OLDaily

University of Iowa opens coworking space in former shopping mall
Emily Bamforth, EdScoop, 2021/11/24

I think we'll see more of this. "The new space is an extension of the university's desire to provide more flexible work arrangements for its employees." I've seen similar things in the past, most notably the University of Alberta's downtown co-location site, but those were more focused on students and clients. But why not create coworking spaces in communities generally? Now I know this has been tried (sort of) to an extent before, with failed startups like WeWork showing how not to do it. But a model such as the University of Iowa's may point the way to more socially positive coworking spaces. Image: the U of A's Enterprise Square.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

New Open Source Capabilities for the Total Learning Architecture
Yet Analytics, 2021/11/24

This is from Yet Analytics, which is in the process of developing its Learning Record Store (LRS) as open source software. This post explains "n relatively non-technical terms how the TLA's xAPI data flow works - the use case is in linking an immersive learning environment with a competency assertion system." It's very non-technical (and thus suitable for management) but also provides links to more resources, including project sites, GitHub source code, and Docker hub resources.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Developing Institutional Open Educational Resource Repositories in Vietnam: Opportunities and Challenges
Vi Truong, Tom Denison, Christian M. Stracke, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2021/11/24

While universities and libraries in Vietnam have embraced open educational resources (OER), this has not resulted in the development of institutional OER repositories (IOER), and this paper (16 page PDF) investigates why, though as it notes in the literature review, "developing IOER requires an initial investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) facilities and infrastructure, services, production costs, policy development, training, and marketing campaigns," which answers the question. The authors conducted "interviews with participants who know about or had participated in the OER movement or IOER development in Vietnam, and while it focuses on the lack of policy in Vietnam, it also finds that economic conditions are a major barrier. Maybe instead of lobbying to have the Vietnamese government and educational institutions pay to create an IOER infrastructure, perhaps it might make more sense to divert OER funding from western institutions to directly pay Vietnamese authors to create OER in their own language, allowing IOER to develop when there's an actual demand for them. Image: Vietnam OER Program.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Open For All: The OERu’s Next Generation Digital Learning Ecosystem
David C. Lane, Claire Goode, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2021/11/24

This paper (18 page PDF) details the work being done at OERu to create their own version of a next generation digital learning ecosystem (NGDLE) using free and open source software (FOSS). The paper itself documents the technologies involved, surveys the advantages of taking this approach, costs, and a case study involving Mautic, a FOSS “marketing automation” tool used to automate email communications with both existing and prospective learners and partners. I can say from experience that there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes that aren't mentioned in this paper but which represent a lot of the real value of this work to developers and practitioners.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]