Peter, There was a proposal somewhere in Wikied to collect the competency standards that different countries where using and to load them to wikied and work towards an international standard for as many as possible. I'd expect that, with many skills based vocationally orientated stuff, this would be pretty straight forward. These standards could serve as assessment guides for industry and developing education sectors; they could serve as learning objectives for people; and they could serve as online learning development guides.
If Wikied was successful in bring together an international collection of standards like these, they could present them to the likes of UNESCO and say, "will you help us promote these as an international assessment standards". If that was done, then institutions like Otago Polytechnic would have a direct interest in assessing and awarding qualifications to these new International standards. It would be likely that our courses would start using both NZQA and UNESCO QA! Eventually, UNESCO QA certificates and degrees might become more usable for migrating workers. The worth of UNESCO QA Units would increase to the point where many nations started recognising people with these certificates. UNESCO would have to make sure that the standard of assessment was actually being met, and could even accept individuals as qualified assessors.. It would then be very easy for Institutions and individuals to then develop courses on Wikieducator around these standards, and also to offer assessment and accreditation to people who complete these courses. People would be free to do the courses at their own pace and self directed, gradually building a learning portfolio of assignments and activity evidence (set in the curriculum designs) that would be used for some sort of RPL process. Through an international network of teachers and assessors, we might see the cost of such processes and services greatly reduced! On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 1:22 PM, Cormac Lawler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for this thread Peter. :-) I think that what you envisage is > possible - ie creating an international accredited institution that would > award academic degrees on the basis of a set of work (OERs, blog posts, > papers etc) - let's call it an "e-Portfolio" (in the current UK government > lingo). However I would envisage a number of issues: > * Authorship - if you are creating a resource on, for example, a wiki, how > is someone evaluating your work to know that this work is your own work? Or > how much of it is yours? Digging through a page history can be a lot of work > - would we expect the evaluator to do this? And this idea of authoring > materials leading to accreditation - does *everyone* developing a certain > amount and standard of OER materials automatically get a degree? (What then > constitutes "OER" - any article on Wikipedia, etc etc?) > > * Academic standards - notoriously varied across national educational > systems. It would be a huge challenge to such an institution - though it is > already being addressed within the OER movement. > > * Evaluation/supervision - someone is going to have to be the person to > say: "yes, this person deserves a degree/PhD..". I would say, especially at > PhD level, that this person would need to be familiar with your work, and > not be simply handed a portfolio after three years - and I would then argue > that this would constitute a form of supervision (ongoing critical dialogue) > - perhaps in the network-based way you envisaged. There seems to be a > significant "other people's time" element to all this. Which brings me to.. > > * Money - I know you didn't mention this explicitly - but did you envisage > all this to be free? Subsidised? Paid for by whom? > > I'll just add a slightly different slant on this discussion - education is > obsessed with formal accreditation - but perhaps there might be another > model - one of recognition. Perhaps after working on a solid body of OERs > and published papers etc, you don't get a PhD, but you might be a damn sight > more eligible to get a job with a certain employer institution that is > open-minded enough to recognise this particular work done. I think Teemu > Leinonen has written about this before (perhaps on his blog < > http://flosse.dicole.org/>, though I'm not sure). Sure, this option is far > weaker than the current accreditation model - but it just might become an > option in certain contexts. > > In any case, I'm only throwing these ideas into the pot - but it's a great > discussion to be having! > > Cheers, > > Cormac > > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 5:00 PM, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Leigh and others who may be interested, > > > > Thanks for this reply. So what your saying is that Otago will give me > > credit for a WikiEd course that is designed around the NZQA as long as > > I give them money. Is it a graduate level course? Is Otago working > > toward being able to complete WikiEd courses and get a graduate level > > degree? Can I transfer this credit to another institution for my > > graduate level degree? It would seem to me that what Otago is doing is > > great, and a step in the right direction but it is still essentially > > using WikiEd as a LMS (or part of their LMS for I still have to > > complete assessment activities) and I still have to pay for the > > credential... Please correct me if I have misunderstood... I'd change > > your last statement to say "Learning and education is free, assessment > > and credential still costs" > > > > Anyhow, I want to dive deeper on this topic. I want to discuss if > > people think it is possible to create an international accredited > > institution that gave me a graduate level degree based on my > > completion / creation of OER (and related published research)? Maybe > > the international institution is a social network with a top quality > > reputation. i.e. if your level of scholarship is recognized by this > > "institution / social network" then it is considered the same as a PhD > > from Athabasca University... lets call it Open Access Accreditation... > > Isn't this the natural progression from connectionist (see siemens) > > approaches? > > > > It would seem that an institution like UNESCO or ICDE is where this > > could start and with the writing coming from these institutions > > regarding OER they (I believe) should be addressing the issue. I've > > been reading papers from these institutions for a while and everything > > still assumes the OER are utilized within existing institutions and > > existing courses and existing programs and in the end you still have > > to pay for assessment and the credential. In particular, the roadmap > > from the OLCOS http://www.olcos.org/cms/upload/docs/olcos_roadmap.pdf > > seems to be a deep dive into all this, yet they still assume loads of > > affiliations and partnerships with existing Universities. Essentially > > you still have to pay to get assessed and credentialed even though you > > are using OER created by someone only loosely affiliated with the > > university granting the credential. Why? > > > > You could assume a PhD is the equivalent of 2-3 years of full-time > > work, for easy math lets 5000 hours. Let's say I am prepared to work > > 16 hrs a week for 46 weeks a year for seven years (5152 hours total). > > And during this time I create a solid amount (potentially a complete > > Masters degree amount) of OER (with accompanying collaborative > > research papers) on WikiEducator and Wikiversity. Shouldn't I be able > > to take all this work and be given a PhD? Universities provide > > honorary doctorates; why not use this same structure to offer a PhD to > > someone who completes what I previously suggested? Or would the > > reputation I created on WikiEducator and Wikiversity by > > collaboratively creating a PhD effort equivalent in OER be the same as > > having a PhD? In fact could this not be the new PhD? And in the end I > > would have saved myself the 40k - 100k $ that I paid to an institution > > for a credential (not including 5152 hrs of lost salary). And I could > > do all this in a truly self directed manner without having to be > > "supervised" by a tenured academic. When I know that most of my > > supervision is going to come from the social network anyway... > > > > Or maybe what I am asking is; what role does the graduate level > > university play in a Connectivist world filled with quality OER, hard > > work and an active social network? > > > > Thanks for your time, > > > > Peter > > > > On Mar 24, 2:52 am, "Leigh Blackall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Internationally recognised competency standards like the ones used in > > Aust', > > > NZ and South Africa and then Recognition of Prior Learning RPL > > services. > > > > > > Otago Polytechnic has RPL services. Any day now we expect a person who > > has > > > done a course on Wikied that is designed around competency/assessment > > > standards that we recognise (NZQA) we will be able to accredit their > > > learning if they wish. It wouldn't be free however. > > > > > > Learning is still free, education still costs. > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 8:30 AM, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > What would it take to create an international accredited university > > > > that gave graduate level degrees based on the completion / creation > > of > > > > OER? And if this was possible, would it cost anything? > > > > > > -- > > > -- > > > Leigh Blackall > > > +64(0)21736539 > > > skype - leigh_blackall > > > SL - Leroy Goalposthttp://learnonline.wordpress.com > > > > > > > > -- -- Leigh Blackall +64(0)21736539 skype - leigh_blackall SL - Leroy Goalpost http://learnonline.wordpress.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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