scholarly journals Open Educational Practices in Australia: A First-phase National Audit of Higher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Stagg ◽  
Linh Nguyen ◽  
Carina Bossu ◽  
Helen Partridge ◽  
Johanna Funk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
Open Educational Practice ◽  
Australian Universities

For fifteen years, Australian Higher Education has engaged with the openness agenda primarily through the lens of open-access research. Open educational practice (OEP), by contrast, has not been explicitly supported by federal government initiatives, funding, or policy. This has led to an environment that is disconnected, with isolated examples of good practice that have not been transferred beyond local contexts.This paper represents first-phase research in identifying the current state of OEP in Australian Higher Education. A structured desktop audit of all Australian universities was conducted, based on a range of indicators and criteria established by a review of the literature. The audit collected evidence of engagement with OEP using publicly accessible information via institutional websites. The criteria investigated were strategies and policies, open educational resources (OER), infrastructure tools/platforms, professional development and support, collaboration/partnerships, and funding.Initial findings suggest that the experience of OEP across the sector is diverse, but the underlying infrastructure to support the creation, (re)use, and dissemination of resources is present. Many Australian universities have experimented with, and continue to refine, massive open online course (MOOC) offerings, and there is increasing evidence that institutions now employ specialist positions to support OEP, and MOOCs. Professional development and staff initiatives require further work to build staff capacity sector-wide.This paper provides a contemporary view of sector-wide OEP engagement in Australia—a macro-view that is not well-represented in open research to date. It identifies core areas of capacity that could be further leveraged by a national OEP initiative or by national policy on OEP.

scholarly journals Questions of quality in repositories of open educational resources: a literature review

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javiera Atenas ◽  
Leo Havemann
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
Open Educational Practice ◽  
Economic Barriers ◽  
Social Media Tools

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials which are freely available and openly licensed. Repositories of OER (ROER) are platforms that host and facilitate access to these resources. ROER should not just be designed to store this content – in keeping with the aims of the OER movement, they should support educators in embracing open educational practices (OEP) such as searching for and retrieving content that they will reuse, adapt or modify as needed, without economic barriers or copyright restrictions. This paper reviews key literature on OER and ROER, in order to understand the roles ROER are said or supposed to fulfil in relation to furthering the aims of the OER movement. Four themes which should shape repository design are identified, and the following 10 quality indicators (QI) for ROER effectiveness are discussed: featured resources; user evaluation tools; peer review; authorship of the resources; keywords of the resources; use of standardised metadata; multilingualism of the repositories; inclusion of social media tools; specification of the creative commons license; availability of the source code or original files. These QI form the basis of a method for the evaluation of ROER initiatives which, in concert with considerations of achievability and long-term sustainability, should assist in enhancement and development.Keywords: open educational resources; open access; open educational practice; repositories; quality assurance(Published: 24 July 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 20889 -http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.20889

scholarly journals The potential role of Open Educational Practice policy in transforming Australian higher education

Open Praxis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Bossu ◽  
Adrian Stagg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
International Policies ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
Open Educational Practice

Open Educational Practices (OEP) have played an important role in assisting educational institutions and governments worldwide to meet their current and future educational targets in widening participation, lowering costs, improving the quality of learning and teaching and promoting social inclusion and participatory democracy. There have been some important OEP developments in Australia, but unfortunately the potential of OEP to meet some of the national educational targets has not been fully realised and acknowledged yet, in ways that many countries around the world have. This paper will gather, discuss, and analyse some key national and international policies and documentation available as an attempt to provide a solid foundation for a call to action for OEP in Australia, which will hopefully be an instrument to assist and connect practitioners and policy makers in higher education.

Toward an Open Empowered Learning Model of Pedagogy in Higher Education

2016 ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Smyth ◽  
Carina Bossu ◽  
Adrian Stagg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
Opening Up

This chapter will explore some of the emerging trends in higher education worldwide brought by opening up education, including open educational resources (OER), open educational practices (OEP) and massive open online courses (MOOCs). These trends are transforming and challenging the traditional values and structures of universities, including curriculum design, pedagogies, and approaches to recognise and accredit learning assisted by OEP. We will also reflect on ways in which OEP, open ecosystems and the recognition of open learning experiences can further support learners, educators and educational institutions. In doing so, we will revise and re-work a learner centred model (Smyth, 2011) to incorporate some of the current transformation brought by openness. The revised model, called Open Empowered Learning Model, will prompt discussion on alternative ways in which learners, educators and educational institutions could take full advantage of these new trends.

scholarly journals Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Cronin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Educational Practices ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Teaching Role ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Open Educational Practices

<p class="3">Open educational practices (OEP) is a broad descriptor of practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER) as well as open pedagogies and open sharing of teaching practices. As compared with OER, there has been little empirical research on individual educators’ use of OEP for teaching in higher education. This research study addresses that gap, exploring the digital and pedagogical strategies of a diverse group of university educators, focusing on whether, why, and how they use OEP for teaching. The study was conducted at one Irish university; semi-structured interviews were carried out with educators across multiple disciplines. Only a minority of educators used OEP. Using constructivist grounded theory, a model of the concept “Using OEP for teaching” was constructed showing four dimensions shared by open educators: balancing privacy and openness, developing digital literacies, valuing social learning, and challenging traditional teaching role expectations. The use of OEP by educators is complex, personal, and contextual; it is also continually negotiated. These findings suggest that research-informed policies and collaborative and critical approaches to openness are required to support staff, students, and learning in an increasingly complex higher education environment.</p>

scholarly journals Navigating the Open Educational Practice Landscape

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Weller
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Open Education ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Growth Area ◽  
Open Educational Practice ◽  
Open Textbooks

Open education is an evolving term that covers a range of philosophies and practices aimed at widening access to education for those wishing to learn, with the current focus predominantly on practices based around reuse and sharing. This current focus can be traced back to the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, and the use of open licences, such as Creative Commons licences. However, it also has links to open universities, open access publishing, MOOCs, open source software and open approaches to teaching.The current interpretation of open education is heavily influenced by the OER movement with an emphasis on the ‘5Rs of reuse’ (Reuse, Revise Remix, Redistribute and Retain - Wiley 2014). The profile of open education has been further raised in recent years by the popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Although they do not always meet the 5Rs criteria, MOOCs are open to all and freely available, and have gained considerable attention and funding. Another growth area is that of open textbooks, which can be viewed as a specific form of OER, and is particularly prevalent in North America through projects such as OpenStax and BC Campus

scholarly journals Participation in OER Creation: A Trajectory of Values

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Erin Meger ◽  
Michelle Schwartz ◽  
Wendy Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Educational Practice ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Open Educational Resource ◽  
Educational Resource ◽  
Government Grants ◽  
Teaching Support ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
Open Educational Practice ◽  
Resource Creation ◽  
Open Textbooks

This paper provides an analysis of interviews with seven faculty members who engaged in creating Open textbooks funded by government grants at a university in Canada in 2018. Using four values—access and equity, community and connection, agency and ownership, and risk and responsibility—identified by Sinkinson (2018), McAndrew (2018), and Keyek-Fransen (2018), we traced the ways in which university faculty members’ understanding of Open changed through the process of Open Educational Resource creation. As a teaching support-focused unit, we explore ways to provide our faculty and instructors with meaningful opportunities to develop their Open pedagogy. These findings reconceive the way that Open Educational Practice can be promoted at our University and others. Instead of focusing solely on OER creation, our faculty started engaging in thinking through the different conceptions of Open educational practice and identifying which concepts resonated with them. By reframing the ways in which faculty thought about Open Educational Practices, we have been better able to address the ways in which we support them.

scholarly journals A Case Study of Applying Open Educational Practices in Higher Education during COVID-19: Impacts on Learning Motivation and Perceptions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9129
Author(s):  
Xiangling Zhang ◽  
Ahmed Tlili ◽  
Ronghuai Huang ◽  
Tingwen Chang ◽  
Daniel Burgos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Educational Practices ◽  
Open Education ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
The Impact

Open Educational Resources (OER) have been researched for a long time in the open education field. Researchers are now shifting their focus from resources to practices for delivering open education, an area called Open Educational Practices (OEP). However, there is little information in the related literature regarding the design of an OEP-based course or the impact of these types of courses. Therefore, this study designs a new OEP-based course at a public university for teaching family education during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also investigates its impact on learning motivation and teachers’ perceptions. In this context, a practical pilot experiment using both qualitative and quantitative methods was conducted. Specifically, 36 learners participated in this experiment. The obtained findings highlight: (1) an innovative design framework for OEP-based courses that teachers can refer to in their contexts; (2) that learners had a high motivation level in terms of knowledge achievements, individual connection and engagement when taking the OEP-based course; and (3) several advantages and challenges of the OEP-based course from the teacher’s and learners’ perspectives. For instance, the teacher reported the fear of losing control over the learning process when applying OEP. The findings of this paper can help researchers and educators in adopting OEP in higher education especially in times of crises, as well as increase the sustainability of OEP, hence contributing to open education development.

scholarly journals Kompetence vysokoškolských učitelů pro udržitelný rozvoj – analýza situace v regionu střední a východní Evropy

Envigogika ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Dlouhá ◽  
Jiří Dlouhý
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
European Countries ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Transdisciplinary Approach ◽  
The University

Debates relevant to sustainability oriented teaching at higher education level anticipate the necessary transitions in curricula. In order to depict the overall ESD related transformation of university teaching, the authors examined (pre–requisites for the development of) university educators’ competences in 13 countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, and compared these findings with those from other European countries (similar in some aspects). The situation was analysed in a survey where national policy conditions for ESD at HE level were examined, and competences were outlined within good practice case studies according to the UNECE framework. The results show some deficits in professional development of university educators, where attention to competences is missing in general, and in the field of ESD in particular. In consequence, ESD approaches and principles are applied less frequently in this part of Europe.From a broader point of view it was observed that opportunities for competence development at HE level exist but are unevenly distributed across countries. For support of professional development of university educators in the field of ESD competences, understanding of environmental education versus ESD is an important factor, and also acceptance of an inter– or transdisciplinary perspective. The authors argue that disciplinarianism is a deeply rooted part of academic culture in all post–socialist CEE countries, while for sustainability a transdisciplinary approach and the wider involvement of stakeholders is crucially needed. The context of the presented research is the University Educators for Sustainable Development (UE4SD) project where 53 partners from 33 European countries collaborate to identify the best ways to develop university educators’ competences in sustainability teaching. The outcomes of this project are briefly introduced in the article.

scholarly journals Increasing access to professional learning for academic staff through open educational resources and authentic design

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-66
Author(s):  
Gail Wilson ◽  
◽  
Paula Myatt ◽  
Jonathan Purdy ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
Personal Reflections

This research examines the design and delivery of a new Foundations of University Teaching Practice (FUTP) program delivered through asynchronous online modules. The freedom to choose defines the new momentum of openness in distance and open learning. University teaching staff expect quality resources to support their professional development within the reality of limited time for learning and a desire for increased accessibility. Openness and increased access bring both opportunities and challenges. This paper uses mixed methods to examine the FUTP from the perspectives of both the designers and the academic staff who participated in the program. Using personal reflections, focus groups, a survey, and interviews, we explore those opportunities and challenges within the context of the design and delivery of the program and report on the findings. Our research confirmed the value of openness and increased access to professional learning in higher education

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document