- Read this JISC report on OER or the OER Research Hub evidence report.
- Based on your reading, write a blog post of around 500 words, setting out what you perceive as the three key issues in OER, and how these are being addressed.
There are significant individual and institutional barriers to knowledge and adoption of OER for establishing sustainable open educational practice (OEP) of various forms. I believe the following three issues in OER are fundamentally important to successfully increasing OEP in education.
Educator community awareness and knowledge of how to use of OER
As both McGill et al (2013) and de los Arcos et al (2014) reveal, awareness of OER and open educational practices is patchy though increasing across higher education, with feedback indicating educator’s interest in sustaining OEP once they have tried OER and OEP in their context. Raising awareness of benefits and limitations of OER and OEP takes effort (it is not a magic bullet solution) and to gain traction is best done in ways sensitive to the local situation. OER Communities of Practice nurturing reflection on existing and evolving practice can contribute by raising awareness and sharing experience of how to use OER (re-versioning, understanding licensing, how to attribute sources and building technical skills).
Using OER for Informal learning Accreditation
Establishing recognition of the value of informal learning via OER can increase use and knowledge of openness in education.
It is possible to use OER to support learner progression towards and within higher education. OER research (Perryman et al, 2013), (Law, 2015) indicates that OER becomes more attractive to students if some kind of accreditation is attached to informal learning via OER, such as digital badges or certificates, even though these are not formal qualifications, because they demonstrate interest in self-development and motivation to learn. For example, research from 2013 onwards into use of OU OER hosted on OpenLearn has informed strategies for utilising OER to support informal to formal learning, improve student retention and increase learner confidence (Law, 2019). A 2017 survey of 10,000 OU students revealed that although not directed to use OpenLearn, many OU students use it to support formal OU studies. Research recommendations implementation has resulted in an increase in student induction OER on the site, IT development of the OpenLearn profile to display both formal and informal achievements (with students maintaining control over what is visible on their public profile), and an increase in the number of OpenLearn resources being specially designed during formal module production.
Educational institution support for OER and OEP
Both McGill et al (2013) and de los Arcos et al (2014) indicate barriers to OER and OEP adoption include constraints on staff time for continuing professional development, financial support for OER creation (they may be free to use but are not free to produce) and educator digital literacy skill levels.
If OEP is to become sustainable within an educational institution, it is crucial to gain senior management support. This includes piloting then establishing continuing professional development policies and practices to enable recognition of engagement with OER and OEP as legitimate staff development activity, therefore changing higher education reward and recognition policies to encompass more than traditional research and teaching. Such policy changes involve including open practice activities such as collaborative creation of OER and digital scholarship via blogging (Weller, 2012) in evidence staff can use to demonstrate professional growth and impact on student learning.
References
de los Arcos, B., Farrow, R., Perryman, L.-A., Pitt, R. and Weller, M. (2014), OER Evidence Report 2013–2014, OER Research Hub [Online]. Available at https://oerresearchhub.files.wordpress.com/ 2014/ 11/ oerrh-evidence-report-2014.pdf (accessed 22 March 2021)
Law, Patrina (2019). How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success. Journal of Learning for Development, 6(3) pp. 262–272. Available at https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/365 and http://oro.open.ac.uk/70435/1/Final%20-%20365-Article%20Text-1930-8-10-20191118.pdf (accessed 25 March 2021)
Law, P. (2015). Recognising informal elearning with digital badging: Evidence for a sustainable business model. Open Praxis, 7(4). Available at https://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/247 and http://oro.open.ac.uk/44890/1/247-1109-2-PB_final%20proof.pdf (accessed 26 March 2021)
McGill, L., Falconer, I., Dempster, J.A., Littlejohn, A. and Beetham, H. (2013) Journeys to Open Educational Practice: UKOER/SCORE Review Final Report, London, JISC [Online]. Available at https://oersynth.pbworks.com/ w/ page/ 60338879/ HEFCE-OER-Review-Final-Report (accessed 22 March 2021)
Perryman, L.A., Law, P., & Law, A. (2013). Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences. In Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2013, 23-25 October 2013, Paris, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU). 270–286. Available at www.eadtu.nl/images/stories/Docs/Conference_2013/eadtu%20annual%20conference%202013%20-%20proceedings.pdf and http://oro.open.ac.uk/39101/1/eadtu%20annual%20conference%202013%20-%20proceedings.pdf (accessed 26 March 2021)
Weller, M. (2012) Digital scholarship, tenure & barometers, The Ed Techie [blog] 6 September. Available at http://blog.edtechie.net/digital-scholarship/digital-scholarship-tenure-barometers/ (accessed 25 March 2021)