Hi Christine,
A question that comes to mind when reading your paper.. why do we need open courseware even!? or OER for that matter? The practical truth is that people are learning via the internet regardless of its copyrights, that information online has always wanted to be free, that Youtube et al are just flat out ignoring copyright and that the horse has clearly bolted and information IS free. Of course, the educational institutions have been very slow to catch on to the business models, and so continue to lock up their research outputs and educational materials. Slowly they might be realising the losses they are taking by retaining those practices, and OER, OCW provides the escape routes for them.
But my main point is that increasingly we don't need the institutions and their content. Either someone has already copied it and put it out there, or someone else has produced an alternative. Even better is those alternatives are like Wikipedia and so not only show the institutions that their content is redundant, but that Wikipedia is so successful it will give for free back into the Institutions that for some reason can't open up. So, content is dead.
But the assessment of learning, the accreditation, and the learning support services remain valuable. Increasingly so if we are talking about recognition for largely self paced, self directed even! learning through the Internet.
So the production of content is not as important as the development of efficient pathways through content (media and communications), and for a body to be ready to assess people who have been through those pathways or tracks like it.
For example: I am a teacher and I teach about Socially Constructed Media and Communications. I start the Wikipedia and Wikiversity/WIkieducator pages. I watch the Wikipedia page to see where it develops and extract links and networks from that. At the same time I am watching RSS feeds and tagging media and communication channels relevant to my topic. I use the Wikiversity or Wikieducator pages to build a pathway for people new to the field. Some people no lots already, others no little. They use my pathway planted out with media, activities and exercises in ways that suite them. I indesign activities that will ask people to produce something that can be used for evidence, and I say to people when you think you have a grasp on all this and have made it through my pathway, I - more than anyone, am in a position where I can assess your learning, offer you feedback, and possibly present you with a certificate/qualification that can be used in the following ways . . .
To me, the most important thing in that model is my currency in ALL the media and communication channels in my field, my ability to filter it all and express an effective pathway for people, and have my assessment methods as non obtrusive and partnered up with worthwhile credentials as possible . . .
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