Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Overview

• Introduction to OERs• OER cases studies• Sharing experiences (groups)• Feedback (plenary)• Future policies and tactics

What are OERs?Any content or media that can be used to create an educational resource that is open and free for educators to use. The licensing makes provision for others to reuse, remix and redistribute freely.

"OER are teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open Educational Resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to

knowledge.“

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Why use OERsOER have the potential to advance the delivery of education by:

• Building on common intellectual capital• Increasing the availability of relevant learning

materials • Reducing the cost of accessing educational materials• Stimulating the active engagement of teaching staff

and students in creating learning resources• Improving quality through collaboration.

A basic guide to OER – Commonwealth of Learning, 2011.

Staff engaged in reviewing OERs

How OERs can help• Create an economically viable and sustainable

model for distance education and training at scale - based on TESSA & HEAT model.

• Support development of quality, relevant education and training materials wherever the need exists

• Showcase materials developed to a global audience

• Build local capacity in distance learning expertise.

Building local capacity

Are OERs the same as eLearning?Openly licensed content can be produced in any medium: paper-based text, video, audio or computer-based multimedia.

e-learning courses may harness OER, but OER are not necessarily delivered through e-learning. Many open resources while published in digital format, are also printable.

The challenge of poor bandwidth and connectivity in some countries, means that many resources are sharable only as printable resources.

Providing a variety of formats allows access for all.

Making a resource ‘Open’• The key to making a resource open is the licence.

• Creative commons is the most popular and easy to use licensing system.

• The licence should be embedded within the resource, helping others to easily understand how they can use it.

• Creative Commons Licence allows people to copy and redistribute a person’s work as long as they give attribution to the owner under the conditions the owner specifies with the Creative Commons Licence chosen.

Different types of adaptation• Reuse/adapt the learning modele.g. Tessa -> HEAT• Reuse/adapt module templatee.g. Nigeria QDL• Contextualise module contente.g. Images, statistics, policies etc.• Reuse/adapt learning resources & media• Translate modules into another language.

Distance learning model for a practice-based course

up to 25 Students

Distance Learning Tutor

OER Modules Practical Training

self-directed

study with tutor

support

face-to-face skills sessions

Support and Assessment

Practical Skills Mentors

HMERmodule online

http://labspace.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=7320

The OER LifecycleTypically the development process follows this sequence:

Find suitable resources: using general search engines, searching OER repositories and finding individual websites. Some components may also be available offline, e.g lecture notes, class projects, handouts and other resources prepared previously.

Compose: construct a new learning resource from the collection of resources at your disposal with your specific learners needs in mind.

Adapt: adapt learning resource components to your local context, which may involve minor corrections and improvements, remixing components, localisation and even complete rework for use in diverse contexts.

Use: use your adapted OERs in the classroom, in print or online, as part of distance or blended learning courses or for informal learning activities.

Getting Started• UNESCO Guidelines for OER in Higher Education 2011

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002136/213605e.pdf

• OER handbook - designed to help educators find, use, develop and share OER to enhance their effectiveness online and in the classroom. http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator_version_one

• LabSpace : labspace.open.ac.uk. A space for educators to produce, reuse, remix and share open educational resources (OER).

• OER Africa : http://www.oerafrica.org/ A vibrant network of African OER practitioners.

Useful Resources• OpenLearn: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/• iTunesU: http://www.open.edu/itunes/• YouTube EDU: short lessons from top teachers, full

courses from leading universities, professional development material and inspiring videos from global thought leaders. http://www.youtube.com/oulearn

• Flickr : www.flickr.comA photo sharing community and management site where it’s possible to search for photos licensed under creative commons for reuse and adaptation.

Benefits • Distance learning approach costs less than traditional

‘classroom’ teaching and takes less time to reach everyone who needs it

• Quality curriculum can be delivered to a common standard in all locations

• Capacity building in OER development: training authors in developing quality DL materials

• Module consistency aids student engagement• Modules can be adapted for use in other

programmes• Collaborative approach can yield other benefits.

Challenges• Authors need time to develop OERs but are not

always released from other work commitments• Academics may be reluctant to share their work or

use that of others• Authors may be working in a second language• Copyright issues • Intermittent Internet access and electricity may be an

issue if working collaboratively or online.

New opportunities for OERs using Mobile Devices

• http://www.mhealthed.org/iheed_report_updates.pdf

Case studies

OER case study: HEAT• Printed HEAT modules developed for use in Ethiopia.

• Available as OERs online – free for anyone in the world to use, download or adapt. http://www8.open.ac.uk/africa/heat/heat-resources

• Form a knowledge bank of highly structured, well illustrated distance learning texts.

• Teach core healthcare theory in an African context.

• Readily adaptable for use in other African countries and other continents.

HEAT Modules Online

http://labspace.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=434431&direct=1

TESSA Materials Online

TESSA is an international initiative bringing together teachers and teacher educators from across sub-Saharan Africa.

It offers a range of Open Educational Resources in four languages to support school based teacher education and training. http://www.tessafrica.net/share

Thank you

Ali Wyllie & Steve Swithenby (ali.wyllie@open.ac.uk) Lecturer Learning and Teaching Technologies, Faculty of Health and Social Care.

Prof Stephen Swithenby (s.j.swithenby@open.ac.uk), Director - eSTEeM (Science)