Project acronym: OPAL Project title: Open Quality Initiative
Work package 4 - Dissemination Deliverable 4.3 Guidelines for Educational Professionals
Due date of deliverable: 15.02.2011 Actual submission date: 15.02.2012
Start date of project: 01/01/2010
Duration: 24 months
Organisation name of lead contractor for this deliverable: UDE
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein. Project co-funded by the European Commission Dissemination Level PU Public RE Restricted CO Confidential
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Deliverable Fact Sheet Deliverable Version: final Deliverable Type: D 4.3 Current Release Status: Public Final Release Status: Public Work package: WP 4 Organization Responsible: UDE Primary Contributor: Thomas Richter, Ulf Ehlers Deliverable reviewers: Nick Moe-Price, Grainne Conole Change Log No. 1
Date 06.03.10
Sections All
Change Writing deliverable
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16.08.10
All
Input – checking figures
3 4 5
15.02.11 08.02.12
All All
Final edit Final Review
Actual Date of Delivery Audience
Date Status
Action requested
Author/ Editor Tapio Koskinnen, AnnaKaarina Kaimaro, Ulf Ehlers Thomas Richter, Ulf Ehlers, Grainne Conole Ulf Ehlers Grainne Conole
X public restricted internal 06.01.12 draft WP leader accepted Quality checked X Project coordinator accepted to be revised by partner in charge of the deliverable to be reviewed by the appointed partners for approval of the project coordinator
Executive summary: This document provides the version of the OPAL Guidelines for Educational Professionals.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1
2. What is this guide about?..................................................................................................................1
Step 1: Positioning your personal experiences with and exposure to OER in the OEP Trajectory..............2
Step 2: Creating a Vision of Openness and a Strategy for OEP in your Educational Context ....................2
Step 3: Implementing and Promoting OEP ..........................................................................................2
3. Background......................................................................................................................................2
4. How to use the guide? ......................................................................................................................3
Annex: Dimensions of Open Educational Practices ..................................................................................8
1 Introduction Openness is one of the most influential drivers of change in education and training today, especially for educational organizations both in adult learning as well as in higher education. In the form of open educational resources (OER) it is already impacting the operational environment of every educational institution.1 OER take the once ICT driven change in education into a new level. It is impacting the role of a teacher, and all educational professionals, and opening up new opportunities for learners, it calls for changes in teaching and learning cultures. One identified barrier for adopting open practices from educational practitioners point of view is quality – can we trust OER being first rate materials and openness being a strategic path for the future development educational organizations? The Open Educational Quality Initiative (OPAL)2 has therefore developed this Guideline on Quality and Innovation through Open Educational Practices. This guide has been prepared for practitioners involved in education and training institutions to enable them to better understand the change and to make the most out of the new opportunities it brings. It will also be of use to practitioners involved in supporting more informal types of learning. 3 Educational practitioners play a crucial role to lead the way towards more open education. Learners in open and autonomous learning scenarios often need more guidance first before they can make use of the greater degree of freedom and autonomy for their learning. OPAL starts from the premise that it is necessary to raise awareness and build trust into the quality of how open learning ecologies, tools and content can support the use, creation and re-use of OERs. It is evident that the OER movement has begun to move well beyond an initial focus on mere access to practices. The initiative aims to provide guidance to learners, educators, leaders of educational institutions, and policy makers on how to strengthen Open Educational Practices (OEP) within their specific contexts. Open educational practices (OEP) are defined as practices which support the (re)use and production of open educational resources (OER) through institutional policies, promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path. They address the whole OER governance community: policy makers, managers/ administrators of organizations, educational professionals and learners. This guide includes concrete advice on how to strengthen OEP within education and training organizations.
2. What is this guide about? The OPAL guidelines are based on a rigorous analysis of over 100 real-life case studies on the use of OER and have been assessed by a group of experts on OER. The Guidelines move beyond the question of how to access OER into the question of how open learning ecologies, tools and content can support the use, creation and re-use of OERs. This guide for educational professionals is designed to help practitioners to understand open educational practices and to provide a practical pathway to improve one’s own practices. We have listed all those dimensions of open educational practitioners, which proved important to elevate practitioners’ open educational capabilities. The OPAL Guide to Open Educational Practices consists of three main parts that pave the way of transformation for education and training organizations. The three step process begins with an assessment exercise that helps us to understand the current situation with regard to organizational OEP development. The second step provides some guidelines to initiate the strategy process and assist in setting the goal. The third part includes advice on implementing the change. Your will find the three parts accessible directly from this introductory section.
For a definition on OER please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources http://www.oer-quality.org 3 There are in total four guides: For learners, for educational professionals, for leaders of educational organizations and for policy makers. All of them can be accessed from http://www.oer-quaity.org 1 2
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Step 1: Positioning your personal experiences with and exposure to OER in the OEP trajectory OEP consists essentially of the use of open educational resources in learning environments/architectures. The maturity matrix enables you to position yourself in terms of your level of OEP maturity.
Step 2: Creating a vision of openness and a strategy for OEP in your educational context We believe that OEP can be supported through strategic planning. This second part of the OEP guideline helps you to better understand the strategy within your own context. This section is designed to analyze your strategic environment in relation to relevant dimensions of open educational practice strategy of your practice.
Step 3: Implementing and promoting OEP to transform learning in your educational context The third section contains dimensions, which are important to create a favorable environment for OEP within your educational context.
Figure 1: Your steps for the evaluation process4 In Figure 1, it is shown which criteria have been found within the OPAL project, which are relevant for Educational Professionals. Reflecting on those criteria will help you to position your institution within the maturity matrix in order to determine your actual status quo and how to improve your Open Educational Practices.
3. Background In 2012 it will be 10 years since the UNESCO has coined the term “open educational resources” (OER)(UNESCO 2002). A few years down the line the concept had become popular. The OECD suggested with their report in 2007 that the concept of “Giving away knowledge for free” had made a considerable carrier and outlined areas in which further work would be necessary to boost openness for educational resources, amongst them predominantly emphasizing to improve access to
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© The ‘OEP-Metro Map’ has voluntarily been produced for being freely used within the OPAL project by Dipl. Geol. Inga Richter from Simon Kucher & Partners, Marketing and Strategy Consultants. We thank her for her kind support of the project and her authorization to use, further develop and reuse the figure within the framework of this project. Contact:
[email protected]
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OER on a global scale (OECD 2007). The public debate on OER became more and more aligned with the UNESCO decade program “Education for All” which strives for universal access to primary education by 2015. It aims at building equal access for everyone to education. Although (OER) are high on the agenda of social and inclusion policies and supported by many stakeholders of the educational sphere, their use in higher education (HE) has not yet reached a critical threshold.5 This has to do with the fact that the past, and largely also the current, focus in OER is mainly put on building more access to digital content. There is too little consideration of whether this will support educational practices, promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning. We consider that OER are moving from a first phase in which the emphasis was on ‘opening up access and availability’ to a second phase with the focus will be on ‘improving learning quality’ through OER (figure 1). We therefore suggest extending the focus beyond 'resource access' to 'innovative open educational practices' (OEP). In short, open educational practices constitute the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) within open learning ecologies. The creation, use, and re-use of open educational resources, as well as the exploitation of open learning ecologies can be challenging for learners and educators, but also for leaders of educational institutions. Policy makers, as well, often need to be made aware of and understand both concepts, and can play a strategic role in fostering a rapid uptake of OER and enabling a timely adoption of OEP.6
Figure 2: Shift from OER to OEP In order to facilitate the shift from OER to OEP, it is important to outline all factors which are influencing the actual creation, use, sharing and reuse of OER for learners, educational professionals and organizational leaders in one common framework. The OPAL OEP Framework is such a framework. It outlines all dimensions which need to be taken into account when wanting to stimulate a vibrant use of OER and when aiming to transform education and learning in your organisation.
4. How to use the guide? The guide has been structure in form of a maturity matrix. We believe strongly that every educator, trainer and teacher is using some elements of openness already and that open educational practices are an evolutionary process, happening over time. Therefore, we have not just developed a set of recommendations but for each recommendation, we provide a maturity scale on which organizations can position themselves. This allows seeing what a next step of development would look like. In order to use the guideline for organizations you have two options: •
Option 1: Download the guideline document from our server and go through each of the maturity dimensions of open educational practices. Find the position of your organizations for each of them. This is your individual organizations current profile of open educational practices. In a second step
There is a separated but connected debate ongoing if this holds true for developing countries as well. However, apart from infrastructure challenges – which are a necessary condition and not to be neglected – the issue of OER usage meets the same challenges there and could be facilitated through creating a culture of openness within institutions through a complementary focus on educational practices in addition to resources. 6 In parts the concepts and ideas described in this document are developed as a collaborative exercise of 30 experts in an international workshop at UNESCO in Paris in November 2010. 5
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•
then try to identify the most likely development steps – on which dimensions do you believe you can improve easily and which of those might have the greatest impact on your organizations. Option 2: Register your institution in the register of organizations committed to the concept of open educational practices (follow this link: http://opal.innovationpros.net/oep-register/register-yourinstitution) After registering your organizational data you can take part in a self-assessment which is exactly following the OEP guideline. The entire self-assessment is confidential and we will not share any data from it with third parties – unless you choose explicitly to share your achievements with others. After submitting the self-assessment, it will be reviewed by two independent experts. For the time until end of 2011 the review will be organized by UNESCO and will provide you with a learning report for your organizations outlining improvement potentials.
If you have any questions feel free to contact us through www.oer-quality.org Further reading: Go here for in depth explanation of openness and open educational practices: http://d20ea7mklpzlrr.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/OEP-Scape-final.pdf
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No use
Not sharing at all
No use of technologies
2. To what extent are you using OER?
3. To what extent are you sharing OER and practices?
4. To what extent are you using technologies for the creation and repurposing of OER?
No knowledge or experience
1. What is your level of expertise in terms of OER?
Not yet started
A little use
Small amount of sharing
A little use
Some awareness
Early stages/ awareness
Significant use
Significant sharing
Use regularly to support my teaching
Knowledge of existing OER initiatives
Developing/ Commitment
Regular and innovative use of technologies to create and share OER
Regular sharing of both OER and associated practices
Not only use but repurposing of OER
Good understanding
Established
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Cutting edge development and use of technologies
Sharing of innovative practices on the creation and use of OER
Significant use and repurposing
Expert knowledge
Embedded/ Advanced
OEP
consists
essentially
of
the
use
of
open
educational
resources
in
open
learning
environments/
architectures.
The
maturity
matrix
enables
you
to
position
yourself
in
terms
of
your
level
of
OEP
maturity.
Step
1:
Positioning
your
personal
experiences
with
and
exposure
to
OER
in
the
OEP
Trajectory
The Open Educational Practice Maturity Matrix for Educational Professionals
No use of OER
No use of OER
No partnerships within the organization or with other colleagues exist with regard to OEP.
I do not view OEPs as relevant to my professional context.
2. Are OEP embedded in your practice?
3. What types of pedagogical approaches are you using with your OER?
4. Are you involved in any partnerships and/or networks to exchange with other educational professionals about OEP?
5. Do you perceive OEP as relevant across the organization?
I view OEP as relevant to some extent.
Informal links between colleagues and/or teams in relation to OEP exist within my organization.
Some use of OER, to supported mainly didactic pedagogical approaches
Some use of OER
An emerging vision of how to use OER in teaching
Early stages/ awareness
Apart from me we have some teams and groups within the organization which start to view OEP as relevant to their own learning/ teaching context.
I have established links between colleagues within our organization to exchange about OEP. We even begin to develop a small number of OEP partnership-projects.
Range of different pedagogical approaches in the use of OER to support different forms of learning
Regular use of OER in teaching
A good understanding of how to use OER in teaching
Developing/ Commitment
Me and my colleagues across the entire organization perceive OEP as relevant and desired practices.
Within my professional context we have now several ongoing and successful partnerships and/or alliances with colleagues to exchange and support the use of OEP.
Advanced pedagogical approaches in the use of OER including constructivist and socially situated approaches
Significant use of OER in teaching
A well-developed vision for use of OER in teaching
Established
There are no incentives for OEP.
No tools for supporting the sharing of open educational practices (e.g. social networks, blogs, etc.) exist.
2. Is there a motivational framework for OEP in existence (e.g. incentives)?
3. Do you have tools to support sharing and exchanging information about open educational practices?
No knowledge or experience
1. How aware are you of IPR, DRM and copyright regulations for the use of OER?
Not yet started
I am starting to use tools for sharing open educational practices (e.g. social networks, blogs, etc.).
Individuals are motivated to develop and (re-)use OER and use open learning architectures.
Some awareness
Early stages/awareness
Together with colleagues we are adopting tools for sharing and exchange of information about educational practices (e.g. social networks, blogs, etc.).
Motivation to develop and (re-)use OER and open educational practices on a department or team level is simulated through incentives.
Basic understanding
Developing/Commitment
Use of digital tools to support sharing and exchange about OEP are a widespread reality amongst me and my colleagues.
Incentives to stimulate the transformation of educational scenarios and resources into OEP exist on an organizational level.
Good understanding
Established
OEPs are perceived as a relevant part of the organizations professional work and are communicated as such to professionals, learners, outside partners and clients.
There are social networks and partnerships to share, co-create and exchange experience and practices on OEP with colleagues.
Innovative and varied pedagogical approaches to the use of OER
Sustained and innovative use of OER in teaching
An innovative and applied vision for use of OER in teaching
Embedded/ Advanced
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The use of digital tools which support sharing and exchange of information about OEP are embedded into my everyday work as an educational professional.
OEP is supported through an organization-wide motivation framework.
Expert knowledge
Embedded/Advanced
The following section contains dimensions, which are important to create a favorable environment for OEP within your educational context.
Step 3: Implementing and Promoting OEP to transform learning in your educational context
No vision
1. Do you have vision for how to use OER in your teaching?
Not yet started
We
believe
that
OEP
can
be
supported
through
strategic
planning.
This
second
part
of
the
OEP
guideline
helps
you
to
better
understand
the
strategy
within
your
own
educational
context.
This
section
is
designed
to
analyze
your
strategic
environment
in
relation
to
relevant
dimensions
of
an
open
educational
practice
strategy
for
your
practice.
Step 2: Creating a Vision of Openness and a Strategy for OEP in your Educational Context
I have little or no understanding of open learning architectures.
Basic understanding and use of technologies
No support
5. What level of knowledge and skills do you have in relation to open learning architectures and OEP?
6. What is your level of digital literacy skills
7. Do you receive any support to develop your OEP?
No quality processes in place
4. Do you have quality processes in place for your OER?
Some basic training is available
Some awareness of social and participatory media
Some of my colleagues and me have sufficient knowledge to apply OEP.
Limited amount of quality control
Suite of training opportunities
Increasing use of innovative technologies to support teaching
Knowledge and skills to apply open learning architectures within the organization’s educational programs are beginning to diffuse from a handful of to teaching staff more generally.
Good level of quality control
Advanced support for the creation and use of OEP
Regular and established use of a range of technologies to support teaching
A significant number of teachers across the whole organization have the skills and confidence to successfully apply open learning architectures.
Robust quality processes in place
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Expert knowledge and provide support on the creation and use of OEP to peers
Innovative and cutting edge use of technologies to support teaching
The vast majority of teaching staff have the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully and appropriately apply open learning architectures. New open learning architectures are actively developed within the institution.
Quality processes are shared and validated with peers
Annex: Dimensions of Open Educational Practices Many current OER initiatives focus overwhelmingly on access and availability of Open Educational Resources (OER) and not enough on helping individuals and organizations to develop Open Educational Practices (OEP) (Ehlers 2011). In short, open educational practices constitute the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) within open learning architectures. The creation, use, and re-use of open educational resources, as well as the exploitation of open learning architectures can be challenging for learners and educators, but also for leaders of educational institutions. Policy makers, as well, often need to be made aware of and understand both concepts, and can play a strategic role in fostering rapid uptake of OER and enabling timely adoption of OEP. The Open Educational Quality Initiative (OPAL) after considerable research, consultation and debate proposes the dimensions for open educational practices described below. They form the basis for successful learning with OER. Area 1: Use of OER and Open Learning Architectures 1. Extent of using and repurposing OER: Finding and using OER is often the first step towards open educational practices. To integrate an OER into one’s own teaching/ learning concept is called repurposing. It often involves dismantling the original resource and taking out what is useful while leaving aside the unnecessary. 2. Availability of a process for OER creation: In order for an organization to progress towards open educational practices it is important to define a process whereby educational resources are made available under free license schemes to become open educational resources. Only then will these resources be available for others to use and/ or repurpose –internally as well as externally. A comprehensive organization-wide process for open educational resources boosts progress towards open educational practices. 3. Degree of sharing of OER and OEP: From research we know that the most successful use of open educational resources is where this is a sharing process. The openness required for sharing educational resources is hence a key success factor for open educational practices. In addition to a culture of sharing among practitioners and management, tools for sharing resources and experience within the organization and with actors from other organizations must exist. It is as important to share resources, as it is to share the experiences of what works and what does not within open learning architectures. Social network tools therefore play an essential role in any OEP strategy. 4. Extent of working with open learning architectures: Open learning architectures are an important element in OEP. They support learners in becoming autonomous and act in self-organized leaning environments in which they can share, use and /or produce educational resources. Area 2: Vision of Openness and a Strategy for OEP in an Organization 1. Organizational vision for OEP: Expressing a vision in a written strategy or guidelines is essential. A vision for open educational practices would include reference to the production, sharing, use and/or reuse of OERs. It would also aim to provide learning opportunities in open learning architectures, in which the aims and objectives of learning as well as learning methodologies are developed in consultation with learners. Such a vision should be communicated and shared within the organization by all stakeholders. 2. Existing OEP strategies and policies: Research shows that strategies and policies are most effective in stimulating OEP across organizations in an effective way. They embody rules and regulations for how to implement OEP across a whole organization. Elements relating to OEP can be either a part of an organization’s strategy, e.g., for the development of learning environments, or can even be subject to their own strategy or policy. Policy makers implement OER policy through key white papers, via inclusion in strategy documents, through funding calls or through acting as a front to promote OER initiatives. 3. Business model related to OEP: An ongoing critical discourse against the Open Educational Resources movement is the issue of how it can be made sustainable in the longer term, and what business models might be appropriate. Downes (Downes 2007) provides a useful categorization of funding models for open source type initiatives: Endowment models (where the project obtains base funding), membership models (where a coalition is invited to contribute a sum), donations models (where requests are made for donations), conversion models (where initial freely made material ultimately leads to some element of paying consumer), contributor-pay models (where the contributor pays for the cost of maintaining the contribution and the provide makes it freely available), sponsorship models (such as commercial advertising), institutional models (where the institution assumes responsibility for the initiative), Government models (direct funding via Government agencies), partnerships or exchanges (where the focus is on exchanging resources).
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4. Partnerships related to OEP: Partnerships help organizations to develop OEP through the sharing of experiences, benchmarking of policies and strategies and resource development. Some OEP initiatives involve more than one organization and a number of partnership models have emerged. In some cases these include different types of institution (universities, technical universities, colleges); in other cases they focus on specialist areas, each led by a senior academic in that field. Partnership models range from organizations, which involve partners, who jointly develop and operate learning content for academic education with interdisciplinary institutions, different types of institutions (universities, technical universities, colleges), and some are also multilingual. 5. Perceived relevance for OEP: For OEP to achieve circulation within a given context it is important that learners, professionals and management perceive OEP as relevant. This can be supported through strategies and policies and also through measures to raise acceptance and understanding for OEP. An important factor often proves to be the degree to which OEP successes are communicable to others. Step 3: Implementing and Promoting OEP to Transform Learning 1. IPR and Copyright regulations: One of the main focuses of OER lies in sharing, using and adapting resources. Copyright restrictions would negate the whole model. The four main legal issues associated with creating and making OER are copyright issues, ownership, intellectual property rights and permission for use. Many resources may be context-bound due to copyright issues in such a way that it is not possible to adapt the source to local prerequisites. Without the permission of the copyright holder it is strictly prohibited to copy, reproduce or change resources. 2. Motivational framework for OEP: In order to use OER and turn towards the implementation of open learning architectures, the level of motivation from educational professionals and learners has to be high. Some social or cultural barriers are known: academics may be skeptical to the value of investing in the creation of OER, or they may lack the necessary skills (either technical or pedagogical) to create or use OER. Cultural obstacles may exist in terms of sharing or using resources developed by other teachers or institutions, and there are usually no systems to reward academics for engaging with OER initiatives. Studies also show that academics may sometimes be apprehensive about taking part in such initiatives, feeling a loss of control and ownership over their teaching materials and concerns about possible misuse of any OER they produce. Achieving staff-buy in and support, and making it relevant to them are key issues at this level. 3. Tools to support sharing and exchange of OEP: Every organization wanting to make progress in the field of OEP needs to adopt a series of tools which can be used for finding, sharing, and repurposing resources, as well as tools like social networks to share experiences and good practices. The emergence of the Creative Commons license was a major breakthrough in terms of providing a means for sharing resources openly and freely. 4. Quality concepts for OEP: Quality concepts for OEP often depend on the type of institution and their learning and teaching culture, the balance of importance of the ‘value’ of teaching (in comparison to research activities in the institution), the degree to which OEP activities are seen as activities in their own right, the level of digital maturity of the institution and the extent to which they had engaged with OEP work previously. QA models range from lightweight, user-defined models to strictly controlled hierarchical models. 5. Level of knowledge and skills: It is important to overcome educational professionals’ initial concerns about OEP and to help with skills development and support. These include: mechanisms to foster and support community engagement, provision of case studies of good practice, running of parallel events and workshops, and provision of specific training materials. It can also comprise marketing materials, guidelines and tutorials on OER, an open textbook adoption worksheet, OER needs assessment surveys, policies and models. 6. Digital literacy: Digital literacy is especially important for the implementation of OEP as it deals with digital resources and practices. Digital literacy is often understood in a purely functional way where it is conceptualized as a person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment. However, conceptualizations that focus more on the broader cognitive skills involved are emerging, like the understanding that digital literacy is a special kind of mindset that enables users to perform intuitively in digital environments, and to easily and effectively access the wide range of knowledge embedded in these environments. Sometimes also critical thinking rather than technical competence is 7 identified as the core skill of digital literacy.
7 For digital literacy skills see report: Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century at http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
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7. Support mechanisms for OEP: Support for the development of OEP includes technical support for development, use and re-use as well as re-purposing of OERs, and training in order to equip teachers with the skills to design open learning environments and/or help learners to become autonomous learners.
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