Dr. M. S. Vijay Kumar Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing MIT TERENA 2004 Rhodes,, Greece An Open Educational Ecology Wednesday June 9,2004

"ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe” Thomas Jefferson Liberation Technology 1 1 John Unsworth - Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 30, 2004 Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Elements of the Ecology Open Content Open Tools Open Architecture Open Standards Open Systems Open Access

Bolstering the Commons of the Mind Open Content  MIT OpenCourseware (OCW) Open Architecture  Open Knowledge Initiative (O.K.I)

Educational Technology Strategy

MIT OpenCourseWare A New Model for Open Sharing

Open Content “OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive in a market-driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values. But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT. It is innovative. It expresses our belief in the way education can be advanced – by constantly widening access to information and by inspiring others to participate.” – Charles M. Vest, President of MIT Sept

Fall 1999 — Faculty committee appointed Fall 2000 — “OpenCourseWare” concept recommended to MIT President Charles M. Vest April 2001 — MIT OCW announced in The New York Times June 2001 — Funding partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation September 2002 — MIT OCW Pilot site opened to the public 50 courses from 23 academic disciplines September 2003 — MIT OCW officially launched: 500 courses from all five MIT schools and 33 academic disciplines April 2004 — 200 additional courses, bringing total to 701 Vision to Reality How Should MIT respond to the Opportunities of the Internet?

An MIT education Intended to represent or replace the interactive classroom environment A distance education initiative A Web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content Open and available to the world A permanent MIT activity MIT OpenCourseWare IS NOT: MIT OpenCourseWare IS: What Is MIT OCW?

Provide free, searchable, coherent access to all MIT course materials for educators, students, and individual learners around the world Create an efficient, standards-based model that other educational institutions may use to publish their own course materials Dual Mission: Open Content

Furthers MIT’s fundamental mission Embraces faculty values Teaching Sharing best practices with the greater community Contributing to their discipline Counters the privatization of knowledge and champions the movement toward greater openness Why Is MIT Doing This?

Design pub process Implement technology strategy Develop IP strategy Implement dept. liaison program Develop evaluation strategy Conduct baseline evaluation Partner with Universia (translation affiliate) Inventory content and improve quality Enhance site features and functions Add video materials Plot new content capture tactics Implement reporting strategy Conduct annual evaluations and focused studies Facilitate other opencoursewares Partner with translation/distribution affiliates Build awareness Foster learning communities Phase I Pilot Phase II Expansion Phase III Steady State Courses Publication Evaluation Outreach 701 Courses Each year: Add new courses: ~100 Revise existing: ~ 275 Archive old: ~ 100 Conduct annual evaluations and studies Collaborate with consortium members Vision Where We Are

Implementation: Publishing x00Courses Site Highlights  Syllabus  Course Calendar  Lecture Notes  Assignments  Exams  Problem/Solution Sets  Labs and Projects  Simulations  Tools and Tutorials  Video Lectures

Implementation Depth and Breadth

Publishing Environment MIT Facilities Content Distribution Network (Akamai) Thousands of servers around the world deliver MIT OCW course materials Implementation:Technology Origin Server Search, Feedback

Impact

Since 10/1/03* DecemberJanuaryFebruaryMarch Page Views20,604,4272,680,7943,311,6112,884,0613,025,412 Average Daily Visits *11,1039,27611,62411,17410,891 Average Monthly Visits *301,719287,546360,360324,058337,620 First-Time Visits*174,407172,536196,710174,961187,348 Monthly Repeat Visits *127,312115,010163,650149,097150,272 * Figures in italics are averages Impact: Access Data Site Traffic Overview

What It Means Traffic Volume by Geography Country Hits 11Brazil340,281 12France334,190 13Spain318,292 14Indonesia251,495 15Australia240,689 16Turkey239,972 17Colombia196,504 18Singapore185,495 19Mexico165,221 20Greece164,496 CountryHits 1India954,167 2Canada859,782 3China822,206 4U.K.672,339 5South Korea448,975 6Japan421,334 7Germany402,965 8Vietnam401,498 9Taiwan392,701 10Italy366,484 March 2004

Impact: Access Self-learners are 52% of visitors –Average of over 6000 daily visits –Most likely from North America (60% of North American visitors) Students are 31% of visitors –3600 daily visits Educators are 13% of the visitors –1550 visits per day –55% of educators teach at 4-year colleges or the equivalent –Almost 49% have less than 5 years teaching experience Almost 70% of users have a bachelors degree or higher

Impact: Use 5.7% response rate on 21,500 surveys Use Scenario% of Use Planning, developing or teaching a course36% Enhancing personal knowledge22% Planning curriculum10% Other32% Complementing a subject currently taking43% Enhancing personal knowledge40% Planning future course of study10% Other7% Enhancing personal knowledge81% Learning subject matter—course not available for study9% Planning future course of study8% Other2% Educators Students Self- learners

Other OCWs are beginning to appear Some using MIT materials, some using the format, some using the idea Impact: Emerging “opencoursewares”

Continues to be tremendous excitement The vision is achievable The impact of MIT OCW will be significant Impact: What Does It Mean?

"an open and extensible architecture that specifies how the components of an educational software environment communicate with each other and with other enterprise systems." Open Knowledge Initiative Open Standards

Motivation: from Extensible LMS…  Interoperable with campus infrastructures and other educational software  Flexible to meet a variety of Educational Needs  Scalable and Maintainable to…

...Architecture for Sustainable Ecology Open specifications that  describe how the components of a learning technology environment communicate with each other and with other campus systems.  clearly define points of interoperability to allow the components of a complex learning environment to be developed and updated independently of each other leading to…

Architectural Specification Benefits  Ability of learning technologies to be integrated together into an educational infrastructure.  Easier sharing of applications and content among institutions that can be a catalyst for cooperative and commercial development.  Lower long term cost of software ownership, as well as increased stability and reliability because single components, rather than entire systems, can be replaced or upgraded.

Infrastructure Goals  Linkage and Coherence across initiatives  Managing the Educational Content Lifecycle from Acquisition to Archiving  Efficiency in Production and Use  Effectiveness for educational use  Interoperable with Campus Infrastructures and other Educational Software  Flexible to meet a variety of Educational Needs  Sustainability

Data Specifications – IMS/SCORM Enterprise Application A Enterprise Application B Data

Enterprise Applications - Monolithic

Enterprise Applications - Factored

Ease of Application Portability and Infrastructure Transition

O.K.I. is:  Service based architecture specifications  Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)  Open source implementations  Open source exemplar applications  Educational Development Community Funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CMI, MIT

Core OKI Deliverables  16 Service Specifications/OSIDs  “Common Services”  Infrastructure systems critical to most enterprise applications  (AuthN; AuthZ……Logging, Messaging….Workflow)  “Educational Services”  ( Course Management; Assessment; Digital Repositories, Grading )  Reference Implementations  Direct value to ed apps  Exemplar Applications  Sustainability Strategies

OSID development funded by Mellon Foundation Common Services  Authentication  Authorization  SQL  Logging  Filing  Dictionary  Hierarchy  Group  ID  User Messaging  Scheduling  Workflow “Educational Services”  Course Management  Digital Repository  Assessment  Grading  … Other Domain Services?  …

O.K.I. Community  Institutional Partners  MIT, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, North Carolina State University, University of Michigan, Indiana University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Cambridge  IMS Global Learning Consortium Members  Assorted Institutional Projects

Vendor Engagement  IMS Global Learning Consortium  WebCT  Blackboard  Sun Microsystems  Giunti Interactive  Microsoft Corp  Learning Objects Network

OSID Based Projects LMS Projects -- Stellar/MIT, Oncourse/Indiana, Chef/UMichigan VUE -- Tufts University Navigo/SAM -- Stanford, Indiana Lionshare - Penn State University Segue/Harmoni - Middlebury College Digital Library Systems -- Fedora, EduSource (CA), DSpace, Celebrate (EU )

Michigan CHEF Framework CourseTools WorkTools Indiana Navigo Assessment Eden Workflow OneStart Oncourse MIT Stellar Stanford CourseWork Assessment OKI OSIDs uPortal SAKAI 2.0 Release Tool Portability Profile Framework Services-based Portal SAKAI Tools Complete CMS Assessment Workflow Research Tools Authoring Tools Primary SAKAI Activity Refining SAKAI Framework, Tuning and conforming additional tools Intensive community building/training Activity: Ongoing implementation work at local institution… Jan 04 July 04May 05Dec 05 Activity: Maintenance & Transition from a project to a community SAKAI 1.0 Release Tool Portability Profile Framework Services-based Portal Refined OSIDs & implementations SAKAI Tools Complete CMS Assessment Primary SAKAI Activity Architecting for JSR-168 Portlets, Refactoring “best of” features for tools Conforming tools to Tool Portability Profile "Best of" Sakai Core Project Open Systems Refactoring

The O.K.I. Solution  Focus on Service Based architecture specifications (data/metadata specifications are “doing fine”)  Identify software infrastructure services critical to eLearning applications  Define interfaces to them. Don’t define how to implement them!  Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)

Integration Effort as a Function of System Complexity Effort Complexity

OSIDs…  Provide Architectural Model for software interoperability  Allow for easy mobility of application tools among enterprise infrastructures  Provide software developers with common, yet flexible, specifications for collaboration  Define boundaries between “user facing” applications and critical services (“MiddleWare”)  Help to “Future Proof” against changing technologies  Enable “marketplace” of software components  Are about Architecture, NOT Technology

Interoperabilty and Integration  Multiple Repositories and Protocols Multiple Repositories and Protocols  Service Abstractions Service Abstractions

Endgame 1  Enable the movement and manipulation of educational materials - Simply, Meaningfully?  Portabilty  Interoperability  Reusability,

Endgame “What is the problem to which headlamp washer-wipers are the solution?” Neil Postman. Educom Conference 1992 An ecology characterized by open, community or Proprietary Source commodities that provide :  Value (heterogeneous)  Choice (for customer)  Sustainability

 Thank You  Questions? Vijay Kumar

Many Repositories… IDC I BM Remote IDC Institutional Local

Many Repository Related Protocols… IDC I BM IDC SOAP SRW HTML Z39.50 File System DRI Remote Local Institutional

Many Data Specs/Standards… IDC I BM IDC SOAP SRW HTML Z39.50 DRI Remote Institutional Mark DC LOM SCORM METS IMS CP Local File System

Service Abstractions for Interoperability Open Systems App. 1 Applications App. 2 Application ClientServers Network Service A 1 Network Service B Network Service A 2

Service Abstractions for Interoperability Open Systems App. 1 OSID Applications App. 2 Application ClientServers Network Service A 1 Network Service B Network Service A 2

Service Abstractions for Interoperability Open Systems App. 1 Imp. A – Protocol Connector (plus Local Business Logic) Imp. B – Protocol Connector OSID Implementations Applications App. 2 Application ClientServers Protocol A Protocol B Network Service A 1 Network Service B Network Service A 2

Service Abstractions for Interoperability Open Systems App. 1 Imp. A – Protocol Connector (plus Local Business Logic) Imp. B – Protocol Connector OSID Imp. C - Local Connector Local Service C Implementations Applications App. 2 Application ClientServers Protocol A Protocol B Network Service A 1 Network Service B Network Service A 2

Service Abstractions for Interoperability Open Systems App. 1 Imp. A – Protocol Connector (plus Local Business Logic) Imp. B – Protocol Connector OSID Imp. C - Local Connector Local Service C Implementations Applications App. 2 Application ClientServers Protocol A Protocol B Network Service A 1 Network Service B Network Service A 2 Data

Sakai Architecture App. 1 OSIDs App. 2 App. 3 App. 4 JSR169 Enabled Portal JSR 168 Portlet API Open Systems

Endgame “What is the problem to which headlamp washer-wipers are the solution?” Neil Postman. Educom Conference 1992 An ecology characterized by open, community or proprietary source commmodities that provide :  Value (heterogeneous)  Choice (for customer)  Sustainability