Suggested Online Course and Resource Evaluation Workgroups (OCREWs) Here are details of some of the OCREWs suggested till now. If you are interested in participating or have any queries, please contact the person listed. Academic outcomes assessment Contact person: Jenna Seehafer at seehafer@csus.edu [Jenna says: "Outcomes Assessment aims to simplify and quantify what in many fields of study (especially the arts, humanities, and social sciences) may be impossible and destructive to simplify and quantify. The intention of administrators in universities seems to be to move instruction online wherever possible based upon teaching to 'Outcomes Assessment' and students' mastery of it. I see this as politically and pedagogically unsound, but definitely something that would affect us and something we should investigate and comment upon as online educators. In which fields, for instance, can criteria for learning be itemized and mastered point by point? To what extent would moving courses online or onto CD-ROM, based upon such criteria for learning, affect educators' academic freedom and ownership of the courses they have designed using institutional resources? Can top down curriculum goals work? I'm obviously biased at this point, but I think pulling together information and opinion of online educators about it might help us define what the limits of Outcomes Assessment might be and where it could be useful to pedagogy and online instruction."] Online Educational Standards Contact person: Jenna Seehafer at seehafer@csus.edu [Jenna says: "Online Educational Standards may, in the long run, provide a framework to help nearly all of our subject based OCREWs evaluate [online] coursework. An Online Educational Standards OCREW would eventually have to be informed by subject area OCREWs on issues concerning what is and is not workable online pedagogy in each field."] Student Factory Model Contact person: Mihkel Pilv at info@miksike.ee [Mihkel says: "The main idea behind the Student Factory is "Learning by Taching". Students are put into the shoes of teachers and professional study material writers. They modify and translate already existing MIKSIKE eTemplates (link to http://miksike.com/etemplates.htm ) or create new ones over the Net in International collaborative environment.. Please read more about the first Student Factory project at: http://miksike.com/articles/studentfactory.htm"] Industry vs. academic control in online education (how to achieve balance!) Issues related to the working conditions for teachers and faculty in online education (including faculty workload, ownership issues, institutional infrastructure support for online classes, forced conversion to online education, and backroom deals for software, hardware and support with commercial interests that exclude faculty input, etc.) Ontology definition for online education Evaluation of online coursework for various subjects (separate OCREWs for each subject) Technology related standards from online educator/learner point of view Effective use of technology: evaluation of new products and finding their place in supporting online educator, finding better ways to use various technologies and specific products, etc. Regional and cultural issues in subject content Issues related to the individualities of both the educator and the learner New problems: copyright issues, access to education, access to support material for both educators and learners Online education course for online educators (Contact person: Nicholas Bowskill at N.Bowskill@sheffield.ac.uk)