Web's Largest listing of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding events

Events

Advertise

Web's Largest Directory of Sites

2,346 crowdsourcing and crowdfunding sites

IOLchat Report: Crowdsourcing and Online Education

document Distributed Knowledge

#IOLchat Report: Crowdsourcing and Online Education
Each week we meet via Twitter for #IOLchat to discuss current issues related to online learning. Participants have included students, instructors, eLearning companies, schools, publishers, and instructional designers. This week we discussed the concept of crowdsourcing – what is it and how does it happen? Chat participants shared their ideas about how these techniques might be applied in a higher education setting. Here's a review of the conversation: How would you describe crowdsourcing to someone new to the idea? A group of people (students, instructors, administrators) serving as a source of information, rather than relying on just one person as the authority. Teamwork focused on all members contributing their knowledge to a project. An "idea management tool" in which ideas could come from anyone in the crowd all working together to solve problems. A process for "idea polishing:" gathering ideas that the crowd helps to further define and focus for more specific application toward a project or problem. A technique for leveraging the collective creative and intellectual capital of the members of your network. It can begin with brainstorming – collecting as may ideas as possible about an issue, problem, or project - then work as a filter to distill the ideas and create a plan to move them forward. A type of collaboration, or a prelude to more in depth collaborative efforts. Example: Wikipedia – many contributors to single topics. Should there be any specific guidelines or limitations regarding who contributes or who will be considered a member of the "crowd?" Crowd participants may or may not be members of the organization that is coordinating the crowdsourced project.

One incentive to using crowdsourcing techniques is to collect information and perspectives that are as diverse and different as possible. Limiting access to the crowd would limit the scope of the input. There is a potential benefit to having members of the crowd that are removed from the issues at hand. They may be "better able to think outside the box." What types of issues or projects in online education might be addressed with crowdsourcing techniques? Research projects conducted in the field, requiring information from different places, people, perspectives. May be especially applicable in the social sciences. Use crowdsourcing as a technique to identify problems that need resolution in your students' area of study. Have students work together, perhaps as a smaller crowd, to collaborate and solve. Crowdsource student study groups in which students support and interact with each other using tools like OpenStudy. Consider the level at which the crowd will be activated (course, small group, program, institution). Plan for different strategies based on the scope of the crowd's work (idea generation, problem identification, problem solving). What are some of the benefits and challenges of crowdsourcing in higher education? Benefits: you get input from many perspectives, foster innovation and evolution of ideas that are considered, transparency of the process especially through social media tools. Challenges: managing the overall effort and progress toward idea implementation or problem solving. Could crowdsourcing ever replace an office at your school? Or an online education program as a source of skills and knowledge? Perhaps not replace entirely, but improve processes and reduce time to completion, either of an administration process or a learning experience.

Summary
A report about the weekly discussion dubbed as "IOL chat" on Twitter

Description
IOL chat is a weekly discussion about online learning and it's done via Twitter. This week, the discussion focused on the concept of crowdsourcing – what is it and how does it happen? Chat participants shared their ideas about how these techniques might be applied in a higher education setting.

Read this document for a review of the conversation!

Tags: Crowd Participants, Crowdsourcing, eLearning, Idea Management, Idea Polishing, IOL Chat, online education, OpenStudy, Wikipedia

Posted by Jayne Ann

Nov 18, 2011 06:12 am GMT Viewed 734 times

Author: Melissa Venable Source

Contact us if you are owner of this content and want to make changes.

Download Flag This

Events

IOLchat Report: Crowdsourcing and Online Education

Comments

Crowdsourcing.org

Categories

Content

Crowdsourcing.org, an initiative by massolution®

Events

Related Content

IOLchat Report: Crowdsourcing and Online Education

Comments

Crowdsourcing.org

Categories

Content

Crowdsourcing.org, an initiative by massolution®