In the context of open education projects, what does “quality” mean?
Quality is not only measurable through quantity: not through the quantity of objects, or modules, or videos, or courses given/offered by an institution or internet platform (whatever you may mean under this definition).
I tried to access the different sites “watching” at them from two different points of view
a) the one of a casual websurfer, without big experience with e-learning, seeking for some personal improvement
b) the one of a teacher who is usually digging the net for ideas and professional self-improvement.
At the end of my Doppelgänger path, I found that a course (or a platform, or a place) where I can’t get in touch with other persons, collegues, peers, in order to get answers to my questions or to help others get their answers, isn’t of big quality to me.
I think that the presented sites differ in their structure, going from a bottom social level to a top social level, as I saw them some don’t even offer fora or social exchange instruments; but even those (like connections or http://openlearn.open.ac.uk) which stress more this aspects, don’t have an intense social exchange.
Quality is, in my opinion, constituted by/through/thanks to social interaction.
Social interaction can run through informal paths, like skype, emails, sms…. or through formal paths. like dedicate fora or mailing lists.
This is - as I consider it - the vital juice of any community.
Another way of making is through the chance of being able to give personal contribution to a project.
It’s more or less like in a traditional classroom: if pupils can’t do each one their own part “play the role”, and are instead pushed into the static role of mere listeners, they will be as soon as possible demotivated and give their attention to something else.
Quality is for me the capacity to attract and keep “magnetised” attention and motivation.
In this regard I can only agree with emanuela’s post:
at the other side of the network must be people who help, facilitate, guide, value and support the learners. Unfortunatly I didn’t find these quality indicators into the viewed courses
At the end, from teacher to teacher, David: why didn’t you put in the list this resource? –> http://www.oercommons.org