Keeping a remote process running after terminal disconnect

Quoting TheOneKEA at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/keeping-a-process-running-after-disconnect-150235/:

nohup is what you want - it's a wrapper that blocks the SIGHUP signal sent to all applications connected to a terminal when that terminal is closed by the shell.

Just ssh into the box and start the command using this syntax:

[user@remoteboxen user]$ nohup /path/to/command arguments &

The man page explains it better.

Rebuilding the VirtualBox Kernel Modules (Ubuntu 9.04)

Any time there is a kernel update, you would do well to rebuild the VirtualBox kernel module to ensure compatibility with your new kernel version. This can be done by executing the following command from the terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

Installing Fonts in Linux (Ubuntu 9.04)

First, you can find some good free font downloads at http://www.sostars.com.  I downloaded a stencil font called "Ver Army." I unzipped the file, and found a .ttf font file.

I learned how it install it from this page. Here's a summary:

To install Microsoft Windows fonts: sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
To install Red Hat Liberation fonts: sudo apt-get install ttf-liberation

To install any other kind of font (including the one I downloaded from sostars.com):

1. mkdir ~/.fonts (make a font directory in your home directory if one doesn't exist already)


2. mv ver-army.ttf ~/.fonts (move your ttf file into the .fonts folder)


3. Restart the computer

GNU sed (Stream EDitor)

sed -r 's/\t+/,/g'



sed	invoke the stream editor
-r	use extended regular expressions (similar to using the -E argument for grep). This gives meaning to the '+' character in my regex.
s	tells sed that we are doing a replacement ("substitution") operation
\t+	find occurrences of one or more tab characters
,	replace it with a comma
g	do this substitution for all occurrences of \t+

So, today I had a problem.  A friend needed me to convert a 10 MB data file from tab-separated format to comma-separated format.

"This should take about 2 seconds."

I wasn't on my trusty little laptop (running Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope since March) and was stuck using a lab computer on campus, which was, of course, running Windows XP with no useful utilities whatsoever.  To try to save some time, I tried to do this conversion right on my friend's computer.  We opened the document in MS Word, and tried to do a Find and Replace for tabs, converting them to commas.

Slow.  Killed the program several minutes into the operation.

Next, over to my trusty laptop.  Loaded up jEdit, a handy programming editor that has done well for me in the past.  Tried to do the find and replace.

Also slow.  Killed this about 10 minutes into the operation.  "It really shouldn't be taking this long."  What went wrong?  JEdit was out of memory.  I found that out from the command-line terminal where I launched jEdit.  Hmmm... Maybe some kind of error box would have been nice so I didn't just sit there for 10 minutes wondering. ;)

No more of this garbage.  We're going to the command line.

Always go to the command line.

I already knew about sed, but my memory was a little rusty on the command-line arguments.  After about 10 minutes, I finally found what I was looking for.

Converted the file in about 2 seconds.

Why is it that something that should take 2 seconds always takes 30 minutes?

Shell script for Google search result parsing

This is the shell script I wrote to help me perform the analysis I did for Quest 5.

1. Perform a site:yoursite.edu search in Google, displaying 100 results per page.
2. Save each page (Google will only give you 10 at most) into a folder named yoursite.edu
3. Download the shell script to the directory that contains the yoursite.edu directory.
4. At the command prompt, type:

./google-results-parse yoursite.edu

5. OR, if you named the yoursite.edu directory something different, run this:

./google-results-parse yoursite.edu savedresultsdirectory

6. It will create a "savedresultsdirectory-parsed" directory, which will contain a "domainlist" file and a "pagelinks" directory. The "domainlist" gives the subdomain breakdown of the search results.  The "pagelinks" folder contains files for each subdomain that include all of the search result URLs for that subdomain.

Download the file here.

Open Ed. Quest 5 -- Searching for a Better Way (to Search)

Quest 5

"Many BYU faculty already openly share their syllabi and other course materials on personal websites, through iTunesU, and through other mechanisms ... Find as many of the open educational resources being shared by BYU faculty as you can..."

It seems to me that discoverability is really going to be the ultimate make-or-break hinge issue for OER.  One could produce world class, high quality OER that trumps everything that any institutional OER effort produces, and yet remain in complete obscurity with no hope of ever actually sharing these wonderful OER with anyone at all.  And after all, if you take the time and trouble to make some kind of resource with openness in mind, it seems silly to have it be completely worthless (or at least, gravely underused) in the end because you weren't able to put it somewhere that people would find it.

This post isn't going to discuss the hows and whys of publishing open educational content for maximum discoverability. We'll save that for another time.  However, Quest 5 gives us the specific assignment to comb over BYU's web presence looking for faculty-produced OER content, and it begs the question, "How would one go about finding all of the OER on a university's web space?"

The task is not trivial.

Copyright in Distance Education

(It is at this time that I would like to make a plug for Creative Commons licenses.  Thank you.)

I think I've talked more about copyright this semester than at any other time in my entire life.  This is not surprising, however, as I would guess that I am like most people in many respects, and I am assuming that most people aren't well versed in the subtle nuances and intricacies of US copyright law, including the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH).

What a mouthful.

Accessibility in Online Distance Education Courses

A while back I ranted about Google's CAPTCHA human detection implementation, and how it is practically impossible sometimes to sign up for a Google Account.  But the moment of truth arrived when I listened to the accessibility recording of the CAPTCHA.  In case you forgot, I can summarize it with one word -- psychotropic.  (Usual disclaimers against drug use apply.  Seriously, kids, don't do drugs.)

So, this experience made me start thinking.  I've done my fair share of web development.  So, it's not like I was completely unfamiliar with accessibility issues.  I know that images need to have alternate text, I know that it's good practice to put a "Skip to the Content" link at the top of the page to skip over navigational links, etc., etc.  However, I didn't really begin to understand what it was all about until finally having an experience on the web were I was prevented from doing something I wanted to do because my senses were unable to decode the information being presented to me.

Quest 2 - For Real Now

Up to this point in the course we've done a lot of talking.  We've had great discussions about the history of the open education movement, usage rights, sustainability models, reusability, remixability--even hippies!--and just about everything in between.  But now it's time to get to work!  No more talking!  This is going to be fun.

So, looking ahead to Quest 6, we in our guilds will need to collaborate to create a course entirely out of open educational resources.  Because we have so little time left, we decided as a class that we would devote everything we do in the remaining quests to work toward our goals for Quest 6.

The course that we as a class originally (more on that later) decided to build is 10th grade social studies--World Civilizations.  We will attempt to build this course entirely from OERs that meet the Utah State K-12 Core Curriclum Standards for World Civilizations.

So I decided that for Quest 2 I would just jump into the pool and do my best to find as many OERs as possible that could help us meet the objectives and standards set out in the Utah K-12 Core.  This actually turned out to be the first time I've ever made a real attempt to collect a large number of OERs from multiple repositories for a single purpose.  Everything that follows here is a description of my first purposeful experience looking for OERs.

If at any point you feel like cutting to the chase, click on this link or just scroll to the end.

Accessibility Issues are No Laughing Matter

Except this one really made me laugh quite loudly.  I was trying to create a new Google account so there would be a webmaster email address for the BYU PSST research group's website.  As I went about happily filling out information for this new account, I suddenly hit a wall when Google wanted me to type in some letters that looked all swirly and mashed together like a trick one's eyes might be playing when one has been smoking peyote.  (I would, at this point, like to disclose that I have never actually smoked peyote and don't know if the preceding comparison is a good one or not.  I would also like to discourage anyone from smoking peyote to find out.  Moving on.)

History and Status of OER at BYU (DRAFT)

While the social climate for a policy of openness at BYU is currently in its nascent and humble stages, it is quickly gaining momentum.  Despite the lack of an official university-wide “open” policy at BYU, a number of open activities are already well under way.  To date, a growing number of OERs and OER-like resources are already offered through various channels on campus.

BYU Independent Study is one example of an organizational effort to contribute to the OER community.  IS already offers free access to a selection of their courses for personal development.  Additionally, IS will soon launch a pilot program to offer several of their most popular courses to all BYU students and the general open education community in a manner similar to OER initiatives currently underway at other universities.

One more such organizational effort is based in the McKay School of Education, which recently launched a pilot program to openly publish (with voluntary instructor participation) several School of Education courses.

In addition to these organizational efforts, many BYU faculty have, as individuals, posted personally developed course content in various ways to make these resources available to the general public.  Some faculty post course syllabi, reading lists, and other course content on personal websites, while other faculty have even recorded their lectures and published them on well known online media repositories such as iTunes and YouTube.

While each of these efforts is a step in the direction of openness, the efforts are typically isolated from each other.  The real power behind these efforts will be found in strength of numbers and unity of purpose.  Because many departments and individuals at BYU are already beginning to contribute to the OER movement, there is a clear need for a central repository of BYU-produced OERs.  The Center for Teaching and Learning is clearly the organization with the resources and momentum toachieve such an undertaking.

(Distance Ed) Week 6 - Findings

Article	Findings
Dalsgaard, C., & Mathiasen, H. (2008). Self-organized learning environments and university students' use of social software: A systems theoretical perspective. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(2). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Feb_08/article01.htm.	Finding: "The study of the two project groups suggests that a conference system offering asynchronous discussion forums and file sharing has the potential to support students' self-organized learning environment." My thoughts: The results of this study were not earth shattering.  Nor were they particularly bold.  I felt that they were timid, hedging their conclusions.  They concluded that social software in general can help support a self-organized learning environment.  I wouldn't have thought to argue with that in the first place, but it's good that they're not assuming anything, right? Finding: "Given that students are allowed to work independently and are provided with a range of tools, they are excellent in choosing the right media in a given context." My thoughts: I'm not sure that this study (with a sample size of 4) really justifies the generalization that "students are excellent in choosing the right media in a given context."
Ganjooei, B. A., & Rahimi, A. (2008). Language learning strategy use for EFL E-learners and traditional learners: A comparative study. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(12). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Dec_08/article01.htm.	Finding: "the education system has little influence on the way learners usually go about applying language learning strategies." Finding: "No significant differences were observed in regard to the frequency of occurrence of learners' use of strategies." My thoughts: I thought this was a valid research question, and I think it is interesting to see that there is no difference between online and F2F students regarding usage of learning strategies. Finding: "Learners with high language proficiency level showed more effective use of strategies whereas the learners with low level of proficiency usually failed to choose the appropriate learning strategies in their process of language learning." Finding: "There is a positive correlation between language proficiency level and application of subcategories of language learning strategies." Finding: "Analyzing the results from one-way Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA), one could claim that there were differences regarding language learning strategy use in each proficiency level, but contrasting each proficiency level two by two, no significant differences were observed." Finding: "Both language learning strategy use and language proficiency level can be predicted by each other." My thoughts: The study was well thought out, planned, and seems (in my limited knowledge of what good research is all about) to be rigorous in its methodology.
Gouge, C. (2008). Redesigning online instruction: theory and application. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(2). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Feb_08/article04.htm.	Finding: "Evaluations showed that what students valued most about the structure of the course was not any one individual demonstration or other aspect of the course (no matter how sophisticated the technology used to support it);" Finding: "students reported that they appreciated the variety of interactivity and opportunities to communicate with me and their classmates encouraged and made possible by the course structure." Finding: "90% of students cited the message board interaction with me and their peers as the most useful to their learning in the course." My Thoughts: This was a nice case study, Interesting to hear her personal results from this particular course redesign
Holbein, M. F. (2008). From traditional delivery to distance learning: Developing the model. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(8). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Aug_08/article05.htm.	Finding: "Sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture or small group discussion can actually be quite passive. Online learning is active and alive. Beyond the technology and instructional design lies the human element. Students want and need to be connected. The challenge for instructors is to help them build a sense of community so that while they may not see one another face-to-face, they know one another and share their ideas thereby contributing to learning for all." My thoughts: This one was more theory-based and focused on the importance of building community and interaction for an online setting to be instructionally effective.
Kiriakidis, P., & Parker, A. (2008). Faculty and learner interaction in online courses. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(11). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Nov_08/article03.htm.	Finding: The relationship between the extent of faculty interaction and the extent of learner interaction in online courses was found to be of statistical significance (r = .763, p < .01). " Finding: "The findings of this study suggest that there is a direct relationship between faculty and learner interaction in online courses." My thoughts: No argument here.  Teachers interact with students more = students interact with teachers more.
Kok, A. (2007). Metamorphosis of the mind of online communities via E-Learning. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(10). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Oct_08/article03.htm.	Finding: "Recognizing the learners' input, providing opportunities to develop a sense of group cohesiveness, maintaining the group as a unit and helping learners to work collaboratively may increase the effectiveness of online communities." My thoughts: Mostly theory based; conclusions seem valid.
Kupczynski, L., Davis, R., Ice, P., & Callejo, D. (2008). Assessing the impact of instructional design and organization on student achievement in online courses. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(1). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_08/article01.htm.	Finding: "The original intent of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between instructional design / organization and student performance in online courses. None of the three methods revealed a relationship between the predictor and criterion variables."
Royal, P., & Bell, P. (2008). The relationship between performance levels and test delivery methods. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(7). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jul_08/article05.htm.	Finding: "There was a difference between student performance and test delivery method. However, the overall difference was not significant." My thoughts: Surprising.  I would've thought that there would be a much higher achievement rate on exams that were non-proctored.
Shi, S., Bonk, C., Tan, S., & Mishra, P. (2008). Getting in sync with synchronous: The dynamics of synchronous facilitation in online discussions. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(5). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/May_08/article01.htm.	Finding: Moderators effectively moderate an online  group discussion by posting messages with "hooks on both ends" Finding: "When a moderator was demonstrating and modeling, hopefully within the zones of proximal development of most or all of the participants and coupled with deep engagement with real issues related to the topic, participants were drawn into the discourse. Finding: "when individuals operate on each other's reasoning, they become aware of contradictions between their logic and that of their partners. The struggle to resolve these contradictions might very well propel them to new and higher levels of understanding." Finding: Moderators can effectively moderate an online group discussion by establishing group norms. Finding: Moderators can effectively moderate an online group discussion by trying to accommodate for students' social-emotional needs. My thoughts: A "best practices" type of article.  From their experience, they collected a number of things moderators can do to provide high quality online group discussions for distance education situations.
Young, B., Hausler, J., & Sanders, J. W. (2008). Do online students exhibit different learning styles than onsite students? International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(4). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Apr_08/article02.htm.	Finding: "While we found students who preferred visual learning were slightly less inclined to prefer online classes, we found no one discernable learning style to be prevalent in most of our online classes.  Preferences were more likely dictated by other considerations than learning styles." My thoughts: This finding was surprising to me, and I think it made for a good study.  I would have thought that online courses would appeal to a specifically different type of learner.

Quest 1 - Reusability in the Land of OERs

Aaron's Rogue Quest 1

"Carefully review the following sites that publish open educational resources, noting the types of media predominantly used by each site and any site characteristics that seem unique. Pay close attention to the quality of reusability exhibited by the media from each site.  Be certain to review a sufficient sample of courses per site to gain accurate insight into their practice. Write a substantive post with references on the variety of media, touching on the reusability aspect of each medium type you encountered."

In this post, I have sampled a number of courses from each of the following websites that offer open educational resources.

MIT OCW
Berkeley
Yale
Stanford
Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
Connexions
Open University of the UK

Throughout the rest of this post, I intend to discuss each of the different media types of OERs that I found on these sites, discussing their strengths and weaknesses with particular regard to the 4 Rs of Reusability and the SLAM (or, less violently, the ALMS) analysis (from our in-class discussion on 15 Jan. 2009).

(Distance Ed) Week 5 - Theoretical Foundations

So, here is a brief synthesis of the theoretical foundations from the 10 articles I chose.

Constructivist

Also, Garrison was quoted a number of times in the context of "communities of inquiry." Several of the papers didn't really boast of anything that could be considered a theoretical foundation. Or if they did, they sure didn't make it explicit. How annoying.

In response to Charles' thoughts on Learner Autonomy

This post originally started out as a comment reply to a comment from Charles in reply to this post. (Sorry, couldn't think of a better way to write that.) It eventually became long enough to become a post of its own, and thus worth more points for my Distance Ed class. (YEAH!)

"In my view learner autonomy can be a good thing and a bad thing."

You know, you are absolutely right. At first I disagreed with your statement, thinking that we had just been using a different definition of "learner autonomy." I was using the phrase to designate only the quality and extent of the autonomy characteristic exhibited by the learner, and I thought you were using it to describe the degree of autonomy encouraged or allowed by the instructor.

However, despite the possibility of our using different definitions of the phrase, I am nonetheless forced to agree with you after more careful consideration of the matter. Imagine a classroom full of learners who are fully autonomous, needing no help at all from the teacher, and can come to all of the correct answers on their own, solely through interaction with the textbook. (Please ignore for a moment, if you will, the fact that the situation just described is, arguably, a contradiction.) Now, imagine a classroom full of students who, in order to truly learn the content, desperately need the instructor to hold their hands and spoon-feed them all course content. The first scenario I described sounds much less easier to me as an instructor, and thus much more appealing. So learner autonomy is obviously a good thing, right?

Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance

While reading several of Moore's descriptions of his own Transactional Distance Theory (hereafter TDT), I found myself saying unusually large numbers of "yeps" and "uh-huhs". This is troubling to me, only because I tend to think that sometimes I do not read academic literature with a sufficiently critical eye. However, based on my observations of those students in my graduate program that are senior to me, I believe that developing a healthy sense of skepticism is inevitable (although to what extremes it can still be considered "healthy" is debatable). But, I digress.

Still, I think he's got a good theory here! In any case, I felt like I could understand and relate to a lot of Moore's ideas. Of course, I haven't done any empirical research myself on this theory, but everything he stated seems congruent with my recollection of my own experiences. And where my experiences are different from others' experiences, I don't have to work too hard to imagine how it might still apply to them as well.

I won't attempt to cover everything about the theory here (no sense in rewriting Moore's work), but I think it will be helpful to clarify what the major points of his theory are, and I may write a few thoughts on them as I go along.

(DistanceEd) Report for Week 4 - METHODS

Synthesis

Data Collection
7 Studies, 3 Theory
4 out of 7 studies used surveys / questionnaires
3 out of 7 studies used online postings and transcriptions
2 out of 7 studies used test / assessment data

Data Analysis

• Quantitative
  
  
  
  • Descriptive
  
  
  • Inferential
  
  
  
  


• Qualitative
  
  
  
  • Discourse analysis
  
  
  • Thematic analysis
  
  
  • Triangulation
  
  
  
  


• Mixed Methods

Quest 0.5 - Sustainability in Open Education

"Carefully review at least 50 pages of information on issues relating to the sustainability of the open education movement. Write a post describing the nature and level of success of sustainability work in the field."

Success is doing what you set out to do or, in other words, achieving your goals. And this really is what sustainability is all about. This is why Wiley (2007, p.5) defines sustainability as "an open educational resource project's ongoing ability to meet its goals."

So, to discuss the "nature and level of success of sustainability work in the field," we really need first to talk about what our goals actually are. Stated more generally, to talk about sustainability in the context of one's own OER project, one must first understand what the project's goal's are (Wiley, 2007, p. 19). For right now, let's talk about overall goals for the field of open educational resources in general, leaving aside for the moment any discussion about institutional OER projects.

Quest 0.4 - Creative Commons (CC) Licenses

"Carefully review the Creative Commons licenses (http://creativecommons.org/). Write a post describing the different licenses."

The Creative Commons website identifies six main license types. For each license listed is provided a brief summary, a link to a "human-readable" description of the specific conditions of the license, and a link to the full-blown license text, which one might suppose could be described as "lawyer-readable".

After reading the full text of a couple of the licenses, I began to lose my will to live. I guess there's a reason I'm looking to become an instructional technologist instead of a doctor of jurisprudence. However, here is my best attempt to summarize the things I learned.

(Distance Ed) Report for Week 3 - CONTEXT

Article	Context and Unit of Analysis
Dalsgaard, C., & Mathiasen, H. (2008). Self-organized learning environments and university students' use of social software: A systems theoretical perspective. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(2). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Feb_08/article01.htm.	Context: Information and Media Studies, University of Aarhus, Denmark, in 2005 2 project groups, two students each 1 group geographically separated 1 group close proximity 4 month project work Unit of Analysis Effect of social media (Web 2.0) software on students' development of self-organized learning environments
Ganjooei, B. A., & Rahimi, A. (2008). Language learning strategy use for EFL E-learners and traditional learners: A comparative study. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(12). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Dec_08/article01.htm.	Context 200 Iranian undergraduate EFL learners arranged in two groups 100 learners selected from Shiraz Virtual University, exposed to an e-learning program 100 learners going through a traditional course studying at Shiraz University Unit of Analysis Relationship between E/T learning and types of learning strategies preferred by those groups
Gouge, C. (2008). Redesigning online instruction: theory and application. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(2). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Feb_08/article04.htm.	NA (Theory)
Holbein, M. F. (2008). From traditional delivery to distance learning: Developing the model. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(8). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Aug_08/article05.htm.	NA (Theory)
Kiriakidis, P., & Parker, A. (2008). Faculty and learner interaction in online courses. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(11). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Nov_08/article03.htm.	Context Online institution of higher education offering graduate level education degree programs entirely online regionally accredited there are no residency requirements all communications and interactions between learners and instructors take place online using email and forums using the institution's computer server faculty are not required to participate in asynchronous discussion forums learners are required to participate in asynchronous discussion forums in order to receive a grade for each forums Asynchronous discussions are text-based, mandatory, and contribute between 5% and 25% of each learner's final grade A learner meets the course requirements on postings even with one complete posting to each question posted by the instructor in each lesson or module of online courses Only interactions of five words or more, posted by either faculty or student, were considered in this research. Unit of Analysis Relationship between the quantity of instructor responses in an online forum and subsequent student responses
Kok, A. (2007). Metamorphosis of the mind of online communities via E-Learning. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(10). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Oct_08/article03.htm.	NA (Theory)
Kupczynski, L., Davis, R., Ice, P., & Callejo, D. (2008). Assessing the impact of instructional design and organization on student achievement in online courses. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(1). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_08/article01.htm.	Content Students in Rio Grande Valley of south Texas and attending class at South Texas College Students have the opportunity to complete certificate programs through the Bachelor of Applied Technology degree Participants were enrolled in online courses in a variety of subjects, ranging from developmental education through senior level class work in all areas of instruction Course design utilizes WebCT for synchronous or asynchronous instruction determined by the instructor's preference During the Fall 2005 semester, one or more sections of 75 different courses were offered. The survey instrument was administered to 2,157 students enrolled in one or more online courses with no incentive for participation offered. A total of 362 participants (response rate = 16.8%) chose to complete the survey. Unit of Analysis Relationship between instructional design and organization and student performance
Royal, P., & Bell, P. (2008). The relationship between performance levels and test delivery methods. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(7). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jul_08/article05.htm.	Context A cohort of undergraduate students enrolled in two on-campus sections and one distance learning session of an undergraduate applied medical sciences course All three sections had the same instructor, read the same textbook, had access to the same course content via the same web-based learning platform and had access to video recordings of weekly on campus learning sessions Students from all three course sessions were randomly divided into two groups. One group completed their exams via web-based delivery with supervision, while the other half completed exams via web-based delivery without supervision. Unit of Analysis Relationship between test performance and test delivery methods, particularly for those taking proctored versus un-proctored online exams.
Shi, S., Bonk, C., Tan, S., & Mishra, P. (2008). Getting in sync with synchronous: The dynamics of synchronous facilitation in online discussions. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(5). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/May_08/article01.htm.
Young, B., Hausler, J., & Sanders, J. W. (2008). Do online students exhibit different learning styles than onsite students? International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 5(4). Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Apr_08/article02.htm.

Quest 0.2 - Motivating Factors for the Establishment of Open Education

"Carefully review at least 20 pages describing motivations for the open education movement. Write a substantive post with references on the motivations of the movement."

Carmack, J. K. (2004). The Perpetual Education Fund: A Bright Ray of Hope. Ensign, (January), 37-43.
Hinckley, G. B. (2002). Reaching Down to Lift Another. Liahona, (January), 60-62, 67.
Wiley, D. A. (2006). Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education: Panel on Innovative Teaching and Learning Strategies.

I had wanted to start out this post with some explicit definitions of my terminology (thanks, Jeremy =D). While looking for a definition of the word education, I decided that this is actually a difficult concept to define precisely, given its broad scope and its relevance to almost everything that happens in our everyday lives. So for the sake of this discussion, when I say "education" just assume that I am referring primarily to institutions of higher learning.

I'm also going to commit another oversimplification and define the open education movement as making "education" available to everyone.

You don't need to be current on the considerable amount of debate that has taken place with respect to the open education movement to realize that providing "education" to "everyone" is an extremely ambitious goal facing some formidable obstacles. But instead of focusing on these obstacles and asking questions such as who will be handing over the cash to make this kind of thing happen, I would like to ask a more fundamental question -- Why is open education something that we should be desperately trying to achieve?

It turns out that open education has something sweet for everybody.

Quest 0.3 - A Comparison of MIT OCW and CMU OLI

"Carefully review five (5) random courses from MIT OCW (http://ocw.mit.edu/) and five (5) random courses from CMU OLI (http://www.cmu.edu/oli/). Write a post on the different ideals of quality expressed in the differing course designs; describe how you feel the different designs reflect on the different universities."

Click here to see a list of the courses I reviewed and a comparison of some of their respective features.

First, let's start with MIT OCW. Specifically, let's start with their website. I came to the website, and, looking around for a second, quickly found where the free stuff was. I clicked on the "Courses" tab and was presented with a daunting list of Department links. Let's see ... "Electrical Engineering and Computer Science." Click. Then, an even more daunting list of the courses themselves. With over 1800 courses on one page it seemed a bit cumbersome. OK, I'm just complaining. But there really is something psychologically intimidating about being confronted by 1800 hypertext links all at once.

(DistanceEd) Report for Week 2 - QUESTIONS

The following represents the questions posed in the 10 journal articles I have chosen:

Quest 0.1 - A (Very) Brief History of Open Education

"Carefully review at least 50 pages of historical information on the open education movement. Write a brief summary post on the history of the movement."

The modern history of the Open Education movement essentially began in 1992 with the development of the internet.  While some may argue this point, I believe it is true to say that, despite the existence of all the prerequisite conditions for the formation of the OE movement, the absence of the internet (or some other medium serving the purpose currently served by the internet) would make the very idea of an open education movement an impossibility.