OEP Roadmap for Education Professionals
Introduction
Openness is one of the most influential drivers of change in education and training today, especially for educational organizations both in adult learning as well as in higher education. In the form of open educational resources (OER) it is already impacting the operational environment of every educational institution. OER take the once ICT driven change in education into a new level. It is impacting the role of a teacher, and all educational professionals, and opening up new opportunities for learners, it calls for changes in teaching and learning cultures. One identified barrier for adopting open practices from educational practitioners point of view is quality – can we trust OER being first rate materials and openness being a strategic path for the future development educational organizations? The Open Educational Quality Initiative (OPAL) has therefore developed this Guideline on Quality and Innovation through Open Educational Practices.
This guide has been prepared for practitioners involved in education and training institutions to enable them to better understand the change and to make the most out of the new opportunities it brings. It will also be of use to practitioners involved in supporting more informal types of learning. Educational practitioners play a crucial role to lead the way towards more open education. Learners in open and autonomous learning scenarios often need more guidance first before they can make use of the greater degree of freedom and autonomy for their learning.
OPAL starts from the premise that it is necessary to raise awareness and build trust into the quality of how open learning ecologies, tools and content can support the use, creation and re-use of OERs. It is evident that the OER movement has begun to move well beyond an initial focus on mere access to practices. The initiative aims to provide guidance to learners, educators, leaders of educational institutions, and policy makers on how to strengthen Open Educational Practices (OEP) within their specific contexts.
Open educational practices (OEP) are defined as practices which support the (re)use and production of open educational resources (OER) through institutional policies, promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path. They address the whole OER governance community: policy makers, managers/ administrators of organizations, educational professionals and learners. This guide includes concrete advice on how to strengthen OEP within education and training organizations.
What is this Guide About?
The OPAL guidelines are based on a rigorous analysis of over 100 real-life case studies on the use of OER and have been assessed by a group of experts on OER. The Guidelines move beyond the question of how to access OER into the question of how open learning ecologies, tools and content can support the use, creation and re-use of OERs. This guide for educational professionals is designed to help practitioners to understand open educational practices and to provide a practical pathway to improve one’s own practices. We have listed all those dimensions of open educational practitioners which proved important to elevate practitioners’ open educational capabilities.
The OPAL Guide to Open Educational Practices consists of three main parts that pave the way of transformation for education and training organizations. The three step process begins with an assessment exercise that helps us to understand the current situation with regard to organizational OEP development. The second step provides some guidelines to initiate the strategy process and assist in setting the goal. The third part includes advice on implementing the change. Your will find the three parts accessible directly from this introductory section.
Step 1: Positioning your Organization in the OEP Trajectory
OEP consists essentially of the use of open educational resources in open learning environments/ architectures. The maturity matrix allows for positioning your organization according to the uptake of OEP. For professoinals, this means answering the following questions:
- To what extent are you using and repurposing OER in your organization?
- Do you have a process for creating OER in your organization?
- To what extent are you sharing OER and open educational practices in your organization?
- To what extent is your organization working with open learning architectures?
Step 2: Creating a Vision of Openness and a Strategy for OEP in an Organization
We believe that OEP can be supported through strategic planning. This second part of the OEP guideline helps you to better understand the strategy within your own context. This section is designed to analyze your strategic environment in relation to relevant dimensions of open educational practice strategy of your organization. For professionals, this means answering the following questions:
- Is a vision for OEP shared across organization?
- Are OEP included in existing strategies and policies?
- Are OEP embedded in the organization’s business model?
- Are you involved in any partnerships in relation to OEP?
- Are OEP perceived as relevant across the organization?
Step 3: Implementing and Promoting OEP
The third section contains dimensions which are important to create a favorable environment for OEP within your context. For professionals, this means answering the following questions:
- Are OEP used?
- Do you have tools to support sharing and exchanging information about open educational practices?
- Do you apply quality concepts to OEP?
- What level of knowledge and skills do teachers have in relation to open learning architectures and OEP?
- Level of digital literacy skills
- Are support mechanisms in place to support the development of OEP?
Background
In 2012 it will be 10 years since the UNESCO has coined the term “open educational resources” (OER)(UNESCO 2002). A few years down the line the concept had become popular. The OECD suggested with their report in 2007 that the concept of “Giving away knowledge for free” had made a considerable carrier and outlined areas in which further work would be necessary to boost openness for educational resources, amongst them predominantly emphasizing to improve access to OER on a global scale (OECD 2007). The public debate on OER became more and more aligned with the UNESCO decade program “Education for All” which strives for universal access to primary education by 2015. It aims at building equal access for everyone to education.
Although (OER) are high on the agenda of social and inclusion policies and supported by many stakeholders of the educational sphere, their use in higher education (HE) has not yet reached a critical threshold. This has to do with the fact that the past, and largely also the current, focus in OER is mainly put on building more access to digital content. There is too little consideration of whether this will support educational practices, promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning. We consider that OER are moving from a first phase in which the emphasis was on ‘opening up access and availability’ to a second phase with the focus will be on ‘improving learning quality’ through OER (figure 1). We therefore suggest extending the focus beyond ‘resource access’ to ‘innovative open educational practices’ (OEP).
In short, open educational practices constitute the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) within open learning ecologies. The creation, use, and re-use of open educational resources, as well as the exploitation of open learning ecologies can be challenging for learners and educators, but also for leaders of educational institutions. Policy makers, as well, often need to be made aware of and understand both concepts, and can play a strategic role in fostering a rapid uptake of OER and enabling a timely adoption of OEP.
- From OER to OEP
In order to facilitate the shift from OER to OEP, it is important to outline all factors which are influencing the actual creation, use, sharing and reuse of OER for learners, educational professionals and organizational leaders in one common framework. The OPAL OEP Framework is such a framework. It outlines all dimensions which need to be taken into account when wanting to stimulate a vibrant use of OER and when aiming to transform education and learning in your organisation.
Best Practices
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| Case Name | Institution | Topic | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| OLnet | Innovation | Repurposing OER, Vision of OEP | |
| OER Commons Teacher Training in Open Educational Practice | Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) | Improving Quality | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy |
| Promotion Kit for using OER at Community College Campus | Something Else | Strategy and/or Policy for OEP | |
| CCCOER: The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Tools for Sharing, Support Mechanisms | |
| Selection of E-learning Personalization Strategies | Innovation | Using OER, Support Mechanisms | |
| Multimedia Training Videos, University of Westminster | Innovation | Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing | |
| Open Learning Environment for Low Countries Early Modern History, University College London | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Digital Literacy | |
| Mobile internet and web apps for real-life contexts in Mozambique | Learning | Usage of OER, Business Model for OEP, Quality Concepts, Digital Literacy | |
| Open Science Resources: Eratosthenes' Measurement of Earth's circumference | Using OER | Using OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing | |
| Using OER in academic study | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER | |
| We are an independent knowledge dissemination initiative operating on a very limited budget - our free video web cast talks reach hundreds and thousands of English language teachers globally and provide historically unprecedented free access to cutting edge leaders in the field and other writers and researchers. http://www.tesolacademic.org/ | Using OER | Using OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Open Educational Practices | |
| Outreach and Education: Sharing our Knowledge | Creative Commons | Using OER | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing |
| Jose Vladimir Burgos Aguilar, Liaison Officer of Innovation and Educational Technology at the Innov@TE Center – Center for Innovation in Technology and Education. Project manager of OCW Tecnológico de Monterrey (http://ocw.itesm.mx) | Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) | Something Else | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Partnerships, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, IPR Framework for OEP, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms |
| Creating News, Enabling Dialog | Creative Commons | Something Else | Creation of OER, Sharing OER |
| OER@AVU: AVU contributing to global knowledge through open textbooks | African Virtual University | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Partnerships, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Quality Concepts, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms |
| Teaching Resources on Undergraduate Economics (TRUE), Bristol University and 13 other HE partners | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER | |
| OER4Schools Project – Cambridge University | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Usage of OER | |
| The National Digital Learning Repository | Improving Quality | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Vision of OEP, IPR Framework for OEP, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Skills and Knowledge for OEP | |
| OpenER, a Dutch initiative in Open Educational Resources | Using OER | Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, IPR Framework for OEP, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts | |
| wikiwijs | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER | |
| CampusContent | Innovation | Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Skills and Knowledge for OEP | |
| Podcampus | Innovation | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts | |
| Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien | Using OER | Using OER, Repurposing OER, Usage of OER, Incentives and/or Motivation, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts | |
| EducaNext | Innovation | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Partnerships | |
| UnisulVirtual | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Support Mechanisms | |
| Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources and the CCOT project | Using OER | Using OER, Usage of OER, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Digital Literacy | |
| EDU.FI – online learning materials service offered by the National Board of Education in Finland | Learning | Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms | |
| AVO and SOMETU - Open networks for learning | Learning | Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Business Model for OEP, Partnerships, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing | |
| Interactic | Learning | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing | |
| Casa das Ciências | Using OER | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Tools for Sharing | |
| LeMill | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Partnerships, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Support Mechanisms | |
| UCT Health OER | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER, Partnerships | |
| Small steps - giant leap: writing a book collaboratively. | Aalto University School of Economics | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing |
| Socialearn | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Business Model for OEP, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts | |
| Opening Textbooks to Personalize Learning | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Partnerships, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Digital Literacy | |
| Utilizing senior students in adapting teaching and learning materials as open educational resources at the University of Cape Town | University Of Cape Town | Innovation | Using OER, Open Educational Practices, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms |
| Exposing practice through blogging | University Of Cape Town | Something Else | Vision of OEP, Open Educational Practices, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms |
| UNESCO OER Programme | UNESCO | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Open Educational Practices |
| Free and Open Educational resources - Treasure chest or irrelevance for adult learners? - national debate. | Something Else | Creation of OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP | |
| The Curriki Community Process for social knowledge creation | Curriki | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Business Model for OEP, Partnerships, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms, Any other area |
| iTeach: a teacher training programme for the XXI Century | TEHNE- Centre for Innovation in Education | Improving Quality | Repurposing OER, Usage of OER, Partnerships, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms |
| Elearning.Romania | Institute for Education | Using OER | Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing |
| Sharing Learning Designs: The LAMS Community | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Tools for Sharing | |
| SlideSpeech | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER, Tools for Sharing | |
| Health Education and also Practicle course development | Bangladesh Open University | Improving Quality | Using OER, Sharing OER, Vision of OEP, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP |
| OCW in University of Cantabria | Universidad de Cantabria | Innovation | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing |
| OpenExeter | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, IPR Framework for OEP, Support Mechanisms | |
| Connecting the Dots in the Open Education Space: Repurposing, Aligning, Framing, and Supplementing Open Content to Produce End-to-End Open Access Courses | The Saylor Foundation | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Quality Concepts |
| OER Rubrics and Evaluation Tool | Improving Quality | Usage of OER, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Support Mechanisms | |
| Using OER in Entrepreneurship Training | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Partnerships, Open Educational Practices | |
| Professional Education, Testing and Certification | PEOI | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Business Model for OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts |
| Peer production of the WikEducator open community governance policy | WikiEducator | Improving Quality | Creation of OER, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Open Educational Practices |
| Usng OER to improve time to development and quality of teaching/learning materials | University of the West Indies Open Campus | Something Else | Using OER, Repurposing OER, Quality Concepts, Support Mechanisms |
| Math Future Network | Something Else | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Vision of OEP, Partnerships, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms | |
| Improved stoves supply in Katoro village | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Business Model for OEP, Partnerships, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, IPR Framework for OEP, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms, Any other area | |
| Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Business Model for OEP, Partnerships, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, IPR Framework for OEP, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms | |
| Blogging | Creation of OER | ||
| OER: Spreading Knowledge Unrestrained, ANDC, University of Delhi | ACHARYA NARENDRA DEV COLLEGE (UNIVERSITY OF DELHI) | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Open Educational Practices |
| Describing teachers' experiences in using OER | Using OER | Using OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes | |
| Designing for Openness: Carpe Diem | University of Leicester | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Partnerships, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy, Support Mechanisms, Any other area |
| Brazil OER / Educate in a Digital Culture Study Group / Consulting | Learning | Using OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Business Model for OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Open Educational Practices, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Digital Literacy | |
| Recognizing and accrediting learning from OERs: Thompson Rivers University Open Learning | Something Else | Vision of OEP, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Any other area | |
| An online platform for sharing best practices on ICT for Active Teaching and Learning | Learning | Creation of OER, Usage of OER, Partnerships, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Digital Literacy | |
| Creative Commons Support in University of Cape Town IP policy | University Of Cape Town | Something Else | Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, IPR Framework for OEP, Support Mechanisms |
| ERP lecture scripts of UDE open for reuse | Duisburg Essen University | Something Else | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Open Educational Practices |
| MOOC: New Literacies and New Connectivist Environments | University of Valencia | Learning | Vision of OEP, Business Model for OEP, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Digital Literacy |
| Requesting permission to use copyrighted materials | University Of Cape Town | Something Else | Creation of OER, Repurposing OER, Usage of OER, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Open Educational Practices |
| Evaluating potential OER | Using OER | Creation of OER, Usage of OER | |
| USP FLOSS Competence Center | University of São Paulo | Learning | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes |
| Support Centre for Open Resources in Education | Something Else | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Vision of OEP, Strategy and/or Policy for OEP, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP | |
| Languages Open Resources Online (LORO) | The Open University | Improving Quality | Quality Concepts |
| Creation, Repurpose, Assurance and Sharing of OER Initiative - WOU | Wasasan Open University | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Open Educational Practices, Tools for Sharing, Quality Concepts, Skills and Knowledge for OEP, Support Mechanisms |
| Open development of master course materials on Free Technologies | Improving Quality | Creation of OER, Using OER, Sharing OER, Business Model for OEP, IPR Framework for OEP, Quality Concepts | |
| COLORS: COoperative Learning Object Repository System | Creation of OER, Sharing OER, Tools for Sharing | ||
| iNTERCATIVE LEARNING OF PHYSICS | Learning | Usage of OER, Relevance: How to Convince Others of OEP?, Incentives and/or Motivation, Open Educational Practices | |
| #metaOER: Open Resources on Open Educational Resources | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya | Using OER | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Commitment, Mindsets and Attitudes, Digital Literacy |
| BCcampus OER | BCcampus.ca | Innovation | Creation of OER, Using OER, Repurposing OER, Sharing OER, Usage of OER, Partnerships, Incentives and/or Motivation |
| Open courses offered by FGV Online | FGV Online | Using OER | Using OER, Sharing OER, Vision of OEP, Open Educational Practices |
