Open Curriculum and Textbook Development: some initial ideas V Balaji ICRISAT

Open Educational Resources- UNESCO 2002  Operating Definition: “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by ICTs, for consultataion, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes”  Wikipedia-linked Wikiversity is just emerging  Two examples: The OCW Consortium The OpenLearn-UK

Wider Use of ICT Inspired Open Course Sharing  MIT’s OCW in 2002 Only syllabus and lecture notes  MIT’s OCW now An international consortium- includes over 75 universities in 21 countries MIT Courses can be “modified” by a consortium member Delivery/credits entirely administered by the member

OpenLearn Initiative of the UKOU  Launched in 2005  Currently has 5000 hours of study material; equal size in “LabSpace”  Creative Commons licensing  Key Learning: Allow “re-mixing” for more effective use globally This needs to be offered ab initio, upfront, not later

A few more ongoing efforts..  Rice University Connexions  The Sakai Project  The BCcampus  The Freecourseware Project, South Africa  The NPTEL Project in Engineering Education, India

What is in it for Agriculture?  The Positives First: Sharing of courses is highly feasible, despite persistence of IP issues “re-mixes”, “playlists” of content are emerging into educational practice Quality control of re-purposing can be a community-facilitated process

The Limitations  Internet Access from a PC Essential for Learning  Tight Binding to a Learning Management System, however Open or Proprietary  Suits formal education requirements but not the Open Learning Requirements always

Towards a Rural Agriculture- influenced Perspective  Separate Content Creation and Validation Processes from Access, Delivery and Exchange Processes Facilitate content generation in a “granular” form; compatible with Learning Objects practice  Former can be in mostly digital realm; use Web 2.0 tools with Semantic Web techniques

Perspective Ideas Continued  Access need not be limited to PC- based Internet  Accept mobile telephones and similar devices as key access methods by learners  Enable re-purposing for highly contextualised use: community radio, local cable TV scripting, short pieces in print or video

Outputs can be in Different Formats! Whether employing physical or electronic devices for output, the process of LO creation does NOT change!  Posters, Brochures, flyers  Conventional print products  Mobile  Web  Radio  Television  Performances VASAT content generation model (IIT-Kanpur)

Semantic VASAT Wiki Ingredients + + = FAO’s AGROVOC provides the Ontology to link information objects in the Wiki facilitated by OntoWorld’s Semantic Tool Semantic ToolMediaWiki S/w FAO’s AGROVOC Semantic VASAT Wiki

Wiki Article External Website Aggregate Content Content Aggregation from different sources using eXe Export Content

Content Organization Ontology, Wiki-like interface NARS Intl. agencies Pvt NARS agencies Commodity Markets Weather / Meteorology Dynamic Data SAUs K-Base Imagery/ Maps VIC’s NGOs DoA Q&A; activities log

Interfaces OA Repository Knowledge Organization LMS e-Learning Multi-modal Delivery Services Users Collaboration and Capacity Building processes act as the glue to various components here Smart interfaces VKCs Call centers Print Fixed / mobile Phones T.V / Radio Stakeholders

The Opportunities Are Many…  Communities of content producers will play a critical role: that is where Web 2.0 and Social Networking need to be brought in  Wiki-like content creation, validation, maintenance essential  New semantic tools should be considered for ease of search, navigation and aggregation  Quite some engineering work pending but let’s not wait…..