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

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.

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 110-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Тю V. Dneprovskaya ◽  
I. V. Shevtsova

The purpose of the study is to identify and justify the modern perspectives of open educational resources (OER) for higher education in Russia. The methodology includes study of initiatives, services, OER tools in Russia and abroad, evaluation of OER development factors. The authors have conducted a survey of university lecturers, processing of the results using statistical methods of analysis. The following prospects for the development and use of OER in higher education are identified: 1) further dissemination of free access to educational materials through the involvement of a wider range of universities; 2) improving the quality of educational materials in the context of expanding access to them; 3) extension of electronic educational environment, since OER are not tied to specific tools or technologies, and may be distributed in social media, mobile applications. The study of international and Russian practice has shown that OER provide methodological support primarily to university lecturers, allowing them to study the best practices of education leaders, to handle OER in accordance with the educational objectives of their courses and the students’ requirements and expectation. As a result of the survey, it was found that 60% of lecturers at Russian universities distribute their own educational materials on the Internet during the educational process for the convenience of students.


Author(s):  
Vanesa F. Guzmán Parra ◽  
José Roberto Vila Oblitas

Por su importancia en la generación de recursos educativos abiertos, el presente trabajo expone el caso del proyecto OpenCourseWare, iniciativa por la que las universidades dan acceso abierto a los contenidos de sus asignaturas. Un OpenCourseWare es una publicación digital gratuita y abierta de materiales educativos de alta calidad organizados en cursos o asignaturas, a los que se le da acceso abierto para su uso y reutilización según una licencia Creative Commons.A pesar de que muchísimas instituciones de Educación Superior han apostado por el proyecto OpenCourseWare para promover generación y transmisión del conocimiento, sin embargo es un movimiento aún desconocido para los estudiantes como en este estudio hemos podido comprobar.Open educational resources and use of internet in higher education: OpenCourseWare projectAbstractThis paper analyzes the concept of open educational resources and describes the OpenCourseWare project which aims at providing free access to the contents of higher education courseware. OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital source of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. It is available for use and adaptation under an open license, such as Creative Commons license, and it does not typically provide certification or access to university.Although a number of universities have created OCW projects for the generation and transmission of knowledge, the idea is still unknown to students. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-358
Author(s):  
Reneta P. Barneva ◽  
Valentin E. Brimkov ◽  
Federico Gelsomini ◽  
Kamen Kanev ◽  
Lisa Walters

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.


Author(s):  
Nick Kelly ◽  
Rory Sie ◽  
Robert Schuwer

The higher education sector is changing alongside developments in information technology. This chapter describes the increased inclusivity the internet has facilitated and functions of the university in determining quality of educators, learners and educational resources. It explains a tension between increased inclusivity and the function of determining quality in two higher education developments: open educational resources (OERs) and massive open online courses (MOOC). An example of the development of quality within an OER repository is described. Wikiwijs is an online space for OERs that has been experimenting with ways to provide quality alongside increased inclusivity so that teachers from primary to university level can find, use and adapt learning materials. Potential higher education futures with even greater inclusivity are discussed. Areas for further innovation in distributing determination of quality in higher education are described.


2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-170
Author(s):  
G. Sarzhanova ◽  
◽  
A. Toleuzhan ◽  
S. Turbaeva ◽  
◽  
...  

The article discusses the importance of using open educational resources (OER) and the need to use the technology for the development of speaking skills in the foreign language as well. The concept of OER first emerged in the 1990s and Open Educational Resources Movement announced in 2001 that MIT's entire course catalog was being put online and the project was going to be launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002. This technology has a number of advantages. For example, the use of OER provides free access to textbooks, allows maximizing time efficiently, increases the interest and motivation of students and helps teachers transform classes. However, it is difficult to deny the existence of some problems regarding OER. The main disadvantages include the quality of the educational resource and the lack of Internet access in all regions of the world. But shortcomings are a ‘temporary issue’ and in the future OER will be adapted in all countries of the world to a greater extent. It will be productive to develop foreign language speech skills using OER, since it allows students to acquire new knowledge more quickly and effectively. The developments of such skills will undoubtedly occurre directly as a result of the continuing use of various authentic materials and the frequent use of these materials by foreign language teachers in the classes is a topical issue. As a result, teachers may encounter problems related to lack of suitable language teaching materials. An important condition for solving the problem is the use of OER, which helps the teacher to develop students’ required skills in the learning process.


2018 ◽  
Vol 325 ◽  
pp. 479-490
Author(s):  
Roza Dumbraveanu

Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are facing a number of problems during the last decades: the need to update the curricula to make it compatible with the similar ones from other national and European universities; demand to update the content and the pedagogical approach due to knowledge, technological and research development. Open Educational Resources (OER) might be a sound strategy for institutions to meet these challenges. At the same time OER are themselves one of the challenges that the teachers are faced with. OER could be implemented in courses in different ways, depending on the types of OER and the educational philosophy adopted by the teachers. The paper describes some challenges for implementing Open Educational Resources by teachers in Higher Education in Moldova: the level of awareness on availability and usage of OER; fair use matters; quality assurance of resources; pedagogical approaches for implementing OER into teaching and learning. The paper also grasps the issues of the digital divide that emerge when investigating these challenges. The judgment is based on the literature analysis and on the author’s teaching experience within courses for initial and continuous professional teachers’ training.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-12
Author(s):  
Kamarudin Hussin

The advancement of technology in higher education is always perceived as a valuable innovation that create better impact to the society. The advent of the Internet for instance, has magnificently created important features in learning environment globally. Higher education community optimizes the Internet as an essential resource, communication platforms and dynamic tools in their core teaching-learning, research, consultation activities, entertainment and many others. Moreover, innovations such as mobile technology has successfully broadened access to the Internet and related online services and facilities. Higher education institutions as the hub for technology development and innovation have invested in virtual learning environment to support current needs of global population. Related to this fact, e- learning modules and contents are offered across universities, and interested learners in public communities are benefited by this opportunity. Educators and experts in higher education institutions are delivering their knowledge, discoveries and expertise via e-learning platforms and other supported technology. Equally important, e-learning has successfully expanded opportunities for lifelong and flexible learning, and offered a solution for practical issues and increasing student numbers. As a matter of fact, e-learning has been proposed as a promising way out for many complex issues such asfunding constraints, increasing demand and access to higher education while improving quality and high impact educational provisions in many countries. While addressing these issues, higher education administrators, educators, researchers and policy makers have developed responses in various frameworks. Initiatives such as Competency-Based Online Programs, development of open source materials, flipped classroom and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have contributed towards reducing cost of higher education as well as increasing access to higher education. MOOCs technology has proven its capability to reach massive audienceof about 30,000 students at a time. Across the globe, MOOCs offer free access to online course lectures, self- paced lessons, readings, problem sets, blogs, discussion boards, peer assessment and even online discussion group platforms for global students (Leon and Price, 2016). In 2017, MOOCs offered more than 9,400 courses with more than 500 MOOC based credentials according to data gathered by Class Central. Excitingly, MOOC platforms have recorded more than 81 million learners to date (Class Central, 2017).  


Open Praxis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Urbančič ◽  
Anja Polajnar ◽  
Mitja Jermol

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.


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