Utilizing OER-OEP to Support a Resilient Sustainable Education

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to education systems worldwide, leading to a paradigm shift to technology enabled learning (TEL) from face-to-face (f2f) interactions. TEL ensured teaching-learning continuity and prevent learning losses without f2f interventions. The pandemic became an opportunity for expansion in creation and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and marked the beginning of a shift towards Open Educational Practices (OEP). These developments, amidst disruptions created possibilities to harness both OER and OEP to mitigate short term learning loss during Covid-19 and to build education systems that are capable of overcoming adversity and are resilient to future crises and disruptions. This paper explores the theoretical and empirical literature to outline how OER and OEP support open pedagogy as an educational response to Covid-19. It presents a generic OER-OEP framework based on an open pedagogy continuum which includes ‘Enhance’, ‘Extend’ and ‘Empower’. It identifies the barriers faced in respect of OER adoption and OEP engagement, and the perceived impact of OER on teaching practices. Based on this framework and on identified barriers, a set of guidelines for the effective use of OER and OEP for teaching and learning is presented. The findings figured out the importance of OER adoption, especially in times of crises, and an increased engagement with OEP for sustainable learning opportunities, contributing to open education development post pandemic. The study recommends building more focus on scaffolding for faculty and students in the implementation of open pedagogy, as well as more institutional support for better learning experiences and outcomes.