Regional Consultation Workshop on Quality Guidelines for Open Educational Resources on 13-15 March 2013 at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad

1. Quality Issues in Open Educational
Resources:
Need for a Comprehensive Perspective
Mohan Menon
mohanbmenon@gmail.com
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2. Concept
 ‘openeducation’ today is considered as a
comprehensive concept encompassing all
types and kinds of ‘openness’ including the
‘openness’ of resources.
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3. OER: a sub-set of Open Education
 Open Education is not limited to just open
educational resources. It also includes open
technologies that facilitate collaborative,
flexible learning and the open sharing of
teaching practices and new approaches to
assessment, accreditation and collaborative
learning (Cape Town Open Education
Declaration).
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4. What is “Open Content”?
Open Content / Open educational resources (OER) / Open Courseware
are educational materials (usually digital) that can be:
Shared freely
and openly
… redistribute for …
Shared
and share
again.
Redistribute
Used
d
… use by
… adapt / repurpose/ anyone to …
improve under some Improved
type of license in order
to …
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
4 cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za
mohanmenon

5. OER:Reuse-Remix-Redistribute Cycle
OER Materials
QUALITY
Practice of
Practice of
OER Re-
OER
create &Re-
Reuse/Remix
distribute
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6. OER Quality: Literature Review
Quality Aspects Operationalisation Reference
Accuracy Content is valid and Nardine
reliable Saad (2004
Relevance Relevance of content to
users needs
Significance Content teaches Nardine
educationally significant Saad (2004
concepts, models or skills
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7. OER Quality: Literature Review
Quality Aspect Operationalisation Reference
Pedagogy The material is effective Nardine Saad
as a teaching tool;
-features in the learning (2004); Paul
material that support Gerhard,
learning and the 2005
applicability of the material
in teaching and learning
processes
Presentation The material is
presented effectively and
user-friendly
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8. OER Quality: Literature Review
Quality Operationalisation Reference
Aspects
Usability Technical structure and
interface design of the learning
material as well as the ease of
use arising from these features.
Usability is dependent on the
user’s experience.
Presentation The material is presented Nardine Saad
effectively and user-friendly (2004)
Motivating Emotionally engaging content Joseph L. Scott,
8 (or presentation??) 1994
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9. OER Quality: Literature Review
Quality Operationalisation Reference
Aspects
Accessibility Accessibility in this context means that
the online learning materials are
accessible to everyone regardless of
their age, physical or mental capacity,
disabilities or health.
Findability ‘the ability of users to identify an Peter Morville,
appropriate Web site and navigate 2005
the pages of the site to discover
and retrieve relevant information
resources"
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10. OER Quality: Literature Review
Quality Operationalisation Reference
Aspects
Openness Digitized materials offered freely Bissell
(Legal) and openly for educators, students, (2009)
and self-learners to use and reuse
for teaching, learning and research
Openness ALMS Analysis Wiley
(Technical) Access to editing tools? (2009)
Level of expertise required to
revise/remix?
Meaningfully editable?
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11. OER Quality: Literature Review
Quality Operationalisation Reference
Aspects
Discoverability If an OER cannot be discovered, Brown, 2008,
from a practical perspective it Dholakia, King, and
might as well be closed Baraniuk, 2006
Searchability Good practices of site navigation "Google's Search
Engine Optimization
Starter Guide, Version
1.1, 13 Nov 2008
Reusability Pedagogical effectiveness and Wiley (2004)
potential for reuse are completely
at odds to each other Okado (2010)
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12. Quality Domains
CONTENT
PEDAGOGY PRESENTATION
OPENNESS
Legal
Technical
Technological-
IT related
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13. Proposed Quality Aspects
 CONTENT
– Accuracy
– Significance
– Relevance
 PEDAGOGY
– Theoretical soundness
– Learner centeredness
– Effectiveness for different learning levels
– Applicability in effective teaching-learning
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14. Proposed Quality Aspects
 PRESENTATION
– User-friendly
– Motivating
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15. Proposed Quality Aspects
 OPENNESS
– Discoverability-from a practical perspective (Brown, 2008,
Dholakia, King, and Baraniuk, 2006)
– Searchability- Good practices of site navigation ("Google's
Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, 13
Nov 2008)
– Reusability-Balance between pedagogical effectiveness
and potential for reuse (Wiley, 2004) Levels of reusability
(Okado, 2010, Okado, et.al. 2012)
– Findability- ability of an user to search and find a specific
resource (Peter Morville, 2005)
– Usability- combines searchability and findability
15 – Open Licence- copyright relaxations mohanmenon

16. OER:Reuse-Remix-Redistribute Cycle
OER Materials
QUALITY
Practice of
Practice of
OER Re-
OER
create &Re-
Reuse/Remix
distribute
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17. Mohan Menon
WOU
E-mail: mohanbmenon@gmail.com
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