The power of the three words and one acronym: OER vs OER

(I’m not an Ogre of the Enchanted Realm

of cyberspace. I’m an Omnipresent

Educational Rescuer - because I use the OER!)

photocredit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99353930@N00/4742226415/in/set-72157623425016221

oral presentation byCarmen HOLOTESCU & Gabriela GROSSECK

at 6th World Conference on Educational Sciences06-09 February 2014, Malta

OER Definition

[…] „the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes.”

unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources

UNESCO (2002)

What are OERs? Open Educational Resources

„are any type of educational materials that are in the public

domain or introduced with an open license.

The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and

freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes,

assignments, tests, projects, audio, video

and animation.”

unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002136/213605e.pdf

Current Projects related to OER

„ICT tools, Open Educational Resources, and open practices allow for an increase in the effectiveness of education, allowing for more personalised learning, a better learning experience, and an improved use of resources. Such measures also promote equity by increasing the availability of knowledge.Ultimately, opening up education may lead to a situation where all individuals may learn anytime, anywhere, with the support of anyone, using any device.”

Open Education EuropaOpening up education through new technologies

openeducationeuropa.eu

ec.europa.eu/education/policy/strategic-framework/education-technology.htm

Main Outcomes:• A mapping framework of ICT-enabled innovation for

learning• The Creative Classrooms concept and reference

parameters• A set of policy recommendations for mainstreaming

of systemic, ICT-enabled innovations in Education and Training (E&T).

SCALE CCR: Up-Scaling Creative Classrooms in Europe

s.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/SCALECCR.html

Specific objectives:• Study the sustainability and business

models of OER and OEP initiatives• Build a classification of OER initiatives

and practices, and a detailed and critical assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

• Contribute to the analysis of the socio-economic impacts that OER and OEP can have on the education systems

• Implement a participatory foresight methodology, based on targeted stakeholder consultations, in order to develop visions and scenarios on the future of Open Education

• Derive policy recommendations

OEREU: Open Education Resources and Practices in Europe

is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/OEREU.html

POERUP: Policies for OER Uptake„POERUP is focused on filling the following two gaps in research:• The end-user–producer communities behind the OER initiatives and

what (or who) it is that actually provides the energy that make OER initiatives work or not. At present there exists little experience in how to best support the communities behind these initiatives or what they actually want or do.

• Policies that governments and agencies (international, national and regional) should adopt in order to best foster creation and uptake of OER.”

„OER-based learning, seen as an extension of online education, provides opportunity for everyone to access high quality education at relatively low

cost” (POERUP, 2013)

poerup.referata.com

OER Initiatives in Romania

CCR was launched in September 2, 2008, with the help of ApTI(The Association for Technology and Internet)

http://ro.creativecommons.org/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ro/

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Romania

National OER initiatives

• OER in the Government ProgrammeThe Government Programme for 2013-2016 adopted in December 2012 (http://www.gov.ro/upload/articles/118981/program-de-guvernare-2013-2016.pdf) specifies that Ministry of Communication and Ministry of Education will collaborate to support the innovative integration of Web2.0 and Open Educational Resources in education.

• Knowledge based Economy ProjectOER educational policies (recommendations in 2007)• OER and OEP: The activities in the KEP project have led the schools towards a shift in

focus from the resources themselves towards the practices associated with the creation, use and management of OER: that is, open educational practices (OEP).

Regional and institutional OER initiatives

Related to FLOSS (Free / Libre / Open Source Software)• Groups• Conferences/Events• Courses / Trainings / Research• Linux distributions and Open

Source projects development

Related to OER, OEP and Open Content/AccessCourses / Trainings / Programs Open Content / Open Access / Communities for OER and OEP Studies

Open Educational Resources Framework (1)

Proposed to evaluate OER Projects – dimensions marked with (*) are presented in (POERUP, 2013), the others are original.

Are licensed under: (*)• various Creative Commons Licenses Are created using:• Collaborative applications• Open Source Software Are distributed on:• Specific directories/repositories/portals• Social Media platforms Cover: (*)• A large range of topics Are used at different educational levels: (*)• Pre-university• University• Adult Education• Personal Development/LLL• Informal Learning / Serendipity (?)• Smart Cities Are found using:• Specific search engines• Directories• Linked Data

Are influenced/supported by policies/recommendations at different levels: (*)• UNESCO / global• European• National• Regional• Institutional Granularity:• Little (distributed on SM platforms, collections of

digital assets: curricula, syllabi, assignments, tests, projects)

• Big (open online courses, open textbooks)• MOOCs Format: (*)• Text• Audio• Video• Multimedia• Simulations• Animations Assessed/evaluated by: (*)• Quality procedures• Peer-reviewing• User-driven models

Use different patterns of:• Certification• Accreditation Require:• Teachers training / courses Have as verbs:• Create• Use • Adapt• Exchange• Share• Reuse• Collaborate• Personalize• Mix• Evaluate• Validate

Are promoted by:• Case studies• Best practices• Research• Events/conferences/workshops• Communities of practice

Enable / are connected with:• Open access• Open content• Open educational practices / open pedagogy /

open collaboration• Mobile learning Are funded/financed by: (*)• Institutions• Foundations• Projects• Governments• Partnerships Foster:• Acquisition of specific competences needed by

teachers and learners to adopt open educational practices

• Lifelong learning and social inclusion Challenged by:• Low digital fluency of faculty• Relative lack of rewards for teaching (HR, 2014)

Open Educational Resources Framework (2)

Proposed to evaluate OER Projects – dimensions marked with (*) are presented in (POERUP, 2013), the others are original.

From POERUP elevator pitch: 26 countries in 26 minutes, slide 11 http://www.slideshare.net/witthaus/poerup-elevator-pitch

Strengths in Romanian OER initiatives

Romania is active in the OER movement: • trainings/courses related to OER and OEP organized for both pre-

university and university sectors• proposals at governamental level, more for pre-university –not yet in

formal politics.• national events related to open resources produced by pre-university

teachers; national guides were published also• directories with open resources more numerous for pre-university level• strong communities/events for OS and OD• proposals for MOOCs: at university level: Credis, UPT (Andone, 2014)

and for LLL (Holotescu et al., 2013).

Recommendations (1)

• The educational content which already exists, mainly in AeL/SEI, should be used more intensive by teachers and students: connections with curricula, the skills they develop should be more clear; encourage and support the sharing of best practices; should be licenced under CC (*)

• Create a repository with the educational projects in which Romanian schools, universities and educational organizations have participated, under CC licencies (*)

• Public outputs from European Commission programs should be made open, for example using Creative Commons licenses (**)

• Collaborations between schools and universities in regards to OER projects (**)

(*) from Recommendations 2007(**) from POERUP 2014

Recommendations (2)• Partnership of Ministry of Education

with publishers, broadcasters, libraries, cultural institutions to provide open access to their own resources (*)

• All teachers training programmes should contain topics related to OER, new licenses and tools to create educational materials in a collaborative manner (*)

• Encourage a competitive market for educational resources production, guarantee transparency of supply and equal opportunities to market actors; Define a set of quality criteria (*)

• Budgets for digital education should include money for developing and maintaining OER (**)

• OER should be allowed on approved materials lists (**)

• Encourage Europe-wide validation of learning acquired online (not only via OER and MOOCs) (**) (*) from Recommendations 2007

(**) from POERUP 2014

Thank you for your attention!

Gabriela GrosseckUniversity of the West Timisoara, RomaniaTwitter: @ggrosseck

Carmen Holotescu

Politehnica University Timisoara, RomaniaTwitter: @cami13