The Production of Open Courses as a Transformative Practice:

A Case Study of the Chinese Top Level Courses Project

Stian Håklev, PhD Student, OISE/University of TorontoPresentation to OpenCoursewareConsortium Global 2011

April 7, 2011 - Creative Commons BY

What  kind  of  a  “thing”  is  OCW?

CC  BY  allygirl520  @  flickr

OCW  as  a  norm

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free  software

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http://fusionanomaly.net/informationwantstobefree.html

PD  English  Wikipedia

How  can  we  analyze  the  spread  of  a  norm?

Finnemore  &  Sikkink:  the  life-­‐cycle  of  norms

Women’s  suffrage,  land-­‐mine  ban

Realist  vs.  constructivist  view  of  international  system

Norm  entrepreneurs

Organizational  platform

Forming  vocabulary,  change  in  identity  and  motivation

Tipping  point:  1/3  of  all  participants  (states)?

Institutionalization

OCW  as  an  policy  innovation

CC  BY  txd  @  flickr

March 15, 2010 Open Sharing, Global Benefits

Universities working together to advance education andempower people worldwide through opencourseware.

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Connecting with Your University’s Goals—Recruitment

• A 2005 Poll showed that 50% of incoming MIT students were aware of MIT OCW.• 35% of those students based their choice of MIT at least in part on their experience of MIT OCW• By mid-October of their first year, 95% of those students had visited the OCW site.

OCW Consortium Toolkit http://www.ocwconsortium.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=33&Itemid=

March 15, 2010 Open Sharing, Global Benefits

Universities working together to advance education andempower people worldwide through opencourseware.

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Connecting with Your University’s Goals—Recruitment

• Builds a prior academic relationship with bright, motivated students, their families, their teachers and their advisors

• Showcases key departments, faculty and courses

March 15, 2010 Open Sharing, Global Benefits

Universities working together to advance education andempower people worldwide through opencourseware.

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Connecting with Your University’s Goals—Reputation

An OCW site can showcase areas of excellence in our university, such as name specific programs. Heightened awareness of these programs not only will attract talented students and faculty to our school but also will increase the visibility of our faculty within their disciplines.

March 15, 2010 Open Sharing, Global Benefits

Universities working together to advance education andempower people worldwide through opencourseware.

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Connecting with Your University’s Goals—Retention

An OCW site provides students with the potential for self-paced review of study materials before, during and after taking a course. Such review greatly increases a student’s chances of success in both that course and subsequent courses which build upon its teachings.

March 15, 2010 Open Sharing, Global Benefits

Universities working together to advance education andempower people worldwide through opencourseware.

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Connecting with Your University’s Goals—Advising

The ability to view OCW materials prior to enrollment allows students to make more informed choices about which courses and majors are right for them.

Likewise, advisors will be able to base their recommendations on concrete information about courses, their requirements and their benefits.

How  can  we  analyze  the  spread  of  a  policy  innovation?

David  Phillips:  policy  attraction

more  likely  to  borrow  in  time  of  upheaval,  change  or  great  crisis

Mintrom  &  Vergari:  policy  networks

investigating  policy  on  school  choice  in  US  states  -­‐  what  causes  similarity?  closeness  of  states,  or  similar  attributes?  no,  attending  the  same  conferences!

The  role  of  MIT,  and  MIT’s  faculty,  international  conferences,organizations  (OCW  Consortium,  CCLearn/CC,  UNESCO  IIEP)

OCW  in  East  Asia

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Institutionalism

Meyer  &  Ramirez:  convergence

Large  quantitative  analyses  of  educational  systems

Every  aspect  of  education  is  becoming  more  similar,one  model  is  becoming  institutionalized.

Mainland  China

Outline

what  is  the  Chinese  Top  Level  Courses  Project,  how  does  it  work?

how  did  it  come  to  be,  Chinese  historical  and  higher-­‐ed  context

some  thoughts  on  the  future  of  this  project,  and  distance  ed  in  China

My  research  approach

participating  in  an  international  conference  in  Dalian  in  2008

participation  in  many  international  conferences,  and  communication  with  people  in  MIT  OCW,  Hewlett  etc

analysis  of  Chinese  academic  papers,  and  government  policies

two  visits  -­‐  summer  2009  and  winter  2009-­‐10

formal  interviews  with  professors  and  academic  staff  at  two  universities  

visits  to  a  number  of  Chinese  departments  of  education,  interaction  with  graduate  students  and  professors  researching  relevant  topics

a  number  of  presentations  in  China,  including  one  for  the  Top  Level  National  Courses  resource  center,  testing  my  tentative  findings

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Features  of  the  Chinese  OER  project

selective  and  competitive

three  levels  (campus,  province,  national)

teaching  teams

both  content  and  method

financial  support,  requirement  to  make  course  available  online  for  five  years

three  kinds:  undergraduate,  vocational,  and  online  courses

Purposes

induce  full  professors  to  teach  undergraduate  courses

encourage  professors  to  use  more  technology  in  their  teaching  

encourage  formation  of  teaching  teams,  rethinking  of  course  material  and  teaching  methods

courses  function  as  “models”  for  other  professors

(course  material  used  directly  by  students?)

Evaluation  criteria

•  teaching  team,  including  responsible  person  and  main  lecturer•  the  composition  and  quality  of  teaching  team•  educational  reform  and  educational  research•  the  course  content•  the  organization  and  planning  of  the  course  content•  the  practical  components  (removed  in  2008)•  teaching  materials  and  other  resources•  conditions  for  practical  components•  online  teaching  environment•  instructional  design•  instructional  approach•  instructional  practice•  instructional  outcomes  –  evaluation  by  peers,  by  university  supervisor•  student  evaluations•  evaluation  of  recorded  materials

Lanzhou City Universitycase study

Have already been evaluating best coursesinternally since 2003. Developed system of indicators of course quality

Issue announcement, meeting of heads ofdepartments

Teaching committee to identify basic andadvanced courses they could apply for

Brought teachers together with computerdepartment

School gave certain amount of funding

Clear philosophy: Construction of CQOCW will improve quality of all coursesNot just about putting old courses online, but rethink content, teaching methodology, etc.

Internal committee to evaluate courses, then invited 20 external experts - used online material, also sat in on classes

In the end, 11 courses were selected for provincial CQOCW

(浅议精品课程在教学工作中的作用, 王雪引)

JPKC diplomaHonor

Quality Project(质量工程)

The OER project is a key part of the Quality Project, but it’s not the only part:

The program targets 1000 universities with 10 million FT students, and will cost approximately USD $365 million.

Targets:Help 3000 professors and administrators to develop peer training exchangesSelect 1000 national-level teaching teamsGive awards to 500 top national teachersDevelop 500 experimental teaching centers500 individual talent development and creativity areas500 high quality bilingual classes

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historical  background

Not  quite  like  lightning  from  a  blue  sky

French  and  German  model  of  the  medieval  university

course  teams,  course  evaluations  go  way  back,  from  the  Soviet  Union?

massification

985  -­‐  evaluate  the  best  universities  (peer-­‐review)

and  the  key  disciplines

evaluating  best  courses:  natural  next  step

push  for  increase  in  use  of  computers  in  higher  ed  already  from  early  1990’s

(evidence  from  interviews)

future  trends

What  does  the  future  hold?

New  cycle  in  2011?

Education  Plan  2010-­‐2020:  less  focus  on  distance  ed  for  degrees,  more  focus  on  life-­‐long  learning  and  continuing  ed.

Encouraging  reuse  of  the  resources

Key  numbers  from  China’s  2010-­‐2020  education  plan

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Establishing  Beijing  and  Shanghai  Open  Universities

course  teams,  course  evaluations  go  way  back,  from  the  Soviet  Union?

985  -­‐  evaluate  the  best  universities  (peer-­‐review)

and  the  key  disciplines

evaluating  best  courses:  natural  next  step

push  for  increase  in  use  of  computers  in  higher  ed  already  from  early  1990’s

(evidence  from  interviews)

Foreign  open  course  craze

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Thank you!

shaklev@gmail.comhttp://reganmian.net/blogCC BY

Thesis can be downloaded in a variety of formats from http://reganmian.net/top-level-courses