Tapping the Potential of Open Blended Courses in Virtual Worlds in an epic quest for change in higher education. Upatras Open Workshop presentation in the VWBPE (Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education) conference takes place on Friday March 16th, 6pm SLT/PDT = Saturday, 17th 1 am GMT (London) = 3 am EET (Athens). For more information on the Open Workshop please visit: http://openworkshop.wordpress.com/ and http://openworkshop.pbworks.com/

1. Tapping the Potential of Open
Blended Courses in Virtual Worlds
Stylianos Mystakidis
University of Patras

2. Stylianos Mystakids
• Learning Innovator @ Library &
Information Services, University of Patras
• Adjunct Faculty @ Open University of
Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain)  WWW
• Teaching Assistant @ University of
Washington (Seattle, USA)  SL

3. Fast Track!

4. Open Education +
Virtual Worlds =
Change
Synopsis

5. This is my
story!

6. University of Patras (Upatras)
• World Ranking*: #327
• Greece Ranking*: #2
• 24,000 students | 800 Faculty members
• Prominent Research Center on ICT &
Engineering
*Webometrics,2012

7. Patras
• 3rd largest city of Greece
• 222.000 population
• History & Technology
St. Andrew’s Church Rion - Antirrion Bridge

8. Library & Information Services
• National & European Research Projects
• Institution-wide Services (e.g. Repository)
• ISO 9001:2000
• Openness-oriented

9. Explosive Environment

10. Budget Cuts

11. Retirements

12. Reformation of Higher Education

13. E-Learning in
Greek Higher Education?

14. Mission Impossible?

15. Business As Usual
User Training & Support

16. Training Needs Analysis
Target Audience:
Graduate & PhD Students
Survey
Interviews
Aim: What & How

17. Training Needs Analysis (2)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEFUeFhkX2t
WMUw2MWttaUlHNWVjakE6MQ#gid=0

18. Syllabus Threads
1.Information Literacy
2.Academic Development
3.Life-long Learning
4.Professional Development

19. 1. Information Literacy
• Information Literacy Models (Big6, Sconul
etc.)
• Information seeking
• Location & Access of Information
• Organization & Evaluation of Information
• Information Synthesis

20. 2. Academic Development
• Paper Writing
• Publishing in Journals
• Presentation in Scientific Conferences

21. 3. Life Long Learning
• Personal Learning Network (PLN/PLE)
• Learning 2.0
• Effective use of Social Media & Collaborative
Web 2.0 Services
• Innovation & Creativity

22. 4. Professional Development
• Resume (CV) & Cover Letter
• Job seeking strategies
• Job Interviews

23. Skills, Knowledge, Attitudes
http://www.mindmeister.com/119798295

24. Action-packed Learning
Source: http://blog.cathy-moore.com/

25. Blended Learning
α. Asynchronous Self-Study & Group work
• Wiki (Community & Collaboration)
openworkshop.pbworks.com
β. Synchronous Workshops
(weekly physical & virtual meetings)
• Library & Information Services Lab
• Virtual Immersive Learning Environment (SL)

26. Marketing
• Telephone, p2p
• Posters
• Documents to Departments
• E-mails
• Social Media

27. Administration on the Cloud
• Enrollment
– Google Forms & Documents
• Communication
– Blog (News, Announcements)
openworkshop.wordpress.com
– Facebook Page
facebook.com/UpatrasOpenWorkshop
– Twitter (IM) openworkshopUoP
– Tag: #owilupatras

28. Intermediate Report
Nov 2011 – Jan 2012

29. Open Workshop
on Information Literacy

30. Learner
Profile

31. 85 Applicants
2% 9%
22%
5%
Undergraduate
Graduate
PhD Candidates
18% Faculty
Teaching Personell
Other
44%

32. Other; 6 Biology; 2 Geology; 3
Business
Chemical Administration; 2
Engineering; 5
Chemistry; 2 Preschool
Teachers; 11
Physics; 4
Electrical
Philosophy; 4 Engineers; 2
Medicine; 1
Philology; 4
Pharmacy; 2
Civil
Engineering; 1 Mathematics; 10
Information
Education; 12 Science; 9
Mechanical
Financing; 4
Engineering; 1

33. Motivation
Aquintance with new 67
Learning Environments
Professional Development 55
Skills & Knowledge
Academic Development Skills 51
& Knowledge

34. Instructional Strategy

35. Asynchronous Collaboration (wiki)

40. Faculty | Speakers
• University of Patras (3)
• Other Universities (2)

42. Active Participation

43. Learner Participation
• Applicants: 85
• Wiki: 64 members
• Facebook page: 40 likes
• Second Life Group: 38 μέλη
• Weekly Meetings: 25 (Μ.Ο.)

45. Evaluation

46. Feedback on Learning Quality
I liked Wednesday’s meeting very much.
[…] I enjoyed the presentation mostly
because beyond plagiarism critique, it
offered practical alternative methods to
avoid it. […] I got several new ideas from
this session.
Faculty Member Comment, 12/10/12

48. Spontaneous Open Self Reflection
Motivation
Reaction
Learning

49. Accomplishments

50. 1 Greek University
st
Course in Virtual Worlds

51. Learning without Time limitations
• 2 hours 35 minutes:
Time Interval between the end of the 1st
Meeting and and 1st student activity (edit) in
the Course’s Wiki
• 57,9%:
Percentage of student activity in the Wiki
after midnight during the first week (64,3%
after 9 pm)

52. The end of Geography
Recorded Access Points:
• Greece
Patras, Athens, Corfu,
Rhodes
• France
• The Netherlands
• USA

53. 1st Mendeley Training in a 3D
Environment (worldwide)

54. Local & Global Publicity (AERA)

55. Result?

56. The Protagonists

57. Dr. Catherine Synellis
• Director @ Library & Information
Services, University of Patras
• MSc, University of Bonn, Germany
• PhD, University of Ioannina, Greece
• Hellenic Open University Faculty

58. Dr. Giannis Tsakonas
• Librarian @ Library & Information
Services, University of Patras
• PhD in Information Science, Ionian
University, Greece
• Postdoctoral Researcher in Cultural
Data

59. University of Washington
Special thanks to
• Professor Michael Eisenberg,
UW Dean Emeritus
• Mr. Randy Hinrichs, Faculty of UW’s Virtual
Worlds Certificate Progam

60. Open Education +
Virtual Worlds =
Change

61. Lessons Learned
• Evolution, not Revolution
• Get a Sponsor for your Project (PMI)
• Find Support from the Innovators
• Document & Measure Success (Metrics)
• Inspire the Visionary
• Lead by Example

62. “If you want to
change the world,
start with deceptively
small things”

63. Questions?

64. blog.edu.gr
@stylianosm2
mystakidis@upatras.gr
Stylianos Ling
Stylianos Mystakidis
Learning Triathlete