Open Schooling - Gyuana

TECHNOLOGY ENABLED OPEN
SCHOOLING: IMPLICATIONS
AND BENEFITS
COL
12 – 16 November, 2019
Georgetown, Guyana

WELCOME … AND…
INTRODUCTIONS
Activity
Introduce yourselves:
 Name? Position?
 Years of experience in education? And open
schooling?
 What do you expect from this workshop?

OPEN SCHOOLING: DEFINITIONS
Activity
 What are open schools?
 How are they different from conventional schools?

OPEN SCHOOLS: DEFINITIONS
Open schooling:
 Free access to learning opportunities
 Flexibility of teaching and learning
 Improvement of quality of teaching and learning
 Physical separation between teacher and learner
 Utilization of non-conventional instructional methodologies:
educational content available through various means and supported
by technology
 Utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
to mitigate the teacher-learner separation, support content delivery
and learners throughout the teaching and learning process

OPEN SCHOOLS: DIFFERENCES
Characteristics Conventional
Schooling
Open Schooling
Entrance requirements Restricted Open
Place and time for
enrolmemt
Restricted Open
Teaching and learning
process
F2F, led by teacher Individualised self-learning
materials supported by
various configurations,
including F2F interventions
Teaching and learning
materials
Pre-determined
textbooks and
sporadic learning
resources
Purposefully designed self-
learning materials,
supported by various media
Learning Pace Strictly stipulated Self-determined

OPEN SCHOOLS: DIFFERENCES
How they are different from conventional schools:
 Organization of the physical space
 Organization of time – non-established schedules, various time
zones
 The process for grouping students – classes organised based on
academic programming and not necessarily based on age groups
 Organization of instruction
 Teaching methodologies – constructivism, connectivism vs.
transmission
 Physical teacher-learner separation – mitigation of transactional
distance
 Learning pace controlled by student vs. controled by teacher

OPEN SCHOOLING: CONTEXT
Fundamental context:
 Increasing amplitude and equality of access
 Keeping levels of openness
 Ensuring curricular relevance
 Improvement of quality of teaching and learning
 Maximizing cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit and sustainability

OPEN SCHOOLING MODELS
Activity
Think about the possibilities for Open Schooling in
Guyana.
 How could an Open Schooling system be organised? (ex:
connection to other entities, autonomy, management
structure, etc.)
 How could Open Schooling handle the provision of
education? (ex: distance learning only? Mixed distance
and F2F? How would students be supported? etc.)

Legal perspective:
 Part of a Ministry or government department
 Unit linked to other educational organization
 Semi-autonomous institution, established by ministerial regulations
 Autonomous institution, established by ministerial regulations
 A not-for-profit organization (foundation, voluntary association,
etc.)
 Private corporation of limited responsibility (for profit)
 Private corporation with open capital (for profit)

Modes:
 Single mode
 Dual mode
 Mixed mode (convergence of F2F and at a distance)
 Flexible mode (technology enabled version of the mixed mode)

A VISION FOR OPEN SCHOOLING
A
What do you wish Open Schooling to look like in Guyana
20 years from now?
AEA mission:
The Adult Education Association of Guyana, Inc., M.S. seeks to provide
through the Non-Formal system, the education and training which the
Guyanese people need and desire, which have not been met by the formal
system, to render them efficient participants in the development process of
the Nation.
Activity

COL – OIS MODEL OVERVIEW
Purpose
To support Ministries and other
stakeholders with the provision of
accessible and flexible quality basic
education through open and
mainstream schooling.
Principles
Quality of learning resources
Equity
Flexibility
Access
Collaboration and Sharing
Sustainability
Scalability
Gender sensitive
Disability sensitive
Facilitate governance and
Outcomes & Impact
• Broader access to flexible teaching
and learning opportunities for out
of school youth.
• Strengthened TEL* in open and
mainstream schools
• Improvement in teaching and
learning
• Improved quality of learning
resources
• Trained teachers in TEL
• Decrease in dropout rate.
• Improved academic performance
by learners.
*Technology Enabled Learning

THEORY OF CHANGE:
OPEN/INNOVATIVE SCHOOLING
Training
Content
development
Management
Technology
Improved Student
Performance
&
Sustainable life
skills
Open/Innovative
Schooling
Increased interest
in schooling among
students from
marginalized groups
Community
Participation &
Empowerment
Moving into Tertiary
education
Employed or self
employed
Decrease in
unemployment
Economic
growth
Political and
social stability
Sustainable
development
through learning

COL- STRATEGIC FOCUS
Focus
LMS
Provider
COL
Independent/
Support/Depend
ent
Developing Scaling Mainstreamin
g
Phase 1
1. Expand e-learning
Centers
- Principals
- Teachers
- Aptus
2. Additional content
development
3. Management
Training
1. e-learning
Centers
- Principals
- Teachers
- Aptus
2. Training centers
3. Management
training
1. Curriculum
development
- Training Teachers
- e-learning Content
- LMS
2. Technology/Aptus
Phase 3
Decreased
funding/
Support
Funding
/
Support
Depende
nt
Piloting
Transfe
r/Suppo
rt
Funding
/
Support
Self funded/
Support
Support
Accessible and
flexible quality e-
learning through
open and
mainstream
schooling
Phase 4:
Systemic
implementation by
Ministry
Phase 2

COL OIS MODEL: THE ROAD TO
ACCESSIBLE AND FLEXIBLE QUALITY
EDUCATION FOR ALL

NEEDS ANALYSIS
Needs
analysis
COL OIS
model
Support COL
can offer

WORLD’S NEEDS
SCALE OF
NEED (UN
UIS, 2016)

WORLD’S NEEDS
How will we reach these youths?

GUYANA’S NEEDS
How will we reach these youths?

WHO ARE YOUR LEARNERS?
 Out of school children at the primary/secondary level
 18-23-year-olds / adults 24 years and older who did not
complete schooling or who did not complete well enough to
access employment or further education and training
 Children, youth and adults with special educational needs or
other constraints to accessing educational opportunities …
 Urban / rural centres
Activity
Create the Guyana OIS learner profile.

WHAT WILL YOU NEED TO REACH THOSE
LEARNERS?
 What do you need to make the vision a reality? (skills,
infrastructure, knowledge, etc.)
 What do you already have?
 Identify the gaps.
Activity
Think about the vision you created and the profile of
your learners:

OPEN SCHOOLS: A SYSTEMS
APPROACH
 Overview of all the components and processes that form
the system (open schooling)
 Processes and components are organized into
subsystems:
 Teaching and learning
 Materials development
 Course design and development
 Communication
 Management, administration
 Learner support

APPROACH
Moore & Kearsley, 2012
System composed by 6 subsystems
Administration:
•Priorities
•Resources and staff
•M&E
•Policy
Content sources:
•What contents?
•What courses?
Course and
subject design
•Materials
development
Provision
•Synchronous
•Asynchronous
•Mixed
Interaction
•With materials
•With institution
•With tutors
Learning
environment
•At home/ place of
work
•Transportation

APPROACH
Rumble (1986: 15–17)
 System composed by 4 subsystems
 Industrialized model
 Clearly identifies the areas of
activity in an open school
 Defines the relationship between
each area
Regulatory
subsystem
Materials
subsystem
Learner
subsystem
Logistics
subsystem

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER…
Activity
In pairs: Find a person whom you don’t know of that you
don’t know well. Introduce yourselves (Name, position,
years of experience in education, etc.
Then take turns answering the following questions:
What big challenge do you bring to this gathering?
What do you hope to get from and give this group?
Do this 3 times
2 mins per person to
answer questions

APPROACH
Activity
Consider the following examples of failings in open schooling subsystems:
 There were problems with student enrolments. A large percentage was
only enrolled 3 weeks after the beginning of the semester.
 The learning materials were not ready on time for the beginning of the
semester.
 What consequences and implications could these failings have in the
other subsystems and in the global system?
 What would you suggest doing so that the subsystems could have
worked more effectively?

APPROACH
Materials subsystem: Design and development
 Develop original materials
 Acquire existent materials
 Adapt existing materials – including OER
Challenges:
 Difficulty in finding and training course writers
 Difficulty in ensuring that course writers meet deadlines
 Ensuring materials quality

APPROACH
Materials subsystem: Materials delivery
Factors to consider:
 Cost of reproduction of materials
 Distribution
 Flexibility
 Trustworthiness
 Safe environment
 Access
 Learning experience
 Other benefits

APPROACH
Learner subsystem:
 Students learning environment: life outside fo school, place of
work, community
 Tutors: help learners make sense of the learning structured in the
learning resources and materials
 Other staff who interact with learners depending on needs:
administrative, advisors, learning centre coordinators

APPROACH
Learner subsystem: Learner support
Learning theories (how students learn) need to be taken into
consideration in the design of a learner support subsystem for open
schooling. Elements to consider include:
 Learning social context (and the support that learners will need to
be successful in a social context)
 Importance of allowing students the freedom to self-initiate
learning and the implications that may have in regard to the
necessary learner support
 Importance of generating learner self-confidence through the
creation of a trusting, collaborative, supportive and safe learning
environment.

APPROACH
Learner subsystem: Learner support
Tait Taxonomy
Areas of support Services
Cognitive: Support and
develop learning based on
instructional materials
Academic advising, tutoring
services, academic literacy,
independent study abilities,
library services
Affective: providing a
supporting environment for
learning creates
committment and improves
self-esteem in learners
Consulting services pre-study,
advising and orientation post-
study
Systemic: Admin processes
and effective, transparent
information management
systems easy fro learners
Support and technical services

APPROACH
Learner subsystem: Tutorial support
 Academic and non-academic support
 Costs
 Role of the tutor
 Asynchronous private sessions
 Synchronous tutoring – learnign centres
 Grading

APPROACH
Logistics subsystem:
 Finances
 Human resources
 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

APPROACH
Logistics subsystem: Advantages of ICTs
Provided that Internet is available:
 Students engaged in learning: communication with other students
and with teachers, as well as interaction with the learning materials
 Increased motivation and engagement: interaction between
students (geographical distance)
 Removing of the space/time barrier: no classroom limitations –
more students
 Local knowledge: expanding general knowledge
 Bigger responsibility for learning
 Teacher can learn from the students!

APPROACH
Logistics subsystem: Main benefit of ICTs
 Scalability
 Ability to provide sustainable education solutions to students who
are financially disadvantaged:
 Access for students who do not live close to a school
 Access for student who cannot attend school due to financial burdens
 Family and economic circumstances do not determine the level of
education of children and youths

APPROACH
Logistics subsystem: Other benefits of ICTs
Outside of the teaching and learning environment:
 Learner subsystem: demographic information, enrolment, grades
 Human resources: employee date, salaries
 Communication (in and out): email, intranet, internet
 Data source for research

APPROACH
Logistics subsystem: Challenges of ICTs
1. How to create and implement a solid plan, while staying open to
change and innovation
2. Resources and financing for implementation can dimish or
disappear
3. Take into consideration the socio-cultural, economic and political
contexts

APPROACH
Logistics subsystem: ICT infrastructure
 Level 1: Data centre
 Level 2: Hardware
 Level 3: Main/fundamental software
 Level 4: User applications
 Level 5: Interoperability – integration of applications and
fundamental software
 Level 6: Maintenance and support for the previous 5 levels

APPROACH
Regulatory subsystem:
Overall management and strategic direction:
• Strategic planning
• Policy development
• Institutional monitoring and evaluation

APPROACH
Regulatory subsystem: budgeting
Cost of all elements of each subsystem and the respective activities
Types of costs:
 Fixed: infrastructure, equipment
 Flexible: admissions, enrolment, fee collection, tutors and support
services

APPROACH
Regulatory subsystem: cost elements
 Cost of the initial capital
 Sustainability of the initiative
 Curriculum and materials development
 Costs of provision

APPROACH
Regulatory subsystem: factors that affect costs
 Total number of students
 Course offered
 Life cycle of the course
 Media and technology choices
 F2F support
 Course design parameters
 Size of course / module

APPROACH
Activity
Take into consideration the learning centres that exist in
your local contexts and discuss:
 What subsystems are established?
 What subsystems are effective?
 What subsystems need to be established to ensure
effective provision of open schooling?

OPEN SCHOOLS: TECHNOLOGY
ENABLED LEARNING
Activity
 What does it mean? (do an internet search)
 What impacts can it have?
 Can you give a few examples of technology enabled
learning?

ENABLED LEARNING
TEL Definitions
Use of any form of digital technology in the teaching and learning
process, aiming to improve learning.
Use of technology to support the teaching and learning process.

ENABLED LEARNING
Different Approaches
F2F
Online
Blended
Flipped classroom

ENABLED LEARNING
Activity
Discuss advantages and disadvantages of different
approaches.

ENABLED LEARNING
Advantages
 Flexibility of access
 Improvement of the quality of education
 Rapid content updates
 Learning materials permanently available
 Reuse of learning materials
 Expanded access to education
 Allows for personalised learning
 Diverse learning methodologies
 More knowledge interchange
 Facilitates interaction: more student involvement in the
learning process

ENABLED LEARNING
Disadvantages
 Access to Internet is not yet globalised
 Cost of Internet access is still relatively high for students
 Internet low bandwidth drastically limits multimedia possibilities
 Rapid outdating of technologic components (applications)
 Students and teachers alike must have a good working knowledge
of available new technologies
 Does not manage unpredictable situations nor react immediately to
solve them

ENABLED LEARNING
Learning theories
 Constructivism
 Constructionism
 Connectivism
Socialised learning

ENABLED LEARNING
Pedagogy
 New role of the teacher: learning facilitator
 Learner centred process
 Collaborative learning
 Integration of technology and OER in materials development
 Focus on application of knowledge (flipped classrooms)
 Student envolvement in learning activities that promote critical
thinking and analysis

ENABLED LEARNING
Implications for open schooling
 Development of additional contents/ materials
 Integration of OER in learning materials
 Tutorials – Synchronous and asynchronous
 Learner support
 Technical infrastructure – hardware and Internet
 Teacher training
 Student orientation and technical support

ENABLED LEARNING
The role of learning management systems
 Centralization – access, administration, grades, etc.
 Learner support – technical and pedagogical
 Constructivist learning approaches
 Students as authors / content creators
 Learning assessment and evaluation

ENABLED LEARNING
 Access this handbook from COL OASIS repository:
 Complete the table in section 1.
Activity

ENABLED LEARNING
In your groups, create a philosophy statement to
guide the strategic direction for TEL in Guyana’s
Open Schooling.
Activity

ENABLED LEARNING
Google search:
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
What differentiates the two?
What are the affordances of each?
Activity

COL- GENDER EQUITY
COL Priority
Some statistics:
 From the billion of people that are
the poorest in the world, three
fifths are women and girls
 In 2010, one in six people lived in
shanty towns. 70% of those were
women and girls
 16% of the world’s adult
population is illiterate, and two
thirds of those are women and
girls
 70% of the 130 million children
out of schools are girls

COL- GENDER EQUITY
Definitions:
Gender equality: no discrimination based on sex, in terms of human
rights, responsibilities, opportunities and benefits
Gender equity: the process of fairly distributing resources and
responsibilities to men and women
Gender mainstreaming: the process of considering the implications of
planned and intentional actions to women and men, boys and girls,
including the creation and introduction of legislation, policies or
programs in a way that will equally benefit all

Activity
Taking into consideration the definitions, give a few examples of
initiatives you are aware of that favour gender equity and equality in
distance learning systems in Guyana.
How about examples of gender mainstreaming?
COL- GENDER EQUITY

COL- GENDER EQUITY
A few general examples:
 Top-down approach with clear political will and adequate resources
 Atainable gender equality goals based on gender analysis
 Implementation of activities at all levels – planning, management, monitoring
and evaluation.
 Strategies involve people throughout the system, because gender
mainstreaming responsibility lies within the system as a whole
 Specific gender equality and/or gender mainstreaming content available at all
levels within the system
 Balanced participation of women and men in decision making
 Gender equality specialists involved in the decision making process
 Working groups include women

COL- GENDER EQUITY
Challenges:
 Social: stereotypes
 Culture and tradition
 Economic
 Cost of access to education
 Lack of educational resources
 Discrimination

COL- GENDER EQUITY
Unintentional demonstration of tendencies:
 Comments and interactions that give the idea that boys are naturally
superior or that girls should not challenge boys.
 Encouraging boys, criticising girls, show surprise when girls answer a
question correctly.
 Using stereotypes when giving feedback, such as telling a girl not to
behave like a boy when she is competitive or tell a boy not to behave like
a girl when he shows emotion.
 Involve boys more in the classroom because girls may be slower to raise
their hands to participate.
 Expectation that boys will be more successful in mathematics and
sciences and girls will be more successful in humanistic studies.

COL- GENDER EQUITY
Teacher actions
 Be alert about these behaviours
 Ensure that lesson plans include aspects of gender equality
 Distribute tasks equally
 Equally involve students in the classroom
 Design activities that can be carried out equally by boys and girls
and that capture the interest of both

COL- GENDER EQUITY
Role of administration
 Employment practices
 Develop policies that:
 Support provision alternatives for pregnant girls or mothers with small children
 Do not penalize students who live far and support flexible programs and
schedules
 Curricula: ensure that contents reflect gender equality
 Teacher training in gender equity and gender mainstreaming
 Costs: remove tuition, have food in schools, have scholarships for
disadvantaged students

COL- GENDER EQUITY
COL tools
 Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit for
Teachers and Teacher Educators
 Checklist for the Development of
Gender Sensitive Learning Materials

open.bccampus.ca
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC-BY. 4.0 International.
Feel free to use, modify or distribute any or all of this presentation with attribution.
What Are OER?

OPEN SCHOOLS: WHAT ARE OER
Open Educational Resources are teaching,
learning, and research resources that reside in
the public domain or have been released
under an intellectual property license that
permits their free use or re-purposing by
others.

OPEN SCHOOLS: EXAMPLES OF
OER
• Open textbooks
• Videos
• Course materials
• Lesson plans
• Software
• Games
• Simulations
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Adaptive tests

OPEN SCHOOLS: OPEN LICENSING
“OER: freely accessible, openly
formatted and openly licensed
documents and media that are useful
for teaching, learning, education,
assessment and research purposes.“

LICENSING: CREATIVE COMMONS
(CC)

open.bccampus.ca
The 5 R’s of Open
• Make and own a copyRetain
• Use in a wide range of waysReuse
• Adapt, modify, and improveRevise
• Combine two or moreRemix
• Share with othersRedistribute
http://lumenlearning.com/announcement-5r-open-course-design-framework/

open.bccampus.ca
Creative Commons logo by Creative Commons used under a CC-BY 3.0 License
CC license image from Copyright in Education & Internet in South African Law used under CC-BY 2.5 South Africa license

LICENSING COMBINATION
 Attribution (CC BY)
 Attribution — Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
 Attribution — No Derivatives (CC BY-ND)
 Attribution — Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC)
 Attribution — Non-Commercial — Share-Alike (CC BY-NC-SA)
 Attribution — Non-Commercial — No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)
To license an OER – P2PU

OER REPOSITORIES
OER Commons
BC Campus Open Ed – open
textbooks
MIT Open Courseware
Connexions
OpenStax College - textbooks
SOL*R - shareable resources from
BC Campus
Merlot - learning objects repository
Saylor
Open Learn
Curriki
Best 100 OER on the web
EdX- Free courses from a
consortium of universities
Open Courseware Consortium
Free Images:
Flickr – CC, Wikimedia Commons
Free e-texts:
Flat World Knowledge, Bookboon,
College Open Textbooks

SOME USEFUL SITES FOR
TEACHER EDUCATION
OER Africa– www.oerafrica.org
TESSA– www.tessafrica.net
TESS-India – www.TESS-India.edu.in
Commonwealth of Learning www.col.org
OpenLearn - www.open.edu/openlearn/
Khan Academy - www.khanacademy.org
OER Commons - www.oercommons.org
ELATE - http://www.elateafrica.org/
OER4schools - http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/OER4Schools
80

DiscoverEd - "Discover the Universe of Open Educational Resources"
Jorum - "free learning and teaching resources, created and contributed by
teaching staff from UK Further and Higher Education Institutions"
CoL – knowledge finder – for an approach to searching for OER, open
courseware, and other resources for learning
OER Dynamic Search Engine - a wiki page of OER sites with accompanied
search engine (powered by Google Custom Search)
JISC Digital Media maintain guidance on finding video, audio and images
online, including those licensed as Creative Commons
For STEM resources see Resource 7.40, p. 224.
Or use google advanced search … note the option to select a licence
https://www.google.com/advanced_search
FURTHER SEARCH ENGINES TO TRY ….
81

STRATEGIES FOR SEARCHING
1. Start with initiatives that you know about and see
how they can help you:
• TESSA
• African Virtual University
• Saide/OER Africa
2. Go to a preferred textbook you can work with and
find a free online section and build around that.
3. Embark on a thorough search for suitable material
using Google, OER search engines, OER
repositories
82

SEARCH ON GENERAL TEACHER EDUCATION
TOPIC: “EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY”
83

QUALITY? EVALUATING OER
Achieve Rubrics
Rubric I. Degree of Alignment to Standards
Rubric II. Quality of Explanation of the Subject Matter
Rubric III. Utility of Materials Designed to Support
Teaching
Rubric IV. Quality of Assessment
Rubric V. Quality of Technological Interactivity
Rubric VI. Quality of Instructional Tasks and Practice
Exercises
Rubric VII. Opportunities for Deeper Learning
Rubric VIII. Assurance of Accessibility

ADAPTING OER
Find OER
Check the license
Adaptation: content-based, context, relevance
Check attribution requirements
Re-release it under Commons
Go to Creative Commons

INTEGRATING OER
Find OER
Check the license
Look for content alignment
Scaffold the resource
Build on the resource, if appropriate
Integrate activities in the resource
Need for attribution?

OPEN SCHOOLS: CURRICULUM
MAPPING
Activity
Identify the Curriculum that needs to be developed for Phase 1
CCSLC Syllabus

OPEN SCHOOLS: DEVELOPING E-
CONTENT
Activity
Share your content development process.
What are its strengths, weaknesses?
Are there any barriers you face when creating
content?

OPEN SCHOOLS: CREATING A
TEMPLATE
Activity
Lets create a template for the structure of the
learning resources together!

OPEN SCHOOLS: CREATING A
TEMPLATE
Outcomes/purpose
Introduction
Introductory activity linked to prior learning
New content (text, multi-media)
Learning activity using new content
Elaboration through feedback
Consolidating activity
Summary / Conclusion
References

OPEN SCHOOLS: AEA CONTENT
STRUCTURE TEMPLATE
Learning Objectives
Introduction
Content / Main Body
Learning Activities interspersed
Feedback on each learning activity
Summative Assessment
Feedback
Conclusion to include key points learned
References
Optional materials / reading

AND TO CONCLUDE…
Activity
Please complete the following online questionnaire, available at
the following link:
http://bit.ly/2OgSKiw

ATTRIBUTION
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Citation:
Mays, T. J. (2019). Supporting Open Schooling. Vancouver: Commonwealth of
Learning.
Acknowledgement
The OIS model presented in Slides 9-12 was developed for COL by Dr Johan Hendrikz, Senior Adviser: Open Schooling, 2016-2018.

OPEN SCHOOLS: THANK YOU!
Rosario Passos
Email: rosario@cascadia.bc.ca
Skype: Portuguese_Woman
Twitter: PW_Passos
Watsapp: +1 236 888 8599
All images used in these slides carry an open license: CC BY SA

Open Schooling - Gyuana

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