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Taxonomy Term : Open Educational Resources (OER)

Moving to open educational resources at Athabasca University: A case study

Authorship Details
Cindy Ives
Mary Margaret Pringle
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Article
Publication Title: 
The International review of research in open and distance learning
Summary
Since the birth of the World Wide Web, educators have been exchanging ideas and sharing resources online. They are all aware of the turmoil in higher education created by freely available content, including some hopeful developments charted in this issue. Interest has grown steadily over the past decade in making a university-level education openly available to students around the globe who would otherwise be overlooked, and recommendations for how to do this are well documented (e.g., UNESCO, 2002; OECD, 2007). Initiatives in the United States (Thille, 2012), Canada (Stacey, 2011b), Africa (OER Africa, n.d.), and the United Kingdom (JISC, 2012) are easily accessed and case studies abound (e.g., Barrett, Grover, Janowski, van Lavieren, Ojo, & Schmidt, 2009). Supporting the widespread availability of OER is a goal that Athabasca University (AU) has embraced through association with the Commonwealth of Learning and by becoming a charter member of the OER University (OERu, 2011). The use of OER in AU programs has strategic local implications that go beyond the five reasons for institutions to engage in OER projects described by Hylén (2006). Recently at AU explorations have begun into the potential of using OER in course design and production. (Abstract by authors)

Open Educational Resources in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions

Authorship Details
Mohamed Amin Embi (Ed.)
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Book
Publication Date: 
2013
Publisher: 
Centre for Academic Excellence, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia AND Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia
ISBN / ISSN: 
9789833168330

A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER)

Authorship Details
Butcher, Neil
Kanwar, Asha
Uvalić-Trumbić, Stamenka
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Article
Publisher: 
ommonwealth of Learning / UNESCO
Summary

This Guide comprises three sections. The first – a summary of the key issues – is presented in the form of a set of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. Its purpose is to provide readers with a quick and user-friendly introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) and some of the key issues to think about when exploring how to use OER most effectively. The second section is a more comprehensive analysis of these issues, presented in the form of a traditional research paper. For those who have a deeper interest in OER, this section will assist with making the case for OER more substantively. The third section is a set of appendices, containing more detailed information about specific areas of relevance to OER. These are aimed at people who are looking for substantive information regarding a specific area of interest. (Abstract by authors)

Open Educational Resources: An Asian Perspective

Authorship Details
Ishan Sudeera Abeywardena
Gajaraj Dhanarajan
Choo-Khai Lim
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Book
Publisher: 
Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and OER Asia
Pagination: 
296
ISBN / ISSN: 
978-1-894975-61-2
Summary

The main objective of the study is to establish, qualitatively and quantitatively, the extent and practice of OER use by institutions and individuals in the developing parts of Asia, with a view to enhancing and promoting collaboration in the region for the purposes of sharing curriculum, learning materials, learning tools and delivery strategies. The interest in OER is based on the inherent value of freely available knowledge resources to the world’s poor and marginalised populations. The research study has resulted in a significant contribution to the understanding of OER and their use in Asian distance education, through this book and its associated website, www.oerasia.org.

The Open Educational Resources Movement: Free learning for all students

Authorship Details
McGreal, Rory
Sampson, Demetrios
Chen, Nian-Sheng
Kinshuk
Krishnan, Mangala S.
Huang, Ronghuai
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Conference or Workshop Item
Publication Date: 
2012
Summary

In recent years, the term Open Educational Resources (OER) has emerged, aiming to promote open access to digital educational resources that are available online for everyone at a global level [1]. The term was first adopted by UNESCO [2], which has defined Open Educational Resources (OERs) as the “technology-enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes”. With regard to this broad definition, a number of narrower definitions of OERs have been proposed by different OER initiatives, which consider OERs similar to [3]: “full courses, open courseware and content, educational modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests and assessments, open source software tools, and any other tools and materials used to support teaching or learning”. (Abstract by authors)

Notes
Paper presented at the International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), 2012 IEEE 12th Rome, Italy.

Developing Open Educational Resources (OER) for Malaysian classrooms: The HOTS experience

Authorship Details
Jhee, Y. S.
Nagappan R.
Osman R. B.
Sundaram S. B.
Publication Details
Language: 
English
Resource Type: 
Conference or Workshop Item
Publication Date: 
2012
Conference Name: 
Regional Symposium on Open Educational Resources: An Asian perspective on policy and practices
Publication Title: 
Proceedings of the Regional Symposium on Open Educational Resources: An Asian perspective on policy and practices
Summary

The teaching of thinking skills has been emphasized in many ways in the Malaysian education system. Although efforts have been done to assist the teachers to teach HOTS, the impact to change students learning is minimal. One of the major reasons identified is the availability of resources based on Malaysian context. A study was conducted on the development of OER to host Bahasa Malaysia, English and History resources designed for Malaysian classrooms. The development of OER aimed to provide these resources to teachers. The study involved six teachers and 92 students of a suburban school in Malaysia. Observations, questionnaires and interviews were used to gauge the teachers’ use and expectations of the OER. The findings presented in this paper focus on the OER as well as the HOTS elements in the OER. Findings suggest that although teachers show positive attitude in using OER, they need to be trained to use OER in a way that suits their respective students. (Abstract by authors)

Why Give Knowledge Away for Free? The Case for Open Educational Resources

Authorship Details
Jan Hylén
Publication Details
Language: 
English
Resource Type: 
Article
Publication Date: 
2008
Publication Title: 
Technology Innovation Management Review
Publisher: 
Talent First Network
Summary

"At the moment the OER movement is taking its first steps beyond a culture focused around "my site" towards a culture that is focused around "our commons." Most people who create OER sites have a sense of who they expect their users to be and what needs those users have. This is all to the good, if it is not to the exclusion of those users whose needs--or innovations--we have totally failed to imagine." - by author

There is no business model for open educational resources: a business model approach

Authorship Details
Frank de Langen
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Article
Publication Date: 
2011
Publication Title: 
Open Learning
Publisher: 
Routledge
Volume: 
26
Issue or Number: 
3

Open education videos in the classroom: exploring the opportunities and barriers to the use of YouTube in teaching introductory sociology

Authorship Details
Elaine Tan
Nick Pearce
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Article
Publication Date: 
2011
Volume: 
19
Summary

The use of open education resources has become more commonplace in classroom teaching and this has been an observable and growing trend. The accessibility of the same materials further reinforces the change in roles of the teacher, from gatekeeper of knowledge to learning facilitator. Our research question is that if a student has free and easy access to the same materials that are being used to teach them in class, how does this affect their perceptions when they are presented with this material in the classroom environment? What are their perceptions regarding the perceived value for money, efficacy and authority of the material? This research specifically investigated the use of open education videos in the classroom environment and their incorporation into an associated space in the virtual learning environment. The research questions of this investigation surrounded the practical, technical and pedagogical issues that arise from the incorporation of these resources within class and online course materials as well as exploring student perceptions about the use of this material in the class and online. (Abstract by authors)

Open educational resources: staff attitudes and awareness

Authorship Details
Vivien Rolfe
Publication Details
Resource Type: 
Article
Publication Date: 
2012
Volume: 
20
ISBN / ISSN: 
2156-7077
Summary

Attitudes are changing in education globally to promote the open sharing of educational courses and resources. The aim of this study was to explore staff awareness and attitudes towards ‘‘open educational resources’’ (OER) as a benchmark for monitoring future progress. Faculty staff (n6) were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews that facilitated the development of a questionnaire. Staff respondents (n50) were not familiar with the term OER but had a clear notion of what it meant. They were familiar with open content repositories within the university but not externally. A culture of borrowing and sharing of resources exists between close colleagues, but not further a field, and whilst staff would obtain resources from the Internet, they were reticent to place materials there. Drivers for mobilising resources included a strong belief in open education, the ability of OER to enhance individual and institutional reputations and economic factors. Barriers to OER included confusion over copyright and lack of IT support. To conclude, there is a positive collegiate culture within the faculty, and overcoming the lack of awareness and dismantling the barriers to sharing will help advance the open educational practices, benefitting both faculty staff and the global community. (Abstract by authors)


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Latest updated: 23th July 2013

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