This was a workshop presentation to the Tencompetence Winter School in Innsbruck, Austria. February 2009. The Open University is reworking the channels that it uses to reach students - both broadcast and interactive. The tencompetence talk focuses on the issues raised by some of these new channels, like iTunes U. and Youtube; and illustrates some of the new research project that are driving our thinking.

1. New Channel thinking
Tencompetence Winter School, Innsbruck
February 2009
Peter Scott
Director, Knowledge Media Institute,
The Open University, UK.
We now have a very rich mix of channels that we can use to
communicate with students. Some are new forms of broadcast;
and some are significantly more interactive.
In the Open University we are adding new elements into our VLE,
with a learning mix to include iTunes U., YouTube, Podcasts, our
own OpenLearn materials and more.
In the context of Tencompetence, some of this work directly maps
to helping users to measure and develop their competences.
Peter.Scott@open.ac.uk 2
Monday, 9 February 2009 1

2. What Channels do Unis use to reach students?
Where are these going …
Presentation
The web
Books, etc. A Virtual Learning Environment
Lectures
DVD, video, etc. A world of web-services…
A world of open resources…
Interaction A world of co-production…
Seminars Wikis
Tutorials Blogging
Labs Podcasting
Projects
Audio/Video blogging
Social Network Services
Assessment
Mobile Services
Meeting Online / Conferencing
Assignments
Tests, Exams
RateMyTeacher
Monday, 9 February 2009 2

3. The Open University
•
ʻMega-universityʼ with •
Around 8k ʻmentorsʼ (ALs)
all students at-a-distance •
Cost effective (~50% of UK
•
International learning ave. grad. cost)
innovators for 40 years •
> 70% of students in full
•
UKʼs largest University with time employment
>220k students •
Global learning community
•
Large central production with >70k students
facility in Milton Keynes, •
Part of international family,
admin, warehousing, e.g. Arab OU has >30k
distribution, quality control, students
broadcasting, tutors, …
•
Accessible: 37k students
•
13 UK regional centres; have fee assistance; 10k
>300 study UK centres; disabled students
>4,000 exam venues (in >90
countries)
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4. A classical Open Learning Calendar; in 2006
“Channels to students embedded in Events”
Monday, 9 February 2009 4

5. And in 2009 some of your students still sit in lectures?
You are kidding, right …
A wealth of
online and
‘open resources’
Monday, 9 February 2009 5

6. Users from over 160 countries
Over 500 units published, totalling over 

5,000 learning hours
Translations into Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish,

Italian, Chinese…
Zero ‘lectures’; all units designed from scratch

for Open Learners
3-20 hours study time for each unit

Over 1,700,000 unique visitors since launch

Course creation and management tools

Over 50,000 registered users since launch

Community building and supporting tools

included as an ‘Open Participatory Learning
Over 4,500 registrations on OU courses

Infrasctructure’
Monday, 9 February 2009 6

7. http://labspace.open.ac.uk/
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8. Oct 2007
live
Oct 2007
replays
Monday, 9 February 2009 8

9. Podcast feed syndication
hub
http://podcast.open.ac.uk
Control your
own podcasts
Staff and
Students submit
podcast feeds
Users subscribe
we connect
with them here
Monday, 9 February 2009 9

10. YouTube ‘stations’
http://www.youtube.com/ou
Experimental publish July 07
Launch August 2008
Headlines, Dec 08
31, 575 channel views
133, 906 video views
616 subscribers
382 videos
Approx 1800 video views a
day in October 2008
Approx 18 hours of video
content from 40 courses
Approx 3 hours of non-
course related video
Monday, 9 February 2009 10

11. The iTunes music store,
•
open 6 years & sold 6 Billion songs
75 Million credit card accounts
•
Powerful mobile synch
•
iTunes U. open ‐2007
•
Peter Sco/, KMi
June 2008 UKOU + 2 …
Nick Watson, LTS
Oct 2008 Oxbridge
Jan 2009 Europe
To Jan 2009, The Open University is prominent in every “category” in which
we have contributed courses (Science, Engineering, Languages, etc); 5‐7 of
top 12 albums in these areas; and in other subjects at least 1‐3/12 featured
albums…
Monday, 9 February 2009 11

12. Open University on iTunes U
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13. We are very impressed by the potential of this channel;
But Higher Education has a VERY small slice of this …
Why iTunes U.?
Unlike some Web 2 channels we have very good
control;
zero geek; high brand; good with audio,
has great potential for other integrated
mobile power;
and our stuff belongs to us.
Monday, 9 February 2009 13

14. Monday, 9 February 2009 14

15. Summary of acXvity in the first 224 days
(32 weeks)
96 collecXons of audio or video tracks (albums)
78 from courses currently in presentaXon.
2,459,128 downloads
•
140,134 hours of audio and video downloaded
•
Over 324,500 visitors downloaded files
•
Currently averaging over 85,000 downloads a week
•
88% of visitors from outside the United Kingdom
•
1 in 6 downloaders go on to visit the OU website
•
>1 new visitor every 55 secs
•
Monday, 9 February 2009 15

16. Monday, 9 February 2009 16

17. Monday, 9 February 2009 17

18. Simple systems
Accessing the OU from your
iPod and iPhone
Assistive Interfaces
If you can tap, you can type
Latest App in the OU store
Virtual Microscope for S276
Measuring Mars and the Moon
Monday, 9 February 2009 18

19. http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/microscope
S276 Geology
Open University
Monday, 9 February 2009 19

20. WebCEF
EU funded
project :
Benchmarking
language
Performance
Learner proficiency in the Common • Learners upload “performance
Framework videos” for assessment; or use live
http://webcef.eu meeting recording
• Assessment framework common to
mentors and students
• Mentor assessment benchmarking
Monday, 9 February 2009 20

21. iCoper
EU funded
project :
Best Practices for
Open Educational
Resources
• Provide an iCoper Content Space
Capturing Best Practices
accessing 12.5k+ hours of OERs
from the OER community in Europe
• Systematic review of Delivering
http://www.icoper.org
Competency-Driven Learning
Content
• A generic ICOPER Reference
Model for OER standards
Monday, 9 February 2009 21

22. SocialLearn
… right now be your own worst enemy
millions of people
are online and
finding identity
via large scale
collaboration —
including learning
Exciting
Fast
Disruptive
Social
FEEDS and SERVICES
http://hello.eboy.com/eboy/wp-content/uploads/shop/EBY_FooBar_35t.png
Monday, 9 February 2009 22

23. STELLAR
EU funded
Network of
Excellence :
Technology
Enhanced Learning
• Step beyond Prolearn and
Kaleidoscope Networks
February 2009
http://stellarnet.eu • Focus on TEL Strategy
• 5M Euro;
Open University Coordinating
Monday, 9 February 2009 23

24. New Channel Thinking for Higher Education
Disruptive, Cool and Dangerous …
http://www.open.ac.uk

http://labspace.open.ac.uk

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk

http://itunes.open.ac.uk

http://youtube.com/theopenuniversity

http://webcef.eu

http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/microscope

http://icoper.org

http://stellarnet.eu

Monday, 9 February 2009 24