Presentation for SUALL Council

Opening Educational Practices in Scotland

Presentation for SUALL Council

Pete Cannell 29 April 2016

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The ProjectOpening Educational Practices in Scotland is a three year cross-sector project led by the Open University in Scotland.

The Steering Group for the project has reps from Strathclyde, UHI, Edinburgh, Glasgow & SFC

See www.oepscotland.org for project objectives

http://www.oepscotland.org/

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So what is ‘open’• OER – open educational resources – free

and openly licensed so that resources can be reused, remixed, reversioned [Creative Commons]Text Books (US, parts of the global South)Learning Objects Courses - always available

• What about MOOCS?FreeUsually copyright – fixed start and finish

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The promise of open education• Free access to high quality

education on a mass scale• Widening participation• UNESCO 2012

‘Promote and use OER to widen access to education at all levels both formal and non-formal in a perspective of lifelong learning …’

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A promise not yet fulfilled• Butcher 2011‘… there is little evidence of educational transformation resulting from OER practices: [..]. The lack of sufficient evidence hinders understanding of the role of OER in widening access to education, social inclusion, and long-term sustainability.’

• Engagement with MOOCs highly skewed to those with previous HE experience

• Falconer et al 2014Across Europe very little evidence of an impact on lifelong learning

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Change is coming?• Some WP oriented OER courses achieving

large scale reach: e.g. OU BOCs, OEPS badged courses …• Students – living in a digital world• Organisations thinking about open strategies• Subject disciplines exploring developing resources in the open• Digital badges

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• Situational, institutional and dispositional barriers intersect and interact with specific features of the open digital environment• Repositories - too much choice – ‘looks like

a University’• (Mis)conceptions of online learning

Individualised Tick box • Digital literacy – second digital divide

Barriers for WP

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Social practice – pedagogy first• Developing evidence that models of

collective engagement and pedagogical approaches that allow peer support and interaction are critical

• Hosting these on www.oeps.ac.uk (OEPS hub)

• Builds on concepts of trusted gatekeepers in WP practice

• Working with gatekeepers to co-develop models of practice – identify ‘appropriate’ material and provide structures and pathways to scaffold support

• Shifts the boundaries of the university

http://www.oeps.ac.uk/

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From reuse to reversioning• Tools that make this possible are maturing

and becoming available to educators and practitioners• Ability to be fully accessible on all kinds of

devices is critical (and possible)• Community platform – • OpenLearn Works• www.open.edu/openlearnworks/

http://www.open.edu/openlearnworks/

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Case Study: Parkinson’s UK project• Primary audience –

residential care workers• Co-creation of course

that involved building on existing materials

• Supported for group use through OEPS hub (focus on practice)

• Future developments

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Further developments• Continued development of OEPS hub –

adding more good practice case studies and new communities of practice• Additional exemplar OER course in area of

STEM/Equality and Diversity • Upgrading of OpenLearn Works to

OpenLearn Create and supporting projects to utilise the site to innovate in development of new open materials

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Badged Online Courses• Openly licensed so can

be reused or reversioned (contextualised for specific purposes)

Contact Us:Email:[email protected]

Twitter: @OEPScotlandBlog: www.oepscotland.orgCommunity hub: www.oeps.ac.uk

http://www.oepscotland.org/

http://www.oeps.ac.uk/