grappling with "openness" and "impact in oer research
TRANSCRIPT
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
University of Cape Town
Open Education Global Conference, Banff, Canada
22-24 April 2015
Grappling with the concepts of “impact” and
“openness” in relation to OER: Current
developments in the ROER4D Project
Rising numbers of students in
the education sector
Education institutions under
political & financial pressure
Expensive, limited in number,
often outdated textbooks are
not entirely relevant to the
context
Employability of graduates
Reduction of educational
funding by governments
Key challenges facing education in developing countries
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APCoE_students_at_AICTE_Regional_Office_in_Mumbai.jpg
OER as a response to some educational challenges
facing education in developing countries
http://www.elearning-africa.com/eLA_Newsportal/finding-the-sweet-spot-open-educational-resources-in-the-developing-world/
http://www.unesco.org/iiep/virtualuniversity/forumsfiche.php?queryforumspages_id=23 x
OER as a response to some educational challenges
facing education in general – NMC Horizon Report 2015
htt
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ucau
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Slow uptake of OER in South America & Africa,
better in South East Asia
http://ocw.mit.edu/about/site-statistics/
http://oermap.org/oer-evidence-map/
Most OER research taking place in Global North
ROER4D Research: OER Adoption & Impact
ROER4D Funding
International Development Research
Centre (IDRC)
Open Society Foundations (OSF)
UK Department for International
Development (DFID)
3 year project (27 Aug 2013 - 27 Aug
2016 with an extension to Feb 2017)
Grant 1 - IDRC CAD 2 million & OSF
Grant 2 - DFID CAD 500,000
3 Regions
South America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Central, South & South-East Asia
18 research projects in 7 clusters
86 researchers & associates
26 countries
16 time zones
IDRC
OSF DFID
In what ways, and under what circumstances, can the adoption of
OER impact upon the increasing demand for accessible, relevant,
high-quality, and affordable education in the Global South?
Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D)
In what ways, and under what circumstances, can the adoption of
OER impact upon the increasing demand for accessible, relevant,
high-quality, and affordable education in the Global South?
Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D)
ADOPTION STUDIES
1. In what ways, and under what
circumstances are OER being
adopted in the Global South?
In what ways, and under what circumstances, can the adoption of
OER impact upon the increasing demand for accessible, relevant,
high-quality, and affordable education in the Global South?
Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D)
IMPACT STUDIES
2. In what ways, and under what
circumstances can OER adoption impact
upon the increasing demand for accessible,
relevant, high-quality, and affordable
education in the Global South?
ADOPTION STUDIES
1. In what ways, and under what
circumstances are OER being
adopted in the Global South?
ROER4D
Network hub
OER Desktop overview (1) Survey of OER
adoption by academics & students
(1)
Academics’ adoption of OER
(2)
Teacher educators’ adoption of OER (3)
OER adoption in one country (1)
OER impact studies (7+1)
Baseline educational expenditure (2)
Overview of ROER4D’s 7 Project Clusters
ROER4D’s Project Clusters & Coordination
Guiding questions to tease out “openness” &
“impact”1. What is the
problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could evidence be obtained?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is the theory of change?
1. What is the problem?
1. What is the problem?
The problem is NOT the lack of OER uptake in the Global South per se
The challenge is to identify the original / implicit / underlying educational problem that OER was intended to address, e.g.
Educational materials
Increasing cost of textbooks, learning and teaching resources
Out datedness of curricula, textbooks, learning and teaching resources
Inaccessibility of books, journals, multimedia resources behind pay walls
Generic texts and/or texts in a language other than the local language
Learner-related problems
Increasing numbers of students requiring education
Lack of participation in informal and/or formal education
Poor student retention
Life-long learning required for 20th century work
Educator-related problems
Transmissionist pedagogy or teacher-centred approaches
Lack of time to develop and re-develop good quality materials
Why it is important to identify the problem?
• To be able to identify the impact of the use of OER on the problem
OER for what?
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could evidence be obtained?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is the theory of change?
Guiding questions
2. What is the claim about
OER?
2. What is the claim about OER adoption?
The “promises” made about OER include:
Educational materials
Decreasing the cost of textbooks, learning and teaching resources
Increasing the currency of textbooks, learning and teaching resources
Allowing access to books, journals, multimedia resources previously copyrighted and/or behind pay walls
Localising and/or translating texts
Learner-related problems
Increasing numbers of students requiring education
Widening participation in informal and/or formal education
Improving student retention
Providing opportunities for life-long learning
Educator-related problems
Improving teacher pedagogy to more constructivist / learner-centred
Reducing the time to develop and re-develop good quality materials
Why it is important to identify the OER claims?
• To be able to formulate the implicit or explicit hypothesis
Use of
OER will
do what?
Guiding questions
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could evidence be obtained?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is the theory of change?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
3. What are the specific objectives?
The challenge is to identify and define the key concepts underpinning the practices being investigated. Are the objectives to establish:
How aware people are of the concept of sharing materials freely and legally
How they find OER, in contrast to other materials on the Internet
How and why they create OER
Why they only reuse OER “as is” (i.e. make a copy)
In what ways they revise OER (e.g. translate, re-sequence)
In what ways the remix OER (e.g. combine with other OER)
And how these practices might influence the cost, relevance, accessibility of educational materials
Why it is important to specify objectives?
• To be able to narrow down the research focus and formulate specific research
questions
• Tease out the concepts – e.g. what is OER; does it include OA articles?
What
‘open’
practices?
Hodgkinson-Williams & Gray (2009:110) & Hodgkinson-Williams (2014)
Copy
Customise (e.g. translate, add local content)
Combine (e.g. select and mix content)
Contribute (e.g. share locally & with the world)
OER: Degrees of openness: Practices & licences
Hodgkinson-Williams & Gray (2009:110) & Hodgkinson-Williams (2014)
Copy
Customise (e.g. translate, add local content)
Combine (e.g. select and mix content)
Contribute (e.g. share locally & with the world)
OER: Degrees of openness: Practices & licencesP
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Guiding questions
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could evidence be obtained?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is the theory of change?
4. What would count as
evidence?
4. What would count as evidence?
The key challenge here is to map the problem, the OER claim (ie. the
underlying hypothesis) to the potential evidence, e.g.
Why it is important to establish what would count as evidence?
• To be able to establish the legality, ethics and feasibility of the study
• To establish what evidence would be most compelling (ie. “gold”), moderately
convincing (ie. “silver”) or marginally supportive (ie. “bronze”)
• To preempt the type of data reseachers can put forward as impact measures
before actually conducting the study
Problem Claim Evidence
Increasing cost of
textbooks, learning and
teaching resources
Decreasing the cost of
textbooks, learning and
teaching resources
Calculation of savings
based on number of OER
users who would have
spent funds on traditional
textbooks/educational
materials
Guiding questions
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could you
obtain evidence?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is the theory of change?
5. From whom could evidence be obtained?
5. From whom can evidence be obtained?
Who will gain from the benefit of the use of OER for xxx problem?
E.g. Cost reduction for …
governments for some K-12 materials
parents, bursary providers and/or students in college or university
Who will suffer some consequence of the use of OER for xxx problem?
E.g. Reduction in income for …
textbook and/or journal publishers
educators who write their own books (that may have copyrighted
materials) and sell these to the students
Why it is important to identify from whom evidence can be obtained?
• To be able to establish from whom you can elicit responses directly and whose
perceptions might need to be ascertained indirectly
Guiding questions
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could evidence be obtained?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is the theory of change?
6. How can evidence be gathered?
6. How can evidence be gathered?
Direct Indirect
Observation of performance Interview about perception of
performance
Artefact analysis Interview or questionnaire about
perceptions of quality
Interview of beliefs Survey of practices
Achievement scores Interview or questionnaire of perceptions
of value of OER in improved performance
Why it is important to identify how evidence can be gathered?
• To isolate the ‘open’ practices as carefully as possible
• To obtain the most accurate and comprehensive evidence to support your ‘impact’
claim
Guiding questions
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom could you
obtain evidence?
6. How would you gather evidence?
7. What is you theory of change?
7. What is the theory of change?
Open practices enabled by CC &
open formats
“Openness”
Impact on underlying problem
“Impact”
Teasing out “openness” and “impact”
Guiding questions
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the claim about
OER?
3. What are the specific
objectives?
4. What would count as
evidence?
5. From whom can evidence be obtained?
6. How can evidence be gathered?
7. What is you theory of change?
Links
Website: www.roer4d.org
Contact Principal Invesigator:
Follow us: http://twitter.com/roer4D
Presentations: www.slideshare.com/roer4D
Acknowledgments & Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Written by Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, Henry Trotter, Tess Cartmill, Sukaina Walji,
Sarah Goodier & Thomas King
Contact:[email protected]
Graphics by Rondine [email protected], Cheryl
Hodgkinson-Williams & Henry Trotter [email protected]