Benefits Of Open Educational Resources Research Articles

OER based capacity building to overcome staff equity and access issues in higher education

Open educational resources (OER) have already impacted educational systems around the world. In higher education more specifically, it has benefited learners, and has influenced institutional strategic plans and policies. Additionally, the benefits of OER also extend to staff in higher education, such as academic staff. For this group, OER can provide opportunities for collaboration, promote curriculum innovation and student led content development, as well as contribute to university teachers’ much needed continuing professional development. In this paper, we examine the potential of OER to build capacity of academic staff in higher education, in particular to overcome some equity and access issues that they may face. It also examines some existing activities and strategies for professional development in higher educational institutions and provides some recommendations for academics, academic developers, institutions, and the sector in general.

Programmatic Characteristics of Open Education Initiatives at U.S. Post-Secondary Institutions

Although a number of academic research papers showcase the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) on student success metrics, the literature still lacks a central collection of knowledge identifying programmatic characteristics between 4 year public, 4 year private, and 2 year community colleges that support these OER initiatives in the United States. To address this gap in the literature and provide evidential statistics that suggest common programmatic characteristics, this quantitative study collected 149 survey responses from program managers of OER-related initiatives at institutions of higher education in the United States. While some previous research on this topic has focused on regional adoption or other aspects of OER usage, this research focuses on how these initiatives are started, funded, governed, and assessed. The results of this study build on existing evidence that OER programs tend to be overseen by committees, are more likely to offer incentive payments for faculty, and offer at least some form of program assessment.

Contribution of Library Professionals and Libraries in Open Educational Resources in Indian Scenario

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning content that live in public domain and are free to use or reuse. The present study examines the contribution of Library Professionals and Libraries in dealing with OERs in India. A self-designed structured questionnaire was circulated online through blogs, discussion forums, social media groups and personal e-mails among library professionals, faculty and students for random data collection. The findings of the present study reveal that though majority (93 %) of library professionals are aware of the concept of OER but they are unable to guide the OER movement because their parent institution (70 %) have no policy guidelines on design and development of OERs. Library professionals play multiple tasks in dealing with OERs, most prominent being promotion (15.63 %) and Identification (14.02 %) of OERs. The study further reveals that 25.48 per cent library professionals believe that through use of OERs the patrons get benefit of gaining access to high quality learning material. While 21.3 per cent library professionals feels that lack of awareness on the existence of OERs because of rapid technological advancement is the major challenge faced by them. The study recommends that there is an urgent need to sensitise institutions about the benefits of OER.

OER impact study perceived by faculty within ODL framework

Purpose The purpose of this paper is, first, to scrutinize the determinants of key benefits of open educational resources (OER) to faculty. Second, it is to expose how, in which routines the variables involved, are interrelated. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory design is used in this study. Qualitatively, key benefits include integration, opportunity, efficiency, enrichment, and collaboration. These benefits have direct impacts on enhancing student learning, augmenting teaching practice, improving productivity, catalyzing changes in teaching practice, and supporting non-traditional learners. Quantitatively, the key benefit is moderating the variables. Integration, opportunity, efficiency, enrichment, and collaboration are independent variables. Variables like enhancing student learning, enriching teaching practice, improving productivity, catalyzing changes, and supporting non-traditional learners are the dependent variables. The study population comprised the 721 Universitas Terbuka (UT) faculty members. The respondents were chosen randomly by distributing 450 questionnaires. Only 203 questionnaires were completed. Importance performance analysis and customer satisfaction index (IPA-CSI) were used to measure the importance level of variables involved and their benefits. Structural equation model (SEM) was used to examine the ten hypotheses developed so that the author could understand the significance level and relations power among variables engaged with reference to the qualitative outcomes previously obtained. Findings Six hypotheses were validated by the analysis. Statistically, efficiency and integration affect key benefits. Likewise, moderating variables affect teaching practice enhancement, productivity improvement, catalyzing changes, and supporting non-traditional learners. Conversely, key benefits were neither interrelated by opportunity, enrichment, and collaboration nor learning enhancement. Practical implications This study highlighted that adoption, integration, and implementation of OER in the UT milieu do take place. Originality/value This study recognized the variation of qualitative vs quantitative outcomes. An auxiliary inquiry is needed with broader perspective by increasing the respondents sample in order to minimize the difference between qualitative and quantitative results.

Learning from TESS-India’s Approach to OER Localisation Across Multiple Indian States

Arguably, the benefits of open educational resources (OER) are greatest in low- and middle-income countries, where they have the potential to increase access to learning for those who may otherwise be excluded. However, for OER to be truly useful to educators and learners they need to be adapted to suit the contexts in which they are to be employed. Adapting OER for local contexts remains one of the greatest challenges for the OER movement (Wolfenden and Buckler, 2012) yet little is written about how to support communities of users to adapt materials. This study explores what kind of support is necessary for such communities of users, with the intention of creating a framework for guided localisation of OER across different cultural contexts. The paper reports on the initial approach to OER localisation adopted by the Open University UK-led TESS-India (Teacher Education through School-based Support) project which is developing OER for use within India’s teacher education system. TESS-India, which underwent a large-scale re-framing exercise in early 2014, aims to enhance the access of teacher educators, head-teachers and teachers to free, highquality educational materials. The project spans multiple, culturally and linguistically diverse Indian states and the resources, therefore, require localisation to meet diverse linguistic, cultural and pedagogic needs. TESS-India adopted a two-tier model of localisation. A CC-BY-SA license for all resources allows for adaptation by end users as long as the original author is attributed and the resource is shared under the same license as the original version. However, a stage of supported, state-level adaptation will be embedded within the production process and our research focuses on this stage. We collected evidence from early localisation workshops which aimed to trial localisation of these initial OERs. These workshops took place between November 2013 and February 2014, using participant observation and interviews with workshop participants to inform a detailed examination of the ways in which the workshop facilitators supported the resource localisers in adapting the TESS-India OER to meet local needs. Our study findings highlight some challenges to localising OER for use across different cultural contexts, including the complexities of managing translation, the need to navigate localisers’ perceptions, preferences and professional experience as educators, and localisers’ unfamiliarity with OER and online learning. Our study of the TESS-India localisation workshops has also highlighted possible barriers to full engagement with OER in contexts such as India, where hierarchical understandings around knowledge ownership, and localisers’ subsequent reluctance to adapt resources, can be in tension with the aims of the OER movement to achieve an ‘embedded’ engagement with OER (Wild, 2012) in the interests of true openness. OER initiatives have been criticised for promoting one-directional flows of knowledge and resources (Glennie et al, 2012). We argue that when collaboration is embedded within OER production and localisation, their creation and use can lead to a knowledge partnership approach whereby communities of OER practice engage in mutually beneficial sharing of expertise and contextual understanding. Drawing on the supported localisation process of TESS-India, we explore how such collaboration could better contribute towards the international – but also very local - pursuit of quality education.

STEM@1000mph: Developing Open Educational Resources in a Live Engineering Project

Higher education institutions are recognising the clear benefits of open educational resources, and academics are engaging with the development of these resources. This paper presents a case study of OERs being developed using the live, current BloodhoundSSC world land speed record project as a basis. The paper outlines the rationale for the BloodhoundSSC project and its focus on educational engagement across the age spectrum. The work undertaken to develop a web-based repository along with activities to stimulate academic and student engagement are described. The paper explores how academics have engaged with developing OERs based on this openly available content, the issues encountered and ways in which these issues can be mitigated.