This document discusses the benefits of open education and online collaboration. It notes that open courses can create positive feedback loops for students, improve writing and reflection, and allow students to engage with course content on their own time. Open courses build content once that can be tweaked as needed. They also enable students to engage others outside the class, including professionals. The document provides examples of open courses from local universities and Harvard and lists over 700 free online courses from top universities. It discusses using tools like WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr for open courses rather than traditional learning management systems. Finally, it addresses what defines an open course and how open courses can promote collaboration through discussion.

1. Open Education and
Online Collaboration

2. Pedagogy
Why support Open Education?
● Creating a positive feeback loop (between
students and cohort, between students and
the world, between students and instructor)
● Improved writing
● Improved reflection
Example: http://ed655-2012.community.uaf.edu/ the class blog for Online
Pedagogy. I have hardly seen students write as well as this! You are asking
them to perform in an open arena. It makes a big difference in performance.

3. Practical Benefits of Open Courses
● Build content once and tweak as necessary
● Students interact with content on their own
time (in other words, flipping the classroom;
less strain on synchronous education and
bandwidth)
● Students may be encouraged to engage
others outside of the class, including
professionals and other interested parties
● Take advantage of all the tools that are out
there, like Google Presentation, for engaging
students with material in new ways

4. Examples of Open Course
Local: http://idesign.uaf.edu/courses/opencourses/
Straight-forward example: http://ps220.community.uaf.edu
Harvard has many open courses. They have several
different format types (video, podcast, website).
Here is an example:
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-
initiative/world-war-history
More examples? Open Culture's list of 700+ free online
courses from top universities:
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

5. Open Course Software/Tools
We often use commercial blogging platforms
for our classes, such as:
● Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc.
What distinguishes these form the LMS
platforms which are traditionally used for
teaching?
● Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, etc.
We'll be taking a look at a Wordpress dashboard, for comparison, in a minute.

6. Are Open Courses Free?
What defines "open"?
A course may be free; it may also be merely
mostly free, with certain costs attached to it.
(books, software, credit fees)
An open course may have all of its content out
there, or it may only have some of it.
(Supplemented by books students must buy,
some private discussion boards, etc.)

7. Post & Comment Discussion
A good example of how the openness of an
open course environment can promote
collaboration and discussion is NRM 593:
http://permaculture.community.uaf.edu
Today, we will be working in Coach, a site we
put together for this presentation specifically,
through which we will do some collaborative
work and also discussing.
http://coach.community.uaf.edu