open education

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Open Education: Policy, practice, research and scholarship> Apply to all)

Jisc OER Guide - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/open-educational-resources

Highlights a range of ‘open’ philosophies and models, some of which are listed below:

» Open source (relating to business and technology)

» Open source software

» Open source hardware

» Open standards

» Open access (research)

» Open design

» Open knowledge

» Open data

» Open content

» Open courseware

» Open educational resources

» Open educational practice

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» Key point – not all CC licences are ‘free’ – need to understand what you can and can’t do

» What is a Creative Commons licence?

» Creative Commons (CC) is an international not-for-profit which aims to improve clarity about what people can do with published content. For researchers, this generally means academic books or journal articles, for lecturers the cc licence can be a good way to adapt and re-use teaching and learning content developed by others for their subject area, and to share their own content with colleagues and to engage with practitioners without geographical barriers. The licences are also used by photographers, musicians, artists, and Wikipedians

» There are six Creative Commons licences to choose from as shown in the table

» All Creative Commons licences require attribution: this is signified with the ‘BY’ in each licence name.

» CC BY Attribution

• The most liberal of the Creative Commons licences apart from CC0 Public Domain Dedication. This licence allows others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work -even commercially

• - provided they credit you for the original creation and clearly indicate that changes were made to your work.


• From http://creativecommons.org/tag/noderivatives :

» Creative Commons offers 6 licenses. The BY and BY-SA licenses are considered “Free” because they grant to users a set of freedoms including:

» the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it

» the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired from it

» the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part, of the information or expression

» the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works

» There are four CC licenses that are considered “non-free” because they do not provide for all of the freedoms listed above. The CC licenses that contain the NonCommercial and/or NoDerivatives terms are considered non-free. These licenses are BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND.

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» This briefing paper was produced following the findings of the UKOER Programme.

» UKOER Programme managed by Jisc in partnership with the HEA ran in three phases between 2009-2012.

» Prompted a UK-wide rethink of the way in which learning and teaching materials are created, shared, distributed and used - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-education.

» UKOER synthesis and evaluation report highlighted the emergence of Open Educational Practice (OEP):

› Changes in teaching approaches such as the impact of open practices on pedagogic design and student involvement -https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/60540797/ukoer3keylessons

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» There are different barriers and enablers for different stakeholders -https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/60540797/ukoer3keylessons.

» The above slide highlights some barriers, enablers and benefits to OER release and is taken from -https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/open-educational-resources/overcoming-barriers-and-finding-enablers.

» Some considerations highlighted in the Jisc OERs guide - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/open-educational-resources:

› Initiatives incorporating Open Education are about institutional change.

› There is a need for appropriate approaches and support to help staff adjust to changes in culture which may seem threatening.

› A strong infrastructure is required to address technical and hosting solutions and IPR policies.

› Branding and quality need to be considered.

› Sustainability needs to be considered - not just of funding for OERs but in embedding processes and transforming practices.

› Teaching practices:

– There is evidence that engagement with OER release has stimulated critical reflection and reconsideration of existing practices, particularly focussing on how learning resources might be used in different contexts

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Researcher reputation

›Important – affects grants / REF awards

›Need to publish –In the right journals (journal impact factor)

–Be cited well (H index)

›Required to demonstrate impact for REF–Impact case studies

–Impact in academic literature and beyond

–Altmetrics (impact as shown in social media)

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Taken from: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/complying-with-research-funders-open-access-policies

» Research Councils UK (RCUK) now require papers resulting from research they’ve to be published open access, preferably in journals that make papers immediately available at no charge to readers (gold open access).

» Costs to authors will be met by RCUK via block grants to universities. Alternatively, papers can be published in traditional subscription journals that allow free access after an embargo period via the author’s institutional repository (green open access).

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» One interesting outcome was that institution-led projects tended towards the conclusion that OER release should be incorporated into existing strategies and policies to signal that OER release and use is an integral part of existing activities, an approach that supports ongoing sustainability and embedding into practice.

» Glasgow Caledonian University OER Policy – made available by CC licence and registered on the OER Policy Registry. Good example of sharing of practice – based on University of Leeds licence

» A number of other UK institutions have listed their policies on the registry including the Open University, Leeds Metropolitan, and Jisc

» Wales have released an Open Education Declaration of Intent drafted by the Vice-Chancellors of Higher Education Wales indicating their collective agreement to ensure T&L materials are released under open licence -https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/The_Wales_Open_Education_Declaration_of_Intent -https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/The_Wales_Open_Education_Declaration_of_Intent

» There are other Open Education initiatives taking place such as A Vision for Open Educational Resources at University of Edinburgh - http://open.ed.ac.uk/

» The Open University - http://www.open.ac.uk/about/open-educational-resources/what-we-do

› “We are open – we aim to remove all barriers to education and set no entry qualifications.

› We use a mixture of business models (free, fee, and donor support) to provide scalable and sustainable solutions.”

› Policies include:

– resources used are fit-for-purpose and relevant.

– All OERs used and created should comply with all relevant GCU guidance and policies such as Accessibility and Equality and Diversity

– Staff and students should clearly identify themselves as the creator(s) of an OER

– Staff and students should clearly identify their affiliation by adding it to the resource and, when publishing an OER, to any associated metadata. For example: John Smith, Glasgow Caledonian University.

– OERs should include GCU branding

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» Open Scotland was formed following an Open Scotland Summit in 2013. The summit took place in Edinburgh and was attended by a number or senior representatives from Scottish education institutions, organisations and agencies.

» The Summit provided an opportunity to reflect on the impact of open education.

» Open Scotland have facilitated the Scottish Open Declaration.

» The work of Open Scotland has been largely unfunded, however some funding has been received to produce the 2nd draft of the Scottish Open Declaration, and the University of Edinburgh have also provided some funding for Lorna Campbell to work for one day a week as OER Liaison – Open Scotland.

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» The Scottish Open Education Declaration builds on the work of the UNESCO 2012 Paris OER Declaration but scope widened to open education (not just OER) and authored by Lorna Campbell. The second draft now published to reflect comments on first draft (with support from Opening Educational Practices in Scotland project).

» The declaration references:

› Digital citizens

› Open Licences

› Open Research

› Pioneering work taking place in Scottish education (e.g. Open Badges, open data, open frameworks for TEL, engagement with Wikimedia UK and Open Knowledge).

› Education materials produced with public funding should be available to all

› Widen access to lifelong learning – contributing to social inclusion, gender equality and SEN, accessible OER

› Bridge digital divide – infrastructure, mobile technology

› Promote use of Open Educational Practices (work with institutions at a strategic level)

» Feedback indicates that the declaration has value and is useful for raising awareness of open education within their own institution and for triggering discussions about open education at policy level (http://openscot.net/event-reports/oeps-forum-and-ways-forward-for-the-scottish-open-education-declaration/)

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» OEPS project has 3 year funding provided by the Scottish Funding Council and managed by the Open University.

» Aims to facilitate best practice in open education in Scotland.

» The project is working collaboratively with the education community in Scotland to raise awareness of OEP, and to gather evidence of good practice.

» As part of their work, the project team have produced an updated definition of OEP:

“We think of Open Educational Practices as those educational practices that are concerned with and promote equity and openness. Our understanding of ‘open’ builds on the freedoms associated with “the 5 Rs” of OER, promoting a broader sense of open, emphasising social justice, and developing practices that open up opportunities for those distanced from education.”

http://oepscotland.org/about/definitions/

5 Rs of OER - http://opencontent.org/definition/ 1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)2. Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a

video)3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another

language)4. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new

(e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g.,

give a copy of the content to a friend)

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» Taken from OER briefing

» OA aspects:

» Contractual issues around OA – signing funder / publisher agreements that may conflict.

» Technical challenge for OA to demonstrate compliance as info is kept in many different systems that often don’t talk to each other (again Jisc helping here with standards compliance eg RIOXX)

» Rewards – researchers still not rewarded to publish OA. Need to get in high ranking journals which are not necessarily OA. Often high charges to publish (RCUK provides block grants to cover their funded research)

» Usage and discover – how do you promote and measure usage of your resources? CORE / IRUS can help.

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» Open education continues to gather momentum and practices are evolving. This purpose of this brief overview is to highlight some aspects of Open Education. It may be worth reflecting on where your institution is with regard to Open Education. Do you have policies in place? Are you aware of Open Education initiatives and practices? What do you think the role of digital leader is in this landscape?

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» The above quote highlights open education in the context of social justice and widening access.

» Do Universities have a civic responsibility to ensure that education is available to the wider community?

» The University of Edinburgh in their vision for Open Educational Resources highlights the institutions civic mission:

“The proposed OER vision for University of Edinburgh has three strands, each building on our history of the Edinburgh Settlement, excellent education, research collections, enlightenment and civic mission.”

http://open.ed.ac.uk/

» Laura Czerniewicz has given numerous engaging presentations about global inequality in education, and the complexities that surround Open Education. In her keynote at ALT-C 2015 she talks about the importance of business models for the commons, and the important role policies and advocacy has in addressing inequality and inclusion. A recording is available via YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEglB5b_msk&list=PLxoWy14N6f8tTK1wXfoUd_bPRmDBoTr3Z&index=2) and her slides are here - http://www.slideshare.net/laura_Cz/inequality-as-higher-ed-goes-online.

» Education is a fundamental human right which should be open to all – UNESCO OER Paris Declaration, 2012

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» Jisc Open educational resources (OERs) guide - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/open-educational-resources

» Jisc R&D project: Open access good practice - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-access-good-practice

» Jisc R&D project: Open Education - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-education

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https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/open-educational-resources

https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-access-good-practice

https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-education

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