Our presentation at OERcamp Global 2021 with Christian Stracke and Ramesh Sharma on A Global Study of Macro, Meso, and Micro Aspects of Open Education due to COVID-19

1. A Global Study of Macro, Meso and
Micro aspects of Open Education due
to COVID-19
C.M. Stracke, R.C. Sharma, C. Swiatek, D. Burgos, A. Bozkurt, Ö. Karakaya, A.
Inamorato dos Santos, J. Mason, C. Nerantzi, J.F. Obiageli Agbu, E.
Ossiannilsson, M. S. Ramírez Montoya, G. Santos-Hermosa, J. G. Shon, M.
Wan, G. Conole, R. Farrow
10 December 2021

2. Grainne Conole
Ramesh Sharma Ebba Ossiannilsson
Jon Mason
Daniel Burgos
Aras Bozkurt
Christian M. Stracke
Chrissi Nerantzi
María Soledad
Ramírez Montoya
Andreia Inamorato
dos Santos
Marian Wan
Cécile Swiatek Jin Gon Shon
Robert Farrow
Özlem Karakaya
Gema Santos-Hermosa
Jane-Frances
Obiageli Agbu

3. Challenges for formal education
during the COVID-19 outbreak
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/covid-19-coronavirus-distance-4951405/
• Global overview of the status of Open Education and Open Science
• First year of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Practices and uses cases from 13 countries and global regions
• Challenges for formal education during the COVID-19 outbreak
• Potential solutions and examples of Open Education and Open Science

4. Open education and COVID-19
This present study investigated how the operations for open education and support
mechanisms for distance learning were established on a global scale during the initial COVID-19
period -- with a focus on examining the affordances of open education and learnings therefrom
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/distance-learning-teacher-students-5735149/

5. Case studies from all over the world
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/map-of-the-world-background-paper-2401458/
Case studies describing the
impact of the COVID-19
outbreak on formal education
and how distance education
was adopted, were collected
from 13 countries: Australia,
Brazil, France, India, Mexico,
the Netherlands, Nigeria, Spain,
Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan,
Turkey, and the United Kingdom

6. Research Question
https://pixabay.com/photos/couple-social-distancing-5422795/
In what ways has open education been proposed and
addressed using distance and online learning during the
COVID 19 pandemic and lockdowns?

7. Impact of COVID-19 on formal education in selected 13 countries
Results

8. Results
Marginalised or excluded student
groups
It was found that disadvantaged and
marginalised social groups from lower
socio-economic backgrounds have
been the most severely affected due to
COVID-19 pandemic. In several
countries, there were early responses
to try and minimise this impact and to
provide support such as Australia,
France and Sweden. In contrast, other
countries reported a prominent digital
divide such as Turkey.
https://pixabay.com/photos/teacher-child-concept-kindergarten-3966049/

9. Results
Impact on infrastructure
An early finding of our investigation was the lack of resources, infrastructure,
equipment, special needs, etc. We found that most of the countries
investigated implemented open educational practices for continuity of
education. This was mainly delivered as distance education, although the
policy guidelines for these were often unrealistic or too restrictive.
https://pixabay.com/photos/architecture-building-infrastructure-2564897/

10. Results
Effective communication
Effective communication between teachers and
students is a crucial foundation of education (Tiffin
& Rajasingham, 1995). During emergencies, this
foundation requires additional support for social
and emotional wellbeing (Chatzidamianos &
Nerantzi, 2020).
https://pixabay.com/photos/school-classroom-boys-girls-79612/
https://pixabay.com/photos/virtual-learning-online-learn-5550480/
For those with access to adequate
infrastructure, such communication was
maintained globally by using social media,
virtual learning environments (VLE) and online
platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or
Google Meet suddenly with no time or
preparations for training.

11. Learning Experiences
A Digital Education Action Plan (European Commission, 2020) was launched in
Europe in mid-2020. A guide for ‘remote learning’ was developed by the Australian
Council for Educational Research (ACER), which incidentally overlooked
deliberations on OER (Cowden et al., 2020). Social media and virtual reality
technology were used for social, technical and pedagogical purposes in Sweden,
Taiwan, Turkey and the UK. National associations (ICOLC followed by ADBU,
Couperin and EPRIST) in France promoted open access and open science.
Results
https://pixabay.com/photos/school-video-conference-digitization-5711987/

12. Results
Digitally-supported open learning
Online platforms generally provided increased support for openness, with many companies offering
services and resources for free that normally attracted a premium.
https://pixabay.com/photos/webinar-conferencing-video-call-5005852/

13. Results
Open Educational Resources (OER)
The UNESCO Recommendation on OER (2019) has gained significant
adoption in most of the countries (Stracke et al., 2019). In Turkey, substantial
use of OER is clear although open licenses, pedagogical frameworks and
models were not promoted. Several initiatives in Spain like Conectad@s,
UNED Abierta, Emergency remote teaching programme and UNIRTv are
notable examples for use of OER. In India, DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for
Knowledge Sharing) platform and the National Repository of OER (NROER)
offered many OER including e-content, quizzes and QR-coded Energized
Textbooks (Phygital Textbooks). MEC-RED, the Brazilian portal for OER,
offered open-licensed basic education content to around 32 million students.

14. How during the pandemic formal
education at a distance was introduced
MACRO
MESO
MICRO
https://pixabay.com/photos/hands-world-map-global-earth-600497/

15. MACRO Level
Formal education at
distance for first time
Similar approaches for
formal education
Missing infrastructure
and sharing Open
Educational Resources*
Note: * = related to Open Education

16. MESO Level
Diverse teaching and
learning methods and
practices
Open Education and access
to Open Educational
Resources*
Note: * = related to Open Education

17. MICRO Level
Assessing and monitoring
learning environments,
teachers and students
Huge need for professional
development and training
for teachers*
Note: * = related to Open Education

18. Conclusions • There is a low usage or lack of open education
and OER revealed economic inequities (access
to infrastructure and resources), cultural
injustice (the lack of cultural sensitivity) and
political injustice where teachers in various
constrained environments lack voice and
empowerment
• The digital divide has also become more
prominent in terms of access to devices and
Internet connections
• More collaboration between teachers and at the
institutional level
• Need for the inclusiveness of digital education

19. Conclusions
• There is a need for open and direct communication and pro-active
leadership that recognises the need for trauma-informed pedagogy of
care, changed roles of parents as teachers, and increased domestic
violence and student stress came
• Too much exposure to webinars has also met with resistance and
‘screen fatigue’
• This period has heightened calls for policies for open education and
openness
• Assessment is crucial to robust educational process but has been
threatened in online settings by increased cheating
• We found an emergent need for inclusiveness and social justice in
education

20. Further References
• Stracke, C. M., Sharma, R. C., Swiatek, C., Burgos, D., Bozkurt, A., Karakaya, Ö., Ossiannilsson, E., Mason, J.,
Nerantzi, C., Agbu, J.-F., Ramírez Montoya, M. S., Shon, J. G., Inamorato dos Santos, A., Farrow, R., Wan, M.,
Santos-Hermosa, G., & Conole, G. (2021). How COVID-19 has an impact on formal education: A collective
international evaluation of open education in distance learning. Proceedings of the 14th Annual
International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI) (pp. 4270-4275).
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5764585
• Stracke, C. M., Bozkurt, A., Burgos, D., Mason, J., Ossiannilsson, E., Sharma, R. C., Wan, M., Agbu, J.-F.,
Cangialosi, K., Conole, G., Cox, G., Nascimbeni, F., Nerantzi, C., Ramírez Montoya, M. S., Sgouropoulou, C.,
Shon, J. G., Boulet, P., Inamorato dos Santos, A., Downes, S., Farrow, R., Proudman, V., Varoglu, Z., Weller,
M., Xiao, J., Santos-Hermosa, G., Karakaya, Ö., Truong, V., & Swiatek, C. (2021). Global study on Open
Education and Open Science: Practices, use cases and potentials during the COVID-19 pandemic and
beyond. Open Education Global Conference 2021 (OE Global 2021, online). Université de Nantes, France.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5546182 [Open Access]
• All also online available at: http://www.opening-up.education

21. Further References
• Stracke, C. M. (2020). Open Science and Radical Solutions for Diversity, Equity and Quality in Research:
A Literature Review of Different Research Schools, Philosophies and Frameworks and Their Potential
Impact on Science and Education. In Radical Solutions and Open Science. An Open Approach to Boost
Higher Education. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology (pp. 17-37). Springer: Singapore.
doi:10.1007/978-981-15-4276-3_2 [Open Access]
• Stracke, C. M. et al. (2020). Open Education and Open Science for our Global Society during and after
the COVID-19 Outbreak. In Proceedings of the Open Education Global Conference 2020. (s.p.).
doi:10.5281/zenodo.4274890 [Open Access]
• Stracke, C. M. et al. (2020). A Holistic Pedagogical Model for STEM learning and education inside and
outside the classroom. In P. Zaphiris & A. Ioannou (Eds.): Learning and Collaboration Technologies 2020,
Part I, HCII 2020, LNCS 12205 (pp. 568–581). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-50513-4_41
• All also online available at: http://www.opening-up.education

22. Further References
• Stracke, C. M., Downes, S., Conole, G., Burgos, D., & Nascimbene, F. (2019). Are MOOCs Open Educational
Resources? A literature review on history, definitions and typologies of OER and MOOCs. Open Praxis,
11(4), 331-341. doi:10.5944/openpraxis.11.4.1010 [Open Access]
• Stracke, C. M. (2019). The Quality Reference Framework for MOOC Design and Evaluation. In
Proceedings of the Open Education Global Conference 2019 (s.p., 11 p.). doi:10.5281/zenodo.3966308
[Open Access]
• Stracke, C. M. et al. (2019). A Holistic Pedagogical Model for STEM education in schools: Its Design and
Evaluation through Mixed Methods Research with Surveys and Interviews. In Proceedings of Learning
Innovations and Quality (LINQ) 2019, EPiC Series 2 (pp. 40-48). doi:10.29007/t43b [Open Access]
• Stracke, C. M. (2019). The Quality Reference Framework for MOOC Design. Proceedings of EC-TEL 2019,
LNCS 11722 (pp. 673–677). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_64
• All also online available at: http://www.opening-up.education

23. Further References
• Stracke, C. M. (2019). Quality Frameworks and Learning Design for Open Education. The International
Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(2), 180-203.
doi:10.19173/irrodl.v20i2.4213 [Open Access]
• Stracke, C. M., & Bozkurt, A. (2019). Evolution of MOOC designs, providers and learners and the related
MOOC research and publications from 2008 to 2018. International Open and Distance Learning
Conference 2019 (pp. 13-20). doi:10.5281/zenodo.3598418
• Stracke, C. M. et al. (2018). Gap between MOOC designers' and MOOC learners' perspectives on
interaction and experiences in MOOCs: Findings from the Global MOOC Quality Survey. In M. Chang et al.
(Eds.), Proceedings 18th IEEE ICALT Conference (pp. 1-5). doi:10.1109/ICALT.2018.0000
• Stracke, C. M. et al. (2018). Quality Reference Framework (QRF) for the Quality of Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs). Retrieved from http://www.mooc-quality.eu/QRF [Open Access]
• All also online available at: http://www.opening-up.education

24. Acknowledgments
The co-authors thank the following colleagues for their contribution to the
discussion of the national reports and the article (in alphabetic order): Pierre
Boulet (University of Lille, France), Karen Cangialosi (Keene State College,
USA), Fabio Nascimbeni (Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain), Lisa
Petrides (ISKME, USA), Vanessa Proudman (SPARC Europe, The
Netherlands), Cleo Sgouropoulou (University of West Attica, Greece), and
Zeynep Varoglu (UNESCO, France).