OERu/Planning/Open Praxis OERu paper

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Objectives of the article on the OERu for Open Praxis

  • increase awareness of OERu developments
  • profile and promote OERu achievements
  • attract more partners and supporters
  • present the OERu prototype model of learning/ delivery focusing on key elements and open design approach
  • share practices

Open Praxis Author Guidelines

Please review the resources below before commencing writing your part of the article:

  • Here is a link to the call for papers that provides more details about theme and types of articles accepted.
  • Further details for authors including: general and submission guidelines, downloadable template can be found here.

Suggestions for title of the article

  • Open design and development of the OERu prototype model of learning: Open Collaboration and Praxis
  • OERu model of open learning: Towards Open Praxis
  • OERu's en route for Open Praxis: Perspectives and Prospects
  • OERu & (open) education for all praxis

Primary Authors

Specify minimum threshold to be listed as primary author -- eg minimum of 600 words of original text

Please add your name here:

  • Jyoti Bawane - contributor
  • Betty Hurley-Dasgupta - contributor- open to any assignment
  • Nisha Singh-would like to contribute on openness and developing OER.
  • Anil Prasad 16:37, 16 July 2012 (UTC)
  • --Irwin DeVries 03:50, 17 July 2012 (UTC)Contributor
  • Osvaldo Rodriguez - contributor
  • Mark McGuire - contributor
  • Balqis Thaahaveettil 15:06, 18 July 2012 (UTC)would like to contribute on why we are doing this and d and which are the main challenges regarding openness in higher education
  • Vinod Kumar Kanvaria - contributor- open to any assignment
  • Angela Murphy - willing to contribute a section summarising findings from OERu research data*
  • Gene Loeb - contributor, and other work needed to be done
  • Michèle Drechsler - contributor, and open to any assigment. I would like to edit an article about OER in primary schools. I can develop an experience in a rural departement in which the teachers were involved in OER productions and diffusions. I can also write a synthesis about OER state in France, the creation of ecosystems for trainers and teachers.

Volunteer support

Volunteers do not get listed as primary authors

Niki Davis - Happy to review

Finalised outline

(Comment.gif: Finalized outline is looking good. Thanks Vasi and team. A thought. We may want to replace the outline titles with more academically relevant alternatives. Eg "What is open education?" with something like: Conceptual underpinnings of open education and the OERu initiative. The titles can be changed later, but we need to keep the research focus of the article in mind. Also, it may be useful to provide an indicative word count for each subjection. --Wayne Mackintosh 23:08, 24 July 2012 (UTC))

  • (Comment.gif: Good points Wayne. I agree we can word craft the article and sections titles later on. As for the sections word count I've suggested in the discussion threat we go with the first drafts and then review and trim or expand where needed considering that an intro section could be shorter to cater for the research data sections which may need more discussion. Open to other suggestions --Vasi Doncheva 22:24, 26 July 2012 (UTC))

What is open education

(providing the theoretical framework or constructs informing the OERu development - contributor: Osvaldo Rodriguez)


“Open Education” integrates the concept that the world´s knowledge is a public good together with the extraordinary chance set by the open web for everyone to share, use and reuse knowledge. Universities have today an extraordinary opportunity to revert to the fundamental values of academy: to share knowledge for the benefit of society.

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that “everyone has the right to education” and “higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit,” However, this is only true within a small number of countries.

In the last years new technologies related to the creation and sharing of information and to how people connect and socialize have disrupted the educational world. As stated by Siemens and Console (2011), “Educators and researchers face a challenge in determining how the existing education system will be influenced and the new roles that will be expected of learners, teachers, and administrators.... Essentially, the Internet has remade how society creates and shares content and how people communicate and interact.”
The implications for education of these dramatic social and technological changes are significant.
Openness represents a primary value inspiring major changes in society. It is a precondition of the changes the higher education system needs to perform so as to continue relevant to the society. Institutions can be more open in a number of ways but each institution must begin to address openness as an important organizational value if they want to remain relevant to their students and contribute to the progress of the field of higher education. Open access to teaching and learning materials gives learners who cannot access formal educational programs an unprecedented opportunity.
OER (Open Educational Resources) and OCW (Open Courseware) have played an important role in providing access to knowledge for learners worldwide. This has benefited enormously students from developed and developing countries normally excluded from having an opportunity for accessing higher education. But OCWs and OERs are not sufficient and must be complemented with some academic structure that allows them to receive instruction and credit for the courses. In the words of Lane (2008): “People may be able to access OERs on their own, outside of the constraints of a university, but what recognition and benefits do they gain from doing so if universities still require prior achievement for entry, and employers recognized only those achievements made at universities?”.
What are needed are new models for access to higher education. This issue needs an unprecedented capacity for inter-institutional cooperation.
The OERu project contributes to the construction of an “open participatory learning ecosystem” (Brown and Adler (2008). This is, an ecosystem where formal education institutions play a fundamental role by increasing opportunities for open learning, assessment and credentialization immersed in the larger learning system that is now at our disposal with the Internet and OER.







.....enter your contribution here
I would like to contribute here as well. I am interested in the more general concept of 'open education' and would like to work with others.


What is the OERu

(Concept, History, Logic model, Partners etc. contributor Irwin DeVries)

OERu background

OERu background

History

In November 2011, a two-day meeting was held at Otego Polytechnic in Dunedin, New Zealand to formalize plans for implementation of the Open Education Resource university (OERu). The meeting was attended by representatives of 13 tertiary education institutions, known as Anchor Partners, as well as of two non-teaching organizations, from around the world. In addition, there were 148 registered virtual participants from 41 countries participating through live video feeds and microblogs (WikiEducator, 2011), along with others of unknown number who were observing all or part of the proceedings but not officially registered.

Planned by the OERu Foundation in New Zealand and BC Campus in Canada, and sponsored by the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO Pacific States, the goal of the meeting was to plan the first steps in the implementation of an OERu concept that had been incubating in various forms over the past five years. An earlier meeting in February 2011 had established the foundational concepts for the OERu, with discussions that incorporated preceding public discussions and consultations with the higher education community worldwide in open seminars conducted on BC Campus's SCoPE site (SCoPE, 2011). Some examples of the key points from the earlier SCoPE sessions and fed into the Feburary meeting were as follows:

  • “unbundling” of traditional university services (i.e., course delivery, assessment, instructor support)
  • development of a framework for developing new OER or assembling existing OER
  • learning pathways for learners including paths toward degrees
  • emphasis on peer to peer social learning rather than teacher/student models
  • provision of credits based on Prior Learning Assessment processes of participating institutions (Stacey, 2011)

Several of the points in the session notes gave evidence of a spirit of excitement around the OERu innovation, and encouragement to test new ideas for the provision of higher education, particularly where the needs are great:

“The concept of an OER-university is an innovation and a major one for education globally….Be more creative. Start without thinking about existing systems and courses. … OERu needs to be younger and bolder. We need to get our heads into being 15 to 25 again” (Stacey, 2011, n.p.).

Thus from the very start there has been an interest in rethinking current models of higher education, and the earliest stages of the project were based in open discussions and obtaining input from interested individuals and organizations worldwide.

Goals

The impetus for the establishment of the OERu was the identified need to build more formal and scalable structures within the expanding world of open educational resources (OER) in order to supply increasing numbers of formal credentials to learners who have access to informally available OER courses (Taylor, 2007). The early OERu concept outlined by Taylor cited studies that indicated a massive growth in the need for higher education worldwide, to the extent that two new universities a week would be needed just to satisfy the need in India alone. Daniel (2007) elaborated on the worldwide growth projections in demand for higher education, citing examples from such countries as China, Malaysia and Mauritius. He further noted the “massive disparity” (n.p.) in access to higher education in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and noted the lack of success of traditional models to meet the needs of such regions and countries.

In response to such concerns, the OERu project was intended to develop and maintain a “sustainable and scalable ecosystem which will provide free learning opportunities for all students worldwide using OER [open educational resources] [and] provide pathways for OER learners to obtain credible certification and qualifications within national education systems” (WikiEducator, 2012). Within this “ecosystem,” participating institutions would contribute or repurpose courses as OER to the OERu community; these courses would then be made available to students worldwide for free study and potential credit offered by participating universities.

Structure

Despite its name, the OERu is not in itself a university. Rather, it is a partnership of tertiary educational institutions, with the shared goal of collaborating in building a body of open educational resources in the form of courses and programs developed collaboratively in the wiki, with the option of additional, user-pay optional services provided by participating institutions including tutoring, accreditation and assessment of learning, and credible credentials (WikiEducator, 2012).

The OERu is not structured to provide courses or develop and administer educational policies. Instead, in support of institutional autonomy for all partners, the OERu facilitates the collaboration of partner universities and other participants in contributing their own open education resources as well as other available OERs, along with the application of their own internal educational policies in their interactions with the partnership and participating students who engage with their own universities. It was not intended to replace any of the functions of the partners, but rather was planned to work alongside the institutions and enable each of them to engage to the extent and in the manner that works best for the individual institutions.

The conceptual structure and processes of the OERu have been illustrated in an evolving series of “logic models.” Logic models are typically used in program planning and evaluation, and are designed to “depict assumptions about the resources needed to support progam activities and outputs needed to realize the intended outcomes of a program” (Cooksey, Gill & Kelly, 2001), or to “represent the intervention program’s theory and the basis upon which is supposed to lead to the desired effects” (Brouselle & Champagne, 2011; Atkins, Brown & Hammond, 2007; Farrell, 2009 ). In the OER context, logic models have been used to depict functional relationships among elements of OER implementation programs.As depicted in the high-level OERu project logic model (Figure 1), the OERu network is designed to provide free, informal OER-based learning in what Taylor has termed a “parallel universe (200, p. 3) that operates alongside the formal educational sector and that is intended to supplement not replace the formal educational sector.

Figure 1: High level logic model


As represented on the left side of the logic model, learners have opportunities to engage with the two main streams represented in the horizontal sections in the middle of the diagram. Portrayed in the upper middle section, the “OER University network” offers free OER learning through courses made available either directly through WikiEducator or ported to a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Moodle or Blackboard. Learners from anywhere worldwide may have free access to these courses to study or use them in any way they wish, within the limitations of applicable copyright restrictions.This may be seen as the “informal” learning side of the model, where there is no direct institutional oversight or involvement in the engagement of learners with the courses. In comparison, the lower middle section represents the “formal” education sector, which in the context of the OERu involves the partner institutions who agree to provide, at their option, assessment, credit and possibly other support services on a fee-for-service or community service basis, or a combination of the two, leading to “credible qualifications” as noted on the right side of the diagram.

In summary, it may be said that the high-level OERu logic model represents a schema for an effort to bridge a divide between formal and informal learning. Beyond the stage of open design and development, which is the object of this study, are a number of other steps intended to be conducted in an equally open manner to that described earlier for open design and development. These are:

  • open curriculum planning;
  • open course design and development;
  • open pedagogy;
  • open student support; and,
  • open assessment and credentialing (WikiEducator, 2011).

Supporting these processes are open community service by institutions and volunteers, new business models for OER education, open technology infrastructure and open student administration. By prefacing each of these terms with the word “open,” the intent is that each of the components of the OERu model is to be developed openly and collaboratively both among the partner universities, as well as with input more broadly among the educational community. Further, it is intended that the partnership continue to grow and acquire more higher education institutions over time, gradually leading to a robust and sustainable open educational “ecosystem” providing free courses with low-cost services and qualifications. The structure of, and relationship among, these components are represented in the OERu logic model (Figure 2).

Figure 2: OERu logic model

In an elaboration of the high level logic model portrayed earlier in Figure 1, the responsibilities of the OERu and educational institutions in the various open stages are undertaken respectively via open collaboration at the OERu, or individually at their own institutions. These responsibilities are delineated in two central vertical columns. The open collaboration cluster facilitates the components necessary to provide opportunities to learn, while institutional services such as assessment and credentialing are provided individually by participating higher education institution as they are willing and able. Support infrastructure includes the development of sustainable and scalable business models, technology infrastructure and student administration. These components are further elaborated Table 2.

Processes

While the open design and development stage has been selected for this study, as touched upon earlier, all the work done in and around the OERu project is conducted openly. For example, all meetings are held using either open asynchronous forums available to anyone worldwide, or video streaming with remote participation available via microblogs and email, and minutes and other records are placed in the WikiEducator wiki. All content and related discussions are also developed and edited publicly on WikiEducator, with all edits and earlier versions available for study and review by anyone.

As described informally by Stacey, a participant in early OERu planning stages, in a blog post, “. . . all of this has been planned and published openly on Wikieducator with invited and included participation from people all over the world. Got ideas you’d like to contribute to the OERu? Log on to the wiki and add them – input from all is welcome. OERu is not only about opening education; it’s modeling how to do planning and development in an open and inclusive way. For the OERu, open is not just about content – it’s about all aspects of education, it seeks to engage and benefit all people everywhere, it’s a way of working” (2012, n.p.).

Why are we doing this?

What problem are we trying to solve = (Demand for education, Affordable access, improved efficiency etc. contributor Jyoti)

Life long education, non formal education and education as human right.demand of the hour..,contributer Balqis) [ .....enter your contribution here

(Just trying compile resources relevant for this section,before drafting the outline)...I would like to contribute to this area as well, ie technology advances resulting in many types of implementions of it (I would like to add types of open learning materials and methods), the simultaneous need for it from various sources, the shift from authority given education to student or individual taking and organizing

learning.  GENE LOEB


  1. [1]

Why are we doing this?

Enhance Quality & Access

The current academic revolution in higher education has been impelled by four fundamental and interrelated forces: the ‘massification’ of higher education, globalization, advent of knowledge society-including research and information technology which includes distance education (Altbach et al, 2009). These forces have fueled the demand for tertiary education which is likely to grow at a faster rate in the forthcoming years. This would imply establishment of more Universities and simultaneously investing more on infrastructure and employment of human resources, which may not be economically viable for most of the countries round the globe. The rate at which the students and scholars are seeking enrollment for post-secondary or tertiary education, higher education institutions are most likely to face difficulties in coping up with the increasing demands. Especially in today's context, wherein, at the very least, with 2.5 million students, countless scholars, degrees and universities moving about the globe freely, there is a pressing need for international cooperation and agreements (OERu1). Universities will be compelled to consider new ways of supporting tertiary and lifelong learning for all and not simply for those privileged to be enrolled on a campus degree program. Such global demands for access to education and issues of sustainable development of resources will put pressure on institutions to consider sharing and reuse of educational resources (OERu1; Ossiannilsson & Creelman, 2012). The OERu initiative, which is a network of accredited educational institutions will facilitate collaborative approaches, wherein the partnering institutions share, reusing and adapt courses, learning materials based on their context and relevance. There are several courses, research journals and OER available under open licensing provisions, which would be assimilated, integrated and disseminated for academic credit through a centralized system of the OER University. The OERu partners are also collaborating to implement a viable and sustainable education model to widen access to higher education for those learners excluded from the formal system (OERu2).

Recognize Informal Learning

Learning of any kind, formal, non-formal or informal, contributes significantly to an individual’s growth, cognitively, emotionally and socially (Ainsworth & Eaton, 2010). However, higher education institutions have largely focused on formal learning which is intentional, organized and structured. Informal learning, on the other hand, is never organized, and is often considered to be most spontaneous and also referred to as experiential learning. It is unfortunate that, even today qualifications systems in many societies focus on formal learning, as a result a majority part of individual learning viz., informal learning, remains unrecognized or unaccredited (UNESCO Institute for Life Long learning, 2012). In the last decade the OER movement has grown exponentially with their focus largely on creation and publication, while their use in higher education and adult education has not yet reached the critical threshold (Ehlers, 2011; Kanwar, 2011). The OER initiatives have so far been more oriented towards informal non-credit learning or formal credit-based academic offerings rather than informal study by students (Stacey, 2010). The OER University on the other hand, moves a step forward (ahead) to provide appropriate academic recognition from accredited educational institutions, to those learners around the globe, who access digital materials hosted on the Internet and during their process of interaction with the web content, may tend to learn formally as well as informally (OERu1). The OERu initiative will not confer degrees but would work in partnership with accredited educational institutions that provide assessment and credentialisation services on fee-for-service basis (OERu3).

Reduce Cost

Utilizing OERu approaches, institutions can reduce cost and save time required for developing high quality courses with untapped potential to target underserved markets and to diversity curriculum offerings especially for low enrolment courses in a cost-effective way. The marginal cost of replicating digital learning materials is near zero and sharing development costs improves cost efficiencies. Most importantly, it would primarily provide more affordable access to post-secondary education for the estimated 100 million learners in the world who are qualified for a seat in tertiary education today, but due to funding issues or lack of tertiary education provision will not be able to gain credible qualifications (OERu3).

Promote Social Inclusion

This initiative would introduce a greater diversity in accreditation and examinations and also augment and add value to existing post-secondary education provision by creating flexible pathways using open learning materials hosted on the world wide web. It would also enable; - Informal learners to earn credible credentials from accredited higher education institutions. - All learners to earn formal academic credit and pay reduced fees for assessment and credentialisation. - Learners to have improved access to higher education especially those who lack the means of participating institutions.

‘The benefits of open education are clear; not only can it enhance the cost-effectiveness of education and training systems, it helps to reach target groups with limited access to conventional education and training, it promotes innovation and allows greater opportunity for lifelong learning’ (Daniel, 2012). The traditional ways of only valuing the formal learning are becoming outdated and they are replaced by new paradigms which are more- inclusive, flexible and applicable to the real world (Eaton, 2010). It is argued that adoption of OER would further assist the prevailing educational policies to suceed in widening participation and reaching socially excluded groups who have limited access to alternative pathways to higher education. Hence, OERu is a revolution that has the potential to change the landscape of higher education across the globe (Bossu et al, 2012). It is also believed that OER may be the genuine equalizer for education and promoting social inclusion in such a culturally diverse and pluralistic world ( Olcott, 2012).

Education For All

The Need of the hour is a balanced world economy which much basicaly relies and depends on human capital. Human resources can be used as the most strategic capital only through education and investment on future of education.       "Everyone has the right to education (UNESCO 1948)".The free and open access to educational opportunity is a basis human right. When educational materials can be electronically copied and transferred around the world at almost no cost, we have an ethical obligation than ever before to increase the reach of opportunity. When people can connect with others nearby or in distant lands at almost no cost to ask questions, give answers and exchange ideas, the moral imperative to enable these opportunities weighs profoundly. We cannot in good conscience allow this poverty of educational opportunity to continue when educational provisions are so plentiful, and when their duplication and distribution costs so little . Openness is a fundamental value underlying significant changes in society and is a prerequisite to chsnges institutions of higher education need to make in order to remain relevant to the society in which they exist. (Hilton and Wiley (2009).
            The OERu provides a sustainable and scalable model advancing UNESCO 's vision of Education for all(Wikieducator,2012).The OERu curriculum is solely based on Open Educational Resources or OER ,a term coined at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on Open Courseware ,enable learners to access educational materials released under open licence which are free of cost and reusable .ln the words of Mackintosh , the founder of Wikieducator and director of OER foundation,"it  is a return to  the core values of education ,the sharing of knowledge and learning materials"(2009).The OERu network is a low cost ,low  risk but high impact innovation to support education for all using OER(Wikieducator,2012).
1http://wikieducator.org/images/c/c2/Report_OERU-Final-version.pdf 2http://oerfoundation.org/files/OERu/OERu2011-11_Report-A.pdf 3http://wikieducator.org/images/7/7d/OERu.pdf 

How are we doing this?

(Reflections on open design, prototyping eg OCL4Ed workshops and corresponding data - check resources and OERu planing documents here contributor needed please add your name here if you can contribute to this section) .....enter your contribution here (Could we divide this section into materials and methods so that if anyone interested can take up the part they like...as in details about study materials and all.Like to know about everyone's suggestions.Balqis)

What have we found out so far

(OERu context evaluation study, including rationales why institutions have joined perceptions, of educators on open content licensing and OER etc.- check the data for OCL4ED workshops here) contributor - Angela Murphy .....enter your contribution here- 

  • Question- is this where the section on MOOCs and OERu would go? I'd like to tackle that piece  --BettyHD 12:01, 25 July 2012 (UTC)
Betty, at the meeting of founding anchor partners we agreed that we would not prescribe any particular pedagogy for OERu courses. "Authentic" MOOCs are based on connectivist pedagogy -- which can be incorporated into an OERu course, but is not necessarily a generic pedagogy that will be used by all courses. I think we should focus on our relevant experience with large, open and online courses - but would not suggest that these meet the pedagogic requirements of an "authentic" MOOC. We have some data on running large OCL4Ed courses. In short - -yes we should have a subsection on teaching large open and online courses, but in addition we should also include the research work we conducted during the context evaluation survey. --Wayne Mackintosh 00:54, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Recommendations for the future

(future casting contributor needed please add your name here if you can contribute to this section) .....enter your contribution here

I would like to add something here WITH OTHERS. I suggest a group or committee. GENE LOEB Hi Gene, I can contribute as well. Perhaps once we have a coherent first draft we can then work this piece out. Irwin DeVries

References

(APA referencing style required)

Ainsworth, H.L., & Eaton, S.E. (2010). Formal, non-formal and in-formal learning in the sciences. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED511414.pdf

Altbach, P.G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L.E. (2009). Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution. A Report prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education. Paris: UNESCO.

Bossu, C., Bull, D., & Brown, M.(2012). Opening up Down Under: the role of open educational resources in promoting social inclusion in Australia, Distance Education, 33:2, 151-164

Brown, J.S. and Adler, R.O. (2008). Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. Educause Review. 43(1): 16-32. Retrieved from:
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf.

Daniel, J. (2012). The future of (Open) education. Paper presented at UNESCO Bangkok Special Seminar 2012 (No.IV). 24 April 2012. Retrieved from http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2012presentations/Pages/2012-04-24.aspx

Eaton, S.E. (2010). Formal, non-formal and informal learning: The case of literacy, essential skills and language learning in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED508254.pdf

Ehlers, U. (2011). From open educational resources to Open Educational Practices. Retrieved from http://www.elearningeuropa.info/en/article/From-Open-Educational-Resources-to-Open-Educational-Practices.

Kanwar, A. (2011). Open Educational Resources: Lessons from the COL Experience. Keynote address (via video) to OER Africa, 16–18 May 2011. Retrieved from http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2011presentation/Pages/2011-05-16b.aspx

Lane, A.B. (2008). Widening participation in education through open educational resources. In T. Ilyoshi & M.S.V. Kumar (Eds), Opening up education: The collective advancement of education through open technology, open content, and open knowledge (pp. 149-163). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Retrieved from

http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262033712chap10.pdf.

Olcott Jr., D. (2012).OER perspectives: emerging issues for universities, Distance Education, 33:2, 283-290.

Ossiannilsson, E., & Creelman, A. (2012). From proprietary to personalized higher education- how OER takes universities outside the comfort zone. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society. 8(1). 9-22.

Siemens, G. and Conole, G.(2011) Special Issue - Connectivism: Design and Delivery of Social Networked Learning, Editorial, IRRODL Vol 12, No 3 (2011), Retrieved from

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/994/1820

Stacey, P. (2010): Foundation Funded OER vs. Tax Payer Funded OER - A Tale of Two Mandates. In Open ED 2010 Proceedings. Barcelona: UOC, OU, BYU. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10609/5241.

UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. (2012). UNESCO Guidelines for the recognition, validation and accreditation of the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning. Germanly: UIL. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002163/216360e.pdf

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J.(2009).Openness, dynamic specialization, and the disaggregated future of higher education. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 10(5).Retrieved from http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/IR,160


Draft content outline

  • Abstract
  • Introduction (OERu logic model, planning and development of prototype)
  • Underlying philosophy/principles of openness
    • Social Flexibility - Diverse Cultures
    • Economic Feasibility - Cost Benefits
  • Difference from other emerging OER models
    • Research Perspectives
  • Thoughts on the possible range of intended learner and motivations
  • Key elements of prototype delivery model
    • Content (collection of existing re purposed OER)
      • Quality Management System
    • Learning space - interface:
      • wikieducator - content and formative assessment activities
      • LMS Moodle - for main course communication and extended learner interactions / discussions
      • MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and OERu
      • Social media (Twitter, Identica and WEnotes) - for communication and learner interactions
      • AskBot for support general and technical
    • Facilitation
    • Sustainability
  • Evaluation of the prototype

(data from the 3 instances of OCL4Ed - about participation, scale, etc. plus data from surveys and tracking of use of the key elements)

  • Conclusion
  • References

Ideas

  • We should watch out that the article isn't just a description of the OERu and its various facets. We could make it more compelling by building in a storyline of some kind. For instance:
    • Theme 1: how we intend to address the problems faced by students around the world in terms of costs of education --Vinod Kumar Kanvaria; Mbasu 07:30, 20 July 2012 (UTC) or
    • Theme 2: focus on the collaborative efforts by dedicated partners in an open manner to come up with an alternative model, and what has driven them to participate.

There is some good drama here. Please add your vote for one of the 2 themes by adding your signature next to it.

I think both of these points could be raised in a discussion of the OERu. Theme 1 relates to "What is open education" (drawing on Wayne's structure below), and theme 2 relates to "Why are we doing this" and "How are we doing this". Given that the OERu is a groundbreaking international initiative that is not yet known to many, and since it is well advanced but still a work-in-progress, it addresses the call for submissions very well. We can't hope to address any really broad area in sufficient depth in 3,00 words, but we can provide a useful (and needed) report on the OERu (what, why, how, where to) backed up by relevant research. Mark McGuire

I agree with Mark that the paper should focus on both the themes, but with larger emphasis on the later, since accessibility and feasibility are some of the principles of OERu and the approach that facilitates this achievement is the operational framework of the OERu. Jyoti Bawane

I agree that all the above-mentioned points are relevent and l still have doubts if l can include a future perspective (as Wayne mentioned ) of what and how OERu practices can make radical changes in the educational scenario of a particular place (where it is not currently implemented)which has a high literacy rate and high population of students finishing the secondary education per year to go to college plus a large number of life long learners.The main focus being on how OERu can change the situation and what problems it has to face here now.Would this be applicable as a theme suggested in the articles in the open praxis page.l think it goes with suggestions from Vinod and Wayne but not as Mark's second point that is how it worked but as how it will work .Balqis Thaahaveettil

I would also refrain from these themes and agree with remarks of Wayne.

I see this work from varied perspectives and see it as a massive undertaking and influence upon future learning.  A main focus should be on enabling adaptability in a variety of situations. If there is any theme, it is that technology, the web, and creative ideas have led to new learning and the expanding desire for new educational resources internationally and from unlimited sources. I see this research and paper giving a clear direction to this effort. The following comments by Wayne, especially "considering the reader" are very useful.  GENE LOEB

Review comments

Thoughts and reflections from --Wayne Mackintosh 23:22, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

A great list of ideas incorporated in the draft outline, many of which could be articles in their own right. In think its important to consider the target audience, i.e the readership of open praxis which will be academics and researchers with an interest in open education and distance learning. The levels of knowledge about the OERu initiative are likely to be relatively low among this audience, judging by the survey results of the UK OERu study. I think it is important to address the key objectives stated and perhaps an alternate structural outline will serve these purposes better. For example:

  • What is open education -- ie providing the theoretical framework or constructs informing the OERu development.
  • What is the OERu (Concept, History, Logic model, Partners etc.)
  • Why are we doing this? What problem are we trying to solve. (Demand for education, Affordable access, improved efficiency etc.)
  • How are we doing this? (Reflections on open design, prototyping (eg OCL4Ed workshops and corresponding data) etc.
  • What have we found out so far (OERu context evaluation study, including rationales why institutions have joined perceptions, of educators on open content licensing and OER etc. We have the data.)
  • Recommendations for the future - i.e future casting.)

I would like to edit an article about OER in primary schools. I can develop an write about an experience in a rural departement in France in which the teachers were involved in OER productions and diffusion. I can also write a synthesis about OER and open education state in France, and the projects that I proposed for the creation of ecosystems for trainers and teachers. Michèle Drechsler

Published reference resources

Other OER articles

Creation, sharing and using of free educational resources for which models of educational practices? Project at primary schools in a rural department in France presented and written by Michèle DRECHSLER for an Open Praxis publication.

Links to data

All survey data collected by the OERF is open data (public domain or CC-BY)

Fair and reasonableness practice survey

Suggest combining the data of the three survey's -- This provides evidence of what educators deem fair and reasonable with reference to sharing of teaching materials.

OCL4Ed workshop evaluations

Useful data highlighting preferred technologies as well as evidence of learning. (OCL4Ed delivery model is a prototype for the OERu delivery model).

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