This week sees the launch of the final conference programme for the 15th annual conference for Open Education Research, practice and policy organised by ALT, the Association for Learning Technology, in partnership with

By Beck Pitt, GO-GN

The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) is delighted to be an Event Sponsor for this year’s OER conference. GO-GN is a network of doctoral candidates around the world whose research projects focus on open education. We currently have 179 members and alumni based in 28 countries around the world. In addition, we have several hundred experts, supervisors, mentors and interested parties which connect to form our community of practice. GO-GN is coordinated by a team from the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (UK)

To help support those conducting doctoral research and raise the profile of our members’ work we host regular workshops which bring together researchers from around the world. Our workshop prior to OER24 will take place on Tuesday 26 March 2024, and we’re delighted to be bringing together 12 members and alumni, from eight different countries. Our workshops focus on connecting and networking, as well as giving our members the opportunity to share their research in a safe and welcoming space. A total of 10 members and alumni are currently also (co-)presenting during the conference. 

GO-GN was delighted to kick-start our 10th anniversary celebrations at last year’s OER conference at University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), Scotland, where we brought together more than 15 GO-GN members and alumni. Our celebrations continued throughout the year, culminating in our largest workshop to date prior to Open Education Global 2023 in Edmonton, Canada. This two-day event brought together over 30 GO-GN’ers from across 5 continents to connect, share and co-create together. You can read about our members experiences of last year’s workshops and our activities over on our blog:

• OER23 conference and GO-GN workshop.
• Open Education Global 2023 and 10th anniversary workshop.

We are pleased to celebrate our ongoing collaboration with the OER conferences with you in Cork this year!  Look out for our members with their penguin themed swag and stickers.  You might even see the odd penguin… Talk to us and find out more about GO-GN and what we do.
Whether you are a doctoral researcher, a supervisor, interested in open education or just interested in finding out more, then GO-GN is for you! Join the network and get involved: https://go-gn.net/join/

Registration is still open for the 15th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be organised by ALT, in partnership with Munster Technological University (MTU).

https://go.alt.ac.uk/445Iq1R

 

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WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST - ISSUE 739, 04 MARCH 2024

WELCOME TO YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE FROM THE LEADING PROFESSIONAL BODY FOR
LEARNING TECHNOLOGY IN THE UK. We support a collaborative community for
individuals and organisations from all sectors and provide professional
recognition and development. Each week we will update you on the latest
news and publications, events, jobs, and calls for proposals from across
the learning technology community. [...]

In its twelfth consecutive year, Open Education Week (OE Week) is gearing up to captivate audiences worldwide from March 4-8, 2024.

By Leigh Graves Wolf

As OER24 is now on the very near horizon, I thought I would take a go at connecting the conference themes to some unique experiences around Cork City. The goal of in-person conferences is not only to have the opportunity for us all to interact during sessions, but also to explore and take advantage of our surroundings and beautiful host city. So with that in mind, here are a few suggestions for venturing out into Cork City to have an ‘embodied experience’ with the OER24 themes. 

Theme 1 – Open Education Landscape and Transformation

This theme explores Open Education and its transformative potential, with a particular emphasis on key initiatives and developments in the Irish education and training context.

What to experience: 

​What better way to experience the open Irish landscape than by visiting a library! Cork City Libraries are amazing (open!) spaces spread across the city with a variety of exhibitions, resources and maker spaces to delight OER24 visitors. This map outlines all locations across the city, each with unique character and resources.  

Theme 2 – Equity and Inclusion in OER

This theme delves into the role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in serving marginalised groups and in promoting inclusivity, diversity and equity in open education.

What to experience: 

Cork has an incredible culinary scene which celebrates and represents a diverse range of cuisines. Your stomach can travel the globe by visiting: 

• Burritos & Blues
• Cafe Izz 
• Da Mirco
• Goldie 
• Koto
• Miyazaki Japanese Take Away
• Oak Fire Pizza

As you’re on your culinary journey, keep a look out for electrical/utility boxes painted with themes from around the world. You can find a crowdsourced directory of the global street art here – there are many more scattered about not pictured! 

Theme 3 – Open Source and Scholarly Engagement

This theme focuses on the connection between Open Education, Open Data, the Open-Source movement, and digital scholarship/librarianship, showcasing the collaboration of researchers across these areas.

What to experience:  

When I think about open and collaborative research – museums are some of the first spaces that come to mind! 

The Cork Public Museum is a beautiful space which works in collaboration with several cultural partners around the city which are equally worth visiting. If you venture down this path, you may even find yourself in the Butter Museum! 

Theme 4 – Ethical Dimensions of Generative AI and OER Creation

This theme highlights the ethical considerations surrounding the use of generative AI for content creation and its potential in making educational content more accessible. 

What to experience: 

While not directly connected to AI, the A Matter of Time exhibit at Crawford Art Gallery is well worth a visit and will provoke visitors to think about the human experience as a whole – allowing the imagination to delve deeper into ethical and moral implications of our existence. 

Theme 5 – Innovative Pedagogies and Creative Education

This theme explores the intersection of Open Education with instructional design and learning design, examining creative practices and innovative pedagogies that enhance the learning experience. 

What to experience: 

It’s more like what NOT to experience and learn! Cork City is brimming with creativity and innovation.  You may want to take a wander along the new Island City Urban Sculpture trail. Or, take a multimodal walk to experience the murals in the Ardú Street Art project.  Stop in to Sin é for a trad session.  Spend some time on the Pure Cork site to find an experience that resonates with you, but don’t be afraid to wander – Bíonn siúlach scéalach!

These are just starting points – comments are open! Please chime in with more ideas and insights and I look forward to our time together in Cork! 

About the Author

Leigh Graves Wolf is teacher-scholar and an Assistant Professor in Educational Development with the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UCD. Her work focuses on online education, critical digital pedagogy, educator professional development and relationships mediated by and with technology. She has worked across the educational spectrum from primary to higher to further and lifelong. She believes passionately in collaboration and community.

Registration is still open for the 15th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be organised by ALT, in partnership with Munster Technological University (MTU).

This CPD webinar will be led by Leigh-Anne Perryman from the Open University. 

A new free course from The Open University is supporting educators from multiple sectors and subjects around the world in addressing the climate crisis in their teaching, responding to teachers’ widespread calls for training that will help meet their students’ demands for relevant and effective climate education.

The 16-hour, OpenLearn-based course - Supporting climate action through digital education - is unique in focusing on multiple subject areas – including science, visual art, literature, geography and health. There’s an emphasis on supporting young people in participating in climate action, and in engaging with local communities to tackle climate crisis-related problems. The course aims to support educators in schools, colleges and universities in designing and delivering online, blended and technology-enhanced teaching and learning through a pedagogy of hope and care that supports students of all ages in understanding the causes and impacts of environmental collapse and addressing them through global citizenship, individual and collective direct action, and democratic participation. Completing the course gains participants a digital badge.

In this webinar, course leader Dr Leigh-Anne Perryman, Associate Director (Curriculum) at The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology, will give an overview of the course and share how it was created by a team of passionate educators working across disciplinary boundaries.

A discussion will follow, exploring how teaching in different subject areas can help support students in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and how collaboration across disciplines and across generations is essential. 

 

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By Mari Cruz García Vallejo, Digital Education Consultant and Senior Fellow at Advance HE

Prompting engineering and Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy are not, per se, antithetic concepts. As a matter of fact, prompting engineering is part of a higher cognitive process: the ability of formulating a problem in a structured way and following a logical sequence of thought that provides AI conversational agents with clear instructions on the response or output that is expected from the agent. Prompting engineering belongs to a higher set of competences grouped under the umbrella term AI literacy.

I teach an ECTS module at a Spanish university that covers Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance learning and assessment, and the term ‘prompting’ often appears in the bibliography of the module. It is difficult for me to translate the noun (or should I say gerund?) into Spanish in this context. According to the Cambridge Dictionary (2024), the verb prompt means ‘to make someone decide to say or do something’. Prompting then, for our purposes here, can be translated as the action of telling an AI chatbot what we want and how we want it. 

In the article AI Prompt Engineering Isn’t the Future, Ogur Ali Acar, Professor of Marketing and Innovation at King’s College London, states that without a well-formulated problem, even the most sophisticated prompts will fail. Acar distinguishes three prompting methods to guide AI responses:

1. Zero-shot prompting: This method involves presenting the AI agent with a task and no additional information. The agent must then rely on its own knowledge and reasoning abilities to complete the task.
2. Few-shot prompting: This method provides the AI agent with a few examples or pieces of additional information before presenting the task. This helps the agent to better understand the context and type of output that is expected.
3. Chain-of-thought prompting: This method is a more structured approach that guides the AI agent step-by-step through a logical progression or sequence of steps. This can be particularly helpful for tasks that require complex reasoning or problem-solving.

Teaching academics the different uses of GenAI to enhance their teaching practice involves asking the AI to tackle complex queries that require a chain-of-thought prompting as well as a certain degree of AI literacy. I usually present an example to my students, such as: 

Imagine that you need to develop a new module comprising 20 ECTS credits based on the subject or discipline that you teach. Try to ask an AI chatbot (such as  Copilot, Claude, Bard or ChatGPT) to create the module using a chain-of-thought prompting. How would you tackle this task?…  

This example illustrates how prompting engineering requires both critical thinking and problem formulation (including problem-solving) to tackle a complex task. Both critical thinking and problem-solving, core skills that HE institutions aim to develop in their students, are also part of the set of competences that AI literacy comprises.

What exactly is AI literacy?

King’s College London (2023) refers to the term AI literacy as an extension of existing critical thinking and digital literacies that seek to help students develop a critical awareness of GenAI models, how those models work, and their ethical, intellectual and environmental implications in HE. As a digital educator, I would extend such a definition by adding that AI literacy also involves developing a critical awareness in the following key areas:

• the regulatory frameworks, national and transnational, that protect citizens against the misuse of AI. This also includes an awareness of the implications of data protection legislation for the new AI regulation.

• the moral and philosophical guidelines to promote an ethical use of AI in education. This also involves bringing the principles of compassion and ágape (which, in English can be translated as loving kindness) to AI ethics; those principles are missing in the debate around AI literacy in HE.

• the reconceptualisation of copyright, authorship and plagiarism for an intellectual product or work that has received contributions from a GenAI model.

Lee (2023) introduces a new key area to focus on AI literacy: AI pedagogy. The author defines AI pedagogy as the need for us educators to: 

…engage our students in critical conversations on the capabilities and limitations of AI, and to know what pedagogical principles AI tools should use. (…) AI pedagogy needs to include practical examples and hands-on experience on how people can co-create and collaborate with AI. 

(p. 14)

AI pedagogy is an interesting emerging term to consider. The AI Pedagogy Project (metaLAB (at) Harvard, 2024) defines this new field as engaging students and educators in critical conversations about AI, whereas Bearman and Ajjawi (2023) reflect on whether there is a need for pedagogy focused on AI or to adapt the current digital pedagogies in the context of AI to use these new tools from an ethical perspective in line with the regulatory frameworks. 

How can educators develop critical AI literacy?

Since AI literacy is an emerging set of competencies and skills, there is no magical formula for answering this question. I usually adopt a multidisciplinary approach to develop a critical AI literacy among my students who are HE lecturers. I cover the key areas that I have mentioned above. To give some examples, I cover the EU Act on AI and the implications of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the Act; the reconceptualisation of copyright, plagiarism, intellectual work and authorship;  authentic assessment, etc. I try to design learning activities where academics can acquire ‘hands-on experience’·working with the different AI conversational agents (alone or in collaboration with their students). The learning activities are also aimed at helping my students to become AI literate; that is, to develop critical and creative thinking to guide GenAI agents to tackle complex problems. To help my students develop such critical and creative thinking, I have adapted the following guidance process from Acar (2023):

1. Understand the problem first. As I mentioned before, understanding the task that we want to accomplish with a specific GenAI tool, before asking, is the key to effective communication with the AI. As Acar (2023) states: 

Once a problem is clearly defined, the linguistic nuances of a prompt become tangential to the solution.

In the example from the previous section, “to develop a new module comprising 20 ECTS credits”, the first step would be to clarify what “to develop” really means, so that we can define the result or outputs expected from the GenAI: do we want the AI to write the outline of the module, the content of the module, and/or the assessment methods? Do we want the AI to structure the module into self-contained units and adapt the content to a particular delivery mode? Do we want the AI to also design the learning activities?

2. Divide the initial task into smaller subtasks or subprocesses where possible. For example, writing down a new module involves several phases or subtasks, as we have seen in the previous step. Defining the learning outcomes of the module and how the outcomes match into the wider learning objectives of the programme of study; defining the temario (equivalent to the English term syllabus) of the module; structuring the module into units or sections; designing the learning activities and deciding whether those activities should be synchronous or asynchronous; defining the pedagogical approaches that would best inform the design of the module, etc. We need to customise carefully all the AI prompts for each of the subtasks that we have divided the initial task into.

3. Set the context and provide additional information for precision. We need to provide the GenAI with precise background information and additional data to contextualise the task. Sometimes, we may need to further train the AI by providing it with very specific datasets or examples (warning: watch out for the privacy policy and service terms of the AI provider before feeding the AI agent with any datasets that are private or specific to your institution!). For the creation of a new module, we would need to provide the GenAI agent with relevant contextual information for each of the subtasks that we have identified in the previous step: the student background (undergraduate or postgraduate); the delivery mode (online, face-to-face and/or hybrid); the pedagogical methodology that we will employ for designing the learning materials; the activities and assessment methods of the module, etc.

4. Engage the AI to tackle the challenges from a different perspective. We can ask the GenAI to help us overcome the constraints and boundaries that we may encounter when tackling a task or problem. The GenAI can be a valid interlocutor to adopt different perspectives or to find alternative solutions for the tasks. For example, when writing learning materials for a new module, we can ask the AI chatbot to adopt the perspective of a neurodivergent or disabled student to check that our learning materials are accessible and inclusive for all our learners.

5. Ask the AI itself for help and give feedback. We must not rely on a single prompt to obtain the result or outcome that we want. In the same way that we provide feedback and guidance to our students after they submit their initial drafts for formative assessment, we can also train or teach-further the AI agent by interacting with and providing feedback to it. For example, if we ask a GenAI chatbot to write down the learning materials for the module that we are teaching, we may want to refine the initial result by asking the AI to change the tone of writing or to incorporate specific facts, theories or data. We can let the AI know when its arguments appear over-complex or too simple, or if the writing style needs to be adapted (such as, ”Can you rewrite your text in a style that better suits a blogpost?”). 

6. Ask the AI itself to help with the prompting. We can even ask the AI to help us to formulate the correct instructions so that it can solve the task or query. For example, we can ask the AI agent what type of contextual information or additional data it would need from us to tackle a task or to generate the output in a specific format.

Understanding the problem, formulating the right question/s and decomposing the problem into subtasks are AI literacy skills that need to be built up with practice. In Spanish we have a saying: la práctica hace al maestro, that can be translated into English as “practice makes perfect”. The more we interact with GenAI, through practice, research, and by designing learning activities and assessment methods that engage our students in critical conversations with AI, the more AI literate we will become. 

References:

Acar, O. A. (2023) ‘AI Prompt Engineering isn’t the future’, Harvard Business Review, 6 June. Available at: https://hbr.org/2023/06/ai-prompt-engineering-isnt-the-future (Accessed 21 January 2024).

Bearman M. and Ajjawi, R. (2023) ‘Learning to work with the black box: Pedagogy for a world with artificial intelligence’, British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 54, Issue 5, pp. 1160–1173. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13337 (Accessed 21 January 2024).

Cambridge Dictionary (2024) ‘Prompt definition’, Cambridge University Press and Assessment. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/prompt (Accessed 13 February 2024).

King’s College London (2023) Generative AI in HE. Available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/short-courses/generative-ai-in-he (Accessed 21 January 2024). 

Lee, S. (2023) ‘AI Toolkit for Educators’, EIT InnoEnergy Master School Teachers Conference 2023. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/ignatia/ai-toolkit-for-educators (Accessed 21 January 2024).

metaLAB (at) Harvard (2024) About the AI Pedagogy Project. Available at: https://aipedagogy.org/about/ (Accessed 20 February 2024).

_______________________________________________________________________

Mari Cruz García Vallejo is a digital education consultant and a senior fellow at Advance HE. She currently researches and teaches on Generative AI in HE at the ULPGC (Spain) while on sabbatical leave from Heriot-Watt University. As a digital education consultant, Mari Cruz has collaborated with several universities in Europe and the UK. She was a member of the start-up team that developed the Kuwait-Scotland eHealth Innovation Network (KSeHIN) programme, an education collaboration partnership between the Dundee Medical School and the Dasman Diabetes Institute of Kuwait. The KSeHIN programme was nominated twice for the category of the ‘International Collaboration of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education (THE) awards.

You can connect with Mari Cruz at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari-cruz-garcia-vallejo/ or via her blog https://substack.com/@maricruzgarciavallejo

Did you enjoy reading this? If so, consider becoming a Member of ALT. If your employer is an Organisational Member, membership is free! Find out more: https://www.alt.ac.uk/membership

This 1-day standalone workshop is designed to help CMALT candidates fast-track work on their portfolio in order to submit it to peer review. The workshop will provide tailored support for individuals as well as peer support in a group of CMALT candidates all working towards CMALT accreditation. 

The workshop will be delivered by experienced CMALT Assessors.

Pre-workshop activities

When you register for the workshop, you will be asked to complete a short profile including what accreditation pathway you are on (CMALT, Senior or Associate), which sections of the portfolio you would like specific help with and how far you have progressed overall. 

In the week before the workshop, you will receive pre-workshop activities to complete to start progressing your portfolio. 

Workshop day

The workshop day has both live sessions and asynchronous activities scheduled from 9.30am to 4.00pm and concludes with networking opportunities with other candidates. The first half of the day will be focused on strategies for writing specific portfolio sections, including practical examples from accredited portfolios. The afternoon session will provide time for individual support and a peer review exercise. 

Post-workshop support

Following on from the workshop day, you will receive the workshop materials to support you as you complete your portfolio. 

Who should attend?

Anyone registered for CMALT who is keen to complete their portfolio more quickly, candidates who are working towards CMALT looking for more support and anyone looking to revise a referred portfolio. 

If you are not already on a CMALT pathway, you can find out more information, including details on how to register for the accreditation process, here.

Registration will close on Thursday 18 April at 16:00 BST.

Feedback from our workshop participants

• CMALT Accelerator Workshop: My Reflections…by Dr Jin Tan
• Flipgrid showcasing feedback and experiences of CMALT Accelerator Workshop Participants 

 

Costs

Registered CMALT candidates discounted rate: £149

Everyone else: £166

For block bookings please contact cmalt@alt.ac.uk.

Cancellations

If the minimum number of registrations has not been met by Thursday 25 April, this workshop will be cancelled. Registered delegates will be notified and refunded in full.

Cancellations made in writing, to cmalt@alt.ac.uk, on or before Thursday 18 April will be refunded in full. Cancellations made in writing, to cmalt@alt.ac.uk, after Thursday 18 April will be refunded in full minus a £25 cancellation fee. 

https://go.alt.ac.uk/445Iq1R

 

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WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST - ISSUE 738, 26 FEB 2024

WELCOME TO YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE FROM THE LEADING PROFESSIONAL BODY FOR
LEARNING TECHNOLOGY IN THE UK. We support a collaborative community for
individuals and organisations from all sectors and provide professional
recognition and development. Each week we will update you on the latest
news and publications, events, jobs, and calls for proposals from across
the learning technology community. [...]

Put the kettle on and join us for 45 minutes of lovely learning-techy chatter to start your day. This informal online meeting of ALT WM is a chance for you to come together with other Learning Technology professionals in the region (and beyond) to network, share ideas, get advice, debate hot topics and more. There's no agenda, so the topics for discussion are very much in your hands! However, we'd really love to hear from you if you are attending JISC DigiFest or other learning tech focussed events in the coming weeks to share your key takeaways with colleagues who couldn't get out of the office to attend.

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ALT'S ANNUAL SURVEY CLOSES TODAY!

 

ALT’s Annual Survey has been running since 2014, helping shape the future
of ALT by providing a unique insight into how Learning Technology is used
across sectors as well as identifying emerging trends in current and future
practice. The survey provides an important insight into how professional
practice within the field of Learning Technology is developing. [...]

By Brian Mulligan and Gemini Advanced

The escalating cost of higher education poses a significant financial burden for students and society. With a focus on textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OER) have emerged as a potential answer. However, while OER offers promise, materials alone comprise a small fraction of the total price of a degree. Even if tuition fees were greatly reduced, living expenses remain a hurdle. Additionally, although in some countries both fees and living costs are subsidised by governments, this may not continue to the same extent in the future and even now is unaffordable for mass higher education in low and middle-income countries. A broader transformation is necessary to achieve substantial cost reduction.

Understanding the True Cost Drivers

Learning materials contribute minimally to the overall expense of higher education. Consider this breakdown:

• Fees: Tuition, administrative and other fees..
• Living Expenses: Accommodation, food, and other necessities represent major expenditures.
• Travel: For many students, transportation remains a recurring cost.
• Opportunity Costs: Foregone earnings during years of study constitute a substantial, often underestimated expense.

In many systems, these costs are somewhat mitigated by government subsidies for tuition or living expenses. However, such funding models may not be sustainable long-term and are often nonexistent in low- and middle-income countries. For global scale affordability, we need an educational model less dependent on traditional subsidy patterns.

Limitations of OER

OER undoubtedly holds value. High-quality materials should be more widely adopted. Yet, a content-centric approach fails to address certain crucial components of the educational experience:

• Structured Learning: Curated OER must be integrated into designed pathways to create cohesive programmes.
• Student Support: Guidance, interaction, and assistance are often vital for mastering concepts.
• Robust Assessment: Formative and summative assessments demonstrate knowledge and are central to most credentials.
• Accreditation: To gain widespread acceptance, degrees require recognition by respected accrediting bodies.

Systemic Innovation for Affordability

To attain meaningful cost savings, higher education systems require rethinking. Potential strategies include:

• Online and Hybrid Models: Reducing reliance on in-person instruction addresses a major cost center.
• Work-Integrated Learning: Apprenticeships and similar models link education to income streams, mitigating opportunity costs.
• Technology-Enabled Support: Peer networks and emerging AI-powered tools can assist learners and scale assessment without proportional growth in faculty staffing.
• Accreditation: Existing universities must lend credibility by providing accreditation oversight for innovative, OER-driven programmes.

The Challenge of Change

Reimagining higher education to promote affordability is admittedly complex. We must prove that innovation and quality standards can coexist.  That will require us to address the quality assurance requirements that slow or even stifle such innovation.  We need more agile quality systems that allow us to move faster and generate evidence of efficacy as we progress.  This requires an outputs-based approach to quality, measuring genuine impact, as opposed to a deterministic inputs-based approach that requires specific activities and services.  Perhaps then, we can truly open higher education to all.

About the Authors

Brian Mulligan is an educational technology consultant at EdFutures.ie with 38 years experience in higher education, most recently in synchronous online education, low-cost content creation and the strategic application of learning technologies.

Brian was assisted in this blog by Gemini Advanced

Registration is still open for the 15th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be organised by ALT, in partnership with Munster Technological University (MTU).

https://go.alt.ac.uk/445Iq1R

 

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WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST - ISSUE 737, 19 JANUARY 2024

WELCOME TO YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE FROM THE LEADING PROFESSIONAL BODY FOR
LEARNING TECHNOLOGY IN THE UK. We support a collaborative community for
individuals and organisations from all sectors and provide professional
recognition and development. Each week we will update you on the latest
news and publications, events, jobs, and calls for proposals from across
the learning technology community. [...]

By Tony Murphy, South East Technological University

Aaron Sorkin was planning to watch episode one from series five of The West Wing, the famed and successful TV series he had created, but which he had left after producing series four. On hearing of Sorkin’s plans, Larry David, who had co-created the Seinfeld Show and left the series before it had finished its run, cautioned him not to turn on series five reportedly saying “It’s like watching someone make out with your girlfriend” (Parker, 2021).   I have always felt that this remark succinctly, if not misogynistically, sums up watching something you care about deeply because of a huge personal investment be handled, or mishandled, by someone else.  Contrast that with Bob Dylan’s reaction to being asked how he felt about Jimmy Hendrix’s now much more successful and famed version of the Dylan penned “All Around the Watchtower.  Dylan replied “It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using” (Dolan, 1995).

Please believe me that I know that putting my name in the same space as such creative geniuses as Larry David, Aaron Sorkin, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan is the equivalent of breaking the world record for self-flattery, however, many years ago, long before Open Education Resources (OER) was a commonly known term, I created a little reusable learning object.  The object detailed a model to help researchers and academics approach desk research.  It wasn’t particularly special. It was just a series of pre-existing tools and tasks that I put together in a slightly more systematic way than I believe they had been previously presented. But I was a bit proud of it because what I had done that I didn’t think anybody else had done, is that I had placed ignorance at the centre of the model.  I made the ignorant, unknowing person absolutely key to the process and to the model and, in doing so, I wallowed, a little more than I should have, in the delightful irony of celebrating ignorance in a room full of “all-knowing” academics.  

My comfortable smugness was beautifully pulled from beneath me one afternoon, when I was sitting in the back row of a lecture theatre watching and listening to a colleague discuss desk research with a room of academics.  My colleague proceeded to discuss my model. Using a slide deck I had created, he presented my approach to preparing for desk research.  In the back row, I started to squirm. My colleague was sufficiently gracious to acknowledge my presence to the room and the work that I had done, but it did little to deflate my uncomfortable and increasingly angry feelings.  Externally, I knew that it was not my content he was using. As an employee of a college, I was fully aware that the college was free to distribute any teaching content I created. Moreover, I worked for a publicly funded college, so the content was publicly financed and, therefore, publicly owned; anyone could and should use it.   Internally, however, I was livid.  This was my content, this was my model, this was my work that I had laboured and struggled to put together, that only I could do justice to, and he hadn’t even the courtesy to ask my permission or even give me a heads up.   

What made matters even worse was that he was presenting it better.  It wasn’t just that he was a more polished performer who lectured with grace and panache, but he had found insights in the model that I had missed.  He highlighted benefits and value in the approach that I had not seen.  By now, I was beyond livid; livid was in the rear-view mirror.  But the worst was yet to come.  He failed to make any reference to the value of ignorance.  He simply brushed over this aspect of the model.  Maybe he did not want to offend the academics in the room, maybe he thought it was not that important or maybe he simply forgot about it. I don’t know, all I did know was that, sitting in the back row, steam was bursting from my ears and my nostrils were flaring with rage.  

That uncomfortable episode occurred several years ago. Since then, I have created numerous OERs that, hopefully, have been reused by numerous people numerous times.  But I haven’t forgotten how I felt that first time I witnessed someone reuse content I had created.  Reflecting on my reaction, I note that there were a couple of things going on.   First, the misplaced sense of ownership.  We do not own anything regardless of which CC license it is published under.  Academic content, knowledge and ideas are there to be shared, which is the basis of how we progress.  Academia is not the TV or music business; academia is not about protecting and monetising ideas, it is about sharing them and freeing them from behind paywalls, no matter how much effort and personal investment has gone into their creation. 

Second is the misplaced jealousy.  Amid my resentfulness, I was blind to the second point of academic ideas; that they are there to be built on and reinterpreted, or misinterpreted, which again is how we progress.  The value and the reward comes from you and others knowing that you have played a small part in putting in place the next link in the chain that will go on long after you have stopped thinking about it.  This is why authorship and acknowledging authorship continues to be important.  We need to be able to take pride in what we do in order to put in the effort and that effort needs to be acknowledged, even as it is reused and reinterpreted.  

It would be great to think that, when it comes to OERs, we could always be as gracious with our creations as Bob, however, there is no harm in acknowledging our effort and allowing ourselves to feel a little bit like Larry from time to time.  

References

Parker, D. (2021). “Why Larry David Told Aaron Sorkin To Never Watch ‘The West Wing.’” The Things. Available at: https://www.thethings.com/why-larry-david-told-aaron-sorkin-to-never-watch-the-west-wing/

Dolan, J. (1995).  “A midnight chat with Bob Dylan”.  Sun Sentinel.  Available at: Fort-Lauderdale, Sun Sentinel today 29/9/95 (interferenza.net)

Registration is still open for the 15th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be organised by ALT, in partnership with Munster Technological University (MTU).

We invite you to complete ALT’s Annual Survey 2024 before it closes at 16:00 GMT on Thursday 22 February. 

Following on from their recent blog post “Third-space reflections on how we channel the explosion of generative AI into respectful active learning communities”, Dr Catherine Elkin, Leanne Fitton and Dr Chris Little with further explore the work they have undertaken at Manchester Metropolitan University to provide support and guidance to both staff and students about generative AI.

In this interactive webinar you will have the opportunity to share how you have approached supporting staff and students to develop critical AI literacies. What has worked well? What challenges has it presented? How can we overcome them? We will work together to collate a set of resources and strategies that we can collectively draw on. As explained in the blog post, this can be a challenging topic to navigate, so let's use this webinar as an opportunity to support one another.

 

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[OER24] [3]

We wanted to let you know that fewer than 10% of tickets remain for OER24
[4]! Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to join us in Cork and
be part of an unmissable gathering dedicated to advancing open education.

Date: 27-28 March 2024

Location: MTU, Cork, Ireland [...]

By Kerry Pinny, Interim CEO

Dear Members,

A very belated Happy New Year! We have a lot planned for 2024 and I’ve tried to highlight important news and events in this update for you all.

Share your insights

Our work across sectors, serving a growing community with diverse needs and priorities, depends on your input and we invite you to complete ALT’s Annual Survey 2024.

Help shape what is ahead and contribute to our unique insight into how Learning Technology is used across sectors as well as identifying emerging trends in current and future practice. The survey provides an important insight into how professional practice within the field of Learning Technology is developing. The purpose of this survey is to:

• Help map professional practice and development in Learning Technology;
• Chart how Learning Technology is used across sectors;
• Understand current practice to better meet the needs of and represent our Members.

The Annual Survey also helps ALT with monitor and report on equality, diversity and inclusion and helps us understand if different groups are facing different issues getting involved in ALT and to better support different groups of respondents.

The closing date for responses is 22 February 2024 . Complete the 2024 survey now.

OER24

Plans for OER24 are shaping up brilliantly thanks to the work of our Co-Chairs Dr Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin and Dr Tom Farrelly and the Conference Committee. We are really looking forward to welcoming delegates to beautiful Cork, 27-28 March. The conference has two fantastic keynotes from Dr Rajiv Jhangiani and Dr Catherine Cronin and Professor Laura Czerniewicz.

There is still time to view the programme and register.

The return of our CPD Webinars series

We are excited to bring back our very popular CPD Webinar series this year. CPD Webinars are open to ALT Members and aim to be as practical as possible. We already have a fantastic lineup announced with more to come! Register for CPD Webinars on our website.

• Copyright Essentials for Learning Technologists – Tuesday 30 April 2024, 12pm – 1pm
• Moving Away from SCORM: Using Metrics that Matter – Thursday 30 May 2024 2pm – 3pm
• CPD Webinar Series 2024: Adoption of Graduate Attributes through the use of Badges – Tuesday 25 June 2024, 1-2pm

New events planned for 2024

We have a number of new day and half-day events planned for 2024 as well as one hour online webinars. We’re excited to offer our Members more ways to network and share practice this year.

Join our new CMALT Committee

In response to the growing number of Certified Members and CMALT Assessors, we will launch a new CMALT Committee in 2024. It is vital for ALT’s activities to be shaped with the input of ALT’s Members and CMALT will be no different.

The committee will contribute to the improvement of the CMALT accreditation scheme and assessment process, and we are currently looking for Members to form this committee.

Read the CMALT Committee call for more information on eligibility, the Terms of Reference for the committee and to express your interest.

#ALTC Blog Editors

Our #altc Blog publishes a wide range of posts and articles, including news, opinion pieces, project updates, case studies, book reviews, and ‘a week in the life’ summaries of the work of people in the Learning Technology field. All posts on the ALT Blog are written by ALT Members and we are always open to new submissions! Why not write a post?

Our blog editors are an integral part of the blog publishing process helping authors to shape and hone their posts.

With the popularity of the blog, we are looking for new editors to join our experienced editorial team.

Read the full call for blog editors to learn more about being an editor and how to express an interest.

I look forward to welcoming Members to our events and activities this year.

Kerry Pinny

ALT’s Interim CEO

The Association for Learning Technology has joined the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s Directory of Professional and Employer-led Bodies (The ‘Employer Directory’) to help shape the future of apprenticeships and technical education.