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OCWC Global Conference 2013: Expanding the reach of OERs through Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs)
1. Expanding the reach of OERs through
Professional, Statutory and Regulatory
Bodies (PSRBs)
Professor Stephen Gomez, Alex Fenlon & Dr Rebekah Southern
@profgomez OCWC13
2. Barriers to uptake of OERs
Freely available
Unregulated
Can be produced by anyone
Can be altered by anyone
‘Pedigree’ is not recorded
All these points
Negative perceptions of quality
Barrier to use & production
2
A question of quality
4. 3 years of HEFCE funding
~£13million
(182,000,000,000 rupiah)
3 phases, multiple calls per
phase; 115+ projects.
66 different institutions
(HEI’s, FEC’s, and
professional bodies).
4
UK Open Educational Resources
Programme- HEA & JISC
Russell Group
Post 92
94 Group
FEC
University
Alliance
UKADIA
Million +
Professional
Body
Unaffiliated
5. Phase 1 2009 – 2010 £5.7mil
Development of resources for teachers, practitioners and
students, and the exploration of effective use, reuse and
adaptation of resources.
Phase 2 2010 – 2011 £5mil
Built on phase 1, using partnership models to cascade
information; issues around reuse and tracing released
resources, reward and recognition for staff...
Phase 3 2011 – 2012 £2.8mil
Institutional policy and change; student voice in OER, significant
thematic development, initial and CPD for staff, work with
professional and learned societies, and support for senior
managers. 5
UK Open Educational Resources
Programme- JISC & HEA
6. UKOER3 JISC Academy ukoer 3 themes and focus areas —Lou McGill
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4776236/ukoer3
7. One theme - Professional, Statutory and Regulatory
Bodies (PSRBs)
Aims
Promote OP with PSRBs & Subject Associations;
Facilitate a sustainable change in policy to embed
OP at a discipline level;
Use existing discipline-specific UK OERs as to
support education & professional development;
Identify suitable resources and for promotion to
existing members & networks.
7
UKOER programme
8. Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME)
- Promoting open approaches in medicine.
Royal Society of Chemistry - Higher Education Learn
Chemistry project
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Charitable Trust -
Aiding the Transition from Veterinary School to Practice
Royal Geographical Society (with IB) - OER: Facilitating
and catalysing uptake in Geography
Society of Biology - Promoting OER in bioscience Higher
Education.
8
Participating organisations
9. Increased an understanding of OP in medicine;
Created a portfolio of scenarios where OP has been
adopted;
Highlighted current best practice with support from the
external copyright consultant;
Increased the authority with which organisations lead
discussions on the adoption of OP;
Enabled greater participation in national debate and policy
development.
9
ASME results
10. Need to develop more effective policies &
procedures, especially around copyright & licencing;
Organisations have limited knowledge about Creative
Commons;
Difficult to identify authors of open materials;
Difficult to identify authors of materials that could be made
into open materials;
Difficult to decide what to make open & what to have
‘closed’;
Taking part in the project raised awareness of open
practice & likely to lead to a culture change in the
organisation. 10
Lessons learned
11. Projects increased awareness & understanding of OER
across a range of disciplines.
to the systematic collation of good quality resources in
new repositories of enormous benefit to a range of
audiences.
gaps identified where new OER are required & funding
secured to develop new material.
11
Conclusion
12. What are your experiences around perception of quality
assurance of open materials?
What is your view of using professional bodies to assure
the quality of open materials?
What other ways could quality be assured?
12
Questions
13. Professor Stephen Gomez
HEA Academic Lead - Online Learning
Stephen.Gomez@heacademy.ac.uk
@profgomez
13
Further information
Hinweis der Redaktion
Association for the Study of Medical Education - Promoting open approaches with the UK PSRB/subject associations in medicine.Royal Society of Chemistry - Higher Education Learn Chemistry projectRoyal College of Veterinary Surgeons Charitable Trust - Aiding the Transition from Veterinary School to PracticeRoyal Geographical Society (with IB) - OER: Facilitating and catalysing uptake in GeographySociety of Biology - Promoting OER in bioscience Higher Education.
Developed and increased the baseline understanding of open approaches in PSRB/SA and charitable organisations, primarily in medicine. The final report suggests that in some cases there has been a significant increase in understanding within specific organisations; Created a portfolio of scenarios where open approaches can be adopted by the PSRB/SA, subject to approval by the relevant internal processes. As lead organisation ASME’s executive committee has signed off some changes to their own practice and it is thought that other partners have done the same based on the content of their original collaboration agreement; Highlighted current best practice within each organisation that can be shared for the benefit of other PSRB/SA in different academic and professional fields. This has been maximised with support from the external copyright consultant; Increased the authority with which partners are able to lead discussions on the adoption of new policies and work procedures with their own members, contacts, affiliated organisations and contracted parties; and, Provided an understanding and knowledge of open content and access approaches - and their associated issues - to enable greater participation in national debate and policy development.
The case studies developed by the project have highlighted that generally there is a need to develop more effective policies and procedures to help potential stakeholders understand copyright and licensing. Most organisations were found to have a limited knowledge of open approaches including tools such as Creative Commons. This has increased through the project and there is an expectation that organisational understanding will continue to grow and indeed spiral. The final report also highlights that it was not always straightforward to consistently identify the owners of web-based materials; and that it was unclear on occasions how educational resources and materials could be used (paper/hardcopy and electronic). There was variation in statements of ownership and whether materials could be copied or not, even within an organisation, depending on the type/format of resource and legal advice being given at the time of publication. Few of the resources referred to updated polices elsewhere (such as on website pages), meaning that the guidance for use/re-use of previously published works were difficult to retrospectively change or update. Additionally, particularly for electronic resources, the actual materials usually did not have anything embedded to explain how the resources could be used. This means once the resources are removed from the host website there is no mechanism to inform future potential users. The project also uncovered other issues around open practice for membership based organisations. There are fundamental questions around what to share more openly and what to keep for the benefit of members and this is of particular relevance for those that are commercially dependent upon membership fees for their continuing existence. Feedback through the evaluation indicates the need for organisations to decide what their overall policy towards making resources available will be, based on individual circumstances, including the extent to which they are reliant on the income generated from books and journals for their continuing existence.
Overall, the projects have increased the awareness and understanding of OER across a range of disciplines. In many cases this has led – or will in time lead – to the systematic collation of good quality resources in new repositories that will be of enormous benefit to a range of audiences. In other projects gaps have been identified where new OER are required and, encouragingly, there seems to be a real appetite for rising to this challenge. In some instances funding has already been secured to develop new material.
In the meantime, I’d like to remind you that all our resources are openly available and we are keen to assist you with any enquiries. One person to contact in the first instance is Professor Stephen Gomez, our Academic Lead for Online Learning. He will be able to inform you about the numerous other initiatives in the e-learning arena that I haven’t had time to discuss here.