This document summarizes Hélène Pulker's research into the reuse of open educational resources (OER) for online language teaching. Her research aims to explore how teachers engage with and adapt OER, and whether this leads to changes in teaching practices. She is conducting semi-structured interviews with 17 language teachers and using grounded theory to analyze the data. Initial findings suggest teachers engage in activities like getting inspiration, reflecting on teaching, re-appropriating resources, retaining elements, and learning through experimentation. Further questions consider issues like whether teachers must redistribute adapted OER and whether OER should promote professional training or learning.

1. Faculty of Wellbeing, Education
and Language Studies
Investigation into reuse of OER
for online language teaching
Hélène Pulker, GO-GN member
OE Global Conference, Delft, The Netherlands
24-26 April 2018

2. Background
• Educator and trainer in distance and online learning
• Founder of a repository and creator of resources
• Early interest in how resources were used and reused
• Started research in OER reuse for online language
teaching – EdD student at the Open University, UK

3. Overview
• Problem statement
• Aim of research
• Methodology for data collection and analysis
• Initial findings – 5 categories (work in progress)
• Further questions to consider

4. Problem statement
• Lack of evidence of how OER reuse and adaptation
impact on teaching practices and teachers’ professional
learning
• Large-scale quantitative research on attitudes, beliefs
and perceptions about OER rather than qualitative
studies on adaptation

5. Aim of research
• To explore activities that are taking place during reuse of
materials created by others with the view to establish
whether reuse has an impact on teaching practices in
online language teaching
– RQ1: what activities do teachers engage with when they
search for and adapt the OER they choose to use?
– RQ2: what do teachers learn about their own teaching
beliefs and practices when they adapt OER?
– RQ3: does adaptation of resources lead to change in
teaching practices?

6. Methodology – data collection
• A constructivist grounded theory approach to data
collection and analysis – inductive inquiry (Charmaz, 2014)
- Online questionnaire to all language teachers at the
Open University (N=182) – to identify volunteers for
interviews and to collect demographic data and information
about participants’ reuse habits to inform and guide
interviews and theoretical sampling during analysis
- 17 semi-structured interviews online

7. Methodology – data analysis
• Transcriptions of all interviews verbatim
• Initial coding line by line using gerunds (-ing words)
• Focused coding to create categories
• Theoretical sampling
• Constant comparative method
• Triangulation (data to data with linguistic features)

8. Methodological choices

9. Methodological choices

10. Initial coding using gerunds

11. Focused coding

12. Constant comparative method
Continuum between data collection and data analysis
(based on Hennebo, 2009)

13. Initial findings: Getting inspiration

14. Initial findings: Reflecting

15. Initial findings: Re-appropriating

16. Initial findings: Re-appropriating
Example of an adapted resource for a German
beginners tutorial
Original resource Adapted resource

17. Initial findings: Retaining

18. Initial findings: Learning and
experimenting

19. Initial findings: Learning and
experimenting
Example of adaptation that may demonstrate a change in
teaching approach
Original resource Adapted resource

20. Initial findings: Grounded Theory
Analysis (work in progress)

21. OER – transforming education?
• Language teachers adapt OER but do not redistribute
their adapted resources (similar findings to Beaven,
2013)
• Language teachers reflect on their teaching practices
while adapting resources and experimenting with
students (Weller, et al., 2015)
• Language teachers OER advocates and confident with
the technology may change their teaching practices and
beliefs about online teaching

22. Further questions…
• Does it matter that teachers do not redistribute adapted
OER into repositories?
• Why do OER advocates want teachers to share and
distribute OER?
• Should OER be a tool for professional training or
professional learning?
• Does openness have to be online?

23. Thank you for your attention
Any
questions?
helene.pulker@open.ac.uk
@HelenePulker

24. Faculty of Wellbeing, Education
and Language Studies
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
wels.open.ac.uk