Conversation is the key : A short history of smarthistory.org
Published | September 2010 |
Conference | UOC, OU, BYU |
ABSTRACT
Smarthistory.org is a proven, sustainable model for open educational resources in the Humanities. We discuss lessons learned during its agile development. Smarthistory.org is a free, creative-commons licensed, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement or substitute for the traditional art history textbook. It uses conversation instead of the impersonal voice of the typical textbook in-order to reveal disagreement, emotion, and the experience of looking. The listener remains engaged with both the content and the interaction of the speakers. These conversations model close looking and a willingness to encounter and engage the unfamiliar. Smarthistory takes the inherent dialogic and multimedia nature of the web and uses it as a pedagogical method. This extendable Humanities framework uses an open-source content management system making Smarthistory inexpensive to create, and easy to manage and update. Its chronological timeline/chapter-based format integrates new contributions into a single historical framework, a structure applicable across the Humanities.Keywords | art · art history · conversation · humanities · instruction · Khan Foundation · learning · Open Educational Resources · Smarthistory · sustainability · teaching methods · textbooks |
Published at | Barcelona |
Language | en |
Rights | by-nc-nd/3.0 |
URL | http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/bitstream/10609/5081/6/Zucker_editat.pdf |
Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 138 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.










Click a star to be the first to rate this document
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Open textbook adoption and use: Implications for teachers and learners
Petrides, Lisa; James, Cynthia; Middleton-Detzner, Clare; Walling, Julie; Weiss, Shenandoah
The Community College Open Textbook Project (CCOTP) was developed to support the use of textbooks that are freely available and accessible online, and that can be adapted by teachers and learners to meet their unique ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability; teaching methods; textbooks
Are We Asking Too Much of OER? A Conversation on OER from OE Global 2023
Flinn, Chad; Openo, Jason
This paper examines the pervasive discourse of disruption in OER literature by recounting a facilitated conversation hosted at the 2023 Open Education Global conference held in Edmonton, Alberta. This dialogue used ...
Match: conversation; open educational resources; textbooks
Open educational resources as a tool for educational equity: Evidence from an introductory psychology class
Nusbaum, Amy T.; Cuttler, Carrie; Swindell, Samantha
A college education is becoming increasingly expensive, and the burden of this cost is often felt disproportionately by marginalized students. One aspect of rising college costs are textbook prices, which have increased ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks
The evolution of sustainability models for Open Educational Resources: insights from the literature and experts
Tlili, Ahmed; Nascimbeni, Fabio; Burgos, Daniel; Zhang, Xiangling; et al.
The adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) can, on the one hand, increase access and quality in higher education, but on the other hand it is raising concerns among universities and researchers about its economic ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Frugal MOOCs: An adaptable contextualized approach to MOOC designs for refugees
Shah, Mariam Aman; Calonge, David Santandreu
There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the role Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can play in improving access to education globally, and particularly to thousands of people in developing and developed ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Understanding the impact of OER: Achievements and challenges
Hoosen, Sarah; Butcher, Neil; Knyazeva, Svetlana
The publication “Understanding the Impact of OER: Achievements and Challenges” is the result of partnership between the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and OER Africa, an ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Awareness, attitudes and participation of teaching staff towards the open content movement in one university
Reed, Peter
This research investigates the current awareness of, and participation in, the open content movement at one UK institution for higher education. The open content movement and the open educational resources can be seen ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Evaluating the effectiveness of adopting open educational resources in an introductory American government course
Lawrence, Christopher N.; Lester, Julie A.
In this article, we present findings from a grant-funded initiative to replace traditional, proprietary textbooks with an open content textbook under a Creative Commons license in the introductory American government ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks
User-generated content’s impact on the sustainability of Open Educational Resources
Ganapathi, Janani
Sustainability is a fundamental requirement to ensure long-term viability of open educational resource (OER) initiatives. To afford technology upgrades and author costs, most of the existing initiatives are heavily ...
Match: open educational resources; sustainability
Looking at OER with a critical eye: Strengthening OER initiatives by focusing on student learning
Pierce, Matthew
This paper discusses aspects of adopting, adapting, and building Open Educational Resources (OER) that have the potential to influence student learning but are sometimes overlooked by OER advocates. The author makes ...
Match: open educational resources; textbooks