OLDaily

Harmonizing Learning Resource Metadata (even LOM)
Phil Barker, Sharing and learning, 2020/12/18

The typical result of harmonizing two metadata standards is the creation of a third metadata standard. But maybe it will be different this time. Basically, the idea is to create a mapping using the the RDF Mapping Language (RML) so that "data started of as LOM XML records... can create a database that can queried and exported as if the metadata were schema.org, Dublin Core, LRMI, DCAT." I like the thinking, and this is the sort of tool that would be useful as a service that can be accessed by other tools.

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A proposal for open educational resource adoption through a curriculum alignment hub
Shivi Chandra, EdTech Hub, 2020/12/18

This post presents curricular alignment as the next big challenge for open educational resources (OER). "Alignment addresses such issues as matching the structure, vocabulary, navigation, and assessment mechanisms of diverse materials in a way which saves educators’ time when using these materials." To address this, Shivai Chandra proposes the creation of a curricular alignment hub that "would be a centralised, dynamic hub to coordinate, train, standardise, and share alignment efforts." There's a concept note available on Google Docs for comments and sharing. As always, the disagreements will be found in the details, for example, the critique of the crowdsharing approach and the recommendation that consultatants be engaged to map resources to curricula.

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Substack launches an RSS reader to organize all your newsletter subscriptions
Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge, 2020/12/18

This is a development that is long overdue. Last year, Feedly made email subscriptions available through its RSS reader, and now, Substack is launching its own RSS reader to manage newsletter subscriptions and other RSS feeds "for people whose email inbox isn’t their ideal reading experience" (which, I think, is almost everyone). Substack's product still needs some work; "there’s no way to read stories inside of Substack Reader, like you can in a traditional RSS reader, and stories stay in your queue even after you’ve read them." But maybe - maybe - we're seeing a renaissance of distributed content networks.

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ABC Learning Design on a Speadsheet
François Jourde, Erwan Gallenne, 2020/12/18

This is a Google Sheets learning design template shared by François Jourde today on Twitter. He writes, "Hello learning designers: version 3.4 of ABC LD spreadsheet (G Sheets) is more fluid and complete. Translations can now be modified." To try it out, make a copy in your own Google account. There are some interesting features, including especially the translation mechanism (go to the Info tab and change the language in the upper left corner) and the dashboard. It's based on the ABC model of learning design, but you could edit it to support your own model. You still need to do a fair amount of work to do your course design, but this tool standardized it and makes it sharable.

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Part Four of Practical Mid-Career Teaching Reflections: Guest Speakers and Tutorials
Justin Robertson, Faculty Focus, 2020/12/18

I've been a guest speaker in quite a number of classes over the years, and of course I've invited a lot of guest speakers to various MOOCs. So I'm supportive of the guest speaker format. This article has several useful pieces of advice. First, it's useful to link the speaker to the course content. Second, it's often better to do an interview rather than to sit through a 60 minute lecture. And third, have students act as discussants, conducting the interview themselves. The article also mentions tutorials, which in this context are presented as short assignments the students do to supplement class instruction, which are then presented back to the class. "Tutorials should be about interactive discussion; you should be wary of involving too many student presentations." Just like guest speakers!

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Building Self-Efficacy: How to Feel Confident in Your Online Teaching
Jill Lassiter, Faculty Focus, 2020/12/18

This article takes as its point of departure Bandura’s self-efficacy theory. This theory, as the author writes, " suggests there are four major sources for building confidence to perform and persevere at a task: mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal." It left me wondering where my own sense of self-efficacy came from. Bandura's guide isn't much help, because it feels like it covers all possible influences for anything. What distinguishes me from other people? Was it free access to wood and tools as a kid? Was it my years as a Boy Scout? Was it my newspaper route or experience selling greeting cards door-to-door? If I had to say anything, I'd say self-efficacy depends on opportunity as much as it does on anything else. But that's just me saying it.

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Self-directed open educational practices for a decolonized South African curriculum: a process of localization for learning
Jako Olivier, Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 2020/12/18

I found this article (9 page PDF) to be immediately useful though I almost didn't make it past the introduction. 90% of this article is well-written, clear and informative; the introduction, by contrast, is a jumble (so just skip it and move directly to section 3). It begin with self-directed learning as defined by Knowles (1975), draws the connection to open educational practices, and in the main discussion section applies the concept of decolonization to both. It recommends that open educational practices "need to extend beyond retaining, reusing, revising, remixing and redistributing but also recontextualizing," and that "network-driven, participatory practices and collaborative authorship" inform community-driven OER and OEP initiatives.

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That Op-Ed About Jill Biden Is Awful. Northwestern’s Response Might Be Worse.
Steven Lubet, Andrew Koppelman, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2020/12/18

This is an irresponsible article about academic freedom published in the Chronicle of Higher Education (where else?). It's irresponsible because it (deliberately?) confuses some basic concepts. The authors write, "we believe that it is a serious violation of academic freedom to penalize a faculty member, including an emeritus one, for expressing unpopular views." It's one thing to express an unpopular opinion and quite another to offer the sort of misogyny published in the Wall Street Journal. And it's one thing to punish someone and quite another to stop promoting and celebrating one's association with someone. Academic freedom does not entail endorsement. To suggest it does expresses a sort of entitlement that casts suspicion on the entire professoriate.

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Against Surveillance
Jesse Stommel, Beautiful.ai, 2020/12/18

This is a slide deck from Jesse Stommel for a talk at the recent #AgainstSurveillance teach-in. I'm including it partially because the content is relevant but also because of the platform being used, the very interesting Beautiful.ai slide authoring and sharing site. "It’s an expert deck designer, so you don’t have to be." I don't see any evidence that the service is built on AI, despite the suggestion in the URL. It would be interesting, though, if it were, given the perspective in Stommel's talk.

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