scholarly journals Evolving Access to Educational Materials

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Michael Paskevicius
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Selection Criterion ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Fitness For Purpose ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Complex Ecosystem ◽  
Online Learning Resources ◽  
Selection Of

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the ways in which the selection of educational materials results in implications that impact access to these materials. This is necessary considering the evolving nature of educational materials offered by traditional publishers, and the increase in the availability of online learning materials, among those, open educational resources. I begin by reviewing the existing literature on emerging problems and barriers to learners’ access to educational materials including textbooks, online learning resources, and open educational resources. The findings from the literature review confirm that learners are now engaging with an increasingly complex ecosystem of educational materials, both print and digital, in a multitude of differing forms and formats, with various terms of use and durations of sustained access. Educators have a variety of choices to make when considering the educational materials to be used in their courses, and while fitness for purpose still dominates as the most important selection criterion, ease and persistence of access are becoming important considerations. A model which encapsulates the findings considering the variety of educational materials is presented alongside a discussion about the specific considerations for each.

ACCESS TO EDUCATION WITH ONLINE LEARNING AND OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: CAN THEY CLOSE THE GAP?

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Geith ◽  
Karen Vignare
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Global Education ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
Education Gap ◽  
The Right ◽  
Compare And Contrast

One of the key concepts in the right to education is access: access to the means to fully develop as human beings as well as access to the means to gain skills, knowledge and credentials. This is an important perspective through which to examine the solutions to access enabled by Open Educational Resources (OER) and online learning. The authors compare and contrast OER and online learning and their potential for addressing human rights “to” and “in” education. The authors examine OER and online learning growth and financial sustainability and discuss potential scenarios to address the global education gap.

scholarly journals Designing an online learning environment on Open Educational Resources for science education

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Shironica Karunanayaka ◽  
Chandana Fernando ◽  
Vajira de Silva
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Online Learning Environment ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Course Content

The concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) is a major breakthrough in education, which promotes sharing, adaptation and contextualisation of course content. Promotion of using OER can be very cost effective, since development of new course content would be both expensive and time consuming. However, awareness raising and capacity building of teachers and learners is crucial, in order to exploit the full potential of OER.The Faculty of Education at the Open University of Sri Lanka, initiated a research project to create an Online Learning Environment (OLE) on OER for science education, witha view to raise awareness, develop competencies and enhance adapting, adoption and creation of OER by teachers. This is developed in Moodle Learning Management System, as a supplementary material for science teachers enrolled in a distance mode professional development programme. The research team, together with a group of science teachers and teacher educators, who are their students, is engaged in this action research conducted in several stages: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. This paper discusses the first three stages, concerning the following objectives: to identify sources of OER for science education, to make key design decisions of the OLE, and to design and develop the OLE on OER for science education.The analysis of need, learner, task and context, resulted in making decisions on information, instruction, interaction and interface design. Some initial design decisions are: Structuring of information on finding, using and creating OER related to teaching science, while making it relevant and meaningful for teachers; Use of exploratory instructional strategies enabling teachers to select OER; Incorporate frequent interactions encouraging teachers to adopt, adapt, create and share OER; and Use of different media elements to make the visual layout motivating. A prototype will be pilot tested with science teachers with a view to revise and improve the OLE on OER. Allowing student teachers/teacher educators to work collaboratively with their instructors, as a team, enable both parties to face challenges together, in this novel experience of designing and developing an OLE on OER.

scholarly journals Open Education for a Better World: A Mentoring Programme Fostering Design and Reuse of Open Educational Resources for Sustainable Development Goals

Open Praxis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Urbančič ◽  
Anja Polajnar ◽  
Mitja Jermol
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Open Education ◽  
Online Mentoring ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Development Goals

An international online mentoring programme Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) has been developed to unlock the potential of open education in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The programme provides an innovative approach to building Open Educational Resources, connecting developers of educational materials with experts volunteering as mentors. The model of the programme has been carefully designed and tested in two subsequent implementations in years 2018 and 2019. Results have proved the model to be useful for building capacities in open education, while producing concrete educational materials with great potential for social impact. Analysis of results has been used to suggest further improvements needed for enabling the program to be used on an even larger scale. The paper presents the development of the OE4BW model, its main characteristics, implementation results and guidelines for the future.

Die Creative Commons-Lizenzen 4.0

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Horlacher
Keyword(s):  
Educational Equity ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Framework Conditions ◽  
Suitable Framework

The thesis examines the Creative Commons Licenses 4.0 and the CC Zero 1.0 license using the example of granting rights of use for university teaching. It analyses to what extent these model license agreements are compatible with the requirements of German copyright and contract law and whether they create suitable framework conditions for rights of use materials for educational materials that meet the goals of the Open Educational Resources movement. Open Educational Resources are seen by education policy actors as a tool to facilitate access to high-quality educational materials and thus contribute to educational equity.

Integrating Open Educational Resources Into Undergraduate Business Courses

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-358
Author(s):  
Reneta P. Barneva ◽  
Valentin E. Brimkov ◽  
Federico Gelsomini ◽  
Kamen Kanev ◽  
Lisa Walters
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Business Courses ◽  
Creative Commons

Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials with an open license so that they can be freely copied, modified, and reused. While the rising cost of textbooks is a concern in higher education, over 50% of the surveyed educators stated that they are unaware of the OER and how they could replace the traditional textbooks. In addition, not many instructors understand the Creative Commons licenses under which OER can be used. In this work, we consider the types of OER and outline the sources of OER for business courses. We describe our experience of using such resources for innovative business courses and discuss the choices we made and the lessons learned. Finally, we share the results of surveys about OER we conducted with students and reflect on them.

scholarly journals On the Efficacy of Open Educational Resources

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huimei Delgado ◽  
Michael Delgado ◽  
John Hilton III
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Exam Performance ◽  
Pell Grant ◽  
Large Sample Size ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Open educational resources (OER), which are free and openly licensed educational materials, have been a widely discussed topic in response to high textbook costs, the need for more pedagogical flexibility, and inequality in access to educational materials. In this study we examine the efficacy of OER through a quantitative analysis of the impact of OER on student final exam performance in a large calculus course. Our dataset affords us a relatively large sample size, allows us to classify students in both treatment and control groups, and includes a variety of covariates that allow us to control for multiple correlated factors. We estimate causal treatment effects using several econometric approaches. Our study adds the following insights into the research on OER efficacy: (i) OER materials do not, in general, lead to any significant change in student final exam performance; and (ii) OER materials have a significantly positive impact on both international students and Pell Grant eligible students.

Flipping the Passive Radiology Elective by Including Active Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 084653712095390
Author(s):  
Yuhao Wu ◽  
Christina Theoret ◽  
Brent Edward Burbridge
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Electronic Book ◽  
Clinical Imaging ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Online Learning Resources ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Self Learning

Objectives: Exposure to radiology in undergraduate medical education is often restricted by other curriculum demands. Designing an effective radiology elective for medical students who choose to supplement their education can be challenging as it is often a passive observership-style elective. In this study, we examined the impact of incorporating an online learning platform and electronic book into radiology electives to stimulate active learning. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 23 students who pursued a 2-week diagnostic radiology elective at our institution. Their radiology knowledge prior to the elective was assessed using 2 pretests. Students had opportunities to work with radiologists to review clinical imaging, attend academic rounds, and learn from the online learning resources. Their knowledge after the elective was assessed by readministering the 2 tests as “posttests.” Students also ranked their perception of the elective experience and educational resources on a Likert scale from 1 to 5. Results: There were statistically significant increases of 13.4% ( P < .0001) in mean test 1 scores and 6.8% in mean test 2 scores ( P = .001). Students also had favorable perceptions of the radiology elective experience and rated the electronic book (median score: 5 of 5) and online learning platform (4.5 of 5) as valuable educational resources. Conclusion: The implementation of an electronic book and online learning platform improved knowledge in radiology and resulted in positive student perceptions of the elective experience. This supports the use of online resources to facilitate independent self-learning for future radiology electives.

Use of Open Educational Resources and Print Educational Materials by Federal College of Education Katsina, Nigeria: A Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rufai Danmusa Gambo ◽  
Sani Masanawa Aliyu
Keyword(s):  
Research Work ◽  
College Of Education ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Ease Of Access ◽  
Descriptive Survey

<p align="center">This research work investigates the usage of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Print Educational Materials by the students of Federal College of Education Katsina, Nigeria. Using descriptive survey, 358 students were sampled as respondents. The research find out that while print section still remain relevant, an alarming negative attitudes by the students toward print educational materials have been found. Factors including students’ learning needs and interest, infrastructural decay, outdated books stocks, under equipped nature of the print sections and the unfriendly attitudes of the librarians toward clients are responsible this attitudes. However, OER enjoy an overwhelming patronage of students. The unrestricted nature of open educational resources coupled with its ease of access, freeness, proximity, relevance and IT infrastructural advancements are what make it an educational hotcake of the time. Better funding of education, inculcation of reading culture in younger generation, massive development of print materials into open educational resources and in-service training of library staff has been recommended. </p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Openness in higher education

2018 ◽  
Vol 325 ◽  
pp. 227-234
Author(s):  
Tatiana Chiriac
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Massive Online Open Courses ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Open Courses ◽  
Constructivist Approaches

The purpose of this study is to analyze the phenomenon of openness in higher education and its trends and technologies of expanding educational opportunities in the digital information society of Moldovan universities. The main concepts of openness in education are associated with the practice of online learning and constructivist approaches, technical optimization of delivering information, continuous professional development and globalization of higher education. Since skilled knowledge becomes the main value of the market, then higher education perspective as a tool of knowledge reproduction is transformed into the basic space of openness and accommodation to innovative use of educational resources. The key issues related to openness in order to impact higher education target the development of Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as implication of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), relatively new online learning trend. There are institutional practices of the adoption and use of open education technologies in some international universities and organizations, which could be extended as well to create an open learning system in the Republic of Moldova, focusing on national practices of education. Openness of Moldovan HEIs is a strategic choice for the future in a rapidly changing educational market that should proliferate.

scholarly journals Open Educational Resources in the Development of Digital Learning Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 144-155
Author(s):  
N. V. Dneprovskaya ◽  
I. V. Shevtsova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Training Course ◽  
Russian Universities

During the period of the forced transition of universities around the world to the online education, the demand for digital free access services has grown. A unique opportunity has appeared to supplement and develop the theoretical and methodological provisions of online learning based on the analysis of the empirical results that characterize the relevance and effectiveness of the digital environment parts. The educational materials free available at the Internet are the part of the digital environment, which are combined into the concept of open educational resources (OER). The purpose of the study is to assess the relevance of OER for faculty, systematize the main ways of working with them, identify the motives and barriers for the development of OER by faculty. The study conducted among the lecturers at Russian universities showed the high importance and value of OER for their teaching and methodological activities to create and develop the training course content in digital environment. More than half of the faculty staff create and distribute their copyright materials on the Internet on their own initiative for the convenience of their students. The faculty and students freely exchange educational materials using a variety of web services. In conditions of increasing demands on faculty and content of training-course, OER is a valuable resource for educational activities. The analysis of the regulatory framework revealed a lack of OER policy in Russian universities, which is one of the barriers for lecturers to create OER. The results of the study made it possible to develop recommendations for the development of OER in the field of higher education: consolidate the concept of OER in the regulatory framework of education, provide methodological and legal support for the creation and use of OER by faculty, and conduct an information campaign to reveal the prospects and advantages of using OER in higher education.

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