Marisa Ponti
University of
Gothenburg
Self-directed learning and guidance in non-formal open courses

- Teachers are subject-matter authorities
- Expertise and resources are scarce

- Expertise and resources are NOT scarce
-
BUT
What about the role of academic teachers?

Does the increasing wealth of OER influence the role of academic teachers as subject-matter authorities?

Shift from a teacher-centred environment to peer-teaching

BUT

How does the use of open educational resources (OER) mediate the relationships between self-directed learners and facilitators in open courses?

• Three P2PU principles:
»Openness
»Freedom
»Peer-learning
• Role of the volunteer mentor:
»Not teaching but facilitating

• Introduction to
Cyberpunk
Literature:
• Introduction to
Javascript 101:
- 1 mentor
- 15 participants
- 34 mentors,
- 209 participants

Cyberpunk Lit.:
From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side
I ’ m going to be your tutor, well, I wouldn ’ t call it this way; I ’ ll be your guide through material we ’ ll study, and we are all here to learn from each other
So basically this is the idea, the course is made by you, suggest other stories, write essays, point to reviews of books as not everyone will have the time to read them all, etc.

Cyberpunk
Lit.:
Creating an
Affinity
Space
I thought it was funny what
Brian Aldiss said!
Sjef has posted an
"AI in a nutshell"
I did enjoy the
Wired article someone linked earlier this week
about little boy

Cyberpunk
Lit.:
Creating an
Affinity
Space
and I've started
reading
Do Androids
Dream of Electric
Sheep
I love
Philip K. Dick

Cyberpunk
Lit.:
Creating an
Affinity
Space

Intro to Javascript:
Distribution of Ownership
It would be very good if those that have made comments already and those making future comments could at the same time put up concrete tasks that implement their ideas (ie, doing, rather than talking about doing). One thing I have noticed is the expectation that I (or someone else) is going to do this work.
That's not going to happen, it needs to be a collaborative effort (something like open source software development)....
It ’ s our course .
”

Intro to Javascript:
Puzzlement
I also find sources we are using somewhat confusing as they are from different authors using inconsistent jargon and are targeted at various levels of expertise and may repeat information from source to source. It seems rather convoluted and inefficient. I've often found it hard to find answers to the questions when I have to sort through the maze of sources for an answer that uses different terms than those employed in the question. I can see some value in working this out for oneself, but it takes a lot of time which I think many of us probably do not have a whole lot of.”

Intro to Javascript:
Puzzlement and Need for a Guide
When we are learning, we are looking at initial hand holding. So if I am learning a new language, I know there are lots of resources on the Internet, but I don't know where to begin ... I need feedback on the code I am writing, and on the interpretations I am making of the technology in my mind. This is where a facilitator/mentor/teacher can help.

 Introduction to
Cyberpunk Literature:
 Introduction to
Javascript 101:
Abundance of OER as an opportunity
Creation of an affinity space
Facilitator as fellow learner
- Abundance of OER as a problem
- Need for a teacher-like guide to use OER

• OER are not
– Materials to be simply transposed to new settings
– Always used helpfully by autonomous and self-regulating learners
• OER are
– Are artifacts- ininteraction
– Learning may not occur, if people are unable to process the knowledge conveyed by OER and make sense of them in ways that enable them to complete the tasks.

This work was supported by the Linnaeus Centre for
Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated
Communication in Contemporary Society (LinCS) at the
University of Gothenburg, and the Swedish Research Council.