open practices telp-sig webinar
DESCRIPTION
Within education, the increasing discourse around Open Educational Resources (OER) is one of the most visible manifestations of new approaches to sharing and knowledge construction that have flourished alongside the development of web2.0. Over the past three years the UK JISC and HEA have funded a major programme of OER release, the UKOER programme. The associated evaluation and synthesis project has highlighted the cultural issues and changing practices surrounding OER.A strand of projects in the UKOER programme has focused on professional development – both development of HE teachers in OER practice, and release of OERs to support the professional development of HE teachers. Further projects have worked with outside organisations (such as professional bodies or the NHS) to develop OER for professional practice. Their experience has highlighted differences and unique aspects but also similarities and opportunities for sharing and learning across sectors.The range of different models/approaches to OER present challenges as each stakeholder group has different motivations for engaging. The lack of a common vocabulary means that people are still asking fundamental questions about use, re-use and re-purposing of learning resources and about the nature of the concept 'open' itself - is existing practice becoming more open or does it require people to change their practice? In this webinar, Lou McGill and Isobel Falconer, from the UKOER evaluation and synthesis team, will introduce emerging issues in open practices across sectors and invite participants to explore these within their own contexts.TRANSCRIPT
OPEN PRACTICES
TEPL SIG Webinar 21st February 2012Isobel Falconer, Lou McGill, Allison Littlejohn, Helen Beetham
Are you an open practitioner?
loumcgill.com
Are these new practices or existing practices in an open context? I share my educational resources with
colleagues I share my teaching and knowledge
practices with colleagues I use open educational resources I share my educational resources outside
my institution/organisation I share my teaching and knowledge
practices outside my institution/organisation I use the web to support my learning
JISC/HE Academy UKOER Programme
Aims to make a wide range of pre-existing digital learning resources freely available and easily discoverable by educators and learners
Sustainable change in culture Sustainable change in practices
3 phases of activity so far http://www.jisc.ac.uk/oer
Practice change – eg’s of open practice
Teachers Searching for and using OERs in their own teaching Making their own resources openly available
Learners (formal and informal) Finding and managing resources to support learning (digital
literacies) Creating content as part of learning activities
Communities Open collaborative activities (may or may not involve OERs) Sharing, exchange, contributing to community repositories
Institutions/organisations Content management practices – moving from closed to open
systems Using OERs for marketing/showcasing Moocs (Massive Open Online Courses)More examples in Open Practices Across Sectors Briefing paper and McGill,
Beetham, Falconer, Littlejohn, UKOER2 Final Report, 2011
Model by Helen Beetham in our Open Educational Practice Briefing Paper ( ‘in development’)
Why engage in open practices?
Building individuals‟ or institutions‟ or community‟s‟ reputation
Improving efficiency, cost and quality of production
Opening access to knowledge
Enhancing pedagogy through the creation and reuse of OERs
Building technological momentum (and being funded to do so), evidenced in the JISC call
Task: think about motivations within your sectorMotivations – what are the benefits for... National agencies
Educational Institutions
Commercial institutions
Other sectors – 3rd sector, health sector
Registered students
Global Learners
Teachers/Academics
banksy.com
OER Synthesis & Evaluation Wiki: https://oersynth.pbworks.com/
Further information
Open practices
Open practices include a broad range of activities which have an 'open' philosophy, intention or approach; this includes practices of both learners and teachers:
Open practices can include both informal and formal learning and teaching.
Open practices can take place in individual (learner or teacher) or social (group, collective, institutional) contexts.
Formal open practice is usually situated in the wider educational context and is influenced by the cultures and traditional practices of institutions in different sectors.
Informal and formal open practice takes place within wider societal contexts which are evolving rapidly.
Open practices are enabled by a highly connected socially networked environment.
Collaborative practice
"Collaborative practice has emerged as important during this funding phase. Cross disciplinary approaches are beginning to have an impact at an institutional level and reveal a new benefit of open content - that it is easily shared and co-constructed across existing boundaries. Engaging with partners outside the academic sector has been challenging but has encouraged new partnerships, trust and levels of understanding. Several projects comment that working across boundaries to develop project outcomes (business/community/academy, staff/consultants, students/teachers) has been one of the most radical aspect of their experience and has the potential to change practice more widely.“
UKOER phase 2 synthesis report - Practice Change
strictadherenceto IPR
open resources
closed resources
limitedadherenceto IPR
tension
The tension between
• limited adherence to IPR rules when resources are not openly available &
• strict application of IPR rules when resources are open
Means that individuals may find application of IPR rules a major inhibitor
Tensions around rules
qualityassessed out ofcontext
open resources
traditional resources
qualityassessed withinpedagogiccontext
tension
Tension between:
Traditional quality procedures assess resources in the pedagogic context within which they will be used.
Openly released resources lack control of pedagogic context, and cannot 'carry' quality assurance into a more open environment
eg. Humbox: Dickens, Borthwick, Richardson,Lavender, Mossley, Gawthrope, et al, 2010
Tensions around rules
‘social’ (eg Web2.0) hosting
dynamic resources
static resources
tested ( eg repository) hosting
tension
The tension between hosting solutions for ‘dynamic’ and ‘static’ resources
Tensions around tools
emerging practice
new rolesexisting roles
established practice
tension
The tension between existing roles and practices & new roles requiring novel practices may make OER release unfeasible without significant organisational restructuring.
Example is ‘students as producers of content’..
Tensions around roles
extends reputation
individualinstitution
attracts students & funding
tension
A further tension focuses around who gains recognition - the individual or the institution
This tension reflects the need to balance collective responsibility for quality, branding, and commercialisation with incentives to release
Tensions around roles
untestedrelationships
loosely bound networks
tightly knitcommunities
trusted relationships
tension
The tension between trust within tightly knit, established communities and relatively low levels of trust across loosely bound networks poses issues for OER release.
Tensions around communities