1. Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Open Learning, Social Learning –
exploring the collective use of
Open Educational Resources
UALL Conference, March 2016

2. About the partners
Opening Educational Practices
in Scotland is a three year
cross-sector project (ends 31
July 2017) led by the Open
University in Scotland.
www.oepscotland.org
Scottish Union Learning is the
learning arm of the Scottish
Trades Union Congress

3. OEPS has been working with SUL to:
•Develop and Understand the use of free
online openly licensed courses in the
workplace
• Co-Design materials, resources and
practices to enable the use of them
•Support and evaluate those use practices
A shared interest in use of Open
Educational Resources

4. Union Learning Representatives (ULRs)
Union Learning Representatives
(ULRs) have been a feature of many
unionised workplaces since 1998 in
England and 2000 in Scotland
(Alexandrou, 2010; Findlay et al,
2006).
ULRs:
 Union members who receive
training for their role;
have a statutory function to survey
learners’ needs;
Arrange training and support and;
liaise with the employer about
learning in their workplace.
ULRs at an OEPS workshop 2015

5. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Free educational
materials (and
mainly courses) that
are licensed to allow
the 5Rs
reuse, revise, remix,
redistribute and retain
Promise of widening
participation

6. Challenges
OEPS is tasked to develop the use of OER and OEP in
Scotland with a particular focus on WP and
transitions
SUL are concerned with developing sustainable
models of collective engagement in the workplace
and providing a framework that supports progression
OEPS and SUL draw on experience of working in
partnership and small scale examples of effective
practice

7. What we’ve been doing
Workshops at Learning Conferences
to get ULR perspectives
Workshops at Local Learning Forums
aimed at co-designing a framework
for ULRs to become Open Learning
Champions
Supporting the development of Open
Pathways material (
www.open.ac.uk/scotland/openpathways
Developing a union learning
community on the OEPS hub
Supporting and evaluating pilots

8. What we’ve learnt – the ULR role
ULRs see themselves as organisers, negotiators,
advisors, motivators, supporters of learning.
Facilitators?
Interest in OER – often studied as individuals – lack
of confidence about using in workplace setting
The established collective model is tutor based –
limited (decreasing) options for growth because of
financial (and other) constraints
Enthusiasm for doing more – but confidence an
issue, and there is a lack of alternative models

9. What we’ve learnt – barriers
Second digital divide – participation?
Feedback from ULRs suggests barriers to participation
understood by WP practitioners (situational, attitudinal,
cultural) interact and intersect with digital factors
OER sites are enticing and bewildering – too much choice –
not enough information about level etc
For the audience they are trying to support
‘looks too much like a university’
Preconceptions about online – implies isolated,
individualised (tick box HR courses)
There are circumstances where the flexibility of OER is
valuable but often the structure and fixed duration of a
MOOC is an advantage

10. What we’ve learnt – changing practice
We shared what we have learnt from previous projects in
workplace settings – ULRs shared the experience and
perspectives
Good practice (ULR role):
•Allows for peer support and interaction
•Considers transitions in and out of an episode of study
•Provides simple structure and stepping stones
Book group analogy
Good practice (University):
•Provide support for selection and curation
•Provide suggestions for models
•Build the understanding that courses may be studied by both
individuals and groups into course design

11. What we’ve learnt - about the University role
•Shifting boundaries of responsibility
•Sharing knowledge of pedagogy
•Reconceptualising learning design and support so
that it allows for recognition of social and collective
learning
•Reaching beyond partnerships into networks

12. Community hub for ULRs
OEPS has developed a
community site for Union
Learning Representatives
(ULRs) in Scotland. The site
includes information on new
study opportunities, courses
that are particularly suitable
for workplace learning and
case studies of effective
ways of organising learning
in the workplace.
www.oeps.ac.uk

13. Supporting each other – a slide we’ve used with union learners
All these courses can be accessed via a computer, a tablet or a
smart phone. But just because they are online it doesn’t mean
learners need to be isolated. There are great advantages in
forming a study group with others in the workplace. This can be
as simple as meeting up on a regular basis to share experience,
swap ideas and explore what you’ve been learning.
Pixabay.com

14. Contact Us: Email:
OEPScotland@open.ac.uk
Social media:
@OEPScotland
Blog and project progress:
www.oepscotland.org
Community hub for Open Educational Practice:
www.oeps.ac.uk