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HOWEVER, as John Sener points out, much of the coalition building and many important developments are still under the radar for many who could be partners in OER’s development. As your comments have pointed out so far - many of the components for OER’s success are here or emerging: we have models, we have the start of competency standards, we have the beginning infrastructure, and we have some of the important makings of a revolution.

How can we get the word out and invite more thought-leaders and action-takers to participate?

8. educational imaginations - february 4th, 2008 at 8:21 am

Alternative Models of Higher Education…

Ahh, now this is nice. Writing for Terra Incognita (the blog of Penn State’s World Campus), Christine Geith searches for alternative models of higher education (here). She finds several, although evidently none which satisfy her fully. Ostensibly wri…

9. ken udas - february 5th, 2008 at 5:54 am

Follow Up To Leigh Blackwell

Hello Leigh, good to hear from you. I do not believe that there is a competency framework on the national level in the United States for tertiary education/study. This probably holds true for States also. I would think that in the US we would have to refer to certification, registration, and accrediting bodies to collect competencies for specific trades (pipe fitting, crane operation, electrical, etc.) and professions (nursing, engineering, teaching, law, etc.) and then build out OER (content and assessment). I would guess that a first port-of-call would be with tertiary institutions that are involved with preparing learners for professional that require competency based review for professional certification to practice. When I think about this, the task becomes a bit daunting. That said, the payoffs could be significant for self-directed learners, learners with financial challenges, and learners who have very restricted access to traditional educational programming (incarcerated for example). Am I wrong? Does anybody know of anybody in the US that is talking, thinking, or doing something about this?

10. leigh blackall - february 5th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

Hi Ken,

I reckon the first step would be to look at existing competencies internationally and see how useful they are to teachers in your local industries… the Australian or NZ units could offer a basic structure and expression standard that your people could use to build from, if only to begin thinking about your own versions, but more importantly I think, with a view to internationalising all our qualifiactions. Because the US doesn’t have units, I’d imagine it would be difficult for Australian and New Zealand workers to get immigration approval or recognition of their qualifications in the US. Not to mention people from other nations, or alternative approaches to learning. But thinking about it the other way around, US qualifications that somehow used or were measured with Australia/NZ units would more easily be recognised in Aust/NZ…

11. christine geith - february 6th, 2008 at 12:26 am

Posted at the request of Paul West:

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Source:  OpenStax, The impact of open source software on education. OpenStax CNX. Mar 30, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10431/1.7
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