OER
Open content for elearning: Cross-institutional collaboration for education and training in a digital environment
This article was originally published on the International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, Volume 8, issue 3.
The University of the West Indies Open Campus and Athabasca University conducted a pilot workshop to see if open educational resources (OER) could be used to construct curricula. UWIOC was interested in increasing distance education offerings and Athabasca University was interested in expanding programming to offer an online graduate program in Instructional Design. A workshop brought a team together to: come to a consensus on the format of module specifications, select appropriate resources, and to report on the feasibility of the approach. The team produced course outlines and specifications for modules using OER. The following were noted: Use of OER sped the aggregation of content; OER are not available for every topic; OER differ from the desired scope and academic level; they vary in media and content quality; and OER that lack clarity of authorship and copyright are difficult to include in courses.
UNESCO CourseWares
UNESCO-IHE is committed to solving water-related global problems by training potential leaders (particularly from developing regions or countries in transition) who will learn how to successfully manage this valuable resource. UNESCO-IHE aims to make all of its modules available as Open Courseware by 2017. This will allow access to quality educational materials, including lectures and supporting materials such as course notes, PowerPoint presentations, exercises, tools, models and public domain software.
Finnish Open Course Database
What open courses are available in Finland? Search this course database to find open classes in Finnish, Swedish, or English.
OER Support for Institutional Leaders and Faculty
Lumen provides institutional leaders and faculty with consulting support, training, and resources so that they can successfully adopt Open Educational Resources as a way to improve their curriculum and cut costs.
Lumen helps faculty find quality content and tailor it to their course design by funneling apt resources into Open Course Frameworks that align them with general education and specific degree requirements. These open course frameworks are later available for free download and use by any individual or institution.
Lumen also serves as an advisor, aiding institutional leaders in planning for OER use, and deciding how and where to introduce OER courses and degrees. Other services provided include training and support for faculty, and analytics and other support to improve student outcomes.
The School of Open Launches its First Courses
Wondering how best to write a Wikipedia article? Curious as to Copyright law in our current online age? Which Creative Commons license should you choose? The School of Open now offers courses on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age.
Open Source Software, Open Educational Resources, Open Access...these and other 'open' terms are often bandied about by today's educators, but to what extent do we understand what they really mean? Here's a clue: they could hold the key to universal access to research, education, and culture. But as in any realm of learning, they will remain vague concepts until people take hold of them and put them into practice.
To this end, P2PU and Creative Commons have created The School of Open, a crowdsourced academy that sheds light on these, and other, 'open' secrets. The school's first courses have just been launched, a variegated palette of stand-alone courses, which can be worked through at any time, and facilitated courses that run for a set period of weeks with an organizer that provides feedback and facilitates discussion.
Mentors and learners, individuals and organizations alike are encouraged to create or improve courses. See here for a list of courses.
Open Educational Resources in India
This document outlines current Open Educational Resource initiatives in India, as well as discussing how WikiEducator can be used to create these resources. It provides an overview of the state of education in India, as well as making the case for virtual open schooling as the road to improvement.
"OER" Resources for learning - Experiences from an OER Project in Sweden
This article was originally published on the European Journal for Open, Distance and E-Learning.
This article aims to share experience from a Swedish project on the introduction and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education with both national and international perspectives. The project, OER – resources for learning, was part of the National Library of Sweden Open Access initiative and aimed at exploring, raising awareness of and disseminating the use of OER and the resulting pedagogical advantages for teaching and learning. Central to the project’s activities were a series of regional seminars which all featured a combination of multi-site meetings combined with online participation. This combination proved highly successful and extended the reach of the project. In total the project reached around 1000 participants at its events and many more have seen the recorded sessions.
Several unresolved issues beyond the scope of the project became explicit but which are absolutely crucial challenges. Firstly, the evolution from OER towards open educational practices (OEP) and open educational cultures (OEC). OEP and OEC imply the establishment of national and international policies and strategies where the use of OER is officially encouraged, sanctioned and developed. Secondly it became explicit that the issue of metadata is crucial for finding OER and facilitating their use and reuse for teachers and learners. Thirdly, the sustainability of OER must be stimulated by ensuring the creation of material that can easily be adapted and reused by teachers in other countries and contexts.