From Chrysalis to Butterfly: Lifecycles of an
OER Project
Beck Pitt, The Open University (UK)
OpenEd, November 2013
@OER_Hub #oerrhub

Who we are, and what we
do…
The OER Research Hub project:
• Research project investigating the impact OER on learning and teaching
around the world
• Work collaboratively with a range of projects, initiatives and organisations
• Research is structured by 11 hypothesis and 4 sectors
• Case studies / questionnaires / interviews / impact data
• A project committed to sharing results and practices
About me:
• Research Assistant responsible for the informal learning sector work
• Based at the Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University (UK):
• Collaborations: School of Open, Bridge to Success and
Connexions/OpenStax. I am also currently working with Co-PILOT and
Siyavula
This presentation…

Bridge to Success Project
Overview
Next Generation
Learning Challenges
The project aimed to offer free, open
educational resources to prepare adults
to successfully and confidently transition
to a college environment in the US, to
pursue advanced qualifications, or to be
successful in their chosen careers…

During the Project…
11 Institutions
31 Instructors/Staff
1830 students used the Bridge to Success
materials
399 students participated in iterations of Succeed
with Math
675 students participated in iterations of Learning
to Learn
756 students participated in pilots which offered
both courses
Photo
Credit: CC-BY
Beck
Pitt

Institutions that participated in
Bridge to Success pilots
Screenshot of table from Pitt, McAndrew, Coughlan, Ebrahimi
(2013)

Why revisit Bridge to
Success post-project?
Whole course, remixable OER
Pilots initially focused on community
colleges but expanded to non-college
institutions such as charities and family
support centers
Institutions still using or planning to use materials post-project
/ Preparation to Scale: What happened next? Did the project
have a continued impact? Were people still using the
materials?
Reversioned and used again during Adult Learners Week by
The Open University

Which hypotheses? Why?
Key hypotheses:
Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfaction
The open aspect of OER creates different usage and adoption patterns
Hypotheses specifically aligned to Bridge to Success:
Open Education acts as a bridge to formal education, and is complementary, not
competitive, with it
Bridge to Success was written to help students transition into college effectively
and empower them (e.g. build their confidence)
Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at an institutional
level
Were there any long-term impact of being involved in a project like Bridge to
Success?
Use of OER is an effective method for improving retention for at-risk students
Bridge to Success pilots targeted low income and at risk groups of students

The open aspect of OER creates different usage and
Family Support Centre in residential area where:
adoption patterns
“85% of families are headed by a single female parent;
90% have not completed high school and do not have a GED;
95% are unemployed, underemployed or receive welfare or other social services.”
(Source: Case Study Two Family Support Centre leaflet 2012)
Piloting both Bridge to Success courses to support preparation for General Education
Development (GED) and pre-GED examinations.
Outcome of Spring 2012 pilot with 8 participants:
•2 obtained their GED certificate,
•2 less advanced learners referred to another programme,
•2 students sat their GED examinations but need to retake,
•1 participants is now employed following a job training programme and
will take their GED during March 2013,
•1 dropped out of Waverly programme.

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance
and satisfaction
Impact in a non-college context:
International Workforce Development Agency: supported people across
Maryland for over 90 years.
This pilot utilised specific units of the B2S maths course until end of August
2012 to enable students to complete a new requirement math pre-test for a
Weatherization program.
“On average a 32.4% improvement in scores was seen in the second attempt
across this sample, with 28 of the 35 (80%) who originally failed passing the
entrance examination…” after using specific units of Succeed with Math for
between a 1-3 week period
Citation from Pitt, McAndrew, Coughlan, Ebrahimi (2013)

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance
and satisfaction
“It was real informative, I may even work with my 4th grader cos she’s doing
fractions and things now … she’s getting it… but this is real informative, and it
helps…”
“You all got it pretty basic and simple, y’all, y’all pretty do…so it’s as much easy as
possible, I think I’ll be alright…” “I seen this all before, but 20 years ago…”
“Person like me…I haven’t been to school for so long. But it’s not super hard
getting back into it, but it takes time, takes a little bit of repetition.”
“I’m not a computer literate person, I always dealt with things hands-on, it’s paper
and pencil and I deal with things hands-on … I mean I came out of school in
’88…For me to go online and learn online, it’s a challenge.”
Student focus group/interviews, March 2012

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance
and satisfaction
“Of these 492 low-income students, 68% (370) completed the
relevant Bridge to Success course they were participating in,
compared to the total of all learners for which we have complete
data (1235) shows that 85% (1050) completed their course.”
Succeed with Math post-survey:
“87% of respondents would recommend the materials to
other students, 83% would like to use materials like
Succeed with Math as part of enrolling in future courses,
and 83% report overall satisfaction with the quality of the
materials” (n = 30)
Screenshot of table and citations from Pitt, McAndrew, Coughlan,
Ebrahimi (2013)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy
change at an institutional level
CASE STUDY ONE:
Distance Learning University serving 92, 000 students. Non-traditional student
base including high number of military students, African American students and
many students who are in their early 30s returning to college after break in
learning:
“…Any anxiety they had when they left the traditional classroom has been
typically amplified because they have a gap in their continuum of knowledge and
exposure to the math…” (Instructor Interview, June 2013)
131 students participated in 5 different pilots of Succeed with Math (36 on the
hybrid course version and 24 on the purely online version of the course)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy
change at an institutional level
Used Succeed with Math course: hybrid and online.
In hybrid versions once a week over three weeks discussed experiences of using
Bridge to Success materials and held “group therapy sessions” where there was a
“sharing [of] stories … about their anxiety about math … feeling like they were a
community of people who shared similar experiences and similar concerns, that
sort of support cohort… A range of math readiness or competency, still all had the
common theme of anxiety around taking the mathematics program or course”
(Instructor Interview, June 2013)

Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy
change at an institutional level
Case Study Example One:
“So I think that Bridge to Success kind of got us thinking more about students when they
come in the door, how do we help them, how do we assess them and how do we modularise
the curriculum. Because it could be that they don’t need the entire course, that they need
parts of the course. So I think Bridge to Success certainly helped us… I mean we’ve always
thought about the student … But you really need to help them think about where they are
when they come in the door, and what’s the best way for them to get a degree.”
Case Study Example Two:
“We have decided that textbooks/course materials are very expensive, and so we as a
University want to do whatever we can to reduce the cost of course materials for students. So
much so that we have another initiative in which we’re trying as much as possible to put e-resources
in every class and not require the students to buy additional materials. So we would
like to go as close as possible to the zero cost per course. And so this is perfect because …
Bridge to Success kind of got us thinking about that…”

Concluding Remarks
Continue to connect/re-connect with piloting
organisations to examine any impact of Bridge to
Success
Launch Winter 2013 of questionnaire for whole course
OER. Trial this on Bridge to Success material: gain more
of a sense of who is accessing materials and why
(broader range of cities/countries than during project)
Photo
Credits:
CC-BY
Beck Pitt

Bibliography/Credits
Select bibliography:
Bailey, T. & Cho, S.W. (2010). Developmental Education in Community Colleges. Available from:
http://www2.ed.gov/PDFDocs/college-completion/07-developmental-education-in-community-colleges.pdf
Bridge to Success Report One: Adaptation, Integration and Engagement
Coughlan, T. Pitt, R. & McAndrew, P. Building Open Bridges: Collaborative Remixing and Reuse of Open Educational
Resources across Organisations (2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems “Changing
Perspectives” (CHI 2013) Paris, France)
Case Study Two Family Support Centre Leaflet 2012
Pitt, R. McAndrew, P. Coughlan, T. & Ebrahimi, N. Assessing OER impact across organisations and learners: experiences
from the Bridge to Success project (Due for publication in JIME, 2013)
With special thanks to Nassim Ebrahimi, Patrick McAndrew and Tim Coughlan. Thanks also to Patrina Law and Rebecca
Galley (The Open University)
URLs:
OER Research Hub: http://oerresearchhub.org
Bridge to Success: http://bridge2success.aacc.edu

oerresearchhub.org
@OER_Hub #oerrhub
@BeckPitt