Course Information
Number: IP&T 692R
Term: Winter 2009
Title: Introduction to Open Education
Instructor
Name: Dr. David Wiley
Room: MCKB 150-E
Phone: 801.422.7071
Email: david[dot]wiley[at]byu[dot]edu
Instant Messenger: david.wiley@gmail.com / educommons@mac.com
Class Meeting Schedule
The BYU on-campus section of the course will meet T & Th from 12:00p-1:30p.
The first day of class is Tuesday, January 6, 2009.
For those following the course online, we will determine a method for Guild meetings that meets you needs (IM? Second Life?) once we see who is participating and what your preferences are.
Textbooks and Course Materials
There is no required textbook for this course. All materials and readings required for this course will be freely accessible via the Internet.
About the Design of the Course
Instructional design faculty are frequently criticized for delivering information about innovative new pedagogical methods to their students in the form of traditional lectures – for talking the talk but failing to walk the walk. Setting positive examples is important for people in every field.
There are two ways to describe the design of this course, and both are equally valid. On the one hand, this course is a mix of direct skills instruction combined with project-based learning and collaborative problem solving. The course employs a progression of increasingly complex problems with supportive information, and requires students to synthesize hundreds of pages of literature, interview data, and their own design intuition to produce meaningful artifacts both individually and as part of highly inter-dependent teams. The idea of teach-reteach (characterized by Gong’s description of the Three Person Problem) is at the heart of the students’ day-to-day learning experiences.
On the other hand, the course is a massively multiplayer role-playing game in which students select a character class, develop specialized expertise, complete a series of individual quests, join a Guild, and work with members of their Guild to accomplish quests requiring a greater breadth of skills than any one student can develop during the course.
One need not look very far to find indications that the genre is extremely effective in promoting informal learning – see the work of Constance Steinkuehler and John Seely Brown as examples. Despite the impressive work of Constance, JSB, and others, to the best of my knowledge no one has ever designed and implemented a university course as a massively multiplayer role-playing game. In addition to helping students gain a working knowledge of the field of open education (i.e., knowledge they can actually put to work), this course is a design experiment exploring the effectiveness of running a university course as a massively multiplayer role-playing game.
Schedule
The schedule outlines which quests party members will work on during the week. During Tuesday town meetings (all characters / all Guilds) David will provide specific training and tips necessary to complete the week’s quests. All party members will complete all 5 of the zero-level quests in order to determine which character class they want to join. Beginning with Q1 in Week 5 party members complete the quest specific to their character class. No information will be provided about the two Challenges scheduled during game play; these are surprise quests that will test your individual and combined capabilities
Week 1
Intro to Format and Quest 0/1
Week 2
Q0/2 and Q0/3
Week 3
Q0/4 and Q0/5
Week 4
Class Selection and Guild Forming
Week 5
Q1 Skills and Q1 Reteach
Week 6
Challenge 1
Week 7
Q2 Skills and Q2 Reteach
Week 8
Q3 Skills and Q3 Reteach
Week 9
Q4 Skills and Q4 Reteach
Week 10
Q5 Skills and Q5 Reteach
Weeks 11-13
Q6 Skills and Q6 Reteach
Week 14
Challenge 2
Week 15
Game Debrief
Completing Quests
All written work for the Quests should be posted to your blog by 11:59pm Saturday night of the week the Quest is due.
Course Policies
Grading Policy
Quests and Experience Points
Quests are worth the following number of Experience Points (XP):
- Training Quests are worth 25 XP (5 XP each)
- Quest 1 is worth 20 XP
- Quest 2 is worth 30 XP
- Quest 3 is worth 45 XP
- Quest 4 is worth 60 XP
- Quest 5 is worth 80 XP
- Quest 6 is worth 150 XP
Bonus XP
2 bonus experience points will be awarded for players who locate an additional high quality reading or other resource and add an appropriate link in the relevant Quest resources area of the syllabus. A maximum of 4 bonus points may be earned per Quest.
Leveling Up
All characters begin at Level 0, and level up as follows:
- Level 1: 22 XP
- Level 2: 40 XP
- Level 3: 65 XP
- Level 4: 105 XP
- Level 5: 160 XP
- Level 6: 230 XP
- Level 7: 365 XP
Letter Grade Assignment
End of course letter grades will be assigned based on your character’s final level, as follows:
- Level 7: A
- Level 6: B
- Level 5: C
- Level 4 or below: F
Challenges
The two Challenges are a matter of individual and Guild pride and do not contribute to your final grade.
Honor Code Standards
In keeping with the BYU Honor Code, students are expected to be honest in all of their academic work. Academic honesty means, most fundamentally, that any work you present as your own must in fact be your own work and not that of another. Violations may result in a failing grade in the course and additional disciplinary action by the university.
Students are also expected to adhere to the Dress and Grooming Standards. Observing these standards demonstrates respect for yourself and others and ensures an effective learning and working environment. It is the university’s expectation, and my own expectation in class, that each student will abide by all Honor Code standards. Please call the Honor Code Office at 422-2847 if you have questions about those standards.
Preventing Sexual Discrimination or Harassment
Sexual discrimination or harassment (including student-to-student harassment) is prohibited both by the law and by Brigham Young University policy. If you feel you are being subjected to sexual discrimination or harassment, please bring your concerns to the professor. Alternatively, you may lodge a complaint with the Equal Employment Office (D-240C ASB) or with the Honor Code Office (4440).
Students with Disabilities
If you have a disability that may affect your performance in this course, you should get in touch with the office of Services for Students with Disabilities (1520 WSC). This office can evaluate your disability and assist the professor in arranging for reasonable accommodations.
Diversity
The David O. McKay School of Education and Brigham Young University are committed to preparing students to serve effectively in a diverse society. In this course students will learn methods and material that may be adapted to various settings and contexts. Students are expected to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to effectively apply the course content when working with individuals and groups with varying abilities and with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Late Work Policy
Late completion of quests 0-4 may or may not be accepted at my completely subjective, mood-influenced, and possibly biased discretion. If this makes you uncomfortable, please turn in your work on time. Your Guild members depend on you for completion of quests 5 and 6 – do not let them down.