Developing Quality Guidelines for Open Educational Resources

DEVELOPING QUALITY GUIDELINES FOR

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia

&Maulana Azad National Urdu University

13 March, 2013

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

A PERSPECTIVE ON QUALITY

G. DhanarajanWawasan Open University

Penang Malaysia

Presentation Outline

The Practice of Quality Assurance in HE

A Perspective on Quality The Meaning of QA in an OER

Ecosystem Rethinking Openness



The Practice of Quality Assurance in HE

The Practice of QA in Higher Education

•Asia Pacific Quality Network [APQN]

•International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education [INQUAAHE]


•Finance•Libraries•Staffing•Teaching – Learning Resources•Academic Staff Qualifications•Staff – Student Ratios


A Typical QA Audit Protocol• Vision & Mission• Design And Transformation Of Curriculum• Assessment Of Learners• Learner Support Systems• Academic Staff (Recruitment, Qualifications, • Staff Development• Educational Resources - ITS And Library Services• Programme Monitoring And Evaluation• Governance And Leadership• Continuous Quality Improvement• Finance



A Perspective on Quality

A Perspective on Quality THERE ARE TENSIONS AROUND OLD

AND EMERGING PARADIGMS [1]OLD PARADIGMS EMERGING PARADIGMS

Teacher/Institution CenteredCentralizedHegemonisticOne Size Fits AllClosedUs versus ThemQuantitativePrescriptiveTime as Constant/Learning as Variable

Learner CenteredLocalDeferentialTailoredOpenCollaborativeQualitativeFlexibleLearning as Constant/Time as Variable

A Perspective on Quality THERE ARE TENSIONS AROUND OLD

AND EMERGING PARADIGMS [2]

OLD PARADIGMS EMERGING PARADIGMS

Teacher CredentialsConsolidated ExperienceRegional/NationalStaticSingle Delivery ModelProcessInfrastructure

Teacher SkillsAggregated ExperienceInternational/GlobalDynamicDistributed Delivery ModelOutcomesServices



The Meaning of QA in an OER Ecosystem



• The production of OER• The use of OER• An institutional lens on

OER

The Meaning of Quality in an OER Ecosystem

COL-UNESCO Nine point Guideline for the production of OER

1.Include labeling to indicate what learning needs the resource addresses;2.Allow the creation of variations and enhancements through open licenses;3.Support flexible styling (e.g., enlarging the font, enhancing the colour contrast and adjusting the layout for students with vision impairments or mobile devices);4.Support keyboard control of functions and navigation (for students who cannot use or do not have access to a mouse or pointing device);5.Provide audio or text descriptions of non-text information presented in videos, graphics or images (for students who have visual constraints or who have limited displays);6.Provide text captions of information presented in audio format (for students who have hearing constraints or lack audio interfaces);7.Cleanly separate text that can be read in the interface from underlying code or scripting (to enable translation);8.Use open formats wherever possible to make it easier for alternative access systems and devices to display and control the resource; and9.Adhere to international standards of interoperability so that OER can be used on a wide variety of devices and applications.


SOURCE: W. MACKINTOSH 2009 IN WIKIED


DHANARAJAN & TIMMERS INSTITUTE FOR HE POLICY

Curriculum & Content Institutional Support Benchmark

Instructional Design Course Development Benchmark

Academic Standards Teaching-Learning Benchmark

Technical Standards Course structure Benchmark

Licensing Student Support Benchmark

Assessment/Examination Requirements



Rethinking Openness

Rethinking Openness[SOURCE: JEREMY KNOX, 2013]

Much of OER literature focuses on the removal of perceived barriers to access and thus neglects to consider adequately how self directed learning might actually take place in the absence of an educational organization.


This endorsement of the institution is problematically combined with a neglect to address the role of pedagogy within a university and an exaggerated and untheorised promotion of learner-centred education


OER literature often promotes a paradoxical claim of institutional circumvention alongside an explicit endorsement of the accreditation systems and prestige of established university structures


The OER movement tends to make presumptions about the ability of human beings to self-direct in the processes of learning, often appearing to assume the innate qualities of autonomy and instrumental rationality


The use of OER can be perceived, not as a more rational improvement to education, or a more humane and naturalized form of learning, but as a further refinement in the exercise of power.

Developing Quality Guidelines for

Open Educational Resources

THANK YOU