Artefact 3 - A Concept Map on Openness in DE

Working full time and having taken two quite demanding courses, led me to be very proactive as to catch up with all responsibilities and commitments. Therefore, my very first concern was to download the tool during week one. Having a thorough look on the tool options, I chose Cmap for my concept map, which, though a tool I was not acquainted with, I found it quite user-friendly and for that reason I started experimenting with it. My first step was to watch a video tutorial on how to use it, as it is the case with most software programs I use. I got enthusiastic with its features and started working on it. It initially seemed to be easy, as I started adding new elements the weeks to follow. 

Nevertheless, things did not seem to be so straightforward. Composing my concept map proved to be quite time consuming, mostly due to the plethora of information and concepts I had to arrange in a comprehensive way each week (1.1, 1.2). As I like information and further elaboration of concepts and their links to unfold, I decided to apply a top to bottom approach for the design of my map, that is, a hierarchy concept map, with the notion of Openness on top, and then proceed with the main linking concepts as they were presented and analyzed each week.  Critical choices of linking words helped me a lot to provide explanatory information and support for my chosen text and its interconnections (1.5) while keeping the concept map clear and organized. To this end, the very well-organized sequence of content presentation and materials of the course helped me to keep track of my map development. I have to admit that I had to re-arrange things, omit information and details as I wanted to keep my map clearly legible, neat, and meaningful (1.8, 1.9).

In order to be effective on that task, I asked myself what I would like to have visualized if I were to summarize the main take-aways from my engagement with the content and the understanding of the main concepts of this course.

After providing some background information on the roots of Openness and general thoughts discussed in the first two weeks of the course, the concepts I started working on were the three main types, namely, Content, Teaching, and Scholarship, with their interconnections and further links. I decided that Open Educational Resources was the concept that I needed to place centrally on my map as it proved to be the richest part to elaborate on, interconnecting with all the notions that followed. Licensing was the second concept I worked on, providing as much information as needed to keep it clear and meaningful.

The following image is a cluster of my map that displays the process of developing the concept of Licensing that took me quite some time to arrange as to fit the map (1.11), providing adequate information to the reader as to easily decode the symbols.

Open Scholarship had also many interconnections, so I had to replace it so as to clearly interconnect with content issues, learning opportunities, Systemic Change, and Future Trends. The last week’s forum discussions, reflection on materials with my peers (4.3, 3.1), and the instructor's thought provoking questions led me to further review literature on MOOCs and their categorization (5.4). While reflecting on literature and sharing it with my peers, Dr Blomgren, quite strategically and very successfully, kept asking questions leading us to share examples that helped me finalize my concept map by adding information that connect University’s role in society with the learning opportunities provided. Though so close to the completion of my map, this was the most challenging part, given that now everything seemed to have to be interconnected, from one end of the map to the other, but still keep it neat and legible! Another challenging part was that links and key words should be short but adequately explanatory, providing necessary information wherever needed (1.11, 4.2).

Another cluster of my map displaying the complexity of Openness concepts and my effort to neatly present tham from one end of the map to the other...

Being very proud of my creation and this lovely journey of exploring and depicting notions neatly and clearly, it was time to add aesthetic value to my map! Rearranging size, font, and colour was the very last touch of my creation. I was very happy with the instructor's comments on that part as she felt that these details, apart from aesthetic, had an even more practical value to the reader as they facilitate meaningful comprehension of the interrelations and connections of broad notions under the umbrella of Openness.

This is an excerpt of my reflection paper:

The whole process of creating this concept map was a valuable learning experience that much informed my strategies as a learner and educator. It was such an engaging activity that changed my knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and deeply and actively involved me in the concepts of Openness and their affordances and limitations (5.6). 

My interaction with colleagues/course participants while co-constructing knowledge was another important takeaway from this process. I had the opportunity to closely work with another peer while developing this map, after her invitation to share experience and worries while creating our maps. Our collaboration took us much further, we kept on working together on the forthcoming assignments, reviewing each other's work, making corrections and suggestions (4.7). Though I did not realize how important it was for her, being at the very last semester of completing her studies, it was her sharing this interaction of ours and the establishment of a Community of Inquiry in a very stressful period of her life with the instructor on her final reflection paper that I was informed about her feelings and thoughts (4.4). This occasion, being a fervent advocate of the importance of  emotional intelligence and presence, especially in a distance program, further strengthened my beliefs in establishing online learning communities to support and boost development of interpersonal communicative skills (4.0) along with self-regulation and metacognition.

To add to this, this engaging activity helped me acquire knowledge and skills on a personal and professional level. On the personal level, it boosted my pictorial skills and my problem-solving and decision making competencies. On the professional level, it helped me reflect on my instructional design practices from two perspectives. The first one was that I became more knowledgeable about licensing issues with regards to educational repositories available, either curated or crowd-sourced that I used to employ on a less academic level, without considering intensive and appropriate attribution of original work. The second one was that I realized how important it was to involve my students in such an activity, leveraging its multifold beneficial use. Based on my own experience and on the way I learn while creating this artefact, I have started encouraging my learners to map concepts and arrange them in a meaningful way. So far, it has proved to be a favourite activity for them, as it helps them clarify problematic areas in their learning process based on its problem-solving, motivational, and engaging nature, improve their material organization skills, reinforce their metacognition, and thus help them learn how to learn. To add to this, it has much reinforced their collaborative learning, as, when asked to do so in groups, each team proudly shares its own unique, very creative version (1.10, 2.7)!

Additionally, it boosted my interest to delve into the world of MOOCs as a recent but ever-growing trend that complies with UNESCO's Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goal 4, Education for All. More specifically, my engagement with this course cumulative activity had such an impact on my interests that I have already become an active member of a number of open repositories, I have taken a course in Coursera supported by Pennsylvania University, and at present I am facilitating the forum discussion of the LTLO course of Athabasca University MOOCs under the supervision of Dr Marti Cleveland -Innes. To add to this, as part of my Independent Study, I am working on a review of the design and delivery of this MOOC, and further reviewing literature on MOOCs history and their benefits on OERs.

Last but not least, I had the pleasure to be informed by one of my colleagues--who is an e-learning developer and AU graduate student--that she has made good use of one of my maps shared in an open educational repository and she has received very positive feedback from learners on its clarity and usefulness (4.1, 4.2)! This is definitely an incentive to keep up creating and sharing, adopting an ever-growing culture of sharing materials and practices among educators as well as urging my colleagues to contribute!

This is part of her post on my Facebook page.