From Chrysalis to Butterfly: Lifecycles of an OER Project

Beck Pitt, The Open University (UK)

OpenEd, November 2013

@OER_Hub #oerrhub

Who we are, and what we do…

The OER Research Hub project:

• Research project investigating the impact OER on learning and teaching around the world

• Work collaboratively with a range of projects, initiatives and organisations• Research is structured by 11 hypothesis and 4 sectors • Case studies / questionnaires / interviews / impact data • A project committed to sharing results and practices

About me:

• Research Assistant responsible for the informal learning sector work• Based at the Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University (UK): • Collaborations: School of Open, Bridge to Success and

Connexions/OpenStax. I am also currently working with Co-PILOT and Siyavula

This presentation…

Bridge to Success Project Overview

The project aimed to offer free, open educational resources to prepare adults to successfully and confidently transition to a college environment in the US, to pursue advanced qualifications, or to be successful in their chosen careers…

Next Generation Learning Challenges

11 Institutions

31 Instructors/Staff

1830 students used the Bridge to Success materials

399 students participated in iterations of Succeed with Math

675 students participated in iterations of Learning to Learn

756 students participated in pilots which offered both courses

During the Project…

Photo Credit: CC-BY Beck Pitt

Institutions that participated in Bridge to Success pilots

Screenshot of table from Pitt, McAndrew, Coughlan, Ebrahimi (2013)

Whole course, remixable OER

Pilots initially focused on community colleges but expanded to non-college institutions such as charities and family support centers

Why revisit Bridge to Success post-project?

Institutions still using or planning to use materials post-project / Preparation to Scale: What happened next? Did the project have a continued impact? Were people still using the materials?

Reversioned and used again during Adult Learners Week by The Open University

Key hypotheses:

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfactionThe open aspect of OER creates different usage and adoption patterns

Hypotheses specifically aligned to Bridge to Success:

Open Education acts as a bridge to formal education, and is complementary, not competitive, with itBridge to Success was written to help students transition into college effectively and empower them (e.g. build their confidence)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at an institutional levelWere there any long-term impact of being involved in a project like Bridge to Success?

Use of OER is an effective method for improving retention for at-risk students Bridge to Success pilots targeted low income and at risk groups of students

Which hypotheses? Why?

Family Support Centre in residential area where:

“85% of families are headed by a single female parent;90% have not completed high school and do not have a GED;95% are unemployed, underemployed or receive welfare or other social services.”(Source: Case Study Two Family Support Centre leaflet 2012)

Piloting both Bridge to Success courses to support preparation for General Education Development (GED) and pre-GED examinations.

Outcome of Spring 2012 pilot with 8 participants:

• 2 obtained their GED certificate,

• 2 less advanced learners referred to another programme,

• 2 students sat their GED examinations but need to retake,

• 1 participants is now employed following a job training programme and will take their GED during March 2013,

• 1 dropped out of Waverly programme.

“Challenges that are unique to our setting and

population”

Enabled students to “make better decisions as they move on”

The open aspect of OER creates different usage and adoption patterns

“And it was a good thing with

using the computer itself,

because they are now able to

get on the computer on their

own, they don’t need my

assistance...”

Impact in a non-college context:

International Workforce Development Agency: supported people across Maryland for over 90 years.

This pilot utilised specific units of the B2S maths course until end of August 2012 to enable students to complete a new requirement math pre-test for a Weatherization program.

“On average a 32.4% improvement in scores was seen in the second attempt across this sample, with 28 of the 35 (80%) who originally failed passing the entrance examination…” after using specific units of Succeed with Math for between a 1-3 week period

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfaction

Citation from Pitt, McAndrew, Coughlan, Ebrahimi (2013)

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfaction

“It was real informative, I may even work with my 4th grader cos she’s doing fractions and things now … she’s getting it… but this is real informative, and it helps…”

“You all got it pretty basic and simple, y’all, y’all pretty do…so it’s as much easy as possible, I think I’ll be alright…” “I seen this all before, but 20 years ago…”

“Person like me…I haven’t been to school for so long. But it’s not super hard getting back into it, but it takes time, takes a little bit of repetition.”

“I’m not a computer literate person, I always dealt with things hands-on, it’s paper and pencil and I deal with things hands-on … I mean I came out of school in ’88…For me to go online and learn online, it’s a challenge.”

Student focus group/interviews, March 2012

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfaction

Succeed with Math post-survey: “87% of respondents would recommend the materials to other students, 83% would like to use materials like Succeed with Math as part of enrolling in future courses, and 83% report overall satisfaction with the quality of the materials” (n = 30)

Learning to Learn post-survey:

“76% agreed or strongly agreed that they

were satisfied with the quality of the

materials (18% undecided), whilst 64%

would recommend the materials to other

students (22% undecided). In instances

where there was lower satisfaction, there

were suggestions from respondents that the

materials were not always appropriate for

them” (n = 96)

“Of these 492 low-income students, 68% (370) completed the relevant Bridge to Success course they were participating in, compared to the total of all learners for which we have complete data (1235) shows that 85% (1050) completed their course.”

Screenshot of table and citations from Pitt, McAndrew, Coughlan, Ebrahimi (2013)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at an institutional level

CASE STUDY ONE:

Distance Learning University serving 92, 000 students. Non-traditional student base including high number of military students, African American students and many students who are in their early 30s returning to college after break in learning:

“…Any anxiety they had when they left the traditional classroom has been typically amplified because they have a gap in their continuum of knowledge and exposure to the math…” (Instructor Interview, June 2013)

131 students participated in 5 different pilots of Succeed with Math (36 on the hybrid course version and 24 on the purely online version of the course)

Used Succeed with Math course: hybrid and online.

In hybrid versions once a week over three weeks discussed experiences of using Bridge to Success materials and held “group therapy sessions” where there was a “sharing [of] stories … about their anxiety about math … feeling like they were a community of people who shared similar experiences and similar concerns, that sort of support cohort… A range of math readiness or competency, still all had the common theme of anxiety around taking the mathematics program or course” (Instructor Interview, June 2013)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at an institutional level

“It’s not necessarily policy but I think that it’s the approach

to the student which is really changing.” (Interview, June

2013)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at an institutional level

Case Study Example Two:

“We have decided that textbooks/course materials are very expensive, and so we as a University want to do whatever we can to reduce the cost of course materials for students. So much so that we have another initiative in which we’re trying as much as possible to put e-resources in every class and not require the students to buy additional materials. So we would like to go as close as possible to the zero cost per course. And so this is perfect because … Bridge to Success kind of got us thinking about that…”

Case Study Example One:

“So I think that Bridge to Success kind of got us thinking more about students when they come in the door, how do we help them, how do we assess them and how do we modularise the curriculum. Because it could be that they don’t need the entire course, that they need parts of the course. So I think Bridge to Success certainly helped us… I mean we’ve always thought about the student … But you really need to help them think about where they are when they come in the door, and what’s the best way for them to get a degree.”

Concluding Remarks

Continue to connect/re-connect with piloting organisations to examine any impact of Bridge to Success

Launch Winter 2013 of questionnaire for whole course OER. Trial this on Bridge to Success material: gain more of a sense of who is accessing materials and why (broader range of cities/countries than during project)

Photo Credits: CC-BY Beck Pitt

Bibliography/Credits

Select bibliography:

Bailey, T. & Cho, S.W. (2010). Developmental Education in Community Colleges. Available from: http://www2.ed.gov/PDFDocs/college-completion/07-developmental-education-in-community-colleges.pdf

Bridge to Success Report One: Adaptation, Integration and Engagement

Coughlan, T. Pitt, R. & McAndrew, P. Building Open Bridges: Collaborative Remixing and Reuse of Open Educational Resources across Organisations (2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems “Changing Perspectives” (CHI 2013) Paris, France)

Case Study Two Family Support Centre Leaflet 2012

Pitt, R. McAndrew, P. Coughlan, T. & Ebrahimi, N. Assessing OER impact across organisations and learners: experiences from the Bridge to Success project (Due for publication in JIME, 2013)

With special thanks to Nassim Ebrahimi, Patrick McAndrew and Tim Coughlan. Thanks also to Patrina Law and Rebecca Galley (The Open University)

URLs:

OER Research Hub: http://oerresearchhub.org Bridge to Success: http://bridge2success.aacc.edu

oerresearchhub.org

@OER_Hub #oerrhub

@BeckPitt