Exploi'ng the poten'al of OER: ar'cula'on of Open
Educa'onal Prac'ces
Gráinne Conole,
Leicester University, UK
grainne.conole@le.ac.uk
ICDE Conference, Bali, 4th October 2011

From resources to prac'ces

Open Educa'onal Prac'ces
Open Educational Practices
(OEP) constitute the range of
practices around the
creation, use and
management of open
educational resources with
the intent to improve quality
and innovate education

OER ‐ a vision of transforma'on
Beyond content – focus on ac'vity and use
Learners as self‐directed and autonomous
More of a focus on sharing, refinement, itera'on,
cri'cal reflec'on
OER as a poten'al catalyst to transforming
educa'onal prac'ce
Improvements in social inclusion, quality and
innova'on

Abstrac'ng dimensions of Prac'ce
hVp://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2105

Abstrac'ng dimensions of Prac'ce
Open Educa'onal Prac'ces
(OEP)
Prac'ces around the crea'on, use and
management of Open Educa'onal
Resources
hVp://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2105

Abstrac'ng dimensions of Prac'ce
Open Educa'onal Prac'ces
(OEP)
Prac'ces around the crea'on, use and
management of Open Educa'onal
Resources
Approach
60 case studies of OER collected
Dimensions of OEP derived
Online consulta'on process
hVp://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2105

OER models

OER models
• Level of granularity
– ‘Atomis'c’: based around
learning objects
– ‘Holis'c’: aligned to course
structures

OER models
• Level of granularity
– ‘Atomis'c’: based around
learning objects
– ‘Holis'c’: aligned to course
structures
• Format
– Simple, text‐based
– Rich mul'media

OER models
• Level of granularity
– ‘Atomis'c’: based around
learning objects
– ‘Holis'c’: aligned to course
structures
• Format
– Simple, text‐based
– Rich mul'media
• Pedagogy
– Neutral
– Embedded

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Teacher A

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Deposits
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Deposits
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design Deposits

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Deposits
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design Deposits
Learner A
OER
Chooses Learner B
Design
Teacher B

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Deposits
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design Deposits
Quiz + beginners route
Uses
Learner A
OER
Chooses Learner B
Design
Teacher B

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Deposits
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design Deposits
Quiz + beginners route
Uses
Learner A
OER Quiz + advanced route
Chooses Learner B Uses
Design
Teacher B

Design ->use -> reuse -> repurpose
Deposits
OER
Creates
Teacher A
Design Deposits
Quiz + beginners route
Uses
Learner A
OER Quiz + advanced route
Chooses Learner B Uses
Design
Repurposes
Teacher B & deposits

Open Educa'onal Prac'ce Dimensions

Open Educa'onal Prac'ce Dimensions
Strategies and policies
Quality Assurance models
Partnership models
Business models/sustainability strategies
Barriers and success factors
Tools and tool prac'ces
Skills development and support
Innova'ons

Open Educa'onal Prac'ce Dimensions
Strategies and policies
Strategies and policies
Quality Assurance models
Quality Assurance models
Partnership models
Partnership models
Business models/sustainability strategies
Business models/sustainability strategies
Barriers and success factors
Barriers and success factors
Tools and tool prac'ces
Tools and tool prac'ces
Skills development and support
Skills development and support
Innova'ons
Innova'ons

Open Educa'onal Prac'ce Dimensions
Strategies and policies
Strategies and policies
Quality Assurance models
Quality Assurance models
Partnership models
Partnership models
Business models/sustainability strategies
Business models/sustainability strategies
Barriers and success factors
Barriers and success factors
Tools and tool prac'ces
Tools and tool prac'ces
Skills development and support
Skills development and support
Innova'ons
Innova'ons
Strategies and polices
Barriers and success factors
Tools and tool prac'ces
Skills development and support

The OPAL guidelines
• Four stakeholder groups:
learners, teachers, institutional
managers and policy makers
• Matrices to enable
organisations to position
themselves in terms of their
OEP activities
• Guidance on developing an
OEP vision and strategy
• Support for implementing and
promoting OEP

Benefits
• Builds on solid empirical
research (analysis of 60 OER
case studies)
• Extensively validated with the
OER community (EFQUEL
conference, Online, Paris
forum, Online Educa)
• Presented in a simple to use
format
Jigsaw pattern -
• Addresses the needs at both divide and share
individual and organisational the problem space

Ins'tu'onal benchmarking
• DIMENSIONS
– Strategies and Policies
– Barriers and Success Factors
– Tools and Tool Prac'ces
Skills Development and Support
• CONTEXT
– Macro level (society) Maturity
– Meso level (organisa'on)
– Micro level (individuals)
Context
• MATURITY
– Ini'al (not yet started) Dimensions
– Managed
– Defined
– Op'mizing (embedded / advanced)
11

Uses and benefits
• Three uses
– Benchmarking
– Guidance
– Reflec'on and comparison
• Benefits
– Guides users in understanding how to
think about the key issues.
– Flexible enough to cover the mul'ple
stakeholders
– Sub‐cubes provide prac'cal illustra've
examples
– Useful as a mechanism for ins'tu'ons
to self‐benchmark
12

Mapping the case studies
Micro Meso Macro
Strategies and Personal Ins'tu'onal Embedded in
policies mo'va'ons and strategies and na'onal policy and
goals policies in place funding
Barriers and success Tension between Lack of appropriate Lack of funding or
factors research and structure rewards
teaching
Tools and tool Use of web 2.0 tools Ins'tu'onal OER Na'onal repository
prac'ces to discuss OER repository available
Skills development Peer review and Ins'tu'onal HewleV OER
and support discussion workshops on OER projects and OCW
13

Need and value
• Help in developing their OER
strategy and implementing and
promoting the use of OER
• Individuals and organisations are
unaware of the work that has
already been done and the
lessons that have been learnt
• Need to embrace the potential
of OER and encourage broader
use

Use cases
• University A wants to know where they stand:
• They can use the guide to assess themselves
• They get a review/ feedback from OPAL
• University B wants to create a future open policy:
• They can see which elements would need to be
included into that from our guideline
• University C wants to compare themselves with
others:
• They can look up other completed matrices

Impact
• Better uptake and use of
OER
• A more systematic
approach
• Growing database of stories
• An emergent community
discussing learning and
teaching ideas and the use
of OER