Selected findings from the UKOER Synthesis and Evaluation

1. UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
UKOER synthesis
and evaluation
Allison Littlejohn, Lou McGill
Helen Beetham, Isobel Falconer
Caledonian Academy
Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
www.academy.gcal.ac.uk

2. „New‟ era of Open Education and Openreputation
Extending Learning
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
„Open education is not limited to just open
educational resources.
It also draws upon open technologies that facilitate
collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing of
teaching practices that empower educators to benefit
from the best ideas of their colleagues.
It may also grow to include new approaches to
assessment, accreditation and collaborative
learning'.
banksy.com
CapeTown Open Education Declaration, 2008
banksy.com

3. Paradigm shift from .....to...
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
We know, we teach you Learners' digital skills rewarded and used as a resource for the
learning community/group/collective
Stable job market in specific vocations Unstable job market:
and professions adaptability management of multiple roles to the fore
Students typically on two- or three- Students engaged in multiple forms of learning while employed /or
year programmes of study: attending several institutions
Established methods, based in Emerging and mixed methods, interdisciplinary problem spaces
disciplines
Students become 'qualified' in specific Students need to strategically manage a range of knowledge
kinds of academic knowledge practice practices, for different contexts
Technologies are introduced according Curriculum is continually modified by the impacts of technology in
to the requirements of the curriculum the environment
Modular assessment: focus on Some cross-modular assessment: focus on self-efficacy and the
achievement within clearly defined ability to integrate skills/know-how
curriculum goals
Disaggregated services(library, ICT, Integrated support for students' learning development and different
study skills, careers) learning pathways
Induction and one-off training model of Ongoing review, progression and just-in-time support
literacy support
Beetham, McGill, Littlejohn, Learning in the Digital Age, JISC LiDA final Report, 2009

4. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
What: Programme aim
Vision
to make a wide
UKOER1, 2 and 3
Aims to make a wide range of
pre-existing digital learning
resources freely available
and easily discoverable by
educators and learners

5. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
What: Programme aim
Vision
Widespread involvement of teaching staff
would bring about a:
• sustainable change in culture moving from
focusing on content ownership, to focusing
on open sharing;
• sustainable change in practices of reuse
and repurposing.

6. UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
What: Programme aim
Extending reputation
banksy.com

7. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Who: Evaluation and Synthesis
Vision
Allison Littlejohn
Isobel Falconer
Helen Beetham
Lou McGill

8. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Who: Evaluation and Synthesis
Vision
banksy.com
banksy.com

9. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
UKOER2: social focus
Vision
UKOER Phase 2 evaluation links with the OER Impact Study
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning/oer/OERTheValueOfReuseInHigherEd
ucation.pdf)

10. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Who: Evaluation and Synthesis
Vision
banksy.com
banksy.com

11. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
UKOER2: social focus
Vision
OERs are most (re)useable for educational
purposes if they are:
• freely available and easily discovered
• trusted and/or reputably sourced
• openly licensed
• universally accessible
• easily disaggregated (by teaching users)
• educationally guided (by learning users)
• educationally well designed
Littlejohn, Falconer, McGill (2008), Characterising effective eLearning resources, Computers & Education

12. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
UKOER2: social focus
Vision
For teaching staff, the subject relevance and
pedagogical ‘fit’ of a resource to their teaching strategy
was the key factor. Licensing, while a secondary
concern, was also valued... Students were mainly
concerned that resources were ‘on topic’ and
‘accurate’... University or education-related
provenance was also used as a general indicator of
quality, with tutors often investing more time in
sourcing resources from trusted providers.
Masterman, E, White, D. and Manton, M. (2011) The Value of Reuse in Higher Education
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/oer2/oerimpact.aspx

13. Practice change: teachers Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
• Searching for OERs to use in their own teaching – effective search
requires understanding licences, finding licencing information
• Adapting OERs (or other content) to support teaching
• Making their own resources openly available
• Using institutional systems to manage and make OERs available
• Adapting their OERs to be used by different groups of users
• Reflection on approaches to learning and teaching
• Increased technical skills
• Collaborating with other professionals, learning new skills
• Developing Open Assessment materials
• Changing relationships with learners – in negotiating the curriculum
and developing and using content
McGill, Beetham, Falconer, Littlejohn, UKOER2 Final Report, 2011

14. Practice change: teachers Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
“Evidence that this constitutes a (generic)
new pedagogy or trend in pedagogic
practice is less clear.”
Open Educational Practice Briefing Paper (Beetham, „in print‟)

15. Practice change: learners Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
• Finding resources to support formal learning (diglits)
• Creating content as part of learning activities
• Managing content for learning
• Mixing content from different sources to create new resources
• Commenting on & rating OERs they have used
• Using OERs for informal learning or work-based learning
• Cant distinguish an OER from other forms of online resource…
McGill, Beetham, Falconer, Littlejohn, UKOER2 Final Report, 2011

16. Practice change: learners Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
Tutor guidance is a critical determinant of technology-based
learning practices adopted by learners
Goodfellow & Lea, 2009
Learners‟ strategies for learning with technologies largely
influenced by tutor attitudes
Margaryan, Littlejohn and Volgt (2010) Computers and Education
No evidence of widespread and universal disaffection, or of a
distinctly different “learning style the like of which has never
been seen before”
Bennett et al, 2008
Learners can be confident about using the internet yet lack critical capabilities, and
research skills
JISC 'learners experiences of e-learning‟

17. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Practice change: communities & institutions
Vision
“Changing attitudes to content, away from
viewing content as constitutive of the
curriculum and towards viewing it as an
artefact of the learning, research and
knowledge-sharing process which can be
re-inscribed into new learning situations
as and when appropriate.”
Open Educational Practice Briefing Paper (Beetham, „in print‟)

18. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Practice change: communities
Vision
• Open collaborative activities (may or may not involve OERs)
• Sharing, exchange, contributing resources to community
repositories or content management systems
• Sharing of teaching practice, content production practice in a
subject or professional context
• Developing open content management systems
• Considering open practices within their communities and how to
support it
McGill, Beetham, Falconer, Littlejohn, UKOER2 Final Report, 2011

19. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Practice change: institutions
Vision
• Content management practices – moving from closed to open
systems
• Changing understanding about where the knowledge sits re
copyright/IPR licences, ownership
• Branding and quality control
• Using OERs for marketing/showcasing
• Cross faculty collaboration and sharing of content & practice
• Cross institutional collaboration and partnerships –
understanding different sectors and making links/developing
understandings and vocabularies
• Reward practices for OER release and use through cpd and
performance review mechanisms
• Need for greater co-ordination of policy and strategy to support
changing practices
• Making whole courses or modules open (MOOCS)
McGill, Beetham, Falconer, Littlejohn, UKOER2 Final Report, 2011

20. UKOER2 Evaluation & Synth summary reputation
Extending
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
Open Educational Practice Briefing Paper (Beetham, „in print‟)

21. Phase 2 Highlights & Synth summary reputation
Extending
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
UKOER2 Evaluation
Vision

22. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Task: practice change
Vision
Open Educational Practice and Open
Learning Practice
Questions:
Are these new practices or existing
practices in an open context?
Have you observed other practice
changes – tweet examples
#openpractice

23. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Surfacing Motivations
Vision
What motivations
might bring about
a sustainable
change in culture
focusing on open
sharing?
banksy.com
banksy.com

24. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
What: Programme aim
Vision
Widespread involvement of teaching staff
would bring about a:
• sustainable change in culture moving from
focusing on content ownership, to focusing
on open sharing;
• sustainable change in practices of reuse
and repurposing.

25. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Surfacing Motivations
Vision
Each activity is
associated with a
motive which defines
the problem space
being worked on.
Change is driven by
“contradictions” or
“structural tensions”
within the system
and thus develops
from present practice
Engeström, 2005, p313
banksy.com

26. Drivers for transformationalExtending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Tensions around rules change
The tension between
closed • limited adherence to IPR
open resources
resources rules when resources are not
openly available &
tension
• strict application of IPR rules
strict limited when resources are open
adherence adherence
to IPR to IPR
Means that individuals may find
application of IPR rules a major
inhibitor

27. Drivers for transformationalExtending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Tensions around rules change
Tension between;
Traditional quality procedures
traditional open resources
assess resources in the
resources
pedagogic context within
tension
which they will be used.
Openly released resources
quality quality
assessed lack control of pedagogic
assessed
out of within context, and cannot 'carry'
context pedagogic quality assurance into a more
context
open environment
eg. Humbox: Dickens, Borthwick, Richardson,
Lavender, Mossley, Gawthrope, et al, 2010

28. Drivers for transformationalExtending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Tensions around tools change
The tension between
hosting solutions for
static resources dynamic resources „dynamic‟ and „static‟
resources
tension
es for
„social‟ tested ( eg
(eg Web2.0) repository)
hosting hosting

29. Drivers for transformationalExtending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Tensions around roles change
The tension between
existing roles and
practices & new roles
existing roles new roles
requiring novel
practices may make
tension OER release
unfeasible without
emerging established significant
practice practice
organisational
restructuring.
Example is „students
as producers of
content‟..

30. Drivers for transformationalExtending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Tensions around roles change
A further tension focuses
around who gains
institution individual recognition - the individual or
the institution
tension
This tension reflects the
need to balance collective
extends attracts
reputation students & responsibility for quality,
funding branding, and
commercialisation with
incentives to releasees for

31. Drivers for transformationalExtending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Tensions around communitychange
The tension between trust
within tightly knit, established
tightly knit loosely bound communities and relatively
communities networks low levels of trust across
tension
loosely bound networks
poses issues for OER
release.
untested trusted
relationships relationships
es for

32. Task: think about tensions Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
Question: Are these
tensions observed within
your context of OER
release?
Tweet other observed
tensions #oertensions

33. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Task: think about key motivations
Vision
1.Building individuals‟ or institutions‟ or community‟s‟
reputation, exemplified by OCEP16 or
2. Improving efficiency, cost and quality of production,
exemplified by Unicycle
3. Opening access to knowledge, exemplified by the
Chemistry FM
4. Enhancing pedagogy through the creation and reuse of
OERs exemplified by Java Bread-Board
5. Building technological momentum (and being funded
to do so), evidenced in the JISC call (JISC, 2009b).

34. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Motivations for change
Vision
marketisation
technological academic
momentum commons
banksy.com

35. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Motivations for change
Vision
marketisation
technological academic
momentum commons
banksy.com

36. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Motivations for change
Vision
marketisation
technological academic
momentum commons
banksy.com

37. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Motivations for change
Vision
marketisation
technological academic
momentum commons
banksy.com

38. How open is „open‟? Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Vision
The programme‟s definition of “open” is
“free for use and repurposing worldwide”
(JISC 2009)….
Over-reliance on trust and community may
inhibit long-term significant change.
Falconer, Littlejohn, McGill, Beetham, under review
banksy.com

39. Extending reputation
UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
Useful resources
Vision
OER Synthesis & Evaluation Wiki:
https://oersynth.pbworks.com/
Practice change info on wiki
https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/
page/41876396/Phase2%20Prac
tice%20change
OER Synthesis & Evaluation Blog:
http:/oersynthesis.jiscinvolve.org/wp/
OER InfoKit:
https://openeducationalresources.pb
works.com/
UKOER2 Evaluation Summary
https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/pag
e/47973773/Phase2Summary

40. UKOER synthesis and evaluation Phase III Start-Up Nov2011
UKOER synthesis &
evaluation
Allison Littlejohn, Lou McGill
Helen Beetham, Isobel Falconer
Caledonian Academy
Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
www.academy.gcal.ac.uk