Opening up Educational Resources

Professor Frank RennieLews Castle College

University of the Highlands and Islands

Pedagogic Styles

Distributed Learning

Blended Learning

Distance Education

elearning

f2fOpen Education

Self Study

Face to Face

Online Tuition

Activ

e Le

arni

ng

Instructional Learning

Educational Technology

Why strive to be more open?

More Interactive/Collaborative

From Euphoria at http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenem/11696663/

Encourages diversity

By clevercupcakes at http://www.flickr.com/photos/clevercupcakes/2980544017/

Easier to update resources

Build Digital Literacy

By mikecogh at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/5968799566/

The essence of OER• 1) Open access• 2) Freely available• 3) Shareable• 4) Relatively discrete ‘chunks’• 5)Saves needing to ‘re-invent the wheel’• 6) Needs to be contextualised• 7) You can add to the OER pool.

Examples of OER

Learning Communities

Online libraries

Geographical data

E-book repositories

YouTube

Open Courses

Wikipedia

Certification

Social networking

Twitter

Journals

Images

OER Template

Learning Resources

OER

OER

OER OEROER

OER

Certification

Award

Assessment

TMA

Exam

Tutorials

email

LMS

Peer-to-peer

Dboard

skype

1. Identify the main generic headings for course content (key topics for discussion and

learning)

2. Search for relevant

resources that can be re-

used for these headings

3. Write ‘wrap-around’ materials that

contextualise and support the learning resources

4. Add your new materials

to the common pool (if required)

5. Select the format for

sharing (wiki etc)

Using OER in Course Design

Creative Commons Licence

Advantages

• Rich and ready-made resources

• Share the best of what is available

• Free at point of use• Encourages best

practice• Builds a library of

diversity

Disadvantages

• Variably quality (but can be brand-led)

• Can be hard to locate (need to learn new skills)

• Can be size problems (what is appropriate?)

• Need to be contextualised (content only is not enough)

How OER are usedOpen

• Ad hoc (on the fly)• Bottom-up• Low cost (or free)• Not always peer reviewed• Free to all users• Weak marketing brand• Inexpensive to maintain• Reliant upon individuals• May need contextualisation• Wide variation in level

Membership• More structured• Tend to be top-down• Can be expensive• Usually peer reviewed• Free to membership• Strong marketing brand• Expensive to maintain• Reliant upon organisations• Probably contextualised• Greater consistency in level

Some things to watch

The Attention Economy Self-organisation of learners Integration of platforms BIG OER meets small OER Course components will be owned and shared Dominance of Third Places – ubiquitous

learning Institutions will provide student support

http://www.flickr.com/photos/desireedelgado/3273760287/

Good resources to read• Gurell S. and Wiley, D. (2010) Open Educational Resources

Handbook 1.0 for educators. Available from http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator_version_one

• Commonwealth of Learning (2005) Creating learning materials for open and distance learning: A Handbook for Authors and Instructional Designers. Available from http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/odlinstdesignHB2.pdf

• OECD (2007) Giving knowledge for free: The emergence of Open Educational Resources. ISBN 978-92-64-03174-6 Available at: www.sourceoecd.org/education/9789264031746

• Kanwar, A and Uvalic-Trumbic, (2011) A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources. Commonwealth or Learning & UNESCO http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=357

Useful Links• sideCAP wiki (with resources)http://sidecap.wetpaint.com

• Courses on OpenLearnhttp://openlearn.open.ac.uk

• The sideCAP report http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1267854

• Creating Open Educational Resources (a free, 15 hour online course) available on Openlearn at http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3636

Resources for online learning (amazon.co.uk)

Key Concepts Network ecology Web 2.0 applications

View this presentation again atwww.slideshare.net/frankrennie