How to Talk With Instructors About Content Sharing Ken Graetz, Ph.D. Director of e-Learning Winona State University Deborah Proctor, Ph.D. e-Curriculum.

How to Talk With Instructors About Content Sharing

Ken Graetz, Ph.D.

Director of e-Learning

Winona State University

Deborah Proctor, Ph.D.

e-Curriculum Director

Minnesota Online, MnSCU

2005 Merlot International Conference Nashville, Tennessee

Quick Poll

How many instructors? How many administrators? How many instructional support staff

members? How many vendor or corporate

representatives? How many develop original, digital,

instructional content

Meet Dr. Greg Elvers

Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Dayton

Teaches Research Methods and Perception

An excellent teacher He knows C#, Java, and ASP.NET Why was he reluctant to share? What made him decide to share?

http://academic.udayton.edu/gregelvers/psy216/activex/CorReg.htm

This Morning’s General Session

How would faculty members on your campuses react to these messages? Balancing a chemical equation is balancing a chemical equation.

English professors might someday send their students’ papers to India to be evaluated.

The demand for instructional content outpaces instructors’ ability to develop it.

White Hat Management/LydiaLearn has 500 developers working on instructional content. This costs money and someone is going to have to pay.

In order to meet the demand for high quality instructional content, a business model will need to be applied.

Faculty members would rather be famous than rich. It is unlikely that anyone will get rich by selling their instructional content.

Overview

What Do We Mean By Content Sharing?

Why Should Instructors Share Their Content?

Why Don’t Instructors Share Their Content?

Facilitating Content Sharing Conversations With administration

With instructors

Discussion

Definitions

Shared Courses/Programs Pre-established courses or

programs, including all course content, delivered by multiple instructors (non-authors)

Shared Content Course content used by

more than one instructor

Content Sharing A content-owner’s decision

to share his/her content with others

1,379 Minnesota students used this

text in FY04

Shared Courses

Shared Content

Definitions: Open Content Sharing

Typically… Instructors as authors

Digital content

No monetary remuneration

Why Share Content?

Strong moral argument for open sharing of instructional materials Supports the principles of public

education

Promotes equal access for all students

It’s the right thing to do for students

Adapted in part from Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002 and www.elearningspace.org/Articles/why_we_should_share.htm

Why Share Content?

Organizational benefits Supports the mission

Adds market value

Creates more collaborative, community-based climate and associated efficiencies

Reduces cost of course preparation

Provides new dashboard measures

Adapted in part from Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002 and www.elearningspace.org/Articles/why_we_should_share.htm

Why Share Content?

Instructor benefits Strengthens collaborative

professional relationships

Encourages contributions from others = workload reduction

Contributes to promotion and tenure

Public recognition

Intrinsic value

Adapted in part from Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002 and www.elearningspace.org/Articles/why_we_should_share.htm

Why Don’t Instructors Share Their Content?

Psychological impediments

Lack of continuous, frontline faculty support

Inhibitory organizational culture and practices

Psychological Impediments

Instructors may be… Anxious about losing expert power

Anxious about losing control over their content

Insecure about the quality of their own content

Distrustful that others won’t contribute; loafers and free-riders

Concerned about other potential negative consequences

Adapted in part from Gorman, C.K. (2002, June 22). Five reasons people don’t tell what they know. Knowledge Management. Retrieved July 13, 2005, from http://www.kmmag.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=960

Psychological Impediments

Expert Power Power that derives from others’

assumption that the power-holder possesses superior skills and abilities (French & Raven, 1959)

Instructors may view the open sharing of original instructional content with other instructors as a threat to their expert power.

Psychological Impediments

Free Riding: You’re Just Going to Eat All My Cookies

Psychological Impediments

Insecure About Quality “No one will want to use it.”

“This is designed for the way I teach.”

“This is just a small thing.”

“Others have probably created something better.”

“It doesn’t look professional.”

“I may have made mistakes.”

Beware of the fundamental attribution error

Lack of Faculty Support

It has never been easier for instructors to author and share content technologically

That does not mean that they will use these tools

Many do not have continuous, professional support for the development, publication, and maintenance of instructional materials

Many are just “taught to fish”

Organizational Culture and Practices

Competitive, individualistic environment of higher education does not smooth the way for sharing

“If the incentives are outwardly said to promote knowledge sharing but the culture of the organization continues to exhibit competitiveness, the knowledge sharing efforts may not be very successful” (Ghosh, 2004)

Organizational Practices and Culture

Rate the extent to which there are strong incentives to collaborate and share knowledge with others in your institution from 1 to 10. Appropriate incentives should: Answer the question, "What's in it for me?" Reinforce the relationship between knowledge sharing and mission

accomplishment Balance recognition for both individual and team contribution Align individual and team efforts with broader institutional goals Make clear the value placed on collaborative work Base on the list of incentives above---Rate your current incentive

structure

http://www.gilgordon.com/downloads/willett.html

Talking to Administrators

Foster a learning organization that promotes… Problem solving

Experimentation

Learning based on prior experience, past history, and best practice

Transfer of knowledge

Talking to Administrators

Create a culture of learning and make it intentional through… Communication Integration into the

organizational plan Allow mistakes to promote

experimentation and learning from them

Examine ideas and best practices from other organizations

View all learning as an investment and consider how it might be leveraged

Talking to Administrators

Organization promotes an understanding of what is proprietary and what is not

Build relationships based on trust and assurances that those sharing will not Misuse information

Take advantage of confidential information

Advance their own agenda at the expense of others

Attack or challenge those who share

Share unreliable or biased information

Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002

Talking to Administrators

Important questions for the organization regarding content repositories Is the content always available and ready to use?

Can the content solve problems and provide solutions?

Is the content repository a useful tool to use in keeping informed, study progress, and gauge professional development?

Will it increase efficiency?

Will it stimulate new knowledge generation in addition to storing existing knowledge?

Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2002

Talking to Administrators

Institutions must provide continuous, professional support for the development, publication, and maintenance of instructional materials

Support must be provided by academic experts who will work in the trenches alongside instructors

Services must reduce instructor workload Digitizing non-digital materials Developing content from simple graphics to

complex applications Copyright clearance Publication and maintenance

Talking to Faculty

1. Be Respectful

2. Be Supportive

3. Catalyze Group Conversations Change in group discussion Social comparison and the unidirectional

drive upward

4. Focus On What’s Best for Students

5. Move Beyond Content Sharing and Develop Communities of Practice

Talking to Faculty

Move conversations past the decision to share and toward the collaborative revision and maintenance of instructional content by the community of instructors who use it. Updating and improving old content

Using existing content in new ways

Developing new content

What do our students DO with our content?

Gleitman Westen

3D representation Direction of the impulse Additional information

Refine, Update, and Enhance

http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/Psych402/Biotutorials/2/part1.html

Refine, Update, and Enhance

Gleitman

Westen

Same Content, Different Outcome

Westen

Develop New Content

What Do Our Students DO With Our Content?

“Personalization” goes beyond interactivity

New and emerging tools for students to “mark up” content Microsoft OneNote DyKnow Vision Silicon Chalk

This personalization may have the greatest impact on learning.

Summary

Summary

Thank You

Ken Graetz, Ph.D.

Director of e-Learning

Winona State University

[email protected]

507-457-2339

Deborah Proctor, Ph.D.

e-Curriculum Director

Minnesota Online, MnSCU

[email protected]

651-649-5935

Slides available athttp://elearning.winona.edu/readingroom/merlot2005.pdf

Discussion

Discussion