This blog introduces a Video Overview of Open Source Technologies in Higher Education. I would like to apologize for the current quality of the video. This is a work in progress on a project where again, the technology showed its muscles for having been taken for granted at the expense of scholarly research and literary endeavors.
The major obstacles I experienced in this process were videotaping techniques, sound, lighting, timing, and last but not least, finding the proper free software to translate multiple video clips from one format, .MTS in this case (which I am told is very old) to .MOV for the sake of “newer modernity!”. I am contemplating extending the nature and scope of this project to a 30 minutes documentary as a justified call to Higher Education for adoption of the open source paradigm.
Nevertheless, I have something up and running, A 6 minutes video presentation covering the topic of Open Source Technologies in Higher Education. The agenda includes the following:
1- A pragmatic Definition of Open Source Technologies.
2- A brief Timeline of Open Source Technologies.
3- Overview of Research on Open Source Technologies in Higher Education.
4- Administrative and Academic Applications in Higher Education.
5- Open Source Controversies – The Software Wars.
6- Open “Source” Opportunities – MOOCs, for Massive Open Online Courses.
6- Value Proposition for Adoption by Higher Education.
The bottom line remains the value proposition captured in the mind map below which is followed by an annotated bibliography which constitutes the scholarly foundation for adoption of Open Source Technologies by Higher Education.
| Annotated Bibliography | |
| Article # | Title, Reference, and Summary |
| 1 | Title: New Options for Your Campus |
| Reference: New Options for Your Campus. (2012). Business Officer, 46(3), 44-45 | |
| Theme: Administrative Computing, TCO, Community Software, Open Source, Kuali Financial System (KFS). A | |
| Summary and Annotation:This paper introduces actual application of the community software concept with the successful implementation of the Kuali FinancialSystem (KFS) (Retrieved from www.kuali.org.) at The University of California, Indiana University, Michigan State University and the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. The University of California and Indiana University report respectively 8 million and 17 million cost savings in comparison with alternatives commercial software. The paper further emphasizes integration of mobile and Ipad initiatives to meet information access and financial reporting needs on campus.This article illustrates the urgency for Collaboration and cooperation among institutions of Higher Learning as a mean to achieve administrative efficiency. The quick jump from reporting about the Kuali system to mobile computing and Ipad initiatives seems to be out of context. This is nevertheless understandable since the paper is basically reporting the issues debated by representatives the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers (Retrieved from www.nacubo.org) during its annual meeting in 2012. | |
| 2 | Title:. Pay Nothing? Easier Said Than Done. |
| Reference: AZEVEDO, A. (2013). Pay Nothing? Easier Said Than Done. Chronicle Of Higher Education, 59(21), A18-A19. | |
| Theme: Free and open text books | |
| Annotation and Summary:This paper discusses the challenges top offering free and open textbooks to college and university students in the United States. Issues involving production quality, and adoption by both students and educators are perceived as major roadblocks for success. The tradeoff to write a book for free in open source technology paradigm and to do the same for free is definitely not an attractive option. The paper invites consideration of the possible influential impact of state government intervention for the production and offering of free text books using an effort in California as illustration. But the concerns over incentives, quality, and adoption remain.The paper raises issues of significant concern such as lack of incentives and interests of faculty in writing free textbooks, the poor quality of production, and the low adoption rate of such products by faculty, and students as major obstacle to the success of free open textbooks in Higher Education. Nevertheless, I suspect that paying faculty to contribute in the production of open source textbooks from the same logic they are paid to teach could be further help in the promotion and adoption of Open Source Textbooks in Higher Education. | |
| 3 | Title: Creating Higher Education Academic and Information Technology Resources in an International Context |
| Reference: BARON, J., WILLIS, J., & LEE, R. (2010). Creating Higher Education Academic and Information Technology Resources in an International Context. Computers In The Schools, 27(3/4), 288-308. doi:10.1080/07380569.2010.523885 | |
| Theme: Open Education, Collaboration, Higher Education | |
| Summary and Annotation:This inquiry is grounded on the contribution of such contemporary factors as globalization, the internet, technological innovations, and the Open Source movement in fostering international collaboration and cooperation among institutions of higher learning for the creation of Academic and Information Technology Resources for Higher Education. Such resources include but are not limited to software, textbooks, courseware, and course management systems under the guidance of open source, open access, and open education philosophies as alternatives to the expensive proprietary market. The paper defines open source software as products developed “through a collaborative model of development that involves a community of geographically dispersed contributors”, distributed under specific license agreements, and which can be modified due to the availability of the code. The paper traces the evolution of Open Source Software to the early days of the computer in the 1950s and 60s to be developed into an open philosophical approach encompassing new forms of open-source collaboration which led to “open educational resource projects, such as Connexions” (Retrieved from (http://cnx.rice.edu) and OpenCourseWare (OCW) project (http://ocw.mit.edu). The paper discusses a number of open source projects with related references. “These include the Sakai Foundation (http://www.sakaiproject.org) that supports work on the Sakai package for content management and course management, Connexions which is a project at Rice University to support open access e-publishing and course management (http://cnx.rice.edu) that is supported by the Hewlett-Packard Foundation, and the Kuali Foundation (http://www.kuali.org/) that manages work on a suite of administrative software packages for higher education”. The inquiry provides a vast array of current efforts and projects with a global appeal such as SourceForge (http://www.sourceforge.org), the Open Education Resources unit ( http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org /) in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the OpenCourseWare Consortium (www.ocwconsortium.org ) just to name a few.The paper rightly considers Open Source Software OSS as the prototype for the organization of new types of collaboration. Absent from consideration are references to collaboration with foreign educational entities. Nevertheless, the paper remains a significant contribution in the literature on the impact of The Open Source Movement on Higher Education from a global perspective. | |
| 4 | Title: Open Source Software in Computer Science and IT Higher Education: A Case Study |
| Reference:Dan R., L., & Robert S., L. (2011). Open Source Software in Computer Science and IT Higher Education: A Case Study. International Journal Of Advanced Computer Sciences And Applications, (1), | |
| Theme: Open Source Software in Computer Science Education | |
| Summary and Annotation:This study focuses on the advantages of using open source software for academic purposes in comparison with standard proprietary software. The paper is divided into four sections which include background of the open source movement, identification of different open source licenses, the impact of open source licenses, the use of open source in teaching computer science courses, and a comparison between open source versus proprietary software on the ground of cost, appeal to students and ease of use. On all factors, the outcome supports the use and adoption of open source. . While the cost of acquisition of the open source software is free, implementation and administration cost vary depending on the circumstances while overall costs remain lower for faculty and students. Open source software appeal more to students due to the academic roots of open source software, the lower cost, and the availability of the source code. The study documents the following as advantages of open source: readiness for research, implementation, and development of “new ideas”, portability to different operating systems, the availability of the source code for the newest version of a specific application, and the vocation of open source to promote entrepreneurship without startup costs. The main disadvantages. The study finds that “The main disadvantage in using open source software is the fact that Linux usability on laptops is seriously affected by the lack hardware drivers especially for wireless, graphic cards and suspend/sleep functionality in laptops”.This study stands as a major contribution on the values and merit of open source technologies in Higher Education classrooms. While acknowledging the challenges of open source software in the classroom, the article rightly suggests mixing proprietary and open source resources to better educate Computer Science students. | |
| 5 | Title: Adopting Open-Source Software Applications in U.S. Higher Education: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of the Literature |
| Reference: van Rooij, S. (2009). Adopting Open-Source Software Applications in U.S. Higher Education: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of the Literature. Review Of Educational Research, 79(2), 682-701.Summary:This paper was written to support the adoption of open source software for academic and administrative purposes by US institutions of higher learning as a more flexible and less costly venue. The focus is on using open source applications such as Moodle (retrieved from www.moodle.org ) Sakai (retrieved from www.sakaiproject.org) and the Kualy Financial Systems (retrieved from www.kuali.org/kfs). Upon introduction of a definition of open source from the perspective of codes understandable by the human eyes to “the concept of the freedom to run, modify, and distribute copies of a program, either free of charge or for a fee.”, the article offers a literature review focused “only on open-source software at the application layer, with emphasis on systems that support teaching and learning”. The method and scope consisted of key words searches of literary sources for results to be analyzed using the NVIVO, “a software program for the management and analysis of text data”. The findings reveal that the literature is primarily dominated by “(a) social and philosophical benefits, (b) software development methodology benefits, (c) security and risk management benefits, (d) software adoption life cycle benefits, and (e) total cost of ownership benefits”. In addition, the inquiry finds that open source is primarily assumed to an issue of concern for technologists while this is just not the case when it comes to administrative and educational use.While this study reveals a gap in the literature when it comes to enabling “sound pedagogy or enables institutions to achieve a balance of sound pedagogy and technical efficiency”, it establishes the dominating role of Sakai, Kuali, and Moodle as reliable resources for further research. | |
| Title: Open-Source Learning Management Systems: A Predictive Model for Higher Education | |
| Reference: van Rooij, S. (2012). Open-Source Learning Management Systems: A Predictive Model for Higher Education. Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(2), 114-125. | |
| 6 | Theme: Criteria for adoption of open source LMS by Higher Education. |
| Summary:This quantitative study examines the selection criteria used by an institution of higher education for adoption of an open-source learning management system (LMS). Building on prior studies regarding such efforts in higher education a survey of 285 Chief Information Officers and Chief Academic Officers from US institutions was conducted in order to determine patterns, strategies, and criteria used in such contexts. First, the paper introduces Open Source Software (OSS) and offers comprehensive inventory of the best know open source learning management systems currently available. The list includes the following: Moodle (http://www.moodle.org) with 30,000 users, Sakai (http://www.sakaiproject.org) which features “generic collaboration along Claroline (http://www.claroline.net), available in more than 35 languages and used in 80 countries; .LRN (http://www.dotlrn.com ), a system thathas e-commerce and project management applicationsbuilt in; ATutor (http://www.atutor.ca ), developed in Canada and includes more than 17 000 registered user sites, and; Bodington (http://www.bodington.org ), developed in the U.K. and implemented at the University of Leeds and the University of Oxford. Second, the paper presents current LMS evaluation models with an alternative approach. Third, the method, statistical analysis, and results are introduced. The paper ends with acknowledgement of the limitations of the study and actual conclusion. Bottom line,“The present research revealed that an institution’s Carnegie Classification, previous experience with OSS, focus on student learning, and commitment to organizational self-reliance were all predictive of the institution’s decision to opt in or opt out of an open-source LMS”.This inquiry offers a solid frame of reference with regard to the criteria for adoption of open source learning management system by higher education. One might surmise that the limitations spelled in the study might create a built-in bias jeopardizing the objectivity and reliability of the study. The study nevertheless stands as a strong guide for higher education in the adoption of open source learning management systems. |
This author has commented on the following blogs:
Roberts, Alicia – Video Project on Plagiarism: http://msaroberts2003.blogspot.com/
Smith, John – Video project on Critical Thinking: http://teachinglearningatadistance.blogspot.com/
Smith, Margaret – Video Project on Online Gaming: http://emmi143.blogspot.com/
Amy, Lori: Video Project on Virtual Worlds to Enhance Learning http://loriannsblackboard.blogspot.com
Prescott, Ellen: Video on Discussion forums to enhance Math Education http://ellenprescott.blogspot.com
Arthur, Petti: Video on Teachers’ collaboration to enhance Students’ scores; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcDL5tHtwhU&feature=youtu.be