, 2020 |
I got an email yesterday from my friend Sanjaya Mishra from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) with tons of wonderful vetted online resources across educational sectors.
It open with the following:
"With an increasing number of states, provinces and even whole countries
closing institutions of learning as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
over 80% of the world’s students are not attending school (UNESCO, 2020). COL stands ready to share its expertise and resources to enable stakeholders to keep the doors of learning open for all."
COL is exactly the type of organization that is geared up to help the world.
See COL’s statement on COVID-19. https://www.col.org/news/press-releases/keeping-doors-learning-open-covid-19
"With an increasing number of states, provinces and even whole countries
closing institutions of learning as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
363 million learners worldwide are being impacted (UNESCO, 2020)."
363 million learners! Look at the history:
"Since its establishment in 1987, COL has supported governments and
educational institutions in the Commonwealth to establish robust
distance teaching institutions and build competencies for quality online
learning practices. Over the years, it has created many resources,
including courses, policy briefs, how-to toolkits, as well as guidelines
on online learning and related areas that are downloadable for use by
policymakers, teachers and researchers around the globe."
And they further say:
"In these unprecedented times, ODL can support learning in the non-formal
and informal sectors, as well as the formal education sector. Below is a
curated list of resources for policymakers, school and college
administrators, teachers, parents and learners that will assist with
student learning during the closure of educational institutions. Most of
these are available as open educational resources with different
licenses. The specific license conditions for reuse and remix are
contained in the links."
I looked and I said WOW!
It has links to:
Take a look and you too can say WOW!
Thanks so much Sanjaya and COL! The COL specializes is OER resources evaluation, aggregation, and dissemination; especially for teacher training around the world. They are a world-class organization. A picture with Sanjaya Mishra (left side) and Santosh Panda (right) at the PCF9 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland in Septemer.
Labels: COL, Commonwealth of Learning, COVID-19, OER, open and distance learning, Open educational resources |
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Why not publish in the Journal of Learning for Development (JL4D)? Why not, indeed! |
| Saturday, April 08, 2017 |
Publishing open education in open journals has many advantages. For instance, people are less likely to call you a hypocrite...or so I hope.
Are you interested in the developing world or open education? MOOCs? Are you new in your career? Are you an oldtimer with much wisdom and knowledge? Are you just looking for a journal to publish in? Well, then, try the relatively new
journal called the Journal of Learning for Development (JL4D): http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d. This journal comes from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver. My fantabulous friend Sanjaya Mishra from COL is one of the lead people on it. Thanks Sanjaya (see his COL bio)!
My most excellent colleague, Mimi Lee from the University of Houston, and I have a mixed methods research article in the current issue if JL4D that came out last week. It is open access.
Bonk, C. J., & Lee, M. M. (2017). Motivations, achievements, and
challenges of self-directed informal learners in open educational
environments and MOOCs. Journal of Learning for Development, 4(1),
36-57. Retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/195/188.
The article stems from research on informal and self-directed learning that I conducted with participants to my MOOC with Blackboard several years ago. It is great to have this research published finally. I have informed my friends at Blackboard as well as my former TAs who helped with this project. They are all delighted.
You might want to explore the Table of Contents (TOC) for that entire issue (or here). Below is the title, abstract, and keywords from that article:
Motivations,
Achievements, and Challenges of Self-Directed Informal Learners in Open
Educational Environments and MOOCs
Abstract: This research
targeted the learning preferences, goals and motivations, achievements,
challenges, and possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners enrolled
in a massive open online course (MOOC) related to online teaching hosted by
Blackboard using CourseSites. Data collection included a 40-item survey of which 159 MOOC respondents
completed the close-ended survey items and 49 completed the 15 open-ended
survey items. Across the data, it is clear that self-directed online learners
are internally motivated and appreciate the freedom to learn and choice that
open educational resources provide. People were also motivated to learn
informally from personal curiosity and interest as well as professional growth
needs and goals for self-improvement. Identity as a learner was positively
impacted by informal online learning pursuits. Foreign language skills as well as global,
cultural, historical,
environmental, and health-related information were among the most desired by the
survey respondents. The main
obstacles to informal online learning were time, costs associated with
technology use, difficulty of use, and lack of quality. Qualitative results, embedded
in the findings, indicate that self-directed learners take great pleasure in
knowing that they do not have to rely on others for their learning needs.
Implications for instructional designers are offered.
Keywords: Open
educational resources, open education, informal learning, massive open online
courses (MOOCs), self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation.
"This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the
principle that making research freely available to the public supports a
greater global exchange of knowledge. By making all articles available
under a CC-BY-SA license, the Journal of Learning for Development allows its authors
to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the
non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the
work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a
book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this
journal. Readers can copy and distribute the published work in any
medium and format; remix, transform, and build upon the work as long as
the original author (s) and the Journal of Learning for Development are attributed, and the derivative is released under CC-BY-SA license."
"The Journal of Learning for Development provides a forum for the
publication of research with a focus on innovation in learning, in
particular but not exclusively open and distance learning, and its
contribution to development. Content includes interventions that change
social and/or economic relations, especially in terms of improving
equity.
JL4D publishes research articles, book reviews and reports
from the field from researchers, scholars and practitioners, and seeks
to engage a broad audience across that spectrum. It aims to encourage
contributors starting their careers, as well as to publish the work of
established and senior scholars from the Commonwealth and beyond."
You might give this journal a try. Please let me know if you do. And let me know what you think about the new publication from Mimi and I in the current issue of the JL4D. You might read this article. In it, you will see that lives are being changed by newly open online educational resources, courses, and other exciting initiatives.
Labels: Blackboard, COL, Informal Learning, intrinsic motivation, Journal of Learning for Development, MOOCs, OER, online learning, open education, Sanjaya MIshra, self-directed learning |
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