Transcript Document

An Open Educational
Ecology
Dr. M. S. Vijay Kumar
Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing
MIT
TERENA 2004
Rhodes,, Greece
Wednesday June 9,2004
[email protected]
"ideas should freely
spread from one to
another over the globe”
Thomas Jefferson
Liberation Technology1
1John
Unsworth - Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 30, 2004
Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Elements of the Ecology
Open Content
Open Tools
Open Architecture
Open Standards
Open Systems
Open
Access
Bolstering the Commons of the Mind
Open Content

MIT
OpenCourseware
(OCW)
Open Architecture

Open Knowledge Initiative
(O.K.I)
Educational Technology Strategy
MIT OpenCourseWare
A New Model for Open Sharing
Open Content
http://ocw.mit.edu/
“OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive
in a market-driven world. It goes against
the grain of current material values. But it
really is consistent with what I believe is
the best about MIT. It is innovative. It
expresses our belief in the way education
can be advanced – by constantly widening
access to information and by inspiring
others to participate.”
– Charles M. Vest,
President of MIT
Sept. 2001
Vision to Reality
How Should MIT respond to the Opportunities of the
Internet?
• Fall 1999 — Faculty committee appointed
• Fall 2000 — “OpenCourseWare” concept recommended to MIT
President Charles M. Vest
• April 2001 — MIT OCW announced in The New York Times
• June 2001 — Funding partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• September 2002 — MIT OCW Pilot site opened to the public
50 courses from 23 academic disciplines
• September 2003 — MIT OCW officially launched:
500 courses from all five MIT schools and 33 academic disciplines
• April 2004 — 200 additional courses, bringing total to 701
What Is MIT OCW?
MIT OpenCourseWare IS NOT:
• An MIT education
• Intended to represent or replace the
interactive classroom environment
• A distance education initiative
MIT OpenCourseWare IS:
• A Web-based publication of virtually al
MIT course content
• Open and available to the world
• A permanent MIT activity
Dual Mission:
Open Content
• Provide free, searchable, coherent access to all
MIT course materials for educators, students, and
individual learners around the world
• Create an efficient, standards-based model that
other educational institutions may use to publish
their own course materials
Why Is MIT Doing This?
• Furthers MIT’s fundamental mission
• Embraces faculty values
• Teaching
• Sharing best practices with the greater community
• Contributing to their discipline
• Counters the privatization of knowledge and champions
the movement toward greater openness
Vision
Where We Are
701 Courses
Phase I
Pilot
Courses
Phase III
Steady State
Phase II
Expansion
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
50
500
900
1250
1550
1800
1800
Publication • Design pub process
• Implement technology
strategy
• Develop IP strategy
• Implement dept.
liaison program
Evaluation • Develop evaluation
strategy
• Conduct baseline
evaluation
Outreach • Partner with Universia
(translation affiliate)
•
•
•
•
Inventory content and improve quality
Enhance site features and functions
Add video materials
Plot new content capture tactics
Each year:
• Add new courses: ~100
• Revise existing: ~ 275
• Archive old:
~ 100
• Implement reporting strategy
• Conduct annual evaluations and focused studies
• Conduct annual
evaluations and studies
•
•
•
•
• Collaborate with
consortium members
Facilitate other opencoursewares
Partner with translation/distribution affiliates
Build awareness
Foster learning communities
Implementation: Publishing x00Courses
Site Highlights
4Syllabus
4Course Calendar
4Lecture Notes
4Assignments
4Exams
4Problem/Solution Sets
4Labs and Projects
4Simulations
4Tools and Tutorials
4Video Lectures
Implementation Depth and Breadth
Implementation:Technology
MIT Facilities
Publishing
Environment
Origin Server
Search, Feedback
Content Distribution Network (Akamai)
Thousands of servers around the world
deliver MIT OCW course materials
Impact
Impact: Access Data
Site Traffic Overview
Since
10/1/03*
December
January
February
March
20,604,427
2,680,794
3,311,611
2,884,061
3,025,412
Average Daily
Visits
*11,103
9,276
11,624
11,174
10,891
Average
Monthly Visits
*301,719
287,546
360,360
324,058
337,620
First-Time Visits
*174,407
172,536
196,710
174,961
187,348
Monthly Repeat
Visits
*127,312
115,010
163,650
149,097
150,272
Page Views
* Figures in italics are averages
What It Means
Traffic Volume by Geography
March 2004
Country
Hits
Country
Hits
1 India
954,167
11 Brazil
340,281
2 Canada
859,782
12 France
334,190
3 China
822,206
13 Spain
318,292
4 U.K.
672,339
14 Indonesia
251,495
5 South Korea
448,975
15 Australia
240,689
6 Japan
421,334
16 Turkey
239,972
7 Germany
402,965
17 Colombia
196,504
8 Vietnam
401,498
18 Singapore
185,495
9 Taiwan
392,701
19 Mexico
165,221
366,484
20 Greece
164,496
10 Italy
Impact: Access
• Self-learners are 52% of visitors
– Average of over 6000 daily visits
– Most likely from North America (60% of North American visitors)
• Students are 31% of visitors
– 3600 daily visits
• Educators are 13% of the visitors
– 1550 visits per day
– 55% of educators teach at 4-year colleges or the equivalent
– Almost 49% have less than 5 years teaching experience
• Almost 70% of users have a bachelors degree or higher
Impact: Use
Use Scenario
% of Use
Planning, developing or teaching a course
36%
Enhancing personal knowledge
22%
Planning curriculum
10%
Other
32%
Complementing a subject currently taking
43%
Enhancing personal knowledge
40%
Planning future course of study
10%
Other
7%
Enhancing personal knowledge
81%
Learning subject matter—course not available for study
9%
Planning future course of study
8%
Other
2%
5.7% response rate on
21,500 surveys
Impact: Emerging “opencoursewares”
• Other OCWs are beginning to
appear
• Some using MIT materials,
some using the format, some
using the idea
Impact: What Does It Mean?
• Continues to be tremendous excitement
• The vision is achievable
• The impact of MIT OCW will be significant
Open Standards
Open Knowledge Initiative
http://sourceforge.net/projects/okiproject
"an open and extensible architecture that specifies how
the components of an educational software environment
communicate with each other and with other enterprise
systems."
Motivation:
from Extensible LMS…
 Interoperable with campus infrastructures
and other educational software
 Flexible to meet a variety of Educational
Needs
 Scalable and Maintainable
to…
...Architecture for Sustainable Ecology
Open specifications that
 describe how the components of a learning technology
environment communicate with each other and with
other campus systems.
 clearly define points of interoperability to allow the
components of a complex learning environment to be
developed and updated independently of each other
leading to…
Architectural Specification Benefits
 Ability of learning technologies to be integrated
together into an educational infrastructure.
 Easier sharing of applications and content
among institutions that can be a catalyst for
cooperative and commercial development.
 Lower long term cost of software ownership, as
well as increased stability and reliability because
single components, rather than entire systems,
can be replaced or upgraded.
Infrastructure Goals
 Linkage and Coherence across initiatives
 Managing the Educational Content Lifecycle from
Acquisition to Archiving


Efficiency in Production and Use
Effectiveness for educational use
 Interoperable with Campus Infrastructures and
other Educational Software
 Flexible to meet a variety of Educational Needs
 Sustainability
Data Specifications – IMS/SCORM
Data
Enterprise
Application A
Enterprise
Application B
Enterprise Applications - Monolithic
Enterprise Applications - Factored
Ease of Application Portability and
Infrastructure Transition
O.K.I. is:
 Service based architecture specifications
 Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)
 Open source implementations
 Open source exemplar applications
 Educational Development Community
Funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CMI, MIT
Core OKI Deliverables
 16 Service Specifications/OSIDs

“Common Services”



Infrastructure systems critical to most enterprise applications
(AuthN; AuthZ……Logging, Messaging….Workflow)
“Educational Services”

(Course Management; Assessment; Digital Repositories, Grading)
 Reference Implementations

Direct value to ed apps
 Exemplar Applications
 Sustainability Strategies
OSID development funded by Mellon
Foundation
Common Services
“Educational Services”

















Authentication
Authorization
SQL
Logging
Filing
Dictionary
Hierarchy
Group
ID
User Messaging
Scheduling
Workflow
Course Management
Digital Repository
Assessment
Grading
…
Other Domain Services?
 …
http://sourceforge.net/projects/okiproject
O.K.I. Community
 Institutional Partners

MIT, Stanford University, Dartmouth College,
North Carolina State University, University of
Michigan, Indiana University, University of
Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
University of Cambridge
 IMS Global Learning Consortium Members
 Assorted Institutional Projects
Vendor Engagement
 IMS Global Learning Consortium






WebCT
Blackboard
Sun Microsystems
Giunti Interactive
Microsoft Corp
Learning Objects Network
OSID Based Projects
LMS Projects -- Stellar/MIT, Oncourse/Indiana,
Chef/UMichigan
VUE -- Tufts University
Navigo/SAM -- Stanford, Indiana
Lionshare - Penn State University
Segue/Harmoni - Middlebury College
Digital Library Systems -- Fedora, EduSource
(CA), DSpace, Celebrate (EU)
Open Systems
Sakai Core Project
July 04
Jan 04
May 05
Activity:
Maintenance &
Transition from a
project to
a community
Michigan
• CHEF Framework
• CourseTools
• WorkTools
Indiana
• Navigo Assessment
• Eden Workflow
• OneStart
• Oncourse
MIT
• Stellar
Stanford
• CourseWork
• Assessment
OKI
• OSIDs
Dec 05
"Best
of"
SAKAI 1.0 Release
• Tool Portability Profile
• Framework
• Services-based Portal
• Refined OSIDs
& implementations
SAKAI Tools
• Complete CMS
• Assessment
Refactoring
SAKAI 2.0 Release
• Tool Portability Profile
• Framework
• Services-based Portal
SAKAI Tools
• Complete CMS
• Assessment
• Workflow
• Research Tools
• Authoring Tools
Activity: Ongoing implementation work at local institution…
uPortal
Primary SAKAI Activity
Architecting for JSR-168 Portlets,
Refactoring “best of” features for tools
Conforming tools to Tool Portability Profile
Primary SAKAI Activity
Refining SAKAI Framework,
Tuning and conforming additional tools
Intensive community building/training
The O.K.I. Solution
 Focus on Service Based architecture specifications
(data/metadata specifications are “doing fine”)
 Identify software infrastructure services critical to
eLearning applications
 Define interfaces to them. Don’t define how to
implement them!
 Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)
Effort
Integration Effort as a Function of System
Complexity
Complexity
OSIDs…
 Provide Architectural Model for software interoperability
 Allow for easy mobility of application tools among
enterprise infrastructures
 Provide software developers with common, yet flexible,
specifications for collaboration
 Define boundaries between “user facing” applications and
critical services (“MiddleWare”)
 Help to “Future Proof” against changing technologies
 Enable “marketplace” of software components
 Are about Architecture, NOT Technology
Interoperabilty and Integration
 Multiple Repositories and Protocols
 Service Abstractions
Endgame 1
 Enable the movement and manipulation of
educational materials - Simply,
Meaningfully?
Portabilty
 Interoperability
 Reusability,

Endgame
“What is the problem to which headlamp washer-wipers are the
solution?”
Neil Postman. Educom Conference 1992
An ecology characterized by open, community or
Proprietary Source commodities that provide :



Value (heterogeneous)
Choice (for customer)
Sustainability
 Thank You
 Questions?
Vijay Kumar
Many Repositories…
Remote
IDC
Institutional
Local
IDC
iMac
I
BM
Many Repository Related Protocols…
Remote
IDC
SOAP
SRW
Institutional
Local
DRI
IDC
iMac
Z39.50
I
HTML
File
System
BM
Many Data Specs/Standards…
Mark
DC
Remote
IDC
METS
SOAP
SRW
Institutional
IMS CP
LOM
Local
DRI
IDC
iMac
Z39.50
I
HTML
File
System
BM
SCORM
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
Servers
Network
Service A1
App. 1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
OSID
Servers
Network
Service A1
App. 1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
App. 1
OSID
Implementations
Servers
Protocol A
Imp. A – Protocol
Connector (plus
Local Business
Logic)
Imp. B – Protocol
Connector
Network
Service A1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Protocol B
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
OSID
Implementations
Servers
Protocol A
Imp. A – Protocol
Connector (plus
Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Imp. B – Protocol
Connector
Network
Service A1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Imp. C - Local
Connector
Local Service C
Protocol B
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
OSID
Implementations
Servers
Protocol A
Imp. A – Protocol
Connector (plus
Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Data
Imp. B – Protocol
Connector
Network
Service A1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Imp. C - Local
Connector
Local Service C
Protocol B
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Sakai Architecture
JSR 168
Portlet API
OSIDs
App. 1
JSR169 Enabled Portal
App.
2
App. 3
App.
4
Endgame
“What is the problem to which headlamp washer-wipers are the
solution?”
Neil Postman. Educom Conference 1992
An ecology characterized byopen, community or proprietary
source
commmodities that provide :



Value (heterogeneous)
Choice (for customer)
Sustainability