Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present

Writing the Nation: A Concise Guide to American Literature 1865 to Present is a text that surveys key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature. ENGL 202https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/textbooks/1006/thumbnail.jp

Facing the challenge in evaluating technology use in mobile environments

The process of developing innovative mobile approaches to informal and formal learning is challenging, not least in needing to satisfy stakeholders with diverse interests in the technology, the pedagogy and the overall system. Some approaches to evaluation may focus on examining the nature and quality of learning that occurs, while other methods may take a user-centred approach to understand interactions with the systems. In this paper we highlight a methodology that attempts to address these two analytical issues in parallel, and to communicate the results to stakeholders. The methodology is grounded in cultural historical activity theory and is compatible with other views emerging that such evaluation can have multiple levels. The method applies task analysis to examine the conflicts that emerge when learners are interacting with technological systems in an informal learning setting. Results from a trial involving first-aiders are used to illustrate the techniques as they were applied as part of a European project that developed a collaborative mobile learning environment. The method has been repeated in other studies and is suggested to provide a valuable tool to reflect on understanding and enable the sharing o

Build your Responsive Open Learning Environment

The European research project ROLE (Responsive Open Learning Environments) is aiming at empowering learners for self-regulated learning within a personalised learning environment. Towards this goal, ROLE has developed a number of learning technologies, addressing a variety of learning requirements. The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss the applications of these technologies in different learning contexts, as well as the challenges associated with enabling and supporting self-regulated learning

Open Learning Network: the evidence of OER impact

Much of the initial work on Open Educational Resources (OER) has inevitably concentrated on how to produce the resources themselves and to establish the idea in the community. It is now eight years since the term OER was first used and more than ten years since the concept of open content was described and a greater focus is now emerging on the way in which OER can influence policy and change the way in which educational systems help people learn. The Open University UK and Carnegie Mellon University are working in partnership on the OLnet (Open Learning Network), funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with the aims to search out the evidence for use and reuse of OER and to establish a network for information sharing about research in the field. This means both gathering evidence and developing approaches for how to research and understand ways to learn in a more open world, particularly linked to OER, but also looking at other influences

Responsive Open Learning Environments at the Open University

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) offer new opportunities for supporting personalized and self regulated learning both in formal and in informal education. The Open University in the UK is an early adopter of PLEs through a number of different initiatives, one of which is the European project ROLE (Responsive Open Learning Environments). This paper presents some of the lessons learned and best practices from the introduction of ROLE technologies within an informal learning test-bed at the Open University

Graduating live and on line: the multimedia webcast of the Open Universitys worldwide virtual degree ceremony

As the foremost international open learning institution, the UK Open University has now webcast two live and on-line degree ceremonies. Most higher education establishments routinely videotape degree presentations and many now broadcast these videos as ways of including remote family and friends who could not attend the physical event. In contrast, the UKOU has presented live ceremonies at which the graduands themselves, plus guests, family and friends were all remote and online! The first worldwide virtual degree ceremony took place at 15:00 GMT/UT on March 31st 2000. This ceremony was the first in the Open University’s calendar for 2000, and therefore the first formal ceremony of this leading open learning institution in the new millennium. The second online ceremony took place on 18th April 2001, and further ceremonies are planned as part of the routine of open learning

Open Learning Environment in Early Modern Low Countries History

This project, part of the individual strand of JISC’s and the Higher Education Academy’s Open Educational Resources pilot programme, will turn a comprehensive survey course in Early Modern Low Countries history, from the late Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century, into a multimedia and Web 2.0 enriched Open Educational Resource (OER), published on the internet and freely available for anyone. In doing so it will create an important teaching and learning resource not only for the strategically important and vulnerable subject area Dutch Studies (as part of Modern Foreign Languages, as defined by HEFCE) but also for all learners with an interest in this European neighbour region of the UK, whose early modern history was closely intertwined with that of Britain (e.g. for students of British or European history). Consequently, a special focus of the OER will be put on relations between the Low Countries and the Anglophone world

Automatic generation of audio content for open learning resources

This paper describes how digital talking books (DTBs) with embedded functionality for learners can be generated from content structured according to the OU OpenLearn schema. It includes examples showing how a software transformation developed from open source components can be used to remix OpenLearn content, and discusses issues concerning the generation of synthesised speech for educational purposes. Factors which may affect the quality of a learner's experience with open educational audio resources are identified, and in conclusion plans for testing the effect of these factors are outlined