The document discusses lessons learned from case studies on contextualizing open educational resources (OER) in Asia and Europe. It finds that successful initiatives integrate OER with existing programs, have policy support, and focus on capacity and awareness building. Cross-border collaboration is needed but has been limited, and quality assurance must consider different country and organization requirements. Early sharing of ideas and materials through their full lifecycle can facilitate collaborative OER development across borders. Continued partnership and clear actions for global collaboration are important next steps.

1. Contextualization of Open
Educational Resources in Asia
and Europe
Jan M. Pawlowski, Henri Pirkkalainen,
Juvy Lizette Gervacio, Norazah Nordin,
Mohamed Amin Embi
#easem
Bangkok, 19.12.2013

2. Jyvä skylä , Finland
Source: [http://www.jyu.fi/, http://www.jyvaskyla.fi/]

3. Global Information Systems
at the University of Jyvä skylä
Focus areas
Global Information Systems
Supporting globally distributed
workgroups
Open Educational Resources
Reference Modeling
E-Learning
Supporting international
education settings
Cultural adaptation
Standardization & Quality
Management
Mobile & Ambient Learning
Innovative tools and solutions
Projects
Open Educational Ideas and
Innovations (OEI2)
Nordic Open Education Alliance
OpenDiscoverySpace: OER for
Schools
OpenScout: OER for Management
TELMAP: Technology Forecasting
COSMOS: Open Science
Resources: Exchange of Scientific
Content
ASPECT: Open Content and
standards for schools
iCOPER: New standards for
educational technologies

4. Open X…
Type
OER
Typical Shared Artifacts
Learning Objects, Slide sets, simulations,
animations
OEP
Learning designs, curricula, lesson plans,
experiences
Open Access Articles, textbooks
Open Source Authoring tools, LMS
Assets
Pictures, illustrations, texts
OEI
Oral conversations

5. Barriers (Pirkkalainen & Pawlowski, 2013)
Lack of resources for sustaining services, content and
infrastructures
Lack of time for production and localization of OER
For sharing OER, Need for Rewards and Acknowledgement.
Lack of business model for open content initiatives
Too many resources to choose from
Hard to find suitable material – where to look from
Lack of knowledge and awareness of open content
Lack of knowledge and awareness of learning object repositories
Lack of contextual information for the resources – how can be used
or modified
Difficulty level of content – found materials not suitable for specific
students
Open content do not fit the scope of the course
Granularity of the materials
Matching the resources to own curricula is problematic
The effective use of OER is quite complicated and unclear
…lots of things can
go wrong…

6. Contextualization / Adaptation
Content
– language and cultural changes such as translation
– exchange of culture-specific concepts, names, date and time formats.
Curriculum, pedagogy and didactics
– curriculum fit
– teaching and learning methods
Interaction and communication
– interaction patterns and communications
– culture specific communication preferences
– adaptation of communication tools
Media and design
– media and design to organization’s identity (e.g. adapting layouts, logos,
templates)
– cultural preferences such as colors or symbols / icons
– changes of devices (e.g. from desktop applications to mobile app design).
Technical
– infrastructure and tools (such as LMS, authoring systems, communication or
social software tools)
– different networking capabilities (e.g. broadband)
Cultural (horizontal category)
– all change aspects are mainly based on (geographical and organizational)
cultural factors

7. Issues
OER re-use is not yet common practice, in
particular not in cross-border contexts
Not-invented-here syndrome: If I have not
created / spent efforts / reviewed it myself,
it can’t be good
Massive Open Online Colonialism…
Lack of appreciation and recognition in the
community
Sharing complete resources might not be
the solution…
What are solutions for cross-border
collaboration and mutual (!) synergies?

8. Cases
Finland: Open Educational Ideas
– Focus on the sharing process
Philippines: University of the Philippines’ Open
University
– Focus on policy / strategy and experiences
Malaysia: OER in Malaysia
– Good practices from Malaysia
Case structure
– Motivation and context: Why is the case
relevant? What is the setting of the case?
– Case description: Short description of the
adaptation and contextualization
– Case results: What was achieved, what are the
key results?
– Barriers and Critical success factors

9. Finland: Open Educational Ideas and
Emotional Ownership
“the degree that individuals or
groups perceive that knowledge
or resources belong to them”
Theoretical background:
– Wabi-Sabi principle (Treviranus,
2011): Designing the imperfect to
allow creation processes
– From Open Content to Open
Thinking (deLiddo, 2010)
Imperfect Design
ER
O

10. Finland: Revising the Sharing Process OEI Lifecycle

11. Finland: OEI Artifacts
Type
Typical Shared Artifacts
OEI Artifacts
OEI
Oral conversations
Ideas, innovations,
requirements
(to
educational material)
needs /
develop
OER
Learning Objects, Slide sets, Early stage digital objects, draft
simulations, animations
versions, course outlines
OEP
Learning designs, curricula, Didactic / lesson plans, new
lesson plans, experiences
curricula, experience requests
Open Access
Articles, textbooks
Open Source
Authoring tools, LMS
Position papers, book outlines,
drafts
Prototypes
Assets
Pictures, illustrations, texts
Sketches, drafts

12. Philippines: Resource Based Content Package
Four parameters of openness: OER, open
admissions, open curricula, and distance
education at a scale
Positioned to lead in the OER movement
Resource Based Content Package
– detailed study guide, to both on-line and off-line
resources considered to be the core set of
materials for a course (instead of one textbook)
– resources may contain commentaries, detailed
explanations, and examples, as well as selfassessment questions and activities
Resource examples
– web-based publications and digital materials
such as podcasts, webcasts, as well as
features of Web 2.0 like blogs, wikis,
shareware, and virtual communities.

13. Philippines: Key Issues and Challenges
Policy level
– Lacking policy on OERs
– IPR Issues (protection vs freedom)
– constant discussion and articulation on the relevance of OERs
could lead to the creation of a policy
Resource Constraints
– regular appropriation from the government
– need to update and acquire equipment and software as well as
improve interconnectivity
Capacity Building for RBCP
– need to create awareness on OERs and the RBCP
– How to customize OER
Quality Assurance
– design a mechanism to ensure quality of OERs.
Co-sharing of materials with Institutional Partners
– Good basis through institutional partners locally and globally
– Exploration of co-development of OERs that can be shared
Course Evaluation
– need to review OER utilization and customization in the RBCP
approach

14. Malaysia: OER initiatives
Aiming at being a leading country on OER
Embracing the willingness to create, innovate and
share
Initiatives
– Wawasan Open University & OER Asia
– Open University of Malaysia
– University Teknologi Malaysia Open
CourseWare
– International Medical University (IMU) Webinar
Learning Series
– Web 2.0 OER
– Just-in-time Training 2U (JiT2U)
– ZaidLearn
– Learning Innovation Circle (LIC)
More in the next presentation 

15. Summary: Lessons learned from the
case studies
Integration of OER with existing initiatives
– A variety of initiatives has already been develop
– Integration need into broader OER adoption.
Policy support
– needed on a national level as well as in university
strategies
– indication that Asian universities have OER higher
on the agenda than universities in Europe
Capacity and awareness building
– Stakeholders in all countries need to be informed
and educated
Cross-border collaboration
– mainly on a regional level
– No broad initiatives exist
– Strong need to collaborate globally!

16. Summary: Lessons learned from the
case studies
Quality assurance
– Resources and courses need to be quality assured taking the
different country- and organizational requirements into account
Institutional partnerships
– Supporting the utilization of OER
– Existing and new partnerships should include OER as a means
for collaboration
Early sharing
– Idea sharing is a promising concept towards the collaborative
development of OER
– Not only OER should be shared but also OEI and OEP to share
in all parts of the lifecycle
Collaboration processes and tools
– necessary to facilitate cross-border collaborations and OER
development
– ease adaptation and in particular translation as well as cultural
processes
– Integrate standard tools allowing simple collaborative
development and adaptation

17. Outlook
First explorative, cross-country study
between Asia and Europe
Continue on the experiences, everyone can
and will learn
Expand research on cultural aspects
Model a reference process for global OER
collaboration (around the OEI model?)
Continue to build partnership in e-ASEM
but create clear actions for collaboration!

18. Contact us…
Prof. Dr. Jan M. Pawlowski
jan.m.pawlowski@jyu.fi
GLIS on the web…
http://users.jyu.fi/~japawlow
Nordic OER
http://nordicoer.org
OpenDiscoverySpace
http://www.opendiscoveryspace.eu