OLDaily

Feature Article
The Downes Prize 2017
Stephen Downes, 2017/12/29

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Every year at this time I award the Downes Prize to the most-read post of those I've posted some time in the previous 365 days. This year that means any one of 1246 total posts from hundreds of authors around the world. The award is intended to be an objective measure, not based on popularity contests, campaigns, or any other such thing, but reflective of actual interest in the item on the part of OLDaily readers..

Without further ado,
 

This year's Downes Prize is awarded to:

MOOCs and Open Educational Resources: A Handbook for Educators

Peter B. Kaufman, Intelligent Television, Feb 09, 2017.

Two major stories dominated the interests of OLDaily readers in 2017: the impact of fake news, and the continuing ascendancy of the MOOC. While last year's winner looked at the former, this year's winner looks at the latter. Peter Kaufman covers two major areas on MOOC production: first of all, how to create MOOC videos, and secondly, open licensing for MOOC contents. This practical guide spoke to people interested in how to make open online education work for the betterment of humanity, which makes 2017's choice a fitting winner.

 

 

Honourable Mentions:

 

Tracking innovations in online learning in Canada - Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, Feb 14, 2017

 

Faculty Perceptions about Teaching Online: Exploring the Literature Using the Technology Acceptance Model as an Organizing Framework - Nancy Pope Wingo, Nataliya V. Ivankova, Jacqueline A. Moss, online learning, Mar 30, 2017

 

MOOCs Started Out Completely Free. Where Are They Now? - Dhawal Shah, EdSurge, Apr 21, 2017

 

Instructional Quality, Student Outcomes, and Institutional Finances - Martin Kurzweil, Jessie Brown, American Council on Education, July 24, 2017.

 

Open Badges: A Low-Cost Toolkit for Measuring Team Communication and Dynamics - Oren Lederman, Dan Calacci, Angus MacMullen, Daniel C. Fehder, Fiona E. Murray, Alex “Sandy” Pentland , arXiv, October 14, 2017.

 

How to Engage in Pseudoscience With Real Data: A Criticism of John Hattie's Arguments in Visible Learning from the Perspective of a Statistician - Pierre-Jérôme Bergeron, McGill Journal of Education, Aug 20, 2017

 

A Field Guide to 'jobs that don't exist yet' - Benjamin Doxtdator, A Long View on Education, Dec 20, 2017

 

The World's Best Film School is Free on YouTube - David Pierce, Wired, Dec 22, 2017

 

A repository platform for OERs - Panagiotis Stasinakis, Open Education Platform, Dec 11, 2017

 

A gallery of interesting Jupyter Notebooks - GitHub, Nov 24, 2017

 

Previous Winners

In 2016, the Downes Prize was awarded to Michael Caulfield, for New Directions in Open Education published in Hapgood, Oct 10, 2016.

In 2015, the Downes Prize was awarded to Alaa A. AlDahdouh, António J. Osório and Susana Caires for Understanding knowledge network, learning and connectivism published in theInternational Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.

In 2014, the Downes Prize was awarded to Matt Bower, Gregor Kennedy, Barney Dalgarno, Mark J. W. Lee, Jacqueline Kenney for Blended Synchronous Learning Handbook

In 2013, the Downes Prize was awarded to Tony Bates for Discussing design models for hybrid/blended learning and the impact on the campus

In 2012, the prize was awarded to Clayton R. Wright, for his series of posts annotating educational technology conferences.

In 2011, the prize was awarded to the Consortium for School Networking for  Acceptable Use Policies in Web 2.0 & Mobile Era.

In 2010, the prize was awarded to JISC for Effective Assessment in a Digital Age.

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