Syllabus

INST 7150 Introduction to Open Education, Fall 2007

Participants

If you don't have a blog, please get a free one from somewhere like Blogger or Wordpress. A blog is required for this course. (If you need help getting started, go to setting up a blog). To read posts from past participants of this course, please visit the syllabus page on the OpenContent wiki.

Goals of the Course

The goals of the course are (1) to give you a firm grounding in the current state of the field of open education, including related topics like copyright, licensing, and sustainability, (2) to help you locate open education in the context of mainstream instructional technologies like learning objects, and (3) to get you thinking, writing, and dialoguing creatively and critically about current practices and possible alternative practices in open education.

Expectations

This is a 3 credit graduate-level course. You should plan on investing approximately 12 hours a week in class-related work. Honestly, the course is going to be a lot of work, but I promise you a great experience if you invest the effort I'll ask of you.

Class Meetings

This class meets only asynchronously online. We may hold optional, synchronous "social" meetings during the semester.

Assignments

Weekly Reading and Blogging

Each week you should read the assigned material and blog answers to the questions for the week, or simply complete assignments for weeks when there are no readings or questions. Your blogging should demonstrate your understanding of the assigned reading material and should include original thoughts and synthesis. Don't just summarize readings. Making connections between the week's readings and either previous readings or previous blogging (of your own or of other students!) is strongly encouraged. Blog posts should be made by 11:59pm Sunday night the week the reading is assigned (see Late Work Policy below).

Elective Reading Synopses

During the course you should select a longer piece of writing from the Elective Reading Synopses list below in the Schedule. Begin this reading early in the course, and complete the reading and post answers to the questions about your piece as your Weekly Reading and Blogging for Week 9.

Late Work Policy

If your work is ever late, I may or may not accept the work and may or may not penalize the work, depending completely on my possibly grumpy, biased, or elated mood. If this does not seem fair to you, then do not be late with your work.

Grading

Each weekly assignment is worth 10 points, for a total of 150 possible points for the course. Weekly assignments will be graded according to (1) the degree to which they completely answer the questions asked, (2) the degree to which they demonstrate understanding of the assigned reading material, and (3) the degree to which original thinking is evident in the writing. An extra point may be awarded when a student draws on and references others student writing effectively. Final grades will be assigned based on the proportion of points earned to points possible as follows:

1.0	>	A	>=	.95
.95	>	A-	>=	.9
.9	>	B+	>=	.875
.875	>	B	>=	.85
.85	>	B-	>=	.8
.8	>	C+	>=	.775
.775	>	C	>=	.75
.75	>	C-	>=	.725
.725	>	F