Final Guild Post

The end has come and the class is over. Here I am doing my final blog post for this course. Given that I haven't had any comments, and the class is already over, perhaps I should question my own sanity for taking the time to write this last post. I guess it's just that voice in my head that makes me seek closure.


Here is the link to the personal finance course we built:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pkEgScMtxs-CZCuPoe_3eaQ&inv=justinj@byu.edu&t=5055627048556804565&guest

It still has holes and needs more work, but we defined a way to go about building a resource pool for an OCW course and carried the ball most of the way. Even in its incomplete form, it should be useful to those who might use it to prepare to teach a Personal Finance course using open content.

This class was good for me. I learned a great deal. I gained a broad understanding of the past and future of the OCW movement, some great project and writing experience, an understanding of the copyright and legal issues around OCW, and more conviction that, while I don't believe OCW will replace traditional education, I do believe OCW will play an important role in advancing quality and accessibility.

I also picked up some good tools along the way. Learning to use the advanced features in Google and the code snipits from the Creative Commons site has already paid off many times and having a basic understanding of what OCW content is available has proven valuable on several occasions.

My classmates were great. Some of the most thoughtful and intelligent I've met. David Wiley is the finest instructor I've had at BYU.

On to other things now. Time to focus on finishing a dissertation. Thanks for the learning.

Justin