This presentation describes the approach taken by an externally-funded series of analytic projects in OER, first POERUP and then the successor studies on SharedOER and Adult Education & OER, to “solve” the requirement, first posed by UNESCO in 2012 (D’Antoni, 2013), but later taken up by the Hewlett Foundation (2013), of geographic mapping of OER initiatives, policies and other related entities. There are of course several such “solutions”, all with their strengths and weaknesses, but the POERUP database is larger than most so far, more multi-sector (HE,VET and K-12) and more global in coverage – in part because it could leverage on a series of well-funded EU projects over several years, each unusually (for EU projects) taking a global viewpoint. The presentation will consider the decisions taken by POERUP and its successor studies on technology, databases, mapping and user interface, looking both at the distribution and the collection aspects.

1. Mapping OER via semantic wikis
Paul Bacsich, Sero Consulting
Open Education Global
Banff, Canada
23April 2015

2. Outline of presentation
• The POERUP project
• Mapping ‘initiatives’
• Mapping tools
– Custom software
– Mapping from MediaWiki
– Mapping from Semantic MediaWiki
• Next steps
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3. Context and rationale for POERUP (4 yrs ago)
• Over ten years of the OER movement
• OER repositories in many countries, yet…
• Lack of uptake by teachers and learners
• Foreseen lack of funding (in EU)
• Shift from development to community building and
articulation of OER practice
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4. POERUP outputs
• Inventory and map of 501 OER & MOOC initiatives worldwide
• 33 country reports – most updated in 2014
• 7 case studies including Wikiwijs, ALISON (Ireland), OER U
(global) and FutureLearn (UK mostly)
• 3 EU-level policy documents for universities, VET and schools
• 8 policy documents for UK (England, Scotland, Wales), Ireland,
France, Netherlands, Poland and Canada
• At least 300 more initiatives tabulated but not mapped
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5. Mapping ‘initiatives’
• What is an ‘initiative’ in the OER world?
• Institution?
• Programme? Course/module?? MOOC????
• Programme/project?
• Is POERUP an ‘initiative’? Is SharedOER??
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6. What is an initiative’s ‘location’?
• What is its ‘location’?
• Owning institution’s location?
• Or department/building?
• Privacy/security issues for small institutions or
individuals
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7. Larger-scale geography
• Country (or autonomous entity)
• Continent
• Georegion?
• Region (subregion) – not what you think?
• City?
• Political regions e.g. EU…
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8. What else to collect? (35+ fields)
• ‘Only what aids understanding’
• And is ‘easy to collect’
• THUS
– Language(s)
– Educational level
– Start and ‘end’ year
• NOT contact name/email, and…?
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9. Custom Map Tool
• ‘noSQL’ software: MongoDB
• Loaded from an Excel spreadsheet (as used for
Google Maps)
• Custom App
• Developed by Dick Moore
• Demo at www.poerup.org.uk
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10. Static maps from wiki
• MediaWiki extension for Google Maps
• Driven from a MediaWiki page
• Actually some searchability, quite useful
• Demo of static map at
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Mega_Map_
Searchable
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11. Semantic Maps extension of Semantic Wiki
• Semantic Wiki explained
– Embeds Predicate Calculus into wikis
– Triple ‘university’ ‘has country’ ‘Wales’ maps to
– Property [[Has country::Wales]] in page University
• Extension allows [[Has geocode::51.2,-115.6]]
– And then maps it!!
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12. So have we avoided custom code?
Cue for demonstrations at
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Search

13. Weaknesses
• Semantic MediaWiki not very efficient
• Some lowish numerical limits, undocumented,
on size and complexity of search
• In reality still need to maintain a database to
load the wiki pages
– And bulk loading of wiki pages not without
problems and Excel 2007 ‘bugs’ (8-bit text)
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14. On the other hand
• Very useful for simple searches
• Compound ‘AND’ searches can be done
• ‘OR’ searches can also be hand-crafted
• But still quite a lot of hand-crafting (not
coding)
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15. Next steps
• Software:
– Hewlett-funded OER Map service now becoming available from HBZ
• Content:
– A lot of unmapped Initiatives in POERUP (‘only’ 501 done)
– SharedOER has developed a new table of OER-related exam/syllabus
initiatives
– ADOERUP has updated the list of Adult Education OER initiatives
with 8 new EU Member State reports
– SEQUENT has a table of Quality Agencies (and ENQA has a map)
– OpenDOAR has 3000+ Open Access initiatives…
– And distance learning? (not much progress since Re.ViCa)
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16. Conclusions on how to map
• Semantic Maps in Semantic MediaWiki takes
one a long way
– And it could be longer if SMW were improved
• But custom software will win out
– IF you have the funds to develop and maintain it
• OER mapping is just one of the mapping
challenges in open and distance learning
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17. Conclusions on whether to map
• Not clear yet it gives new insights
• Yet like all infographics it can enliven data
• BUT THE REAL CHALLENGE STILL IS
– Not how to do it, but
– Who will collect and update the data?
– And why will they do that?
– And who again will quality assure that process?
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18. Thank you for listening
Paul Bacsich, paul.bacsich@sero.co.uk
Sero Consulting, for the POERUP team
http://www.poerup.info
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/File:POERUP_
D2.1_edition_2.pdf