My Fellowship as an Open Learning Scholar at TRU was framed by the following initial proposal drafted with Brian Lamb.

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Activities over a 2-3 month period will include the following.

(1) Work with Director, Innovation Open Learning (OL) to review, assess and enhance the WordPress and MediaWiki environments for institutional uses. These enhancements would be designed to produce a dynamic, and sustainable environment for open web instruction, publishing and collaboration across the university. Mr. Levine was lead designer for the TRU-based rMOOC (http://rmooc.ca) and the intention of this particular work is to build the capacity for the institution to develop and support these sorts of initiatives inexpensively and sustainably for special projects in the future. These efforts should also extend the reach and the quality of experience for all users of these environments, regardless of their scope.

Outputs: upgraded and enhanced WordPress and MediaWiki installations. At least two exemplar projects: either new projects, or re-workings of existing open online educational or research initiatives. Installation of at least one of Mr. Levine’s unique open source creations: such as the student-populated “Assignment Bank” that he first built for the digital storytelling course http://ds106.us (see http://assignments.ds106.us/ and http://bank.ds106.us/). Mr. Levine’s history demonstrates an impressive and undeniably prolific track-record of closely observing learner communities and building custom, open source applications in service of producing “user-innovation toolkits”. If a unique problem or opportunity presents itself at TRU, he may well develop something as yet unexpected.

(2) Work with Director, Innovation OL and with the Centre for Student Engagement and Learning Innovation (CSELI) to scope and deliver a series of workshops (as well as developing stand-alone web tutorials and resources for independent and online students) on the theme of “digital storytelling”. Mr. Levine is a renowned expert on the subject, much in demand as a speaker and facilitator. His “50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story” has been indispensable to educators around the world, and he has been an architect and lead instructor of DS106. These workshops will build on that expertise, Mr. Levine will also be available to meet and consult with instructors, instructional designers, and other relevant people at TRU.

Outputs: At least three campus-wide workshops, in addition to targeted classroom visits and consultations with individual and groups of instructors. Additionally, this Fellowship will support at least two ongoing TRU initiatives: “Digital Storytelling in the Humanties” led by Professor Ken Simpson (http://deptofutopia.org/tpc/) and an ongoing digital storytelling component of the “Interculturalizing the Curriculum” series of workshops led by CSELI. A web resource that captures the outputs of these activities, as well as providing tutorials and support for online and independent students who wish to enhance their digital communication and creative expression skills.

(3) At the conclusion of Fellowship, capture reflections and lessons learned for conference presentation and/or publication.

Output: at least one presentation at a national or international conference, and/or a publication using the experiences of this Fellowship collaboration as its basis.