1.
OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES: SHARING
CONTENT AND KNOWLEDGE
DIFFERENTLY IS A DRIVER OF
INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
Dirk Van Damme – OECD/CERI

2.
• Why have ICT and the internet – which profoundly
changed production and distribution in so many
sectors and improved productivity – not had the
same impact on education so far?
• Open Educational Resources (OER) can be seen as a
social innovation (not a technological one) with the
potential of reforming (not revolutionising)
education if they are linking to what we know about
learning and to what teachers need
Starting points

3.
• How innovative is the educational sector?
• The innovation potential of open educational
resources
• How?
– Fostering pedagogies for 21st century learning
– Fostering teachers’ collaboration and professional
development
– Significantly improving the quality of resources
• Some conclusions and final comments
Outline

4.
HOW INNOVATIVE IS THE
EDUCATION SECTOR?

5.
• Oslo Manual (2005):
– “the implementation of a new or significantly
improved product (good or service) or process, a new
marketing method, or a new organisational method in
business practices, workplace organisation or external
relations.”
Innovation in education

6.
• Applied to the educational sector:
1. new products and services, e.g. new syllabi,
textbooks or educational resources
2. new processes for delivering their services, e.g. use
of ICT in e-learning services,
3. new ways of organising their activities, e.g. ICT to
communicate with students and parents, and
4. new marketing techniques, e.g. differential pricing
of postgraduate courses.
Innovation in education

7.
Percentage of graduates working in highly
innovative workplaces, by sector, 2005 or 2008
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
%
Health Manufacturing Business activities All economy Education

8.
Percentage of graduates working in the education
sector in highly innovative workplaces, 2005 or 2008
37.6
43.6
49.8 50.2 51.4
53.2
55.2
58.9 59.1 60.1 61.4 61.8 62.6 63.9 64.6
66.3 67.2 67.7
71.0 72.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
%
Knowledge or methods

9.
Percentage of graduates working in the education
sector in highly innovative workplaces, 2005 or 2008
21.8 22.3
29.2
30.9
32.7 32.9 33.8
35.5 36.4 37.3 37.6
39.1 39.3 40.5
42.0
44.2
45.9
48.4
50.3
52.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
%
Product or service

10.
Percentage of graduates working in the education
sector in highly innovative workplaces, 2005 or 2008
19.1
23.7
25.5
28.6 28.8
30.4
32.7 33.9
35.8 36.1 36.4 37.1 37.3
40.4
42.9 44.2 45.3 45.7
51.2
53.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
%
Technology, tools or instruments

11.
THE INNOVATION
POTENTIAL OF OPEN
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

12.
• “teaching, learning and research materials that make
use of appropriate tools, such as open licensing, to
permit their free re-use, continuous improvement
and re-purposing by others.”
– Any type or form
– Mostly, though not exclusively, in digital format
– Allowing for re-use, revise, re-mix and re-distribute
(the ‘four Rs’ of OER)
Defining OER

13.
• The innovation potential of OER resides in their usage in
a teaching and learning setting by:
– Substitution: The OER replaces a similar learning material
allowing for the same functionalities.
– Augmentation: The OER constitutes an improvement in
terms of previous learning materials’ efficacy.
– Modification (redesign of the learning activity): The OER
enables a substantial learning activity redesign compared
to the previous learning material.
– Redefinition (of the pedagogical approach): The OER allow
for new forms of learning that were previously unavailable
with the previous teaching and learning configuration.
(Puentedura, 2006)
OERs’ innovation potential

14.
HOW?
1. FOSTERING PEDAGOGIES
FOR 21ST CENTURY LEARNING

15.
• In reality, most OER are used in existing educational
settings
• At best, augmenting the teaching-learning process
and the resources used
• But 21st century learning requires a focus on more
innovative skills development and pedagogies
1. Fostering pedagogies for 21st century
learning

16.
16
Changing skill demand
40
45
50
55
60
65
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Routine manual
Nonroutine manual
Routine cognitive
Nonroutine analytic
Nonroutine interactive
Source: Levy and Murnane, 2005
Mean task input as percentiles of the 1960 task distribution
Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (US)

17.
1.56
1.76
1.76
1.81
1.94
1.95
1.97
1.98
1.99
2.00
2.02
2.05
2.11
2.15
2.18
2.24
2.34
2.44
2.97
1.00 2.00 4.00
assert your authority
negociate
knowledge of other fields
perform under pressure
write reports or documents
work productively with others
mobilize capacities of others
use time efficiently
make your meaning clear
use computers and internet
write and speak a foreign language
coordinate activities
master of your own field
analytical thinking
present ideas in audience
alertness to opportunities
willingness to question ideas
acquire new knowledge
come with news ideas/solutions
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Critical skills for innovation
Likelihood (odds ratios) of reporting the following job requirements: people
in the most innovative jobs vs. least innovative jobs
Source: OECD, based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data

18.
From what we know from learning research, teaching and
learning environments and pedagogies should be:
• Learner-centred: highly focused on learning but not as an
alternative to the key role for teachers
• Structured and well-designed: needs careful design and high
professionalism alongside inquiry & autonomous learning
• Profoundly personalised: acutely sensitive to individual and
group differences and offering tailored feedback
• Inclusive: such sensitivity to individual and group differences
means they are fundamentally inclusive
• Social: learning is effective in group settings, when learners
collaborate, and when there is a connection to community.
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Redefining teaching and learning

19.
Industrial Post-industrial
Cognitive skills Cognitive & non-cognitive skills
Discipline Character
Routine skills Non-routine skills
Curriculum centred Skills centred
Linear concepts of learning Non-linearity
‘Learning to the test’ ‘Joy of learning’
Formal education centred
Continuum from formal to
informal learning
Evidence-poor teaching and
learning environments
Evidence-rich teaching and
learning environments
Pedagogy for selection of few Pedagogy of success of all
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The direction of change

20.
• Changes in teaching practices
• Changing the role of learners from passive
consumers to active producers
• Fostering peer-to-peer learning
• Stimulating problem-based learning
• Enriching learning resources through collaborative
production
• …
How can OER support innovative pedagogies?

21.
HOW?
2. FOSTERING TEACHERS’
COLLABORATION AND
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

22.
• ICT technology and the ways to use them in a
productive way in teaching and learning cited by
teachers as one of the most important needs of
professional development
• Professional collaboration is still the most
contentious and difficult dimension of
professionalism among teachers
2. Fostering teachers’ professional
development

23.
Teachers’ need for professional development
0 10 20 30 40
Knowledge of the curriculum
Knowledge of the subject field(s)
School management and administration
Pedagogical competencies
Developing competencies for future work
Teaching cross-curricular skills
Student evaluation and assessment practice
Student career guidance and counselling
Approaches to individualised learning
Teaching in a multicultural or multilingual setting
Student behaviour and classroom management
New technologies in the workplace
ICT skills for teaching
Teaching students with special needs
France Average
Percentage of lower secondary teachers indicating they have a high level of need for professional development in the
following areas
TALIS 2013

24.
Professional collaboration still the most
contentious aspect of professional growth
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
Shared vision Focus on student
learning
Reflection De-privatisation of
practice
Collaborative
activities -
exchange
Collaborative
activities - teach
jointly
Mean factor score
Professional learning community
Belgium (Fl.)
Belgium (Fl.) profile A: 80% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)
Belgium (Fl.) profile B: 13% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)
Belgium (Fl.) profile C: 8% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)
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TALIS 2008

25.
• Training and professional development for teachers
on using OER
• Using OER in teacher training and teacher
professional development
• Collaborative production of OER
• Stimulating teachers in reusing, revising, remixing
and redistributing of OER
• …
How can OER support teachers’ professional
development?

26.
HOW?
3. SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVING
THE QUALITY OF RESOURCES

27.
• Many people see open resources as a quality
challenge because of lack of trust in products from
other people and the dispersed nature of the
production process
• OER can provide access to high-quality resources
• Collaborative practices, feedback, adaptability should
work in favour of quality, by
– Keeping resources up-to-date
– Providing adequate quality assurance mechanisms
– Aligning OER to accepted standards
3. Significantly improving the quality of
resources

28.
• Creating communities of practice purposefully evaluating
and enhancing quality of resources through user
feedback, adapting and modifying resources, etc.
• Improving access to and sharing of high-quality materials
• Providing targeted search tools to high-quality materials
• Flexibly adapting resources to new environments
• Better organising procedures of peer-review and use
feedback
• Refusing to be tolerant to low-quality resources
How can OER improve the quality of
resources?

29.
SOME CONCLUSIONS AND
FINAL COMMENTS

30.
• Ultimately, the relevance of OER will consist of the way it
impacts on and improves teaching and learning
processes and facilitates better skills development
• Content and teaching-learning practices are not
completely distinct
• OER should be able to demonstrate its intrinsic
superiority over proprietary materials in its pedagogical
dimension and substantive quality
• OER should move from a pioneering community of
believers, or even an ideology, into professional practice
Some conclusions and final comments

31.
• Much more research is needed on the usage of OER
in teaching and learning environments and on the
impact they have
– Measurement issues
– Opportunities of ‘big data’ research, learning analytics
• OER opens a window on how future societies,
knowledge workers and educators will process
knowledge: through sharing, collaborating,
communities of practice, …
Some conclusions and final comments

32.
Thank you !
dirk.vandamme@oecd.org
www.oecd.org/edu/ceri
twitter @VanDammeEDU
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