Open Learning Network

Introduction

Various initiatives within the Open Education Resource (OER) movement have been launched since the early 2000s, to create building blocks that would engage educational, cultural institutions and ordinary publics in providing access to, and repurposing of, free content, ranging from courseware to academic resources, from pedagogical designs to instructional learning archives (e.g. Atkins et al., 2007; OECD, 2007; JISC, 2009).  With several well-known – yet distinct – initiatives continuing to purport a mission of education as a ‘public good’, and current thinking as well as emerging UK and international policy agendas on education shifting from the idea of simply providing access to content, towards the notion of creating ‘Open Participatory Learning Ecosystems’ (e.g. Brown & Adler 2008), the mediation of open education requires further empirical investigation.

To this end, the project aims to contribute a robust study of a number of current and comparative practices at an international level. This will form the basis for both evaluative approaches and the development of a working framework on the nature of openess and collaboration that characterizes the mediation of OERs, and addresses the opportunities as well as challenges relating to participatory interfaces, emerging pedagogies, adoption and (re)use.

Objectives and methods

Drawing on existing literature and through the deployment of a range of qualitative methods the project aims to develop a working typology for understanding the diversity of OERs in the global landscape. Data sharing is being sought and a number of in-depth interviews are being conducted with stakeholders in several OER communities aiming to provide insights on:

• perceptions and strategies for fostering the impact of OERs
• strategies for enabling opportunities and addressing the barriers for adoption/participation,  related to: learning design, IP,  policy frameworks, digital literacies and socio-cultural divides
• patterns of use and engagement

A comprehensive survey of the literature and thematic analysis of individual and group interviews with key stakeholders and innovators in 19 organizations (ranging from formal educational institutions to informal learning and community initiatives) and a total of 33 interviews 1 group interview.  Ad hoc focus groups data has been collected from workshops and in depth studies have been conducted with some in some projects.
 

While the above strategies aim to explore a diversity of persceptives and practices accross different cases, in-depth case studies with a small number of OER communities, and open content resources  are also being carried out to investigate the link between affordances for networked learning and the diverse nature of engagement in an OER context.

Core themes from preliminary interview analyses

Communicating diversity of/in OERs

• Distinctions between ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’ OERs point to definitions of openness, pedagogical experimentation and public value remit
• Institutional and participatory divides: experimentation with participatory infrastructures dependent on both institutional priorities and techno-social challenges
• Drivers for sustainability and marketability are connected
• Connecting with national policy making on education/culture/IP, key for increasing awareness on/legitimacy of OERs

Designing open learning

• Positive indicators for tutor experimentation and reflexivity regarding teaching exchange and student involvement
• Courseware with explicit learning designs, and community infrastructures prove more popular
• Professional incentives and training are needed to address reduced tutor confidence, time/resource limitations and technical expertise
• Granular learning objects equally important as contextual indicators (e.g. level, purpose, audience, interest groups) for courseware, contents, projects
• Relevance, context and reward were identified as fundamental components for motivating teachers and students to participate in the OER movement

Using OERs

• Re-use and remix of user-generated and social media content evident within several OER contexts
• More evidence is needed to trace not ‘what’ is downloaded but the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ is being used
• Trust, validation, purposefulness or accredidation also important indicators for engagement
• Need for research methods/tracking systems to trace OER use and remix journeys
• Teacher training to be aligned with a more open sharing culture and national OER strategies
• Remix interfaces, interoperable and open designs may hinder participation for ‘digital novices’; accessibility alongside technical sophistication is required
• Open and contextual, yet accessible definitions around learning designs, purpose & relevance are considered core for enhancing user feedback on use   

Cultural imperialism?

• Access to reliable and OPEN access content is very important and cultural biases/imperialism are addressed if:
• support is provided for bottom up and situated, community based-learning
• more recognition and incentives are offered to academic/teaching stuff to support such movements 
• more adaptable cultural and technical interfaces are developed to cater for low tech infrastructures or local craftmanship & (in)formal learning cultures.

 Related Outputs can be accessed here. See also relevant blog post below.