Paul Stacey

Awesome to see Wayne's OER challenge response already.

Having devised the OER Challenge I thought I'd actually take it myself too.

I'm involved in an OER science related initiative right now that involves year one physics, biology and chemistry courses.

I've decided to pursue Physics 100 learning objectives to see how easy it might be to assemble the learning required through OER.

First challenge is finding clearly defined learning objectives that fit my learning interests. After looking around some I found that it's actually difficult to find clearly written Physics 100 learning objectives. I eventually chose Physics 100 learning outcomes associated with a University of British Columbia course. http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~kotlicki/Phys100/

The Course Goals state that students should be able to:

1. Apply conservation of energy and thermal physics principles to real-world thermal systems, such as home heating and climate change.
   
   
2. Apply knowledge of work and Newton's laws to calculate basic dynamics and energy consumption of common transportation systems (cars, bicycles etc.)
   
   
3. Qualitatively explain how electricity is generated in various types of power plants and the “life cycle” of electricity from production through transmission to consumption, and calculate power consumption for various common circuits.
   
   
4. Use algebra to solve simple equations.
   
   
5. Appreciate that while physics often gives approximate answers, it is very relevant to the real world and is a useful tool for solving problems at the global as well as the personal level.
   
   
6. Develop the inclination and ability to apply problem solving techniques to simplify "real world" problems in terms of simple physics concepts and to compute or estimate solutions.
   
   
7. Recognize that scientific conclusions - whether from an outside source or from your own calculations - may be incorrect, and develop the ability to check these conclusions with simple calculations, 3rd party information, and/or common sense.

I like the way these learning objectives are related to human life - home heating, climatic change, transportation systems, power plants, ...

I also like the goals that relate to physics becoming a personal and global problem solving tool.

Let the OER adventure begin.

I'm on the search for physics OER that can help me achieve these outcomes.

Given the world wide interest in the upcoming OER University events I thought I'd define an early activity and invite you all to start right away.

Take the OER Challenge

The OER Challenge is a dare to all of you that tests out the ideas behind the OER University.

The OER challenge is a three step dare:

Step 1. Identify a set of learning objectives you personally want to achieve.

• These can be formal or informal.
• You can find and pursue learning objectives that are part of formal academic offering.
• You can identify informal personal learning objectives that are an area of interest you'd like to know more about or skill you'd like to acquire.
• Reply to this OER Challenge post with your objectives in point form.

Step 2. Find OER that help you meet those learning objectives.

• Pair the OER you find with the learning objectives you identified in step 1.
• Try and find OER that not only includes content relevant to your learning objectives but learning activities too.
• Reply to your Step 1 OER challenge post with a follow-on posts or series of posts identifying OER related to your learning objectives.

Step 3. Identify who you'd like to have as your OER credentialing agent.

• Who is qualified to assess you to ensure the learning has occurred?
• Who would you like to see as the entity that publicly states that you have achieved those learning objectives?

That's it.
Easy as 1, 2, 3!

If you decide not to personally take the OER Challenge I encourage you to help those who are by assisting them in finding OER related to their objectives and/or suggesting credentialing agents.

Paul

Eugene:

Thanks for starting this checking in and intros discussion area. Great to see this early interest.

I'm Paul Stacey from BCcampus. I'll be facilitating the OER University seminar in SCoPE.

I work at BCcampus where we've been implementing and operating a publicly funded OER initiative since 2003. The OER developed through our program is used by the colleges and universities in teacher delivered online, for-credit courses and programs. We're looking forward to diversifying this use case through the OER University model.

Paul

I learned a lot at this event last year and continue to be enthralled with online communities.

A special "thanks" shout out from me to:
- Sylvia for organizing this
- Nancy, Alice for facilitating
- John for attending from afar
- and all of you who choose to attend

Look forward to sharing our collective enthusiasm.

Paul

I enjoyed the Personas activity. Turns out there are lots of Paul Staceys - beyond who I actually am theres a Paul Stacey tax writer, oil & gas worker, british guitarist and producer for the band oasis and black crowes, dramaturgy student, managing director of an investment portfolio, volleyball coach, company secretary, and surfer. Lots of secret identities!

My biggest blocks in the band of colours were for online, sports, management, education and music which given the composite blending of multiple Paul Stacey's is not far off this Paul Stacey.

The "you are what you share" idea is interesting but it seems to me to be such a small piece really. Its like saying "you are what you wear".

Paul