Sofia Pilot Publishes Eight "Open" Courses

FOOTHILL GLOBAL ACCESS, Los Altos Hills, CA--Content for eight courses is now available online for free through the Sofia open content initiative, thanks to the joint contributions of faculty, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Foothill-De Anza Community College District, and can now be accessed at the Sofia Course Gallery.

The pilot grant open content initiative, Sofia (Sharing of Free Intellectual Assets), was initiated in March of 2004 under the leadership of Vivian 'Vivie' Sinou, Dean of Learning Technology & Innovations at Foothill College. "Open" content refers to material that is freely available for use by faculty, students, and self-learners.

The Sofia finalists include the following content contributed by faculty from five California Community Colleges: Creative Typography, by Carolyn Brown, Foothill College; Introduction to Java Programming, Steven Gilbert, Orange Coast College; Elementary Statistics, by Susan Dean and Barbara Illowsky, De Anza College; Physical Geography, by Allison Lenkeit, Foothill College; Musicianship, by Don Megill and Dave Megill, Mira Costa College; Enterprise Network Security, by Sukhjit Singh, De Anza College and Mike Murphy, Foothill College; Web Page Authoring, Jo Anne Howell, Gavilan College; and Macromedia Flash, by Marcia Ganeles, Foothill College.

The Sofia project has been a valuable learning process for those who were involved as administrators, authors, reviewers, instructional designers, and technologists. The methodology utilized in the Sofia pilot consisted of four phases: solicitation, review, conversion, and publication. Sofia sought to answer fundamental questions regarding the publication of "open" course materials: Is there available online content? Is it interactive and of high-quality? Is faculty willing to share it freely? What content conversion processes must take place to make the materials "re-usable" by others?

There are no final answers to these questions, though the project shed light on the challenges and barriers of publishing content for wide use. Three major challenges were addressed in the publication process: attaining universal usability (relevance beyond the class/students of the author), re-deploying content in a consistent presentation format, and removing campus- and instructor-centric references.

A question remains regarding receptivity and use of the open content. Will faculty adopt the Sofia course materials? Will students use them? Unlike other experimental efforts with content repositories, the published Sofia courses have been offered at the respective colleges for years, serving hundreds of students successfully. Similar to any adoption of an innovative effort, the community college market must be introduced to the concept of open content, educated as to its potential for teachers, students and independent learners. Sources of on-going revenue must be found in order to sustain an open publication process. In addition to the publication costs, the published content must be updated regularly to remain fresh and current.

As demand for e-learning courses and programs by traditional and non-traditional learners continues to grow, a "community" content effort, like Sofia, is a sure way for institutions to leverage their resources and offer high-quality web-based course materials to learners and faculty who can then build upon it for their local needs. 

 

Top