This document discusses policy imperatives driving open educational resources (OER). It provides context on the growth of the OER movement over 10 years but lack of uptake. The POERUP project aims to stimulate OER uptake through policy by building on previous initiatives and producing country reports and case studies. It discusses the policy pyramid in Europe from UNESCO declarations to institutional policies. Key areas addressed include enabling environments, strategies and policies, open licensing, capacity building, partnerships, languages/cultures, research, and finding/sharing resources. The presentation argues for considering evidence and existing policies to develop feasible national and regional OER policies.
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
EFQUEL Innovation Forum
26-28 September 2012,
Granada, Spain
The EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2012 provided an opportunity to discuss future and innovative practices, research and policy developments in the various sectors of education.
http://www.qualityfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=275&Itemid=110&lang=en
To be written and added to web site
Presentation given by Paul Bacsich from Sero entitled “Results as we near the end” and provided a summary of the main outcomes of the VISCED work up to September 2012 including the policy recommendations and success factors.
Enabling legislation to support Open Education in European policyPaul Bacsich
Using recent experience from VISCED, the POERUP project proposes an approach of how to map OER/OEP policy recommendations into the structure of the EU's Rethinking Education policy document released in late November 2012
Karel Van Isacker presented at the “INTERNATIONAL FORUM (ETEP-D) V: Tendencias Tecnológicas Para La Educación y Atención a la Diversidad e Inclusión” on 31 March 2016 at the “Fundación Universitaria Tecnológico Comfenalco”, Colombia.
His presentation “OERs in Europe – Pathway to inclusion” addressed the status of OERs in Europe and how accessibility needs to be addressed.
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
EFQUEL Innovation Forum
26-28 September 2012,
Granada, Spain
The EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2012 provided an opportunity to discuss future and innovative practices, research and policy developments in the various sectors of education.
http://www.qualityfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=275&Itemid=110&lang=en
To be written and added to web site
Presentation given by Paul Bacsich from Sero entitled “Results as we near the end” and provided a summary of the main outcomes of the VISCED work up to September 2012 including the policy recommendations and success factors.
Enabling legislation to support Open Education in European policyPaul Bacsich
Using recent experience from VISCED, the POERUP project proposes an approach of how to map OER/OEP policy recommendations into the structure of the EU's Rethinking Education policy document released in late November 2012
Karel Van Isacker presented at the “INTERNATIONAL FORUM (ETEP-D) V: Tendencias Tecnológicas Para La Educación y Atención a la Diversidad e Inclusión” on 31 March 2016 at the “Fundación Universitaria Tecnológico Comfenalco”, Colombia.
His presentation “OERs in Europe – Pathway to inclusion” addressed the status of OERs in Europe and how accessibility needs to be addressed.
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
About this presentation:
ALT-C 2011
6 -8 September 2011
University of Leeds, UK
This was the 18th international annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology in the UK which is a highly prestigious event attracting many academics and researchers.
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc/alt-c-2011
http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/news/visced-workshop-accepted-alt-c-2011
Nick Jeans from Sero gave a presentation at this event on behalf of VISCED called “Investigating Innovative e-learning initiatives and Virtual Schools” which provided a good overview of the context of the VISCED work and orientation at month 9 of the project
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
About this presentation:
DEANZ conference
11-13 April 2012
Wellington, New Zealand
The biannual DEANZ conference is the premier conference in Aotearoa New Zealand for leaders and practitioners involved in open, flexible and distance learning. The 2012 conference theme was 'Shift Happens' with three themes of resilience, relevance and reform.
http://www.deanz.org.nz/home/index.php/deanz-conference-2012/conference-2012
http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/news/keynote-presentation-features-visced-work-new-zealand
Paul Bacsich from Sero gave a keynote presentation at this conference entitled “Analytic conceit or operational necessity? Towards the Multiversity - An integrated view of where we are in the world of e-learning “which included a significant input on VISCED. While in New Zealand, Paul had a number of opportunities to extend the VISCED network and included an opportunity to provide input on a case study form that region.
Taken from the schools workshop held at the Erasmus+ UK 'My Story' Annual Conference 2015. Originally presented by Liz Neil, programme lead for schools at the Erasmus+ UK National Agency.
Topics in this presentation include an overview of the Erasmus+ 2016 programme for schools, how eTwinning and the School Education Gateway complement your Erasmus+ project and linking Erasmus+ with a European Development Plan.
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
ALT-C
11-13 September 2012
University of Manchester, UK
This was the 19th international annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology in the UK which is a highly prestigious event attracting many academics and researchers.
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2012
To be written and added to web site
Presentation given by Barry Phillips from Sero entitled “Virtual schooling in Europe: Removing the policy traps. VISCED:A Transnational Appraisal of Virtual School and College Provision” focussed on the first set of policy recommendations emerging from VISCED.
Presentation delivered by Iverene Bromfield, Dundee & Angus College on the VoCol Triangles Key Action 2 Vocational Education and Training (VET) project. This presentation was first delivered at the Learning Networks event held in Cardiff on December 3.
New modes of learning and teaching in higher education Luciano Sathler
High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education. Report to the European Commission. Disponível em http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/reports/modernisation-universities_en.pdf. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged
Um exemplo de trabalho que o Brasil deveria seguir!
Author: Anne Gilleran.
This paper examines the eTwinning action against the background of 21st century educational and social forces in Europe. It describes in detail the evolution and structure of eTwinning, the opportunities it offers to teachers in terms of pedagogical practice and professional development and the achievments of the portal www.eTwinning.net.
This presentation was delivered by Stephanie Cossom, Senior Policy Advisor, for the Deprartment for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) during the plenary session for the 'My Story' Erasmus+ 2015 conference. The event was held in Edinburgh on 22 September 2015.
This higher education case study presentation was delivered by Rosemary Borup during the measuring employability workshop of the December 2015 Learning Networks event held in Cardiff.
POERUP elevator pitch: 26 countries in 26 minuteswitthaus
Presentation by POERUP team at OER13 in Nottingham - an overview of open educational resources policies worldwide, based on the POERUP project research (http://www.poerup.info)
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
About this presentation:
ALT-C 2011
6 -8 September 2011
University of Leeds, UK
This was the 18th international annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology in the UK which is a highly prestigious event attracting many academics and researchers.
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc/alt-c-2011
http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/news/visced-workshop-accepted-alt-c-2011
Nick Jeans from Sero gave a presentation at this event on behalf of VISCED called “Investigating Innovative e-learning initiatives and Virtual Schools” which provided a good overview of the context of the VISCED work and orientation at month 9 of the project
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
About this presentation:
DEANZ conference
11-13 April 2012
Wellington, New Zealand
The biannual DEANZ conference is the premier conference in Aotearoa New Zealand for leaders and practitioners involved in open, flexible and distance learning. The 2012 conference theme was 'Shift Happens' with three themes of resilience, relevance and reform.
http://www.deanz.org.nz/home/index.php/deanz-conference-2012/conference-2012
http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/news/keynote-presentation-features-visced-work-new-zealand
Paul Bacsich from Sero gave a keynote presentation at this conference entitled “Analytic conceit or operational necessity? Towards the Multiversity - An integrated view of where we are in the world of e-learning “which included a significant input on VISCED. While in New Zealand, Paul had a number of opportunities to extend the VISCED network and included an opportunity to provide input on a case study form that region.
Taken from the schools workshop held at the Erasmus+ UK 'My Story' Annual Conference 2015. Originally presented by Liz Neil, programme lead for schools at the Erasmus+ UK National Agency.
Topics in this presentation include an overview of the Erasmus+ 2016 programme for schools, how eTwinning and the School Education Gateway complement your Erasmus+ project and linking Erasmus+ with a European Development Plan.
About the VISCED Poject:
The VISCED project carried out an inventory of innovative ICT-enhanced learning initiatives and major ‘e-mature’ secondary and post-secondary education providers for the 14-21 age group in Europe. This entailed a systematic review at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. The outputs of this work have been analysed and compared to identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing these initiatives.
See http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/
ALT-C
11-13 September 2012
University of Manchester, UK
This was the 19th international annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology in the UK which is a highly prestigious event attracting many academics and researchers.
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2012
To be written and added to web site
Presentation given by Barry Phillips from Sero entitled “Virtual schooling in Europe: Removing the policy traps. VISCED:A Transnational Appraisal of Virtual School and College Provision” focussed on the first set of policy recommendations emerging from VISCED.
Presentation delivered by Iverene Bromfield, Dundee & Angus College on the VoCol Triangles Key Action 2 Vocational Education and Training (VET) project. This presentation was first delivered at the Learning Networks event held in Cardiff on December 3.
New modes of learning and teaching in higher education Luciano Sathler
High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education. Report to the European Commission. Disponível em http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/reports/modernisation-universities_en.pdf. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged
Um exemplo de trabalho que o Brasil deveria seguir!
Author: Anne Gilleran.
This paper examines the eTwinning action against the background of 21st century educational and social forces in Europe. It describes in detail the evolution and structure of eTwinning, the opportunities it offers to teachers in terms of pedagogical practice and professional development and the achievments of the portal www.eTwinning.net.
This presentation was delivered by Stephanie Cossom, Senior Policy Advisor, for the Deprartment for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) during the plenary session for the 'My Story' Erasmus+ 2015 conference. The event was held in Edinburgh on 22 September 2015.
This higher education case study presentation was delivered by Rosemary Borup during the measuring employability workshop of the December 2015 Learning Networks event held in Cardiff.
POERUP elevator pitch: 26 countries in 26 minuteswitthaus
Presentation by POERUP team at OER13 in Nottingham - an overview of open educational resources policies worldwide, based on the POERUP project research (http://www.poerup.info)
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.
Using OER and MOOCs for education and training - leadersPaul Bacsich
This presentation provides a 12-slide snapshot in March 2016 of the D-TRANSFORM project funded under Erasmus+ to develop leadership training in e-learning (digital learning) for senior leaders (Rectors, Vice-Rectors, Board Directors) in universities and other higher education institutions across Europe. It was presented virtually to the workshop "Open Education - concepts, tools, resources, practices" in Timisoara, Romania, on 11 March 2016 - which was also streamed
Governmental and Institutional strategies to support new ways of teaching and...EADTU
The presentation includes strategies at governmental and institutional level for the uptake of new modes of teaching and learning. It includes recommendations by the EU published Changing Pedagogical Landscape study and the EMPOWER programme by EADTU.
Based on contributions by Jeff Haywood (University of Edinburg, George Ubachs(EADTU) and Piet Henderikx (EADTU).
The future OER Ecosystem - On building a community for OER in EuropeRobert Farrow
The European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in Education (ENCORE+) project (2021-2023) is an Erasmus+ funded initiative which aims to raise awareness of open education, coordinate stakeholder and support new strategies for the proliferation of OER (https://encoreproject.eu/).
Although the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting online ‘pivot’ increased opportunities for integrating OER into education and training, general awareness of open alternatives remains low. Many educators and learners have been in crisis mode, using whatever resources they can to fulfil their needs. While this can include OER, the demands put upon practitioners makes it hard to strategise and move systematically towards meeting the five action areas of the UNESCO OER resolution.
ENCORE+ is a coordinated European approach to strengthening the value of OER as a catalyst and multiplier. The goal is to move from a series of individual OER initiatives into a European OER Ecosystem. This will be done through addressing and contributing to European and International policy priorities, stimulating innovation in businesses through learning and training, supporting the modernization and digitalization of higher education in Europe, as well as bridging non-formal & formal education by advancing recognition of open learning.
ENCORE+ has established 4 thematic circle communities for OER in Europe on the thematic focus areas of OER Technology, Quality, Innovation & Business Models and Policies. The circle communities convenes and collaborate on issues related to the circle theme. The four communities will convene for its second round of circle events in the first week of May.
This workshop aims to take the content and discussions held within the 4 thematic circle communities in ENCORE+ to the global stage. This workshop marks halfway through the project, and the ENCORE+ team will share and discuss experiences, issues and solutions found with the delegates at the conference. The stakeholders of ENCORE+ is truly global, connecting international stakeholders from academia and business together into a collaborative OER Ecosystem solving challenges of education through OER.
Presentation titled "Innovation in the Teaching of Sustainable Development in Europe: The Case of ISLE Erasmus Network". SPDECE 2012 Symposium, Alicante, Spain, 14/6/2012 (http://transducens.dlsi.ua.es/congress/spdece2012)
Policies for uptake of OER in the UK home nationsPaul Bacsich
This paper from POERUP provides a set of 16 or so recommendations designed to foster the use of open educational resources and open educational practices in the UK higher education sector, in particular England, Scotland and Wales.
The study method was to review the full range of OER activity in the UK HE sector in the last few years (such as the JISC/HEA OER Programme), take into account the policy environment in the home nations for HE in general and online learning in particular, and correlate these both with developments in over 30 other countries deemed to be of relevance to Europe and the emerging policy environment at EU level (to which the POERUP project contributed, as the author was both a member of the EU’s Open Education Experts Group and a contributor (Bacsich 2013a) to the Open Education 2030 workshop on higher education).
This paper focuses only on higher education in the UK but companion papers focus on further education and on schools.
In addition the project is also preparing policy papers on Ireland (by the same author), Netherlands, France, Spain, Poland and Canada. This set of studies and papers provides massive capability for cross-correlation and triangulation.
Our first EU HE OER policy paper (Bacsich 2013b) was made available publicly in September 2013, in advance of the EU’s Opening Up Education report (European Commission 2013). Ours has now been updated to take account of that and refine the EU’s recommendations for the HE sector. The first summary version of a UK HE policy paper has been produced for internal discussion in the POERUP project and then in the Advisory Committee.
Our UK HE presentation aims to take into account the different home nations’ HE systems and the different state of policy development in England and Wales (BIS 2013; HEW 2013) and working groups such as Open Scotland.
The POERUP project takes care not to focus on OER as an end in itself, but on the agendas that OER is said to be able to foster and on the wider agenda (called by the EU “opening up education”, but equally well called by others “open and distance learning”, “open educational practices”, or “flexible learning”) within which OER is embedded. Paradoxically perhaps, this makes it much easier to make recommendations and to ensure stability in the recommendations and consistency with other existing policies.
In its current draft form, the recommendations are formulated as 16 in a “home nation neutral” fashion, but the number of recommendations will no doubt change as the document splits into three versions. It is still felt to be valuable to produce a UK-wide synthesis, not least because several key agencies such as HEA and QAA have a UK-wide remit.
The project is willing to work with other home nations/regions/mission groups, Crown Dependencies and other EU countries to co-create similar documents. It already has some experience of this developed in the last few months.
Featured presentation at the OE Global conference of the Open Education Consortium, TU Delft, Netherlands, 25th April 2018. Focus on open education policies
Innovating Open Education: Critical Pathways and Communities of PracticeRobert Farrow
This presentation from Open Education Global 2021 provides an overview of the ENCORE+ project (https://encoreproject.eu/) and discusses the relationship between open educational resources (OER) and innovation, identifying strategies for knowledge exchange.
Slides from the workshop with universities' executives from 18 European countries held at the European Commission's IPTS on the 26-27th December 2015. The slides bring partial results from the OpenCred and OpenCases studies of the OpenEdu project.
Slides from the workshop with universities' executives from 18 European countries held at the European Commission's IPTS on the 26-27th December 2015. The slides bring partial results from the OpenCred and OpenCases studies of the OpenEdu project.
Bringing Educational Resources For Teachers in Africa - BERTAicdeslides
MOOCs4D, Quality online education, quality in education, OER and teacher education, train the teachers trainers, ICDE, International Council for Open and Distance Education
The Future OER Ecosystem - On Building a Community for OER in EuropeRobert Farrow
Group presentation/workshop from Open Education Global 2022
The European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in Education (ENCORE+) project (2021-2023) is an Erasmus+ funded initiative which aims to raise awareness of open education, coordinate stakeholder and support new strategies for the proliferation of OER (https://encoreproject.eu/).
Although the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting online ‘pivot’ increased opportunities for integrating OER into education and training, general awareness of open alternatives remains low. Many educators and learners have been in crisis mode, using whatever resources they can to fulfil their needs. While this can include OER, the demands put upon practitioners makes it hard to strategise and move systematically towards meeting the five action areas of the UNESCO OER resolution.
ENCORE+ is a coordinated European approach to strengthening the value of OER as a catalyst and multiplier. The goal is to move from a series of individual OER initiatives into a European OER Ecosystem. This will be done through addressing and contributing to European and International policy priorities, stimulating innovation in businesses through learning and training, supporting the modernization and digitalization of higher education in Europe, as well as bridging non-formal & formal education by advancing recognition of open learning.
ENCORE+ has established 4 thematic circle communities for OER in Europe on the thematic focus areas of OER Technology, Quality, Innovation & Business Models and Policies. The circle communities convenes and collaborate on issues related to the circle theme. The four communities will convene for its second round of circle events in the first week of May.
This workshop aims to take the content and discussions held within the 4 thematic circle communities in ENCORE+ to the global stage. This workshop marks halfway through the project, and the ENCORE+ team will share and discuss experiences, issues and solutions found with the delegates at the conference. The stakeholders of ENCORE+ is truly global, connecting international stakeholders from academia and business together into a collaborative OER Ecosystem solving challenges of education through OER.
Examples of successful Open Education strategies in Higher EducationFabio Nascimbeni
The presentation introduces some successful strategies of universities that have opened up their offer, together with some reflections on how this could be done in the Mediterranean region.
Similar to Policy imperatives driving open educational resources (in universities in the EU) (20)
This presentation reviews the impact of pandemics (such as Covid-19) and other emergencies on schools and recommends strategies for resilience in future.
POERUP was an EU-funded project which began in November 2011 and produced its final report in October 2014. Its purpose was to develop OER-friendly policy recommendations, based on analysis of existing OER initiatives, countries, policies and case studies.
A key part of the work was collecting a wide range of OER and MOOC initiatives from countries round the world. By the end of the project POERUP had created a curated map/database of over 500 open education initiatives, both OER and MOOC. This mapping work had three important aspects:
1. The project began by creating a number of Google Map Tools consisting of ad hoc maps and charts, using Google Map Engine Pro and Google Charts. The initial aim was to gain familiarity with the mapping issues, but the end result was a simple set of procedures whereby many projects can map their results using data from a spreadsheet such as Excel or GoogleDocs, rather than from a sophisticated database.
2. The project then created a Custom Map Tool driven by the sophisticated "noSQL" database MongoDB to allow display of and search for OER initiatives, as part of a wider initiative to document and allow search for open education initiatives, including MOOCs. The core database technology and approach were chosen to be scalable to high performance as well as being open source and Linked Data-ready. The Open API it makes available facilitates future use by different groups working collaboratively on problems of collecting, mapping and analysing open education initiatives, including but not only eMundus, SharedOER, D-TRANSFORM, OER Africa and Hewlett-funded initiatives in this area. Though sophisticated, the database can be loaded from a standard spreadsheet using some simple mark-up conventions.
3. Sero created Semantic Map Tools using Semantic Maps, a module of Semantic MediaWiki, hosted on Referata to support the POERUP wiki. Semantic MediaWiki is a powerful extension of the MediaWiki software. (MediaWiki is used also for WikiEducator and Wikipedia.)
The implication of this work is that a wide range of projects looking to analyse "initiatives" of a wide range of types, can now represent them on maps. It is especially easy and powerful to do this if the project makes use of Semantic MediaWiki. Since standard MediaWiki databases can be loaded into Semantic MediaWiki and spreadsheets can be used to create sets of template-driven wiki pages, this means that many of the existing wikis of educational material can rapidly benefit from this approach. Already this work is being applied to wikis of virtual schools, virtual universities and quality and benchmarking projects and agencies.
The presentation concludes with some reflections on the POERUP and related work and leaves the audience with some Thoughts.
Institutional Open Education and OER Policies - a view from POERUPPaul Bacsich
This webinar will provide two perspectives on OER policies and seek to answer some of the key questions related to Open Education and OER policies. The questions below will drive the session delivered by the presenters and form the basis of the discussion which follows.
Why have a policy?
What are the problems in developing a policy?
How do you get your teaching staff on board?
Did it require extra staff (as with MOOCs in some cases)?
What are the main elements of your policy? For example, is there was a minimum/maximum amount of OER that could be used e.g. only 50% could be made up from OER.
Have you had feedback from students about the policy?
Has there been feedback (good/bad) from students as a result?
What have been the key benefits of developing and having a policy?
The first presenter is Paul Bacsich from POERUP.
The overall aim of POERUP is to carry out research to understand how governments can stimulate the uptake of OER by policy means, not excluding financial means but recognising that in the current economic situation in Europe the scope for government financial support for such activities is much less than it has been in some countries.
We do not want to formulate policies based on informal discussions. We want the policies to be evidence-based policies – and based on looking beyond – beyond one’s own country, region or continent, and beyond the educational sector that a ministry typically looks after.
One aspect of this is to foster the potential of new technologies for enhancing innovation and creativity, in particular by researching policies designed to foster a lifelong learner mindset in learners – leading to curiosity, creativity and a greater willingness to consume OER.
We also want to provide education authorities, the research community and OER initiative management with trustworthy and balanced research results, in which feedback from all stakeholder groups has been incorporated and which can be used as standard literature. A specific objective is to help readers in charge of OER initiatives to foresee hidden traps and to find ways of incorporating successful features of other initiatives. POERUP is about dispassionate analysis, not lobbying.
We aim to provide policymakers and education authorities above institutions, but also OER management and practitioners within institutions, with insight into what has been done in this area, plus a categorization of the different major initiatives and the diverse range of providers. Policy advice is needed explicitly to address Issues like critical thinking in the use of new technologies/media, risk awareness, and ethical/legal considerations. Our review will provide practical and concrete information in order to contribute towards a more informed approach in the future.
POERUP is doing this by:
• studying a range of countries in Europe and seen as relevant to Europe, in order to understand what OER is going on, and why it is going on (or might soon cease to be going on) – and taking account of reports from other agencies studying OER in other countries;
• researching case studies of various end-user–producer communities behind OER initiatives in order to refine and elaborate recommendations to formulate a set of action points that can be applied to ensuring the realisation of successful, lively and sustainable OER communities;
• developing informed ideas on policy formulation using evidence from our own and other studies, our own experience in related projects and ongoing advice from other experts in the field.
Finally, these results are being disseminated and maintained in a sustainable way.
The project has a web site http://www.poerup.info and a wiki http://poerup.referata.com for country reports and other outputs. This wiki will be sustained after the end of t
OCWC POERUP external evaluation of FutureLearn communityPaul Bacsich
FutureLearn is a private company wholly owned by the UK Open University. It has partnered with over 20 leading UK universities to form the FutureLearn consortium. Since October 2013 this has offered a range of MOOCs focussed at informal learning on subjects typically taught at university level. FutureLearn has partnered also with three UK institutions with archives of cultural and educational material - the British Council, the British Library, and the British Museum - and with a few non-UK universities, so far the University of Auckland, Monash University and Trinity College Dublin.
This paper is a case study of FutureLearn. Unlike many case studies of such MOOC-based and OER initiatives, it is not from a member of the consortium. Indeed the case study will not use any privileged information. In evaluation terms it is carried out from an “external observer” standpoint, not from a “participant-observer” standpoint.
The key research question for this case study is to establish the strength and functions of the FutureLearn community - the community of staff at institutions who are engaged, increasingly collaboratively, in creating the FutureLearn courses, supporting the students, and co-developing the FutureLearn software systems and procedures.
The reason for this case study is to test one of the fundamental hypotheses of the POERUP project. POERUP, Policies for OER Uptake, is a study project funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission, running from late 2011 until June 2014. Among the core tasks of POERUP are to produce seven in-depth case studies of OER and MOOC communities. In addition to FutureLearn these include OER university (global), Wikiwijs (Netherlands) and ALISON (Ireland).
The research methodology involves so far:
1. documentary analysis of the FutureLearn project, involving what it says about itself and what others say about it, and a preliminary set of informal discussions with stakeholders.
2. in-depth interviews, using an interview template, with key staff at FutureLearn partners.
There will be a final phase of documentary analysis in the May-June 2014, before the end of the POERUP project.
The communities in the POERUP case studies are being analysed using Social Network Analysis, to varying degrees of depth depending on the activity within the communities. Bieke Schreurs the co-author of the presentation is responsible for this aspect of the research (Schreurs et al 2013).
The evidence we have gathered in the POERUP project indicates that at least within the European Union the era of large state-funded OER content initiatives is almost over. Our hypothesis is that a development such as FutureLearn is much more the kind of partnership - public and private, ambitious but not unrealistically so, nationally based yet not nationally bounded - that will succeed - and we want to understand and document why this is so in order that others can learn from it.
Ocwc2014 policies-bacsich final and refsPaul Bacsich
This presentation responds to the challenge of developing policies for OER uptake in the higher education sector of a given country, with particular reference to the smaller countries of the European Union (countries with no more than around 10 million people). It takes a case study approach, reviewing how the POERUP project (Policies for OER Uptake, part-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU) is developing policies for three smaller countries: Ireland (an EU member state) and Wales and Scotland (two semi-autonomous regions of the United Kingdom, fully autonomous in educational terms). The inclusion of Wales and Scotland also throws light on the challenge of developing policies for federal countries where higher education is developed to the province/state level.
Factors that seem to be of particular relevance to smaller states include:
1. less money for extensive research and policy analysis
2. more influence of regional and isolated areas
3. easier decision-making, at least in theory
4. issues of lack of economies of scale, in particular if the national language is state-specific
5. greater interest in collaboration with some nearby states on educational issues
6. a smaller set of institutions, causing issues with generating or maintaining institutional diversity of mission unless the process is managed
7. potentially greater danger of dominance by private sector interests
8. potentially large edge effects of student flows from nearby states, potentially made worse if funding and regulatory regimes are attractive to incomers.
The analysis includes studying the interplay between the recommendations produced by international policy work relating to OER and the national policy context (which in some cases makes no mention of OER, in others makes considerable mention but not always correlated with or aware of international issues).
The starting point within POERUP is the document "Policy advice for universities" of which release 1 is currently available, but which is being updated in the light of comments and incoming data. This reviews recent international policy (e.g. COL, UNESCO); EU policies (including Bologna, Europe 2020, Recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning, European higher education in the world, and most recently, Opening Up Education), relevant to OER and consolidated evidence from a variety of national contexts, to make a set of (currently) 18 recommendations designed not only to foster OER but also the changes in higher education that OER is foreseen as helping to foster - such as more flexible accreditation, encouragement of a wider community to take part in higher education, and a vision of higher education focussed more on competences and skills gained and less on duration of study. See Policies at EU-level for OER uptake in universities - http://www.scribd.com/doc/169430544/Policies-at-EU-level-for-OER-uptake-in-universities
OER and MOOCs need competency-based higher educationPaul Bacsich
This presentation argues that a number of innovative technical developments, including OER and MOOCs but also microlearning and innovative forms of assessment, require a new approach to Bologna based primarily on competences
Virtual schools and open schools a view from Europe - oriented to Asia espe...Paul Bacsich
This is a presentation for the conference in India entitled "Education for All: Role of Open Schooling",13-15 March 2013, to be given by Paul Bacsich on 15 March 2013
This is a pre-production version of Chapters 1 and 2 of the VISCED Handbook. Comments welcome and will be incorporated in the World Tour Deliverable to be finalised in December 2012.
Alternative archetypes of formal education provisionPaul Bacsich
This is the revised version of the earlier paper, updated in the light of input at EIF2012 during and after the workshop on the topic. Now awaiting further refinement at ALT-C
Quality in e-learning - a view for ENQAPaul Bacsich
A view from a benchmarking e-learning perspective of how to initiate a synthesis of approaches to quality in e-learning for use Europe-wide within the ENQA Standards and Guidelines
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Francesca Gottschalk - How can education support child empowerment.pptxEduSkills OECD
Francesca Gottschalk from the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation presents at the Ask an Expert Webinar: How can education support child empowerment?
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
Policy imperatives driving open educational resources (in universities in the EU)
1. Policy Imperatives driving Open
Educational Resources
Paul Bacsich, Sero
Presentation delivered within
OER MOOC
17 September 2013
1
2. POERUP Partners autumn 2013
1. Sero (coordinator)
2. University of Leicester
3. Open University
of the Netherlands
4. University of Lorraine
5. EDEN
6. Athabasca University
(Canada)
2
3. Context and rationale
• Over ten years of the OER movement
• Hundreds of OER repositories worldwide
• Yet lack of uptake by teachers and learners
• Need a shift from funding to community
building and articulation of OER practice
3
4. Focus of POERUP
• Stimulating the uptake of OER through policy
• Building on previous initiatives (such as OPAL, Olnet and
SCORE)
• Through country reports: 26 by POERUP and about the
same number by others (UNESCO Mosocw, OER Asia, etc)
• And case studies, evaluating successful OER communities
• Linked to ODS, IPTS, DG EAC WGs and non-EU initiatives
• And to other research on competences, retention and
accreditation
• Underpinned by research on costs and time issues in online
learning
4
5. Policy pyramid in Europe
1. UNESCO OER Declaration
2. EU policies, especially now Rethinking Education and
Opening Up Education
3. National policies (not many, yet)
4. Sub-national policies (home
nations, Länder, autonomous
communities, provinces, states)
5. Municipal/county/regional policies
6. Groupings of institutions
7. My institution (department, programme, module)
5
6. UNESCO Paris Declaration: aspirational: a-c
a. Foster awareness and use of OER.
Promote and use OER to widen access to education at all levels, both
formal and non-formal, in a perspective of lifelong learning, thus
contributing to social inclusion, gender equity and special needs
education. Improve both cost-efficiency and quality of teaching and
learning outcomes through greater use of OER.
b. Facilitate enabling environments for use of Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT).
Bridge the digital divide by developing adequate infrastructure, in
particular, affordable broadband connectivity, widespread mobile
technology and reliable electrical power supply. Improve media and
information literacy and encourage the development and use of OER in
open standard digital formats.
c. Reinforce the development of strategies and policies on OER.
Promote the development of specific policies for the production and use
of OER within wider strategies for advancing education.
6
7. UNESCO Paris Declaration: aspirational: d-g
d. Promote the understanding and use of open licensing frameworks.
Facilitate the re-use, revision, remixing and redistribution of educational materials across the
world through open licensing, which refers to a range of frameworks that allow different kinds of
uses, while respecting the rights of any copyright holder.
e. Support capacity building for the sustainable development of quality learning materials.
Support institutions, train and motivate teachers and other personnel to produce and share high-
quality, accessible educational resources, taking into account local needs and the full diversity of
learners. Promote quality assurance and peer review of OER. Encourage the development of
mechanisms for the assessment and certification of learning outcomes achieved through OER.
f. Foster strategic alliances for OER.
Take advantage of evolving technology to create opportunities for sharing materials which have
been released under an open license in diverse media and ensure sustainability through new
strategic partnerships within and among the education, industry, library, media and
telecommunications sectors.
g. Encourage the development and adaptation of OER in a variety of languages and cultural
contexts.
Favour the production and use of OER in local languages and diverse cultural contexts to ensure
their relevance and accessibility. Intergovernmental organisations should encourage the sharing of
OER across languages and cultures, respecting indigenous knowledge and rights.
7
8. UNESCO Paris Declaration: aspirational: h-j
h. Encourage research on OER.
Foster research on the development, use, evaluation and re-contextualisation of
OER as well as on the opportunities and challenges they present, and their impact
on the quality and cost-efficiency of teaching and learning in order to strengthen
the evidence base for public investment in OER.
i. Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing of OER.
Encourage the development of user-friendly tools to locate and retrieve OER that
are specific and relevant to particular needs. Adopt appropriate open standards to
ensure interoperability and to facilitate the use of OER in diverse media.
j. Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with public
funds.
Governments/competent authorities can create substantial benefits for their
citizens by ensuring that educational materials developed with public funds be
made available under open licenses (with any restrictions they deem necessary) in
order to maximize the impact of the investment.
8
9. Rethinking Education (COM 669/2) – 2.1
• Building skills for the 21st century
– Transversal and basic skills
• transversal skills
• particularly entrepreneurial skills
• demand for STEM related skills is still high
• foundation or basic skills achieved by all…
• language learning needs particular attention
• Vocational skills
• Increasing the quality of vocational skills requires the development
of world-class VET systems…
– Vocational skills
• world-class VET systems… (!!)
9
10. But how to turn these aspirations into a
feasible set of policies
For a country, a trade bloc, or a
region?
10
11. Need to look at
• Evidence for the value of OER
• Existing policies on OER
• The policy context surrounding OER
• The socio-economic/political/financial context
in the country
11
13. Sources of existing policies
• COL: Survey on Governments’ Open Educational
Resources (OER) Policies
• http://www.col.org/PublicationDocuments/Survey_On_Governme
nt_OER_Policies.pdf
• The 40 or so country reports done by POERUP and
sister projects (OER Asia, UNESCO Moscow etc), and
fragmentary info on other countries:
• http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Countries
• OER Policy Registry on CC Wiki
• http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OER_Policy_Registry
13
14. However…
• There is a predominance of policies from US states
• Many so-called policies (e.g. in the Registry) are not at
the national level, are project plans not policies, are
aspirational statements not committed to by
governments, or are marginal to OER (e.g. Open
Access)
• Few countries have policies for OER
• Several now do not even have a policy for ICT in
education – especially true for university sector
14
16. What is “Europe”?
• The European Union
• Plus the EEA countries and Switzerland
• Plus those others in the Lifelong Learning
Programme (e.g. Croatia, Turkey)
• Plus other countries in the European Higher
Education Area (which goes beyond Europe)
16
17. Some EU-level policies relating to OER:
Rethinking Education (COM 669/2)
Just one example – try it for your
country or region
17
18. Rethinking Education (COM 669/2) – 2.2: learners
• Stimulating open and flexible learning: Improving learning
outcomes, assessment and recognition
– Achievement should be driven by learning outcomes…
• …and the power of assessment needs to be better harnessed
– Qualifications should open as many doors as possible…
• … and academic recognition can lead the way
• Tap into the potential of ICT and Open Educational Resources for
learning
– The digital revolution brings important opportunities for education…
– …and it is time to scale-up use of ICT in learning and teaching…
– …to exploit freely available knowledge.
18
19. Rethinking Education (COM 669/2) – 2.2: teachers
• Supporting Europe's teachers
– Teachers face rapidly changing demands…
• ....which require a new set of competences for
teachers, teacher educators and education leaders …
• ...and calls for strong action to support new approaches
to teaching and learning...
• ...and the quality of teaching is a critical issue in higher
education as well
19
20. Rethinking Education (COM 669/2) – 2.3
• Funding education
– Investment in education and training is key to increasing
productivity and economic growth and is a concern for
all…
• …and the focus should be to maximise efficient investment at all
levels of education…
• …with cost-sharing in VET and higher education an option to help
meet that goal
• Partnerships
– Partnerships can provide a platform for targeting the 'right'
skills - if they are actively supported (public/private)
20
21. Here are our interim draft recommendations
Which are feasible for you?
21
22. Innovation – new institutions
• Setting up an innovation fund to support one
new “European” university each year with a
commitment to open education
22
23. Accreditation of institutions – new accrediting bodies
and mutual recognition
• Fostering the development of transnational
accrediting agencies and mutual recognition
of accreditations across the EU.
• Reducing the regulatory barriers against new
kinds of HE providers (e.g. for-profit, from
outside the country, consortial, etc).
23
24. Quality agencies and the competences model
Quality agencies should:
• Develop their understanding of new modes of learning (including
online, distance, OER and MOOCs) and how they impact quality assurance and
recognition;
• Engage in debates on copyright;
• Consider the effects of these new modes on quality assurance and recognition;
• Ensure that there is no implicit non-evidence-based bias against these new modes
when accrediting institutions (if relevant), accrediting programmes (if relevant)
and assessing/inspecting institutions/programmes.
Bologna-bis: competence-based not time-based assessment
• Reduce the regulatory barriers against new time durations of provision: developing
a successor to Bologna (the tariff system for Eurpoean higher education) based
primarily on competences gained not duration of study.
24
25. Assessment and accreditation of modules
• The Commission should recommend to universities that they should work to
improve and proceduralise their activity on APL (Accreditation of Prior Learning)
including the ability to accredit knowledge and competences developed through
online study and informal learning, including but not restricted to OER and
MOOCs, with a focus on admitting such accredited studies to the universities’ own
further courses of study.
• The Commission should consider recommending to the larger member states that
they should set up an Open Accreditor to accredit a range of studies which could
lead to an undergraduate degree. In the first instance the Accreditor should focus
on qualifications in the ISCED 5B area as this is most correlated with high-level
skills for business and industry. Students would have to pay an accreditation fee
proportional to the number of ECTS they wish to seek accreditation for, with the
fee set much lower than the cost per ECTS of university education in the country,
but designed (if desired by the country) to recover the accreditation costs.
25
26. Funding mechanisms for institutions and content
• The Commission should foster work into standardised syllabi EU-wide for
undergraduate degrees in certain professions (e.g. medicine, nursing,
mathematics, IS/IT) where this is appropriate for EU-wide action, and in the light
of a successful outcome to such initiatives, foster the developments of common
bases of OER material to support these standards.
• The Commission should ensure that any public outputs from its programmes
(specifically including Erasmus for All and Framework) are made available as open
resources under an appropriate license.
• The Commission should encourage member states to do likewise for their national
research and teaching development programmes.
• The Commission should encourage member states to increase their scrutiny of the
cost basis for university teaching and look at the benefits of output-based funding
for qualifications.
26
27. IPR issues
• The Commission should adopt and recommend a standard license for all
openly available educational material it is involved in funding. It is
suggested that this is Creative Commons 3.0 in unported or relevant
national versions. The Commission should recommend this license to all
member states.
• The Commission should study the issues in the modern European HE
system round the “non commercial” restriction and make appropriate
recommendations for its own programmes and for member states.
• The Commission should support the development of technological
methods to provide more and standardised information on IPR to the
users of digital educational content.
• The Commission should mount a campaign both centrally and via the
member states to educate university staff in IPR issues.
27
28. Training of academics; and further research
Training of academics
• The Commission should support the development of online continuous
professional teachers’ development programmes focussing on online learning with
specific coverage of distance learning, OER, MOOCs and other forms of open
educational practice, and also IPR issues.
• The Commission should encourage member states to do this also and recommend
the use of incentive schemes for teachers engaged in online professional
development of their pedagogic skills including online learning.
Further research
• Fostering research into the true benefits of OER, with greater efforts to integrate
this with ongoing research on distance learning, on-campus online learning, and
pedagogy.
28
29. Assignments
1. For your country/region, list any OER-related policy
interventions that exist now – take “OER-related” in a
broad sense to include policies on ICT in
education, copyright, open access etc.
2. Looking at the OER policy proposals made, take any
two and produce revised wording appropriate to your
country/region. Try to focus on those which are not
about training, more research or IPR but about
accreditation, quality etc.
29