Quests

The game is structured around a number of quests. First, you must complete several Training Quests that will provide you with core background skills and knowledge you need to engage in later quests effectively. After completing the Training Quests, you will select a Character Class to play for the remainder of the game, and you can then proceed to complete the quests specific to your Character Class. All written work for the Quests should be posted to your blog by 11:59pm Saturday night of the week the Quest is due.

Training Quests

Quest 1

Carefully review at least 50 pages of historical information on the open education movement. Write a brief summary post on the history of the movement.

• Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources (OECD, 147 pages)
• Open Educational Resources- Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education (JISC CETIS, 34 pages)
• Open Educational Practices and Resources: OLCOS Roadmap 2012 (OLCOS, 149 pages)
• A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities (Atkins, Brown, and Hammond, 80 pages)
• JISC Good Intentions Final Report (JISC, 48 pages)
• OER Handbook for Educators (a printed version is also available; 284 pages)

Quest 2
Carefully review at least 20 pages describing motivations for the open education movement. Write a substantive post with references on the motivations of the movement.

• Removing obstacles in the way of the right to education (Tomasevski, 51 pages)
• Free and compulsory education for all children: the gap between promise and performance (Tomasevski, 81 pages)
• Reaching Down to Lift Another (Hinckley, 3 pages)
• The Perpetual Education Fund: A Bright Ray of Hope (Carmack, 5 pages)
• Testimony to the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (Wiley, 7 pages)

Quest 3
Carefully review five (5) random courses from MIT OCW (http://ocw.mit.edu/) and five (5) random courses from CMU OLI (http://www.cmu.edu/oli/). Write a post on the different ideals of quality expressed in the differing course designs; describe how you feel the different designs reflect on the different universities.

Quest 4
Carefully review the Creative Commons licenses (http://creativecommons.org/). Write a post describing the different licenses.

Quest 5
Carefully review at least 50 pages of information on issues relating to the sustainability of the open education movement. Write a post describing the nature and level of success of sustainability work in the field.

• Common Wisdom: Peer Production of Educational Materials (http://www.benkler.org/Common_Wisdom.pdf) (Benkler, 32 pages)
• Advancing Sustainability of Open Educational Resources (http://proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2007/IISITv4p535-544Kooh275.pdf) (Koohang and Harman, 10 pages)
• On the Sustainability of Open Educational Resource Initiatives in Higher Education (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/33/9/38645447.pdf) (Wiley, 20 pages)
• Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources (http://ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p029-044Downes.pdf) (Downes, 16 pages)