Digital Portfolio

Part 1: Evidence and Reflection on My Learning

Outcome 2

One of the course learning outcomes is to be able to explore and engage with current literature on the distributed and open education movement.

Through the course, I completed the readings by Major (2015) and Jordan and Weller (2017) on the history and context of distributed and open learning. After reading the two articles, I have completed a blog post (Topic 2 Blog Post) to reflect on the two readings. I realized that even though open education has started before the 70s, it has manifested in many different forms today.

Source: Jordan & Weller, 2017

This timeline clearly delineates the various movements within the context of distributed and open learning with different methods towards pedagogy.

In my Topic 2 Blog Post, I mentioned that one of the benefits of MOOC, a type of open learning as follows:

However, with open enrollment with the development of MOOCs, it is possible for students like myself to develop their interests in a field without having to worry about credits (Major, 2015). After the initial failure of not being able to register for computer science courses at UVic, I turned to Codecamedy instead. I feel that by making education more democratic, MOOCs allow more “openness, diversity, autonomy, and connectivity” (Major, 2015, p. 80). (Topic 2 Blog Post)

I stemmed from my own experience when talking about such benefits. My own experience has also been utilized in designing the persona for my pod’s Digital Equity & Perspective Project, in which I talked about Lu, who is an economics major wanting to pursue a career in the field of computer science.

Lu’s current goal is to graduate with a reasonable academic score. He also wishes to gain enough professional skills in programming for him to secure a job in game design and coding as soon as he graduates. It is impossible for him to change his major at this point since he is graduating soon. Therefore, he would like to find alternative ways of obtaining certifications for his programming skills and use those certificates for finding a job. At the same time, he wishes to improve his English skills without having to take additional ESL courses at UVic, which will eat into his credits and make it difficult for him to graduate in time without having to overload every semester. (Pod 3 Persona)

It would be quite impossible for everyone to be able to discover his or her own passion even before applying for college. Sometimes, people like me and Lu would need to go through a process of discovery and experimentation, which may be too expensive considering the tuition fee we have to pay for college. Therefore, open learning becomes a very useful tool.

At the same time, Lu also needs to combat the problem of being stranded in China due to COVID-19. This is when distributed learning, where the learning process is decentralized and made more accessible across distance, can be really helpful.

By completing the blog post and the pod project, I have been able to better explore the potentials of distributed and open learning through engaging with current literature. I was also able to draw from my own experience in finding out the scenarios in which such learning methods would be helpful for personal development.

The things I have learned matter to me because it is important to connect one’s own experience with current literature to understand the different variations of distributed and open learning to find the most suitable approach for oneself.

Outcome 3:

I have been able to critically reflect on and articulate concepts around modality, pedagogy, and access, including distributed and open learning theory, online and open learning history, privacy laws, online learning communities, open research, and open data.

Other than realizing the benefits of distributed and open learning, I have also been able to realize challenges it faces currently through the reading by Mays (2017).

We have many open textbook websites as well as articles for open access. However, it is not enough. The UN states that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all,” (as cited in Mays, 2017) but the truth is that even with writing a research paper there is so much discrimination against students who do not rely on academic/peer-reviewed articles only accessible through their schools. Many instructors also do not rely on open textbooks that are free and may be equally credible when selecting textbooks for their classes, despite the schools pushing for more open pedagogy. (Topic 3 Blog Post)

What I am addressing here is that even though we understand the benefits of distributed and open learning, distributed learning has only been widely used by all students during the pandemic, and open learning with the use of OERs still remains largely unacceptable in mainstream pedagogy. For a learner who lacks the exclusive resources available to prestigious institutions, he or she can only rely on free and openly accessible learning resources available online. However, society and the more elitist academia may still have a prejudice against such methods. We have a long way to go.

I also read about the idea of renewable assignments as a way to create a more sustainable educational experience.

Wiley and Hilton (2018) state that there are 5Rs to OER, retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. (Topic 4 Blog Post)

I looked at the example of my friend who is a film major and how she ensures that all her assignments across different classes have continuity and can be used as open learning examples for other filmmakers. She would post every video she has made on YouTube and Vimeo for access. However, I also feel that most of the assignment designs now do not truly facilitate renewable assignments.

But at the same time, I believe that there are other concerns about this utopian-like future we all look forward to. For example, my pod mate Alex has contended in his post that:

His two concerns are valid because even though some students’ work can be used as examples, not all students produce work of the same quality. Also, some courses that are less creative may require the understanding of concepts, rather than the challenging of existing facts. However, I still feel that the renewable assignments are not meant for students to design teaching materials, especially when they are not truly taking a course in teaching. These renewable assignments can be as simple as reflections on learning and learning methods. For example, we can have a physics class where the professor asks students to find an analogy for explaining certain concepts. Such analogies can be incorporated into future teaching to assist students in better understanding the given concepts.

From completing these activities and reflecting critically, I learned that there have been many methods around open pedagogy, but none of the methods can be considered perfect. However, it is through experimentation and through adhering strictly to privacy laws that we can innovate.

The things I learned matter to me because I hope to see a future where institutions and society as a whole do not discriminate against people from an open learning background. It is about meritocracy and the democracy of education, rather than letting the resources remain in the hands of the elitist few.

Outcome 5:

I have been able to conduct research into and critically reflect upon emerging and future educational technologies

When reflecting on the privacy issues pertaining to open pedagogy, I also contended that:

Big data allows for personalized content to be shared with students. But most importantly, for the big data algorithms to work, students would need to share their information, which can be potentially misused, in return. I feel that while we consider the benefits of technology, we should also consider if technology should be optimized to minimize concerns about such ethical issues. I even noticed how when I click on the link of the article, the website asks me to accept cookies before accessing the article. Most people may not realize that this is a form of private information collection. I can potentially customize what kind of cookies I want to accept, but most people are not tech-savvy to understand the implications. Therefore, I feel that we still have a long way to go in terms of cyber-security. It is not just a simple posting a question of “yes” or “no,” but teaching people the importance of understanding it and also reading the privacy agreements. (Topic 1 Blog Post)

This means that we are so used to the online learning environment that we sometimes forget about certain strengths of traditional, offline, and interpersonal modes of education. This means that we will need more data and information security in the future when education is increasingly altered by the online environment. We may need to borrow concepts from other existing technologies, such as Blockchain, which has been proven to govern information and privacy security during its application in the cryptocurrency industry. According to an article on Getting Smart (2020), blockchains, or distributed ledgers, will increase the accuracy and data privacy of academic records and certifications. It can also lower the costs of distribution of educational resources in the future.

From completing these activities and reflecting on these concepts, I learned that instead of being deterred by technology, it is more important to solve issues arising from technology using even newer and better technology. It is important to be a problem-solving rather than a problem-identifier or even a simple skeptic to allow for progress in the field.

The things I learned matter to me because I intend to go into the field of education in the future. I would love to be able to reassure my learners and their parents that technology is not fearsome, but can have great potential.

Part 2: “Showcase” Blog Post

The Updated version of Topic 3 Blog Post

The Original version of Topic 3 Blog Post

I have added three sections to my post to reflect the comments I have received from my pod members.

Addition 1:

I added the comparison of the prices of the paperback version and the electronic version of the same Marketing textbook most institutions use in their intro-level marketing courses. Such courses may have over one hundred students enrolled per school per course.

This is in response to the comment I have received from Valerie. She mentioned that the printing cost may have resulted in the impossibility of lowering book prices.

I used the example of the same book to show that even without printing costs, the prices are not changed significantly. Both the lifetime e-book and the paperback books have the same selling price. I think it may be due to the fact that there are no credited alternatives to these textbooks. They may have obtained a somewhat monopolistic position, which means that they have the freedom to price however they want. From an economic point of view, I argue that

the writing and editing of a textbook are more like a one-time fixed costs. (Updated Topic 3 Blog Post)

If we take out the variable cost of printing, the electronic versions should have been way cheaper. However, this is not the case we see today. Therefore, I proposed that we should have the institutions pay for the electronic licensing of the books so that the books can be made freely available to students who have enrolled in the class via an access code.

Addition 2:

My second edition is made in response to Ziyu’s comment about the trouble of going to libraries all the time when writing an academic essay.

I completely share her sentiments, which is why I have proposed that maybe we should have open libraries for academic and peer-reviewed essays as well so that even students not registered with a university can use these materials for their learning. Having open textbooks is just one approach to open pedagogy. We need to ensure that the entire infrastructure, from libraries to the world of academia, supports open pedagogy.

Addition 3:

I inserted a new section on rental textbooks in response to Alex’s comment.

Even though I agree that rental textbooks may be a solution, I feel that the current prices of rental textbooks do not incentivize students to rent instead of purchase. Electronic rental textbooks are entirely recyclable and reusable. They also make it much easier and cost-efficient to roll out new editions because the publishers can simply edit upon the original version. There is also no overproduction resulting in wastage of paper and the need to increase prices to cover such potential wastage. At the same time, there is no real quota in terms of how many people can rent. The supply should have been unlimited. According to economics theories, if supplies are unlimited, the price should be close to zero. However, for the same marketing textbook, the rental price is only 25% cheaper than purchasing and owning the book for a lifetime. There is also the other problem of being disposable. When you rent a textbook, you only use it for the duration of the class. Once the class is over, you will return the book. No one would think of renting it again. I don’t think this is an economical way of learning at all.

 

Updated Version of Topic 3 Blog Post

Firstly, I would like to talk about the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and the challenges it faces today. Many of my classmates may remember how difficult it is to write a research paper for class when the instructor requires that the readings used in the research paper need to be academic and/or peer-reviewed to be credible. And surprisingly, most academic and/or peer-reviewed articles are only available through the universities’ libraries. To access the universities’ libraries, especially the ones of prestigious universities, we have to be registered students there. See the obstacle here? Therefore, I believe that it is time not only for us to have more OERs, but also for schools to recognize these OERs as valid research materials a student can use in his or her research paper. Currently, we do not lack such OERs. We have many open textbook websites as well as articles for open access. However, it is not enough. The UN states that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all,” (as cited in Mays, 2017) but the truth is that even with writing a research paper there is so much discrimination against students who do not rely on academic/peer-reviewed articles only accessible through their schools. Many instructors also do not rely on open textbooks that are free and may be equally credible when selecting textbooks for their classes, despite the schools pushing for more open pedagogy.

My pod mate Valerie contends that she would not enroll in a class if the class requires a textbook over 100 dollars. However, most classes I have attended seldom have textbooks under 100 dollars. I have a friend who is financially challenged. He would never buy a single textbook. Instead, he would borrow the textbooks from the school library. However, most libraries only have a couple of textbooks on reserve, and many of the textbooks cannot be checked out. He then spent a lot of time in the school library learning the textbooks. His plan had to stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced school libraries to be closed. He wanted to recycle textbooks from his friends who have taken the classes before him, but some textbooks have new editions every year. Such problems can be mitigated by the availability of more OERs, but we also need support from the relevant institutions in allowing students to use them in lieu of the regular, paid textbooks.

However, Valerie also mentioned in her comments that we may need to consider the cost of printing books. This may also be why almost all of the free and open textbooks only exist as online versions. Book printing can be a high cost for publishing. However, what is most surprising is that the electronic versions of these textbooks are not too much cheaper than the physical paper versions. 

Take the following Introduction to Marketing textbook used by many intro-level marketing courses in Canada as an example. The electronic lifetime version costs $79.99 USD, as can be seen from the screenshot below:

The same paper version textbook costs $90.99 CAD after discount, which is almost the same as the electronic version if we consider the current exchange rate. 

This means that even with the saving on printing costs, electronic books are not necessarily much cheaper. What I would like to propose is some kind of license to the universities that use these books in teaching and allow for students to download these books for free if for private learning and academic purposes. From an economics point of view, the writing and editing of a textbook are more like a one-time fixed cost.s When we take out the variable cost of printing, we only need to make sure that the licensing fees from the universities can cover the fixed costs and allow the publishers to make a profit. Even better is to have the publishers owned by the state to ensure that there is no real need to profiteer from the distribution of educational materials. I know that when I was in China, all of my textbooks from elementary school to high school were given to me for free by the schools. The entire country uses the same set of textbooks, which means that education is uniform across the country. This also makes education affordable for everyone regardless of their financial situation. 

This same sentiment is shared by my other pod mate Ziyu, who also feels that institutions should evaluate their policies to support open-access education. As Gilliard and Culik (2016) mentioned, it is important for institutions to not create walls and internalize discrimination when it comes to education.

Ziyu also stated in her comment that it would be troublesome to always go to the library for access to academic materials. I feel that it would be helpful to have an open library of academic and peer-reviewed articles for people who may not be affiliated with any university. It may also be helpful that all university libraries are connected and made accessible to the public electronically. This way, the school can protect the physical space and reserve it for its own students, but open access to all its online materials to benefit people in the community. 

My teammate Alex also mentioned another form of discrimination in the workplace when a job seeker does not have certifications from a school. Therefore, even though we all look forward to the bright future of open pedagogy, we still need to change the perspectives of society as a whole. It is not enough to just make education alone open and free. We need the entire infrastructure in support of such openness. Would it be possible that one day, jobs credit job seekers on their skills through a skill test rather than looking at their GPAs and degrees written on their resumes?

Alex also mentioned in his response that rental textbooks may be a great idea. However, when thinking about the reading on renewable assignments by Wiley & Hilton (2018), I feel that rental textbooks may not be so great an idea. The reading talks about how assignments are disposable because people do them and forget about them. It would be the same with rental textbooks. No one will go back to them after the rental period expires. However, it would be close to impossible to cover an entire book (usually a few hundred pages) of learning materials in the short term of one semester. I remember still going back to my first-year textbooks for knowledge about art. If I had rented the textbook instead, I would not be able to refer anymore. Also, if you look at the price of the rental version, it is only $20 USD cheaper than the lifetime version. People are not incentivized enough to purchase the rental version of the textbook. 

 

References

Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016). Digital redlining, access, and privacy. Common Sense Education.

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

Topic 4 Blog Post

In this week’s reading, I am most interested in the idea of renewable assignments. I also start to think about what these entail in the context of my own learning. I have a friend who studies film at Ryerson. She says to me that sometimes the instructors would ask her to create a video on a topic. Instead of only adhering to the rubrics of the assignment and complete the task haphazardly, she would always put these projects in the bigger context of her career for longevity and expandability. For example, she would make sure that all her projects show a trajectory of progress and growth while ensuring that they all come together to form a cohesive portfolio. She would public these videos on open platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube so that other people may also refer to them. I feel that what she has attempted to do is to create a somewhat renewable assignment. The only thing that is lacking is whether her works are openly licensed. It would be difficult for that to happen because of the concept of authorship pertaining to filmmaking. However, I believe that by simply revising the assignment a little bit to allow her to reflect on her learning and methodology, instead of only looking at the resulting project, her assignments can contribute to the larger field of OER as an openly licensed artifact.

Wiley and Hilton (2018) state that there are 5Rs to OER, retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. My friend’s works, other than being shown as great examples from past years by instructors who are willing to show past-year examples, never have a chance of redistribution. There was also no remix, where she could create a video explaining her process in the context of best practices delineated in textbooks or lectures. I feel that this is an example of wasting millions of hours. Imagine other students who have also created videos themselves without keeping in mind the connectivity among the videos. They would not even be able to reuse these contents for their own job search as part of their portfolios. I think by engaging students in the creation of OERs, there is a possibility for the learning materials to grown exponentially, significantly benefiting future students in the same field.

Other than my EDCI classes, I have never engaged in any class that has this OER-enabled approach to pedagogy. My essays are peer-reviewed, but most students only pat me on my back for my hard work. My paintings and drawings were shared with the class but not beyond the classroom. We still have a long way to go in terms of OER-enabled learning.

My pod mate Alex also shares my sentiment about having something to show in an employment environment. However, he also brings up the point that it may be unethical for students to contribute to the teaching materials. He proposed that it would be nice to do for extra credit. I feel that this problem could be mitigated if the course is designed more to reflect on learning rather than to simply produce the results of a learning process. For example, instead of asking students to simply write a script, the assignment could be designed to ask students to reflect on how they write a script and the devices they have employed in the process. It is the redistribution of the documentation of the process, which does not really have copyright issues, rather than openly licensing someone’s artistic creation.

Valerie states that she would most likely delete assignments after receiving a score. I think there may also be concerns about plagiarism. Students are not allowed to even reuse assignments they have created for one course on another course, even though sometimes the assignments have similar criteria. I think for the 5Rs to happen, we may need to alter our view on the concept of self-plagiarism. I agree that it would not make sense to reuse the entire assignment. However, it would make sense to recycle part of the assignment and create an extension. Courses should be designed so that we can take previous assignments and make revisions. For example, if in a class I was asked to write a script, I may be able to film that script in a different class. I may be able to do sound-editing for that film in a post-production class. This way, there is a logical continuity to my learning. It also makes it possible for me to spend more time documenting my progress, rather than having to reinvent the wheel every single time I am given a new assignment.

References

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

Topic 3 Blog Post

Firstly, I would like to talk about the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and the challenges it faces today. Many of my classmates may remember how difficult it is to write a research paper for class when the instructor requires that the readings used in the research paper need to be academic and/or peer-reviewed to be credible. And surprisingly, most academic and/or peer-reviewed articles are only available through the universities’ libraries. To access the universities’ libraries, especially the ones of prestigious universities, we have to be registered students there. See the obstacle here? Therefore, I believe that it is time not only for us to have more OERs, but also for schools to recognize these OERs as valid research materials a student can use in his or her research paper. Currently, we do not lack such OERs. We have many open textbook websites as well as articles for open access. However, it is not enough. The UN states that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all,” (as cited in Mays, 2017) but the truth is that even with writing a research paper there is so much discrimination against students who do not rely on academic/peer-reviewed articles only accessible through their schools. Many instructors also do not rely on open textbooks that are free and may be equally credible when selecting textbooks for their classes, despite the schools pushing for more open pedagogy.

My pod mate Valerie contends that she would not enroll in a class if the class requires a textbook over 100 dollars. However, most classes I have attended seldom have textbooks under 100 dollars. I have a friend who is financially challenged. He would never buy a single textbook. Instead, he would borrow the textbooks from the school library. However, most libraries only have a couple of textbooks on reserve, and many of the textbooks cannot be checked out. He then spent a lot of time in the school library learning the textbooks. His plan had to stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced school libraries to be closed. He wanted to recycle textbooks from his friends who have taken the classes before him, but some textbooks have new editions every year. Such problems can be mitigated by the availability of more OERs, but we also need support from the relevant institutions in allowing students to use them in lieu of the regular, paid textbooks.

This same sentiment is shared by my other pod mate Ziyu, who also feels that institutions should evaluate their policies to support open-access education. As Gilliard and Culik (2016) mentioned, it is important for institutions to not create walls and internalize discrimination when it comes to education.

My teammate Alex also mentioned another form of discrimination in the workplace when a job seeker does not have certifications from a school. Therefore, even though we all look forward to the bright future of open pedagogy, we still need to change the perspectives of society as a whole. It is not enough to just make education alone open and free. We need the entire infrastructure in support of such openness. Would it be possible that one day, jobs credit job seekers on their skills through a skill test rather than looking at their GPAs and degrees written on their resumes?

References

Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016). Digital redlining, access, and privacy. Common Sense Education.

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

Topic 2 Blog Post

The two readings delineate the history and context of distributed and open learning. It is surprising, as my pod mate Alex has mentioned in his post, how early the two concepts are despite the fact that we hear them more today, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic.

I find the topic on enrollment most interesting in the context of open learning, as mentioned by Major (2015). I remember wanting to take computer science courses at UVic but being deterred by the fact that I needed certain prerequisites to be eligible to enroll. One of the prerequisites, especially for the higher-level courses, was that I needed to be a computer science major. There were a lot of restrictions and reservations when someone just wanted to take the course for his or her self-fulfillment. However, with open enrollment with the development of MOOCs, it is possible for students like myself to develop their interests in a field without having to worry about credits (Major, 2015). After the initial failure of not being able to register for computer science courses at UVic, I turned to Codecamedy instead. I feel that by making education more democratic, MOOCs allow more “openness, diversity, autonomy, and connectivity” (Major, 2015, p. 80).

It is also interesting to see that the modes of education have changed over the years. As mentioned by Major (2015), the xMOOCs started out very similar to traditional pedagogy in terms of the course structure. My teammate Ziyu has also commented on the fuzziness of categorization and terminology, which can make it difficult for educators to design and structure their courses. I also agree when she said that there are limitations to the reach of technology, especially in courses that do require in-person interactions. I have a friend who has to take some of his physical computing classes online due to the pandemic. He complained about how difficult it was for him to seek help from his instructor. He had to take multiple videos when he needed to ask questions. He had to also replay videos from his instructors multiple times while having to struggle with guessing the steps when certain actions were blocked. However, I also believe that with the advancement of even more technology, such as virtual reality, these obstacles could be omitted. The second reading also addresses how open learning is still constantly evolving (Jordan & Weller, 2017). This means that we still have a long way to go.

My teammate Valerie also talked about the financial benefits of open learning. When most universities turned to online teaching during the pandemic, many international students who have to pay a higher tuition wonder if an education like this would be worthwhile. I knew many students who have chosen to take semesters off because they did not see the value. With many open and online courses offered by Ivy League universities on Coursera, education has become more competitive rather than monopolistic. There may come a future where a college/university education is no longer necessary.

References

Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

Topic 1 Blog Post

I find the Regan (2019) article most interesting because I have always thought that “teaching students in accordance with their aptitude,” a Confucius philosophy, is a good thing, without realizing that it may arise some ethical concerns in the present day and age. With technology, the old Confucius ideal is taking a different look. Big data allows for personalized content to be shared with students. But most importantly, for the big data algorithms to work, students would need to share their information, which can be potentially misused, in return. I feel that while we consider the benefits of technology, we should also consider if technology should be optimized to minimize concerns about such ethical issues. I even noticed how when I click on the link of the article, the website asks me to accept cookies before accessing the article. Most people may not realize that this is a form of private information collection. I can potentially customize what kind of cookies I want to accept, but most people are not tech-savvy to understand the implications. Therefore, I feel that we still have a long way to go in terms of cyber-security. It is not just a simple posting a question of “yes” or “no,” but teaching people the importance of understanding it and also reading the privacy agreements. Many times, even when we don’t agree with the privacy agreement, we have no choice but to agree. Perhaps one day we will have the option to decline but still have access to the cyber service.

As for setting passwords, I also have a rule of thumb. I usually use a phrase only I know and change characters to numbers or symbols. However, I also feel that it may not be as helpful as other methods of protection. For example, most phones have passwords of four or six numbers as default. If you want to set a more personalized password it may be more time-consuming to enter every time. Many payment and confidential information are stored in a person’s phone. Now with Face ID technology, it becomes much more difficult for other people to unlock your phone. However, there is still a need for numeric passwords as an alternative to Face ID. Therefore, there is still no sense of security that your information is fully protected. Many school emails and portals require students to change passwords every now and then. However, this may mean more hassle for students to have to remember all the passwords. Many people will recycle the same password, changing only the last symbol or number, to ensure that they always remember. I wish that there is a much easier way for people to safeguard their personal online information without having to go through all the trouble to designing hack-proof passwords.

References

Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2

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change email address

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