H817 Activity 7

Activity 7

Technology

OERs are ideally suited to the great versatility of the internet. But there are problems in the definition of OERs.

Hylen and Schuller stated in 2007 that it was now possible to offer a new definition of OER as “accumulated assets that can be enjoyed without restricting the possibilities of others to enjoy them.”  To be “open” meant that “the resources either provide non-discriminatory access to the resource or can also be contributed to and shared by anyone.”  But technologies are rapidly changing, and this definition will need to be changed as internet technologies change.

There is also the problem of where and how to find OERs? This can be broadly split into 2 categories: where are OER stored and how can they be identified in a web search? There are a number of repositories that only store open content, so a search of those sites will always return openly licensed content.  More general search engines, e.g. Google, cannot readily identify open sources.   

One key observation was that there was a tension between the desire to provide rich digital learning materials, using complex technologies, and the desire to make learning materials as widely available as possible, which often demands simpler technologies.

Barriers to Uptake

Barriers for using or producing OER can be thought of as technical, economic, social, policy-oriented and legal.  A technical barrier would be the lack of broadband availability.  The lack of resources to invest in the hardware and software needed to develop and share OER would be an economic barrier.  Other economic barriers are difficulties in covering the costs of developing educational resources and keeping an OER project running.  Technical and economic barriers are often mentioned as significant obstacles in developing countries.  Legal barriers include the prohibition to use copyrighted materials without the consent of the creator.  There seems to be a paradox within the academic community which strongly emphasises the importance of openly sharing research results and building on existing scientific data, but at the same time often takes an unresponsive attitude towards sharing or using educational resources developed by someone else.

Another barrier is accreditation – in this time of ‘value for money’ questions voiced by today’s learners, having some form of acknowledgement of a standard reached is important.  Ways of addressing this include, among others, for example, Mozilla badges ⁶² and the Peer 2 Peer University ⁶³.  The increase in non-formal and informal learning may increase the demand for assessment and recognition of competence gained outside formal learning.

Pedagogy 

Different teaching techniques are needed to make effective use of open courses.  There isn’t at present any way of fixing a syllabus to suit all participants of an open course, as this defeats the object of an open course.  The role of the teacher is already changing from being the “sage on the stage to the guide at the side”.  OER is likely to accelerate this process since the role of the teacher as a supplier of teaching material and the only guide to knowledge is also diminishing.

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References:-

Giving Knowledge for Free, Hylen and Schuller

The Reusability Paradox, David Wiley

OER Forum Final Report, Albright

 

 

Finally finished it!!