Web-Based Open Content
Communities for Technical
Education
By Kwok-Bun Yue
(joint work with Andrew Yang, Wei Ding & Ping Chen)
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Innovation 2004 at NASA JSC Gilruth Center
August 20, 2004
[email protected]
1
Abstracts

Describe a model for building an Open
Content Community (OCC) for
developing educational materials.
 Based
on the Open Source Software
(OSS) model.
 High degree of collaboration.
 Comprehensive.
 Content rich.
 Freely distributable.
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 2
Contents
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May 2004
Introduction
Related Work: Existing Models
The Basic UHCL OCC Model
More UHCL OCC Model Details
Conclusions and Future Work
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 3
Introduction: Effective Technical
Education

Learning and teaching customized to
individuals: catering to varying
 Background
 Need
 Interest
 Capability
 Learning
May 2004
and Teaching Style
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 4
The Problem Domain
Issues:
•Quality
•Completeness
•Richness
•Freely Distributable
•…
Courseware
Issues:
•Development
•Management
•Interoperability
•…
Courseware
Raw
Educational
Materials
Courseware
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 5
Courseware Development
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May 2004
Development/Management: e.g.
CMS/LMS such as WebCT,
Blackboard, etc.
Interoperability/reusability: knowledge
captures; e.g. SCORM, OKI, etc.
A lot of activities: but not our basic
concern.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 6
Educational Material Development
Raw
Educational
Materials
Instructors
Courseware
Learners/students
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 7
Existing Internet Resources
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May 2004
Varying quality.
Scattered
Contents may not be rich.
Contents may not be complete.
May have copyright problems.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 8
Desirable Features

Desirable features of educational
materials:
 Quality
 Comprehensive:
completeness
 Rich content: abundance of materials
 Freely accessible/distributable
 Ease of uses
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 9
Current Section
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May 2004
Introduction
Related Work: Existing Models
The Basic UHCL OCC Model
More UHCL OCC Model Details
Conclusions and Future Work
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 10
One Approach: Repositories
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Various kinds of repositories.
 May
address some of the problems
 But usually not all.
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 11
Educational Repositories
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Comparing different models/sites:
 Merlot:
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po.
 MIT’s Open CourseWare:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html.
 Rice’s Connexion Project:
http://cnx.rice.edu/.
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 12
Merlot (1)
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Free annotations and reviewed links to
external resources.
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po;
example resource link.
Addressed:
 Quality:
peer review by panels.
 Richness: repository.
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May 2004
Not well addressed: copyright,
completeness, ease of uses.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 13
Merlot (2)
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
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Merlot (3)
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 15
MIT Open CourseWare (1)
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http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
About 500 open courseware now.
All 2,000 courses open by 2007.
Open license based on Creative Commons.
Extremely successful:

May 2004
Wired magazine article:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/mit_pr.h
tml MIT’s full commitment and well funded.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 16
MIT Open Courseware (2)
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May 2004
High quality
Open source-like copyright
Ease of use: especially for students
Richness: limited by courses
Completeness: topics limited by MIT
offering; contents set by MIT authors
Collaboration: within MIT.
Community: not interactive.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 17
MIT OCW Example
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 18
Rice's Connexions Project (1)
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May 2004
http://cnx.rice.edu/index_html; an
example: CNXML.
Collaborative, community-driven
approach for courseware development.
Module-based and open source.
Connexions modules:
http://cnx.rice.edu/content/view.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 19
Rice's Connexions Project (2)
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May 2004
Coarse-grained object model.
Tools for authoring and browsing
courseware.
CNXML to capture courseware.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 20
Rice's Connexions Project (3)
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May 2004
Quality: post-publication communitybased reviews; smaller sets of authors.
Richness: limited by modules.
Copyright: open source
Ease of uses: dedicated tools with high
consistency.
Completeness: depends on
developers; no structure for support.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 21
Open Source Software (OSS)
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May 2004
Highly successful.
Not just a software, but a development
model.
Applicable to courseware
development?
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 22
SourceForge.net
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http://sourceforge.net/
Community-based site for open source
software (OSS) development.
Provides services, tools, visibility, etc,
to OSS projects.
April 28, 2004:
 Hosted
Projects: 80,230 (+12,000 in 7
months)
 Registered Users: 837,960 (+140,000)
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 23
Some OSS Lessons
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May 2004
Community-based: sourceforge.net.
High degree of collaboration.
Maintained by dedicated developers.
Natural evolution: survival of the
fitness.
Low cost of entry => natural evolution.
Flexibility => natural evolution.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 24
Brief Summary
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May 2004
Many repositories with different
models.
Each has its strength and weakness.
None (except Rice’s Connexions) close
to OSS in building a OSS-like
community.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 25
Current Section
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May 2004
Introduction
Related Work: Existing Models
The Basic UHCL OCC Model
More UHCL OCC Model Details
Conclusions and Future Work
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 26
The UHCL OCC model

Similar approach to Rice's Connexion
project:
 Community-based
 Open

source
Differences:
 Different
use case model
 Object model
 Finer
grain
 More flexible structure
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 27
Model Design
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UCHL OCC:
 Lightweight
 Tightly
modeling sourceforge.net.
 Educational materials: “cut and paste”.
 Courseware development: secondary.
 Courseware hosting: optional.
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 28
Simplified Connexions Objects
Module
May 2004
0..*
use
0..*
Course
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page 29
Connexions Module
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 30
Connexions Design
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May 2004
High consistency and ease of use
CNXML to capture knowledge.
Suitable for content
development/courseware hosting.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 31
Potential Issues in Connexions
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Higher cost of entry: developers need
to develop an entire module; cannot
contribute just an example or a case
study, for example; have pros & cons.
Lower degree of collaboration.
Lack of structures in modules:
 To
enhance completeness
 For browsing.
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 32
UHCL OCC Object Model
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 33
OCC Modules
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May 2004
Modules: independent units for topics
and subtopics.
May contain or require other modules.
Modules may contain embedded or
external Knowledge Units (KU).
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 34
OCC KU
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May 2004
Knowledge Units (KU) are actual
educational contents: lecture notes,
exercises, examples, assignments,
resource links, case studies, etc.
KU exist independently by themselves.
A KU can be used by many modules.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 35
OCC Courses
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May 2004
Courses are collections of modules
and KUs.
Unlike Rice's Connexions, courses are
not necessarily hosted in the OCC site.
Instructors pick, mix and modify to
build their own courses.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 36
Current Section

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

May 2004
Introduction
Related Work: Existing Models
The Basic UHCL OCC Model
More OCC Model Details
Conclusions and Future Work
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 37
OCC users
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May 2004
Workgroups: create and manage the
projects; plan required modules.
Developers: develop modules and KU.
Instructors: access OCC repository to
create courses; share experience.
Regular users: access OCC repository
to learn.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 38
OCC Object Contents

Two options:
 Any
format the workgroup of the project
wants to use.
 OCC's supplied XML.
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 39
OCC Site

Features (model after sourceforge.net):
 Support
the OCC model.
 Version Controls.
 Community building tools: help wanted,
module/KU request, bug fixes, etc.
 Quality Control: pre- and post-publication
reviews.
 Browsing and searching features
 Promotional features
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 40
OCC Quality Control
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Support both kinds of review:
 Pre-publications
 Post-publications
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May 2004
OCC provides a range of prepublication review mechanisms for
projects to use.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 41
Benefits of the UHCL OCC model
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Low cost of entry
 Finer
objects
 More flexibility: workgroups select the best
format/process for their projects.
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May 2004
High degree collaboration
Structures to plan sub-modules for
completeness
Complementary to other approach,
such as Rice’s Connexions.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 42
The UHCL OCC Solution
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May 2004
Copyright: open source
Quality: varying
Richness: high level of collaboration.
Completeness: high level of
collaboration; structures for planning
sub-modules.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 43
Current Section





May 2004
Introduction
Related Work: Existing Models
The Basic UHCL OCC Model
More UHCL OCC Model Details
Conclusions and Future Work
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 44
Conclusions (1)

May 2004
Presented a model of OCC for
developing educational materials
based on OSS.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 45
Conclusions (2)
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
Individual ideas: nothing new.
Putting it together:
 Potentials
 Challenges
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May 2004
Worthy to attempt: sourceforge.net for
educational materials.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 46
Sustainable Business Model?
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May 2004
Low development cost
Low maintenance cost
Sourceforge.net is a good precedence.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 47
OCC Team
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May 2004
Kwok-Bun Yue, Andrew Yang and Wei
Ding (UHCL)
Ping Chen (UHD).
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 48
What Have Been Done?

Have built a beta prototype system:
 Support
the basic OCC model
 Some form of version control.
 Some community building tools: helps
wanted; module request.
 Some browsing and searching features
 Some promotional features
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 49
Publications
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May 2004
Yue, K., Yang, T., Ding, W. & Chen, P., A model for
open content communities to support effective
learning and teaching, Proceedings of the IADIS
International Conference on Web-based
Communities 2004, pp 533-536, Lisbon, Portugal,
April 2004.
Yue, K., Yang, T., Ding, W. & Chen, P., Open
Courseware and Computer Science Education,
accepted by the Thirteenth Annual Consortium for
Computing Sciences in Colleges: Rocky Mountain
Conference, October 22-23, 2004, Utah Valley
State College, Orem, Utah.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 50
Future Work
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May 2004
Build a more stable OCC prototype
with a fuller set of features.
Invite developers/instructors to start
projects.
Get seed funding.
Write technical papers.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 51
Summary
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May 2004
OCC has the potentials to change how
course material is developed.
OCC may complement other
approaches.
The OCC team is working on various
technical issues and proposal
development.
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 52
Thank you and discussion!
May 2004
http//dcm.cl.uh.edu/yue; [email protected]
page 53