OERu 16.10 partner's meeting report

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Group photo of the attendees

“	Having a much richer discussion about #highered disruption than usual at #oeru16	”
—Andrew Vann @drpievann Vice-Chancellor and President Charles Surt University

The 5^th meeting of OERu partners was hosted by the University of the Highlands and Islands on 3 and 4 October 2016 in Inverness, Scotland.

Participants reflected on progress of the OERu's 2016 operational priorities and commenced work on calibrating the 2017 key performance indicators of the OERu Strategic Plan 2015-2017. Key outputs of the meeting included planning for the launch, on 15 March 2017, of the OERu 1st year of study, which will provide pathways to achieve two exit qualifications. The participants also commenced planning for the open consultation on the OERu Strategic Plan 2018 - 2020.

Key documents

• OERu Strategic Plan 2015 - 2017 (pdf)
• 2016 MVP progress report (pdf)
• OERu Credit transfer and course articulation guidelines
• OERu Business Model Canvas (pdf)

Summary of outputs and key decisions

The summary of outputs and key decisions should be reviewed in conjunction with the detailed record of each component of the meeting agenda.

1. Key priorities derived from the critical friend review which directed meeting discussions:
   1. Devise a detailed action plan for the launch early in 2017 of the OERu 1st year of study, incorporating two first-year level exit awards and implementation of related credit transfer and course articulation requirements.
   2. Allocate adequate resourcing to ensure a successful launch of the OERu 1st year of study, through contributions in time from partner institutions and the pursuit of external funding opportunities to support marketing and the recruitment of potential learners.
   3. Identify strategies for OERu partner recruitment to improve representation from different global regions.
2. Decision recommendations for improving OERu operations:
   1. Partner recruitment and associated scoping of the OERu ambassadors initiative
      • Establish the OERu ambassadors initiative based on the suggested action steps and establish a common OERu area for the project. Institutional representatives to be invited to incorporate OERu ambassador activities into their OERu institutional action plans.
   2. OERu organisational and staff development
      • Develop "how-to" support resources to assist new staff to engage with OERu technologies and processes.
      • Expedite the development and implementation of an induction course focusing on the design, development and implementation of OERu open online courses taking into account the needs of different categories of staff.
   3. Review of OERu organisational structures
      • Conduct an open consultative review of the OERu working group structures and corresponding remits with a view to rationalisation.
      • Identify strategies for improved communications and recruitment of active working group participants.
   4. Strategies to improve partner engagement in OERu open technologies
      • Make the OERF technology working group the "technological nexus" for the selection and deployment of new open source technologies among partner institutions.
      • Renew the call for nominating representatives from partner institutions to join the technology working group.
      • Develop guidelines for consultation on managing the tension between reuse and remix of OERu course resources without compromising the approved versions used for summative assessment.
3. Rob Farrow presented on the open research agenda
4. Review of strategic issues for the implementation of the OERu 1st year of study.
   1. Brenda Thompson summarised requirements for the Certificate of General Studies, Thompson Rivers University.
   2. Andy Brown summarised progress and requirements for the Certificate of Higher Education Business (OERu), University of the Highlands and Islands.
   3. Cindy Ives reported on the online invigilation pilot at Athabasca University.
   4. Becca Black reported on the open badge and micro-credential pilot at Otago Polytechnic.
5. Decision recommendations for launching the OERu 1st year of study
   1. Launch the OERu 1st year of study on 15 March 2017
   2. Implementing the OERu credit transfer and accumulation guidelines for MVP
      • Develop a standardised OERu course outline description template in consultation with active MVP partners to support the articulation agreement processes among partner institutes for the launch of the OERu 1st year of study.
      • Increase the number of English Composition and / or English Literature courses to achieve a minimum of 6 North-American credits
      • Increase the number of undergraduate courses to build a coherent programme of study based on work done at previous meetings on streams of study.
      • Develop a database of OERu partners who could provide invigilation services on a fee for service basis for OERu learners.
      • Progress a feasibility study and corresponding partner interest for OERu online invigilation services.
   3. Due diligence activity list for launching MVP
      • Develop a marketing plan in consultation with active MVP partners aiming to initiate marketing activities for the OERu 1st year of study on 15 January 2017.
      • Progress the development of a due diligence action list and MVP launch plan for the OERu 1st year of study based on meeting discussions.
      • Publish review checklists for the OERu and partner institutions participating in the MVP launch.
   4. Review of marketing guidelines and meeting recommendations for learner recruitment
      • Establish an OERu MVP marketing task force to prepare a realistic and achievable marketing plan for the launch of the OERu 1st year of study.
6. Decision recommendations for 2017 operational priorities
   1. Discussions on establishing an OERu academic board
      • Establish a "Transnational Academic Practice Advisory Group" (working title) through open consultation aimed at rationalising the existing OERu working groups and improving coordination in programme development and supporting processes of credit transfer and quality assurance.
   2. Improve OERu learner support via Academic Volunteers International and supporting resources
      • Progress the implementation of AVI based on the recommendations from Group 2 and earlier work conducted on designing AVI.
7. Decision recommendations for strategic planning and realising strategic opportunities
   1. Strategic goals and objectives (2018 – 2020)
      • Implement the consultation process during 2017 for developing the OERu Strategic Plan (2018 - 2020) focusing on widening subject choice for the 1st year of study in the short term, and increasing the range of exit qualifications in the longer term.
   2. Technology roadmap and strategic opportunities
      • Prioritise refinements 0o the MVP technology platform, specifically: SSO, seamless registration for MVP technology services, CSS refinements for published course sites and integration with Mautic for automated learner instruction campaigns.
      • Investigate options for integrating the Mozilla Open Badgepack into the OERu model as a value added service for partner institutions.
      • Review post MVP alternatives for authoring OERu courses as alternatives to the current MediaWiki mechanisms, aiming to retain the flexibility and rigour of MediaWiki in conjunction with the ease and familiarity (for most users) of the collaborative content management processes of WordPress.
8. Dates for 2017 OERu meetings:
   • 6^th International Meeting of OERu Partners, Thursday 12 and Friday 13 October 2017, Toronto.
   • 4^th Meeting of the OERu Council of Chief Executive Officers, Monday 16 October 2017, Toronto.
     
     

Day 1: OERu past and present

Setting the scene

Video recording of Session 1
Time Presenter Item 00:35 Wayne Mackintosh How to participate 04:55 Wayne Mackintosh Aims of the meeting 07:05 Wayne Mackintosh Principles of engagement 10:00 Wayne Mackintosh Participant introductions 25:30 Wayne Mackintosh OERu milestones 45:33 Wayne Mackintosh Questions and discussion 1:16:05 Wayne Mackintosh Open wiki planning

An Lòchran, Inverness Campus, University of the Highlands and Islands

Professor Chrichton Lang, Deputy Principal at the University of the Highlands and Islands, welcomed delegates highlighting reasons why the University is participating in the OERu international innovation partnership. Wayne Mackintosh confirmed the aims and principles of engagement of the OERu's 5th international planning sprint focusing on the launch of the OERu 1st year of study.

Delegates representing OERu partner institutions from five international regions introduced themselves sharing reflections on the OERu collaboration.

OERu milestones

Chrichton Lang, Deputy Principal, University of the Highlands and Islands and Wayne Mackintosh, Director, OER Foundation

Wayne summarised milestones and key decisions of the OERu implementation:

Cindy Ives, Vice President Academic, Athabasca University; David Bull, Director, Open Access College, University of Southern Queensland; and Christine Bovis-Cnossen, Provost and Vice-President Academic, Thompson Rivers University

1. Assessment and Credit for Students Open Meeting (February 2011, Dunedin): Proposal of the OERu concept, planning framework and adoption of the CIPP (Context, Input Process and Product) evaluation model to inform implementation.
2. Inaugural meeting of the OERu Founding Anchor Partners (November 2011, Dunedin): Agreed the inaugural credential (Bachelor of General Studies) and adopted a prototyping model to assemble a small number of courses to refine the OERu delivery model.
3. 2^nd Meeting of OERu partners (October 2013, Kamloops): Initiated the OERu working group organisational structure, and proposed a micro course structure with opportunities for micro-credentials. Launch of the OERu officiated by Sir John Daniel.
4. 1^st Meeting of the OERu Council of Chief Executive Officers (Nov 2013, Kamloops): Agreed terms of reference for the Council, established the Executive Committee with representatives from Africa, Europe, Oceania and North America and tasked the consultative development of the OERu strategic plan.
5. 3^rd Meeting of OERu partners (November 2014, Hobart): Approved the OERu Strategic Plan 2014 - 2017, tabled the first draft of the OERu guidelines for credit transfer and reviewed the plan for the Input Evaluation.
6. 2^nd Meeting of the OERu Council of Chief Executive Officers (Nov 2013, Sydney): Endorsed the OERu Strategic Plan 2015 - 2017 and approved the implementation of OERu annual "Institutional Action Plans".
7. 2015 Oceania and North American OERu Regional Meetings (August and September 2015, Toowoomba and Vancouver respectively): Consultation to design and develop the OERu open business model.
8. 4^th Meeting of OERu partners (October 2015, Vanderbijlpark): Unanimous approval of the OERu guidelines for credit transfer and credit accumulation, and decision to implement the OERu 1^st year of study as a minimum viable product.
9. 3^rd Meeting of the OERu Council of Chief Executive Officers (October 2015, Vanderbijlpark): Endorsed proposal to implement the OERu 1^st year of study and nominated the Certificate in Higher Education at the University of the Highlands and Islands as an exit credential. Expanded the Council's terms of reference to provide advice, guidance and support on implementing the OERu.

OERu strategic points of difference

Rich discussion served to clarify the strategic points of difference of the OERu model when compared, for example, to commercial MOOC platforms. The innovation ethos at OERu means doing things openly in ways which add tangible value for our partners. Key points of difference covered in the discussion included:

1. OERu learners do not require passwords to access online course resources, thereby engendering collaboration focussing on our processes and business models that add substantive value, rather than generating artificial scarcity.
2. The course materials and technologies used to develop and host OERu online courses are open source, and are therefore easily replicated. Commercial providers will not be able to match the OERu's low cost production model using closed alternatives. Moreover, the OER Foundation will be launching the OERu 1st year of study without the burden of needing to recoup accumulated deficit or setup costs. OERu value is generated through shared and value-added services, for example:
   • The cost of individual membership is well below the costs of self-hosting the OERu technology infrastructure
   • The disaggregated service model enables partners to generate revenue for value added service; for example, credentialing or pay-as-you-go tutorial services.
3. By building expertise through engagement in the development process, the OERu model provides partner institutions with a low cost and low risk opportunity for innovation in open design and open educational practices, which can be embedded in mainstream development practices on campus.
4. The potential of open boundary courses was noted as a strategic opportunity for OERu to augment its educational philanthropy. OERu courses can be adopted for local delivery to full-tuition students studying in parallel with OERu learners hosted on the OERF technology platforms. The open boundary model would not be easy to replicate using closed technologies. Regional institutions will have the advantage of offering local learners an international and intercultural learning experience without incurring course development costs. Moreover, the open boundary model is sufficiently flexible to leverage the potential of learner engagement in using open pedagogies to support the ongoing development and refinement of open course resources.
5. The OERu model shows considerable potential for developing a collegial approach to the standardisation of processes and products, including quality assurance of the network's shared curriculum.

Taking stock and establishing meeting priorities

Video recording of Session 2
Time Presenter Item 00:15 Wayne Mackintosh The year in review 11:38 Wayne Mackintosh Example of OERu course 16:03 Wayne Mackintosh Pedagogy of discovery 20:00 Wayne Mackintosh Questions and discussion 34:00 Dave Lane OERu open tech toolset 1:02:08 Dave Lane Questions and discussion

Wayne Mackintosh presented progress over the past year on both the development of course materials and associated underlying pedagogies for the OERu's MVP first year of study with reference to specific examples. He confirmed that the OERu will have sufficient courses completed for the 1st year of study for two exit qualifications and is on track to exceed the stated KPI of 15 courses by the end of 2016. He described the significant progress made in marketing, an area which the OERu has previously found very challenging. With funding from the Hewlett Foundation, the OERu successfully engaged external marketing experts to develop very credible marketing collateral, including template posters, rack cards, and case studies, as well as professionally produced animated videos explaining the OERu to prospective learners and to prospective partner audiences respectively. He also outlined the OERu's new email-based marketing campaign solution, Mautic.

Dave Lane provided a description of the open source technology infrastructure used to both assemble and deliver the MVP, including screen shots of the various software applications. Of particular interest is the "snapshotting" system, which automatically converts WikiEducator-based course materials into stand-alone, partner-branded, mobile-friendly WordPress sites. He also showed examples of the technological tools facilitating coordination and collaboration among educators assembling course materials, as well as those allowing learners studying the materials to communicate and collaborate with one another, thereby enabling an "open boundary" educational experience.

Dave also described the benefits to both partner institutions and learners of adopting some or all of these open source software technologies, including substantial cost savings by institutions, and removing barriers to access and empowering learners.

The following is a list of many of the open source tools that the OERu has adopted, or partners have authored, to support the MVP.

OERu Open Source Technology Quick Links

Technology	Description
MediaWiki	Open source "wiki" platform underlying this WikiEducator web application. This is the same platform as that used by Wikipedia. We value its vast flexibility in holding and classifying content as well as its rigorous "version control" mechanisms, which facilitate confident collaborative course assembly by our partners. Supports many useful customisations.
Quizzes	Written by the OER Foundation: allows quizzes authored in Wikieducator to be deployed to Wordpress course sites.
Wekan	This is our Planning "Kanban" board, which we can use to coordinate collaborative course assembly activities as well as other activities involving distributed teams and lots of discrete tasks.
OnlineGroups.Net	Our community email list system, with multiple lists for different communities of practice within education. In addition to excellent email functionality, it has an effective web interface, which allows efficient browsing and searching list archives as well as a clever mechanism for storing and making available attached files.
Discourse	We have a community forum and learner forums to support collaboration and enable distribution of useful information to members of our educator and learner communities. Discourse is a modern re-invention of traditional web forums, making use of clever heuristics to award users additional privileges in the system based on constructive participation.
RocketChat	Our chat system is our platform for providing real-time technical support. It's flexibility allows us to use it as a place to aggregate "micro blog" messages for monitoring activity across all course posts and learner blog posts. In addition to messaging, RocketChat supports audio and video conferencing among participants.
Course Snap- shotting and WordPress Theme	These are OER Foundation-authored open source tools which allow "one-click" conversion of an OER course in WikiEducator into a partner-branded stand-alone WordPress site, or one residing on the OERu's Course infrastructure. The OER Foundation-authored WordPress theme provides user-friendly navigation and display of curriculum materials on both desktop and mobile computing platforms.
WEnotes, its server, and related tools	Our suite of OER Foundation-authored tools used to support aggregated and filtered "microblog" entries aarising from OERu courses and their learner and educator communities. These tools harvest and link to "mentions" and other forms of communication (like blog posts) from a variety of places on the Internet (a variety of social media, the inbuilt-WEnotes client, Discourse forums, OnlineGroups.Net mailing lists, learner and educator blogs) and list them in appropriate "feeds" in places like WikiEducator or course-specific sites (example).
Mautic	Our email-based newsletter and marketing system enables the streamlining of many administrative communications with learners and prospective partners, facilitating more effective and timely communications, and providing a means for measuring their effectiveness.
Piwik	Our Web Analytics package, enables us to see how many people are using our web-based services: when, for how long, and from where.
SemanticScuttle	This is an educational support tool, allowing educators and learners to create and maintain categorised (tagged) lists of annotated web links.

Critical friend review

Video recording of Session 3
Time Presenter Item 01:15 Dave Lane Group 1 03:22 Brian Lamb Group 2 09:38 Irwin DeVries Group 3 13:45 Wayne Mackintosh Group 4 17:46 Clive Mulholland Welcome from the VC

Participants were randomly assigned to four groups along with one virtual group and tasked to: identify what the OERu has done well; identify areas where the OERu can improve; and identify the top priorities the meeting should address (Note: The consolidated feedback below has been assembled from the feedback recorded by Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, and Group 4.) Three priorities for the meeting emerged from the process: Focusing on the launch of the OERu 1st year of study early in 2017; Ensuring adequate resourcing for the launch of MVP by pursuing external funding for marketing and contributions in time and expertise from partners in executing the actions required for a successful launch; and Focusing recruitment of new partner institutions to achieve a better global representation.

Summary of what the OERu is doing well

1. Organisation, networking and international cooperation
   • Being relentlessly open - every action is embedded in openness
   • Bringing disparate institutions together
   • Collaborating rather than competing
   • Networking like-minded people in open education
   • Modelling international cooperation in course design and development
   • Maintaining momentum in this rapidly evolving field.
2. Efficacy
   • Creating much improved solutions for supporting design processes and the publishing of OERu course sites - the underlying technology is working well.
   • Achieving a great deal with limited resources - being a demonstrably lean and agile organisation
   • Embracing the OER Foundation's rigorous, methodical and open approach, which has been critical to the success of the OERu's progress
   • Sharing templates and processes for adopting open source technologies used by the OER Foundation.
3. Product
   • Achieving significant improvement in the number of course offerings contributing to a full first year of study for the nominated exit qualifications
   • Developing much improved marketing collateral with coherent messaging
   • Adopting a transnational qualification framework, matching and standardising course sizes for cross-border credit transfer.

Summary of where the OERu can improve

1. Minimum viable product
   • Get the OERu 1st year of study "out the door"
   • Delineate coherent degree programmes of study rather than a smorgasbord of courses at the certificate level
   • Clarify OERu processes and design guidelines to ensure that assessments are the student's own work.
   • Promote and maximise credit transfer implementation across the network for OERu courses.
2. Data collection
   • Review data that the project is collecting to research effectiveness, with a particular focus on metadata for a longitudinal study of the OERu implementation
   • Focus specifically on how learners engage with OERu, to gather their feedback and to integrate that into our offerings and practices?
3. Communication
   • Target marketing materials to make it easy for partners to make their cases internally
   • Develop simple how-to-guides with a focus on how individuals in specific roles can engage with OERu, as from an outsider's perspective, there is still confusion and lack of clarity on the OERu model
   • Implement effective solutions for facilitating learner-partner communications for prospective OERu students seeking assessment and credentialing services from partner institutes.
   • Prioritise communication associated with institutions getting to know what courses are in OERu and how these can be re-used for local advantage.
4. Learner engagement
   • Engage learners early in the process to build relationship of OERu as an organisation
   • Promote scalable solutions aimed at engaging with large numbers of students in a model which does not provide tutorial support
   • Pursue opportunities to integrate existing institutional resources for learner support into OERu courses.
5. Geographical representation of partners
   • Endeavour to improve the global balance of partner institutions from different geographical regions

Priorities the OERu meeting should address

1. OERu 1st year of study and programme of study
   • Select a date for the launch of the OERu MVP, and announce the launch date publicly to engender motivation
   • Identify the minimum team of OERu partners required for a successful launch of the MVP
   • Define an "end-to-end, step-by-step" process for the successful launch of the MVP including requirements for credit transfer
   • Approach 3rd party funders to assist in providing resources for publicity and marketing of the OERu 1st year of study
   • Embed research and data collection considerations into the launch of the 1st year of study, including easily manageable "micro-evaluations"
   • Develop a coherent structure for OERu programme design aiming to strike a balance between institutional independence for course nominations and meaningful curriculum structure for learners.
2. Resourcing
   • Review potential opportunities for the OERu to actively pursue fundraising from external sources
   • Share strategies for allocating sufficient resources, including time and institutional leadership, to faciltate the effective launch of the OERu 1st year of study
3. Partner recruitment
   • Develop a recruitment plan to improve representation from different global regions
   • Develop documentation to communicate cost-benefit advantages and strategic points of difference of the OERu partner network.

Improving OERu operations

Video recording of Session 5
Time Presenter Item 00:00 Irwin DeVries Group 1 04:20 Gary Campbell Group 2 09:10 Wayne Mackintosh Group 3 17:46 Brian Lamb Group 4

The aim of the session was to discuss decision proposals for refining and improving OERu operations in nominated areas drawing on our collective experience.

Drawing on work associated with capability maturity models, the OERu has transitioned from the initial awareness phase of a new and "undocumented" open project to implementing repeatable processes drawing on our open design and development experience to date. The OERu has reached the phase where the project needs to consider quality managed processes based on openly agreed metrics and corresponding solutions to support organisational development.

Opening plenary

Wayne Mackintosh referenced the WikiEducator Ambassadors project, which was successfully used to build community during the foundation years of the community, as a model worth exploring for OERu recruitment of partners and learners. The OERu has a growing number of professionally produced marketing collateral including a reusable slideshow presentation to support OERu ambassadors. He also summarised the current working group structure, noting the need to rationalise our structures and to improve partner participation in the working groups. Participants self-selected to work on four breakout groups to develop proposals for action to improve OERu operations.

Group 1: Partner recruitment and scoping of the OERu ambassadors initiative

Group 1 identified the key stakeholder groups for the OERu ambassadors initiative including: students, faculty, instructional designers and professional academic development staff, administrators, managers and partner institutions. The key activity of OERu ambassadors will focus on sharing narratives, testimonials, data and evidence of the OERu collaboration via a number of channels, including conference presentations, publications and social media.

Decision recommendation

• Establish the OERu ambassadors initiative based on the suggested action steps and establish a common OERu area for the project. Institutional representatives should be invited to incorporate OERu ambassador activities into their OERu institutional action plans.

Group 2: OERu organisational and staff development

Group 2 commenced discussions on OERu staff development by identifying the following target audience categories: academics, technologists, pedagogical support staff and staff at 3rd party organisations, for example NGO's. Proposed staff development activities were prioritised for the short-term, medium-term and long-term respectively. Short-term activities focused on how to engage with OERu processes and technologies to move beyond the early champions, noting that screen capture videos would provide an effective way for new staff to get started. Medium-term priorities focused on building capacity associated with legislative requirements, such as copyright and accessibility, and the corresponding skill sets for designing and developing open online courses. The long-term priorities for organisational and staff development highlighted the need to focus on appropriate forms of career recognition and associated cultural shifts aimed at the integration of open practices into mainstream institutional processes.

Decision recommendations

• Develop "how-to" support resources to assist new staff to engage with OERu technologies and processes.
• Progress the development and implementation of an induction course focusing on the design, development and implementation of OERu open online courses taking into account the needs of different categories of staff .

Group 3: Review of OERu organisational structures

Group 3 highlighted that to date, OERu credit transfer has primarily been an "abstract" conversation, but once the model is operational, the network will have concrete examples and evidence to assist partner institutions with local implementation. The group noted the need to rationalise the working groups and to promote representation from partners for active engagement without limiting access to those who are participating out of self interest. Acknowledged the challenge associated with individuals with organisational influence, who do not have the time to engage actively, compared to those with a keen interest, who do not have sufficient influence at their respective organisations.

Decision recommendations

• Conduct an open consultative review of the OERu working group structures and corresponding remits with the view to rationalisation.
• Identify strategies for improved communications and recruitment of active working group participants.

Group 4: Strategies to improve partner engagement in OERu open technologies

Group 4 discussed strategies to improve partner engagement in the development and adoption of OERu open source technologies to foster the implementation of a community source model. The group highlighted the tangible benefits of the OERu open source model, specifically: the ability to reduce cost and effort with research and deployment of open source tools on campus; reduced risks of vendor "lock-in" due to open standards and open file formats; and the responsive and proactive role the OER Foundation can play in supporting technological innovation.

The working group highlighted the tension between the ability to remix and adapt OERu courses and the implications for summative assessment of the "approved version" used supporting learners for credentialing.

Decision recommendations

• Make the OERF technology working group the "technological nexus" for the selection and deployment of new open source technologies among partner institutions.
• Renew call for nominating representatives from partner institutions to join the technology working group.
• Develop guidelines for consultation on managing the tension between reuse and remix of OERu course resources without compromising the approved versions used for summative assessment.

The open research agenda

Rob Farrow, OER Hub, The Open University

The Open Research Agenda -Slideshow

At the end of day 1, Rob Farrow of OER Hub and The Open University (UK) led a discussion of research priorities in OER and open education.

The session focused on the 'Open Research Agenda' , which uses an action research approach to assess differences in priorities across countries, sectors and roles. The presentation included data gathered from conference audiences and online surveys.

From an OERu perspective, some of the key points to emerge were: the social and political consequences of openness; strategies for faculty uptake of OER (and institutional recognition for this); describing a policy environment conducive to OER uptake; evaluation processes (and sharing the data thereof); and sharing best practices. The 'Open Research Agenda' framework will also be used at Open Education 2016 in November before being written up for publication.

Day 2:Implementing the OERu 1st year of study and beyond

Implementing the OERu 1st year of study

Video recording of Session 7
Time Presenter Item 00:00 Brenda Thompson Certificate of General Studies 11:14 Andy Brown Certificate Higher Education Business (OERu) 20:57 Cindy Ives Remote Invigilation 41:13 Becca Black Micro-credentials

The objectives of this session were to:

• Discuss the action items and decision recommendations for implementing the OERu credit transfer and credit accumulation guidelines for the MVP
• Prepare a due diligence activity list for launching the MVP
• Review the marketing guidelines for OERu partners and recommend strategies for learner recruitment.

Opening plenary

Overview of the Certificate of General Studies, Thompson Rivers University

• Certificate of General Studies summary (pdf)

The Certificate of General Studies at Thompson Rivers University is a designated exit qualification for the OERu 1st year of study.

Brenda Thompson outlined the requirements for the Certificate of General Studies and processes required for the articulation of business and administrative study courses, which are normally reviewed on a case-by-case basis. In summary:

• This is a 30 credit qualification (i.e. 1200 notional learning hours equivalent to 10 North American 3 credit courses)
• 6 credits (2 courses) must be assessed locally by Thompson Rivers University (distance or face-to-face) and up to 24 credits (8 courses) can be transferred into the certificate. (Note: Thompson Rivers University has already completed two OERu courses to make up the 6 credit residency requirement.)
• No more than three courses using CLEP examinations can be transferred into the certificate. (Articulation for CLEP examinations takes place though the University's Prior Learning Assessment Recognition (PLAR) processes. The Certificate restricts these "applied" credits to a maximum of 15 credits. Moreover, applied credit does not contribute to the learner's grade point average for the qualification.)
• It is possible to adjudicate and pre-articulate the OERu business courses and formalise such arrangements via bilateral articulation agreements between the assessing institution providing transcript credit and Thompson Rivers University as the receiving institution.
• Assessing partners are required to issue transcripts for their assessed OERu courses (with the exception of the CLEP examinations and corresponding 15 credit restriction above.)
• Confirmed the need for a standardised OERu course outline to facilitate the articulation approval processes.

Overview of the Certificate Higher Education Business (OERu), University of the Highlands and Islands

The Certificate Higher Education Business (OERu) is a designated exit qualification for the OERu 1st year of study.

Andy Brown summarised the requirements and local approval processes for the Certificate Higher Education Business (OERu) at the University of Highlands and Islands.

• This is a 120 UK credit qualification (i.e. 1200 notional learning hours equivalent to 6 University of the Highlands and Islands "modules" of 200 hours each).
• This is a 1st year, Bachelor degree level qualification (Level 7) on the Scottish Qualifications Authority Framework.
• The University of Highlands and Islands has a 60 UK credit residency requirement, and the University will assemble the following three OERu "modules" of 200 hours each (equivalent to 5 OERu micro courses):
  1. Introduction to Business
  2. Introduction to Customer Centred Business
  3. Introduction to Operations Management
• The remaining 60 UK credits (equivalent of 15 OERu micro courses) will comprise transcript transfer credit from OERu partners.
• The Exam Board at the University of the Highlands and Islands requires three month advance notification of their intention to be assessed to enable the University to make the necessary arrangements. One month prior to the date of the examination, learners are required to register. These requirements will be communicated to OERu learners.
• Learners are required to meet the minimum English language requirements to register. It was therefore suggested that the OERu might consider offering an English language proficiency examination in the future.
• Once learners have successfully completed the 60 credits assessed by the University of the Highlands and Islands and accumulated transcript credit for the remaining OERu credits, they would then register for the award.
• The qualification is presently going through the University's internal approval processes aiming for validation of the award to be completed by the end of 2016.
• The University of the Highlands and Islands confirmed that their first course will be completed early in 2017 with the remainder of their courses to be completed by December 2017. Andy Brown noted that once the qualification is validated by the University, learners can commence studies towards the qualification. The OERu will have the remaining 60 credits of courses available by the end of 2016.

Remote invigilation pilot, Athabasca University

• Slideshare presentation

Cindy Ives outlined the findings of the remote invigilation study at Athabasca University.

• Introduced a remote invigilation pilot using ProctoU aiming to:
  1. Increase flexibility, reduce exam stress and reduce costs for students
  2. Reduce operational time spent on managing the invigilator network and exam bookings
  3. Reduce physical presence in other regions.
• AU implemented a robust pilot process to test the reliability and integrity of the system, involving working groups, selection of the preferred technology, consultation and engagement with faculties and the delineation of clearly defined evaluation criteria.
• ProtorU has systems in place to terminate an exam when misconduct is observed and provides incident reports of any issues to the University. A detailed record of all events in session are kept and recordings of the entire session are available for review up to 30 days past the write date.
• Preliminary results based on 101 exams are promising with high levels of satisfaction recorded in the survey results.
• AU anticipates administering thousands of exams and does no anticipate discontinuing the pilot until the final evaluation is completed.
• Normal University identity validation processes apply (i.e. two forms of photo identity on registration.)
• Thomas Edison State University confirmed that they have been using ProctoU for a number of years and have administered over 100,000 examinations in the past year.
• Costs, depending on discounts for the number of examinations administered, are in the region of $23 - $25 per student assessment.

Open badges and micro-credentials, Otago Polytechnic

• Slideshare presentation

Becca Black reported on the Otago Polytechnic pilot to introduce assessed micro-credentials and open badges for OERu micro courses.

• Otago Polytechnic implemented a pilot to provide assessment services for the four OERu micro-courses constituting the OERu course: A systems approach to sustainable development.
• Individual assessments are provided for each of the four micro-courses on a fee-for-service basis.
• Successful students are awarded an open badge.
• On earning the four badges required for the full course, learners are awarded the transcript credit for this 1st year level course.
• The process flowchart for registration, fee payment and award of individual badges leading to full course credit was presented.
• Otago Polytechnic will provide micro-credentials on a fee-for-service basis for all its OERu offerings.

Group 1: Implementing the OERu credit transfer and credit accumulation guidelines for MVP

Video recording of Session 8 & 9
Time Presenter Item 00:00 Brenda Thompson Implementing MVP credit transfer 14:49 Dave Lane MVP due diligence list 27:44 Wayne Mackintosh Introducing 2017 KPIs (Group divisions) 37:09 Group 1 Discussion on academic oversight

Brenda Thompson reported back for Group 1 who endorsed the need for a standardised course outline description for OERu courses to facilitate the local processes for articulation agreements. This document would need to include the following essential elements: Course description; learning outcomes; course level, notional learning hours and number of credits; any institutional prerequisites for learners seeking academic credit; and assessment model for summative assessment. The group discussed strategies for developing a coherent programme of study recommending that the OERu should build on the work done at previous meetings in identifying streams of study. The group noted the priority to identify additional courses in English Composition or English Literature so that OERu could offer a minimum of the equivalent of 6 North-American credits. Collaboration opportunities for partners to offer invigilation services for the assessment of OERu learners and centralised services for online invigilation were identified. In addition, the group discussed issues relating to prerequisite requirements noting the following: Prerequisites are those required by the assessing partner institution for academic credit, but OERu courses are open for all learners; and The need for OERu to support learners for success, that is, for example, directing learners to relevant resources to improve language proficiency in order to succeed with the course outcomes. During the question and answer session, discussed the opportunity for OERu to standardise selected components of its processes and operations for the network to collaborate more effectively and to avoid duplication of effort particularly in the areas of course articulation and quality.

Decision recommendations

• Develop a standardised OERu course outline description template in consultation with active MVP partners to support the articulation agreement processes among partner institutes for the launch of the OERu 1st year of study.
• Increase the number of English Composition and / or English Literature courses to achieve a minimum of 6 North-American credits
• Increase the number of undergraduate courses to build a coherent programme of study based on work done at previous meetings on streams of study.
• Develop a database of OERu partners who could provide invigilation services on a fee for service basis for OERu learners.
• Progress a feasibility study and corresponding partner interest for OERu online invigilation services.

Group 2: Due diligence activity list for launching MVP

Dave Lane reported back for Group 2 which brainstormed an initial due diligence activity list in preparing for the launch of the OERu 1st year of study. Activities were grouped according to areas of responsibility, specifically: OERu, individual partner responsibility and learner responsibility. Suggested items included: legislative compliance, for example copyright; proofing of course materials, confirmation of price for assessment services and payment mechanisms, review of the OERu learner terms of service, development of a marketing plan, procedures for partner institutions to keep information current, and articulation agreements for transcripted credit. The OERu must provide clear and accurate information on the OERu.org website listing courses and institutions offering assessment services and a corresponding list of institutions, which will accept credit transfer. Learners will need to take responsibility for managing materials that they are preparing for assessment. The group emphasised the importance of "tracking" learner stories to support OERu communications, as well as case studies from learners, educators and institutional representatives.

Group 2 recommended that the OERu 1st year of study be launched as a "pilot" on 15 March 2017. Marketing to learners should commence on 15 January 2017.

Decision recommendations

• Develop a marketing plan in consultation with active MVP partners aiming to initiate marketing activities for the OERu 1st year of study on 15 January 2017.
• Launch the OERu 1st year of study on 15 March 2017
• Progress the development of a due diligence action list and MVP launch plan for the OERu 1st year of study based on meeting discussions.
• Publish review checklists for the OERu and partner institutions participating in the MVP launch.

Group 3: Review of marketing guidelines for OERu partners and recommendations for learner recruitment

Wayne Mackintosh discussed the draft OERu marketing and communication guidelines for partner institutions with Margaret Antonson, Head of Marketing and Planning at the University of the Highlands and Islands, who offered to review these guidelines. The OERu will need to constitute a small task force with representatives from the respective Marketing and Communication Departments actively participating in the launch of the OERu 1st year of study to prepare a realistic marketing plan, with due recognition given to the resource and capacity constraints of the respective institutions.

Decision recommendations

• Establish an OERu MVP marketing task force to prepare a realistic and achievable marketing plan for the launch of the OERu 1st year of study.

2017 operational priorities

The objectives of this session were to:

• Consider improvements to developing a coherent programme of study with academic oversight through the proposed establishment of an OERu Academic Board
• Improve learner support through Academic Volunteers International
• Commence work on determining the 2017 operational priorities and corresponding KPIs

Three breakout groups were constituted to progress proposals for action.

Group 1: Plan the establishment of an OERu Academic Board

The open meeting which convened on 7 September 2016 to prepare the meeting agenda proposed that the establishment of an OERu Academic Board should be discussed during the 5th International Meeting of OERu partners. Draft terms of reference were prepared for discussion at the meeting.

Group 1 had a rich and wide reaching discussion (see video recording). Andrew Vann summarised the key points of the discussion. Strong consensus emerged that the OERu should not institute an "Academic Board" but that a "Programme Advisory Group" would be a preferred alternative to provide guidance on programme priorities and coordination to avoid duplication of effort in development and maintaining a coherent and sustainable programme of study. The advisory group should focus on the programme (degree/award) level rather than the individual course or subject level. The Advisory Group could broker international collaboration as a low cost and low risk innovation initiative. The group endorsed the OERu's foundation principle of engagement based on institutional autonomy of partner institutes. The group recommended that OERu incorporate "market research" to determine learner needs for programme development.

Decision recommendations

• Establish a "Transnational Academic Practice Advisory Group" (working title) through open consultation aimed at rationalising the existing OERu working groups and improving coordination in programme development and supporting processes of credit transfer and quality.

Group 2: Improve OERu learner support via Academic Volunteers International and supporting resources

Irwin DeVries reported on the discussions of Group 2 to improve learning support via "Academic Volunteers International" (AVI). The group noted that the OERu could improve learner support through the inclusion of self study non-credit courses, for example language proficiency and academic integrity and resources and technologies that support peer-to-peer learning interactions. A range of technologies were suggested including peer video chat (eg. appear.in), social annotating tools (e.g. Hypothes.is) and opportunities associated with the H5P framework and plugins. The group highlighted the need to develop a common student support area (wiki or oeru.org site) including guidance on peer-learning support and recommended tools. The community service learning model where learners earn badges (or credit) through supporting the OERu learners was recommended, for example a course in online moderation for learners where the practical components of the course require learners to apply their new skills in supporting the OERu.

Decision recommendations

• Progress the implementation of AVI based on the recommendations from Group 2 and earlier work conducted on designing AVI.

Strategic planning and realising strategic opportunities

Video recording of Session 10 & 11
Time Presenter Item 00:51 Andy Vann Feedback: OERu Academic advisory group 02:49 Dave Lane Feedback: OERu Academic advisory group (cont.) 07:38 Irwin DeVries Feedback: Learner support through AVI 16:00 Wayne Mackintosh Plenary review of issues for CEOs meeting 23:30 Wayne Mackintosh Overview of strategic futures 27:10 Dave Lane Technology roadmap 1:01:13 Wayne Mackintosh Group divisions

Wayne Mackintosh spoke on strategic opportunities, the OERu strategic planning process and the upcoming process evaluation.

Opening plenerary

Dave Lane provided a preview of some planned technical initiatives and strategic opportunities presented by technology. The biggest strategic opportunity - and a "holy grail" of loosely-coupled technology infrastructure like that employed by the OERu - is Single Sign-On. This is the capacity to allow users to define a single set of credentials that provides both authentication (with full "persistence", i.e. the system knows who the user is, and ensures that their personal data and any digital artefacts are available only to them) and authorisation (managing what a user is allowed to do or access within each system).

Other strategic opportunities include:

• software analytics to help measure the effectiveness of OERu technological and pedagogical approaches
• enhanced partner opportunities for "open boundary" courses by targeting "one-click" conversions of WikiEducator course materials to static HTML and common LMS platforms
• automated assessment services and even crowd-sourced "question banks" supported by open standards based quiz technologies
• creating an online marketplace for OER course designers, technologists, and other specialists thereby facilitating the offer of services to (or the purchase of services from) partners.

Group 1: Strategic goals and objectives (2018 – 2020)

Group 1 commenced discussions on strategic objectives for the consultative development of the OERu Strategic Plan 2018 - 2020. The high level goals of the 2015 - 2017 plan were considered to still be relevant and useful organising framework for the new strategic plan. Recommended short term strategic objectives include: Successful implementation of the 1st year of study; Proactive reminders to partners to assemble their two courses and in cases where where partners are unable to produce their course commitment to find alternate ways of contributing to the OERu partnership including, for example, additional financial resources to outsource the assembly of their course commitments; and Establish a position to develop and co-ordinate partner relations and strengthen community engagement. Suggestions for long-range goals include: Develop courses for the 2nd, 3rd and fourth year with exit awards, for example a 2-year diploma and associate degree; Develop concrete learner recruitment strategies; Improve academic oversight to develop streams for the OERu programme of study for relevant qualifications and to fill gaps in missing disciplines, for example STEM and other areas; and Develop a robust OERu accreditation system to permit block transfer for learners to achieve credentials.

Decision recommendations

• Implement the consultation process for developing the OERu Strategic Plan (2018 - 2020) during 2017 focusing on widening subject choice for the 1st year of study in the short term and increasing exit qualifications for the longer term based on the recommendations from this partner's meeting.

Group 2: Technology roadmap and strategic opportunities

Group 2 discussed a number of technology enabled strategic opportunities for OERu.

The following is a list of open source technologies identified as strategic options for the OERu's technology roadmap:

OERu Strategic Open Source Technology Opportunities

Technology	Description
Single Sign-On	SSO has both practical and symbolic significance for the projects. It has the potential to knit together, in a practical sense, the array of disparate web-based software services offered by the OERu to facilitate teaching, learning, as well as communication and collaboration among OERu learners and the broader partner community.
Analytics like Mautic and Piwik	Offer the prospect of measuring the effectiveness of the OERu's service delivery, enabling us to determine which approaches provide the best results from among a variety of technical and pedagogical alternatives.
Automatic Course Exports	OERu already offers "one click" course exports from WikiEducator to per-course WordPress websites. Following the MVP launch, we hope to broaden the export targets to include static HTML (for those without reliable Internet access), and one or more widely used Learning Management Systems. A major opportunity with this process is enabling partners to offer "open boundary" courses mixing their mainstream students with OERu learners.
Automated assessment services like TAO	Automated assessment services and even crowd-sourced "question banks" supported by open standards based quiz technologies offer the possibility of generating a revenue stream for partner institutions.
Online "Registered OERu Affiliate" Marketplace	A web-based directory for OER specialists like course designers and technology service providers, who have demonstrated that they can build excellent resources. This provides the OERu with the opportunity to develop a sustainable service ecosystem for the benefit of the network.

Decision recommendations

• Prioritise refinements for the MVP technology platform, specifically: SSO, seamless registration for MVP technology services, CSS refinements for published course sites and integration with Mautic for automated learner instruction campaigns.
• Investigate options for integrating the Mozilla Open Badgepack into the OERu model as a value added service for partner institutions.
• Review post MVP alternatives for authoring OERu courses, as alternatives to the current MediaWiki mechanisms, that retain the flexibility and rigour of MediaWiki but which are similar in ease and familiarity (for most users) to collaborative content management of WordPress.

Group 3: Executive leaders consultation on agenda for CEO's meeting

Representatives from the OERu Council of CEO's reviewed and clustered the issues tabled for the meeting on 5 October 2016. The outputs of the OERu Partner's meeting were used to prepare the agenda for the CEO's meeting.

Conclusion and the way forward

The participants confirmed the key decision of the partner's meeting to launch the OERu 1st year of study leading to two exit awards targeting 15 March 2017. 2017 KPIs will focus on achieving a successful launch of the OERu MVP.

Maxim Jean-Louis, Executive Director of Contact North | Contact Nord announced that the OERu 2017 meetings will be hosted in Toronto. The dates of the OERu meetings coincide with the 2017 ICDE World Conferencing on Online Learning scheduled for 17-19 October 2017. The conference will focus on Teaching in a Digital Age: Re-thinking teaching and learning. The OERu 2017 meeting dates are confirmed as follows:

1. 6^th International Meeting of OERu Partners, Thursday 12 and Friday 13 October 2017, Toronto.
2. 4^th Meeting of the OERu Council of Chief Executive Officers, Monday 16 October 2017, Toronto.

Participants thanked the University of the Highlands and Islands for hosting the OERu 2016 meetings and sharing their wonderful city with the OERu community.