Mapping has emerged as a key tool for building collective understanding of the world of OER. The UNESCO mapping initiative began with a period of collaboration between the Athabasca University OER mapping project and the OLnet project (OLnet 2012a) at The Open University, (a partner institution of the UNESCO Chairs in OER). The Athabasca Learning Chair in OER was created to promote institutional, national and regional adoption of OER. Over three weeks almost 900 members of the Athabasca OER community discussed and reflected on the potential use of an OER map (D’Antoni, 2012). This led to a wider period of consultation which gave rise to a simple metadata structure which was refined for the purpose of mapping evidence. While the description was never used to implement a full mapping service the approach has remained in the consciousness of the OER movement and there remain a recognized need for an OER map. OER Impact Map (2014) is a custom Wordpress build which has been adapted for easy customization and bespoke post types. We are therefore able to publish information (currently limited to projects, policies and evidence but which could in future include repositories, experts, educators, funders, etc.) that is structured consistently and in ways which help users to search and filter to find the content which is relevant to them. Central to this approach are visual representations of the data which can be an effective support for navigating complex information and seeing underlying patterns of OER impact.

1. OER Impact: Collaboration,
Evidence, Synthesis
Dr. Rob Farrow
The Open University

2. Structure
OER Research Hub
Collaborative Research
Evidence Model
Synthesis: Mapping and Curation
OER Impact Map

3. please tweet to #oermap

4. • Research project at The Open University (UK)
• Funded by William & Flora Hewlett Foundation for two years
• Research team led by two professors
• Tasked with building the most comprehensive picture of OER impact
• Organised by eleven research hypotheses
• Collaboration model works across different educational sectors
• Global reach but with a USA focus
OER Research Hub
oerresearchhub.org
#oerrhub

5. Rationale
• Consolidatory phase for OER movement after years of investment and piloting
• The need for an evidence base: advocacy, strategy, policymaking
• Lack of robust evidence for OER impact
• The evidence ‘problem’ in OER impact research
• Isolated ‘pockets of innovation’
• No agreement over best methods for impact comparison
• Compare diverse experiences to assess the influence of ‘open’
• Mixed methods data from experimental + non-experimental research

6. Collaboration
Developing an ecology of sharing

8. • Research instruments applied
consistently across collaborations:
surveys, interview questions,
focus groups, etc.
• Supplemented by integration of
secondary research
• ‘Agile’ research, sprinting
• Thematic and methodological
cohesion provided by research
hypotheses
Research Process

9. Inclusive
Holistic
Validation of experiences at the ‘cutting edge’
Open to diverse perspectives
Incommensurability?
Granularity?
Synthesis?
Practical Advantages /
Methodological Disadvantages
How will comparison
of experiences be
made rigorous?

10. Hypotheses
Key claims about open education

11. Keyword Research Hypothesis
Performance OER improve student performance/satisfaction
Openness People use OER differently from other online materials
Access OER widen participation in education
Retention OER can help at-risk learners to finish their studies
Reflection OER use leads educators to reflect on their practice
Finance OER adoption brings financial benefits for students/institutions
Indicators Informal learners use a variety of indicators when selecting OER
Support Informal learners develop their own forms of study support
Transition OER support informal learners in moving to formal study
Policy OER use encourages institutions to change their policies
Assessment Informal assessments motivate learners using OER
‘Evidence’ is only evidence in relation to a claim or hypothesis:
the project hypotheses form the core of the metadata model.

12. Evidence Model
Design for information architecture

13. Key Questions for Evidence Model
What evidence exists to support key claims about OER?
How do patterns of OER impact differ across countries?
How do patterns of OER impact differ according to sector?
How can the veracity of evidence be checked?
How can diverse evidence forms be meaningfully collected together?

14. • TextTitle
• Text / HTML - Supports embedding of multimediaCopy
• Association of evidence with hypothesisHypothesis
• Evidence is either +ve/-ve in relation to a hypothesisPolarity
• GeolocationLocation
• School (K12) / College / Higher Education / InformalSector
• Academic citation or Hyperlink / URLCitation
Evidence: Information Architecture

15. Support embedding
Evidence Records

16. • Popular OS
platform
• Easy to customize
• Over 27,000
existing plugins
Wordpress
• CSV importer
• Location plugin
• JSON
Customization
• Project code
available on
GitHub
• Easy to link, share
and engage
Openness
Technical Development

17. Synthesis
Synthesis Methods
• Isolating data by hypothesis, sector, country, or any combination
• Collaborative curation of research data
• Data visualization, reporting
• Editorial quality control exercised centrally
Validation
• Iteration through current and future patterns of evidence
• Open citation trails allow public auditing of evidence
• Community voting

18. Synthesis
Mapping and curation

19. in service of The Open University

20. OER Impact Map
oermap.org

21. OER Impact Map: Maps
oermap.org
• Country Summary Map - evidence nodes organized by country
• OER Project Map - OER initiatives and projects around the world
• OER Evidence Map - all impact evidence is categorized according to the OER
Research Hub hypotheses
• OER Policy Map is the single largest curated collection of OER policies
• OER Impact Map aggregates the other maps
• Tweetmaps show a geographical summary of tweets for a particular Twitter
hashtag. E.g. #oermap for outreach; #oerrhub for tracking project activity.
• Maps by others

22. Global Impact Summary
Select country to zoom

23. in service of The Open University
Flowmap changes according
to country selected…

24. Impact Summary (USA)
Node colour = sector
Node border = polarity

25. in service of The Open University
Positive Evidence
Negative Evidence
Uncategorized Evidence
OER Evidence Map

26. OER Policy Map
L
R
N
I
Local/Institutional policies
Regional policies
National policies
International policies
CC Open Policy Network
POERUP
SPARC

27. in service of The Open University
OER Projects
OER Project Map

28. in service of The Open University
OER Impact Map

29. in service of The Open University
OER Impact Map
Combines other maps
Supports filtering

30. Hypothesis Reporting

31. Hypothesis Reporting

32. in service of The Open University

33. in service of The Open University

34. Summary
• A collaborative approach to OER research is recommended
• OER Impact Map is a tool designed for the needs of the open community
• Open methods for researching openness: openly licensed instruments; remix
and reuse data; working openly; sharing
• Takeaway message: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts

35. Next Steps
• Adding qualitative data analysis to evidence base
• Increasing the evidence base through desk research
• Plan for final phase of map development
• Case studies
• New collaborations?
• New hypotheses?
• School of Open course on open research; Open Data; CC-BY research tools
• Survey data ‘exploration tool’

36. in service of The Open University
Survey Data Explorer (prototype)

37. in service of The Open University
Survey Data Explorer (prototype)

38. in service of The Open University
Survey Data Explorer (prototype)

39. tweetmap
tiny.cc/oermap
#oermap

40. in service of The Open University

41. We want to put you on the map!
So let us know about OER activity
and impact in your institution

42. Join us in building understanding
of open education

43. Thanks for listening!
oerresearchhub.org
oermap.org
rob.farrow@open.ac.uk
@philosopher1978