Activity 8: An OER course

A digital skills course using OER

This is a short 5 week online course aimed at adult learners who want to improve their understanding of the digital skills necessary to engage with an increasingly digital world.

Excellent digital skills framework resource at the OU Library which students could use as self-assessment, but this skills course is aiming at adults who may not be quite at level 1 yet.

We were only supposed to use the following OER banks, which meant not being able to use http://www.oercommons.org/ which, when I happened upon it following a link or two, turned out to be the very easiest to search:

• Ariadne
• Jorum
• Merlot
• MIT
• OpenLearn
• Rice Connexions

The main conclusion I came to however, was that one needed to have a very clear idea of audience and structure before starting out. My choice was an adult online audience and it turned out that one resource was head and tails above all the others for this particular student group -- OpenLearn.

A brief review of issues follows:

• Ariadne: often broken links
• Jorum : searching not easy, previews don’t work
• MIT: too advanced for purpose
• CNX: too difficult to use and many non-English texts without a way to filter these out.
• Merlot: ratings useful, description of learning material also useful and search good, but out of date links.
• OpenLearn: despite my criticisms in my earlier blog about this OER, I found this to provide excellent resources and ones that I could pick and chose from easily.

I would always look for existing suitable resources before deciding to create my own so I have no hesitation in using OER. However, ease of searching for and finding the right ones quickly would inevitably mean that I would end up on relying on those OER that were the easiest and quickest to use. 

The course is not complete by any means but here is the beginning:

Week number	Topic	Sub- Topics	Resources	Evaluation (G=good, M=medium, B=bad)
Week 1	Using a computer or mobile smartphone and getting connected	Hardware Software - Browsers and apps Connections	From Ariadne http://goo.gl/JXmn8N From Jorum http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/18838	Both of these were bad in terms of suitability.
Week 2	Creating and caring for your digital identity	Creating a profile Creating accounts Establish your icon	OpenLearn (Online Safety) http://goo.gl/h9oGYV OpenLearn Identity online http://goo.gl/KnyYze	G
Week 3	Searching and evaluating	Using search engines Search terms Evaluating results Finding like-minded people	From Merlot http://goo.gl/WvFfRv http://goo.gl/Mvmt6J From OpenLearn http://goo.gl/4aw8q6	G G G
Week 4	Organising your digital things, offline and online	Bookmarks Online/Offline File storage Cloud storage	OpenLearn http://goo.gl/1qZEdJ http://goo.gl/K9ydcA	G
Week 5	Communicating and collaborating	Forums Skype Web 2.0 Collaborative applications	From OpenLearn http://goo.gl/KRhHBj	M

Activity 7: Exploring OER issues

Activity 7: Exploring OER issues

From OER InfoKit  YouTube channel


The JISC report on OER discusses several issues in OER:

• embedding sustainable practice
• funding and resourcing
• time involved in repurposing materials
• widening engagement
• licensing and locating license holders for permission
• multiple OER models
• institutional policies, practices and coherent strategies
• technical infrastructures
• staff skills, understanding and raising individuals’ digital literacies
• “quality, institutional branding and marketisation” (p9), quality and trust of the materials
• lack of awareness of OER and their benefits

But perhaps more importantly identifies that progress has been made in significant areas:

“Increased awareness, knowledge and expertise around issues to do with technical, quality, accessibility, and legal aspects have led to the development of systems, policies and procedures to support ongoing OER activities.” (Jisc, 2013, p11)

I have been exploring the OER Research Hub’s impact map and based on the results (though there are not many participants yet) explored the issue of widening participation more deeply. The impact map for Access is representing evidence gathered about the hypothesis that OER will widen participation in education. Without any evidence presented from K12 and most of the evidence originating from the USA, it would appear that there is more evidence to support the idea that access is not widened nevertheless there is a slight skew towards more broad access in higher education and at colleges but less in informal. In the HEFCE survey 55% of people who work with OERs found increased access for learners to be of most significance. As Emma Blake (2014) points out there is also a dearth of evidence from other regions than the first world. However, the Open Educational Resources Survey from Unesco (2012) shows promising responses from developing regions and also shows that OER activity is spread across the different educational sectors.

This same Unesco report also highlights the need for policies and funding to help support the establishment of OER. And here the impact map demonstrates clearly that once an OER policy is adopted then this bring financial benefits to institutions and student, particularly the open textbook movement. Where countries report that they do not have a policy, this is not necessarily the end of the story because many are in the process of creating one.

The third issue I want to address is that concerned with digital literacies, it seems from the review that although digital skills are improving amongst staff, when combined with the need for students to cooperate in the production of OER things get a little trickier. So perhaps although students are engaged with OER they are not necessarily getting the best out of them.

It seems as though sometimes we forget that in the fast paced technological era there are some things that always do take time. The impact map is a little disappointing in terms of the results that it displays, but this is due to the voluntary nature of how evidence is included but also that it depends on individuals proposing the evidence. This could certainly skew the perception of the information that it delivers. It is my experience in K12 that making a change and assessing its impact takes many years, for example, were I to propose a digital reading list to year 7’s the interesting result (their English GCSE results) would take five years to come through.

Block 2 Activity 4: Identifying priorities for research

Identifying priorities for research

Advising a fundraising organisation on priorities for research in open education, choosing three from the following list:

• Sustainability – many OER projects have received initial funding from organisations such as the Hewlett Foundation. How sustainable are they after the funding stops?
• Pedagogy – are different ways of teaching required to make effective use of open education?
• Barriers to uptake – what prevents individuals or institutions from either using or engaging with open education?
• Learner support – how can learners best be supported in these open models?
• Technology – what technologies are best suited to open approaches?
• Quality – how can we assure the quality of open educational content?
• Rights – how do we protect the intellectual property of individuals while encouraging wide distribution?

Instinctively I would recommend focussing on the following for research priorities, I would also suggest that a target type of student would also help to clarify some of these issues:

Learner support, primarily because although many people start open education courses, particularly MOOCs, far fewer finish. The make-up of the student body, i.e. people in the field of education and already well-educated, is also indicative that these initiatives are not reaching their intended audience. 

New Republic 

Pedagogy, it is only logical that in order to enable a system of open education, the method of teaching will have to change significantly. Is it enough to simply provide materials, some resources, a few computer quizzes and the occasional forum? Plainly not. But if not then what?

Barriers to uptake, this would go well with my first choice, partly because these are two sides of the same coin. 

Clow, D., (2013). MOOCs and the funnel of participation. Third Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK 2013) [online]. Available at http://oro.open.ac.uk/36657/1/DougClow-LAK13-revised-submitted.pdf (Accessed 21 March 2014)

Jordan, K., (nd) MOOC Completion Rates: The Data [online]. Available at   http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html (Accessed 21 March 2014)

Block 2: Week 7 Activity 1

My experience with open education. (week 7 Activity 1)

Open Education and the Future - TEDxNYED from David Wiley

This presentation isn't really my experience of open education, though a couple of the things Wiley said struck a chord. "If you don't want to share, why teach?" That was a good one, and another "Successful educators share most thoroughly with the most students".

But I put this here just to get me started.... I, like one of my fellow MAODE students also first came across the concept of open as in open source software when I was studying at the Open University. I also was able to take advantage of the OU's definition of open education, as in open entry, by completing my own Bachelors degree here, something I would have been unlikely to be able to do at any other university because of my dreadful A Level grades. Now as a tutor at the OU that open entry is something we continuously struggle with on level one courses. Students start out unprepared for university level study and yet when that one student succeeds, surpasses their own expectations and is able to progress with confidence onto higher levels it makes up for those who really can't.

As a teacher I used other teacher's resources always and also helped to establish a moodle based website where whole courses could be freely exchanged, shared and updated. But this falls squarely into Open Education Resources (OERs) rather than open education. I see the OU as being the pioneer to allowing anyone access to education, provided they could find a way to pay for it, but that the definition of open education has changed more towards the idea of open as in free. But only free access to the resources, perhaps to a course structure, and if organised well, then also access to other students. A stumbling block is the notion of how a student feels successful, is it through assessment, certification, badgification?

I was very interested in the one laptop per child project and this felt to me like a project that had the potential to really change access to digital resources for the people who needed it the most. It was disappointing to discover that small use of this project wouldn't work, my school wanted to buy a set, and server etc, for our link school but couldn't. The purchase was restricted to numbers over 12000 and this meant that it was governments who had to buy in. That ended up not feeling very open.

Wiley talks about people giving of their time in open education. I am trying hard not to see the irony of a professor on a six figure salary (just guessing) talking of teachers giving their time.

Over the last couple of years I have taken part in a few MOOCs and completed one. I also use resources shared under the creative commons licence in my studying and in my teaching.

And my Prezzi presentation for Activity 2/3

Block 1 Activity 13

Activity 13: Significant new technologies

Technology	How long used for educational purposes
	by the OU	by me
Cloud computing	Google Apps in	Dropbox 2011
Mobile/cell phone	OU Anywhere Spring 2013
Open content	Introduced Open Learn programme in ??
Tablet computing	Devices supported in same way as mobiles. Various different filetypes now made available.	never
Game-based learning	Not used	Usually include competitive element in tutorials. But not an achievement based system.
Learning analytics	Early stages several large research projects	Unable to access enough data to make meaningful analysis of own student's progress.
New scholarship	Discussed at senior level 2007	n/a
Semantic applications	One research fellow found working in this area via KMi	n/a
Augmented reality	First appeared for discussion 2006.	n/a
Collective intelligence	First discussed at strategic level 2007, appears frequently in modules and research from 2010	n/a
Smart objects	Discussions appearing 2013/14	n/a
Telepresence	KMi stadium 1995	n/a

Technology	How long used for educational purposes
	by secondary school	by me
Cloud computing	Google Apps in 2009	Dropbox 2011, GA 2006 Netvibes 2007
Mobile/cell phone	Used for GCSE movie making project 2011. Web dev for mobiles incorportated into BTEC IT in 2010. AppInventor inc. in BTEC IT programming unit in 2011.	1995
Open content	Shared teacher resources informally since start. Aware of formal projects since 2004.	2004 for work
Tablet computing	Explored as part of BYOD evaluation 2011	n/a
Game-based learning	Supported another teacher in implementing his MA thesis in form of achievement based website to apply gbl theory to science curriculum	aware of ideas from 2008, not implemented
Learning analytics	Data analysis of student performance increased steadily from leadership only in 2004 towards whole school usage by 2012.	First used in 2005.
New scholarship	As form of Action Research, project undertaken to encourage teachers to do and publish research in 2004/5 to own website.	Own AR first done in 2011. Literacy & ICT study.
Semantic applications	n/a
Augmented reality	n/a
Collective intelligence	n/a
Smart objects	n/a
Telepresence	n/a

"From the table above, decide which three technologies (that are not already being used) you would like your organisation to adopt, and justify your suggestions. If you are working for an organisation that already uses all the technologies listed, suggest other new technologies that would be useful. If you are not currently working for an organisation, think of an organisation you know well and choose three technologies you would like them to adopt, justifying your choices."

I am having a problem simply selecting currently un- or under-utilised technologies for the OU because my first instinct is to reject the premise of the question. I would like the technologies we already use to be perfected and for their pedagogical use to be studied and analysed but more importantly improved and disseminated before adding yet more to the pot.

Useful table linking technologies to learning theories by fellow student. I would add gamification to the connectivism box simply because of the use of various social media, especially chat, that can be ongoing in games and provides the learning space.