Within education, the increasing discourse around Open Educational Resources (OER) is one of the most visible manifestations of new approaches to sharing and knowledge construction that have flourished alongside the development of web2.0. Over the past three years the UK JISC and HEA have funded a major programme of OER release, the UKOER programme. The associated evaluation and synthesis project has highlighted the cultural issues and changing practices surrounding OER. A strand of projects in the UKOER programme has focused on professional development – both development of HE teachers in OER practice, and release of OERs to support the professional development of HE teachers. Further projects have worked with outside organisations (such as professional bodies or the NHS) to develop OER for professional practice. Their experience has highlighted differences and unique aspects but also similarities and opportunities for sharing and learning across sectors. The range of different models/approaches to OER present challenges as each stakeholder group has different motivations for engaging. The lack of a common vocabulary means that people are still asking fundamental questions about use, re-use and re-purposing of learning resources and about the nature of the concept 'open' itself - is existing practice becoming more open or does it require people to change their practice? In this webinar, Lou McGill and Isobel Falconer, from the UKOER evaluation and synthesis team, will introduce emerging issues in open practices across sectors and invite participants to explore these within their own contexts.

1. OPEN PRACTICES
TEPL SIG Webinar 21st February 2012
Isobel Falconer, Lou McGill, Allison Littlejohn, Helen Beetham

2. Are you an open practitioner?
loumcgill.com

3. Are these new practices or existing
practices in an open context?
 I share my educational resources with colleagues
 I share my teaching and knowledge practices with
colleagues
 I use open educational resources
 I share my educational resources outside my
institution/organisation
 I share my teaching and knowledge practices
outside my institution/organisation
 I use the web to support my learning

4. JISC/HE Academy UKOER Programme
Aims to make a wide range of pre-existing
digital learning resources freely available
and easily discoverable by educators and
learners
 Sustainable change in culture
 Sustainable change in practices
3 phases of activity so far http://www.jisc.ac.uk/oer

7. Practice change – eg’s of open practice
Teachers
 Searching for and using OERs in their own teaching
 Making their own resources openly available
Learners (formal and informal)
 Finding and managing resources to support learning (digital literacies)
 Creating content as part of learning activities
Communities
 Open collaborative activities (may or may not involve OERs)
 Sharing, exchange, contributing to community repositories
Institutions/organisations
 Content management practices – moving from closed to open systems
 Using OERs for marketing/showcasing
 Moocs (Massive Open Online Courses)
More examples in Open Practices Across Sectors Briefing paper and McGill, Beetham, Falconer,
Littlejohn, UKOER2 Final Report, 2011

8. Model by Helen Beetham in our Open Educational Practice Briefing Paper ( ‘in development’)

9. Why engage in open practices?
 Building individuals‟ or institutions‟ or community‟s‟
reputation
 Improving efficiency, cost and quality of production
 Opening access to knowledge
 Enhancing pedagogy through the creation and reuse of
OERs
 Building technological momentum (and being funded
to do so), evidenced in the JISC call

10. Task: think about motivations within
your sector
Motivations – what are the benefits for...
 National agencies
 Educational Institutions
 Commercial institutions
 Other sectors – 3rd sector, health sector
 Registered students
 Global Learners
 Teachers/Academics

11. banksy.com

12. Further information
OER Synthesis & Evaluation Wiki: https://oersynth.pbworks.com/

13. Open practices
Open practices include a broad range of activities which have
an 'open' philosophy, intention or approach; this includes
practices of both learners and teachers:
 Open practices can include both informal and formal learning
and teaching.
 Open practices can take place in individual (learner or teacher)
or social (group, collective, institutional) contexts.
 Formal open practice is usually situated in the wider
educational context and is influenced by the cultures and
traditional practices of institutions in different sectors.
 Informal and formal open practice takes place within wider
societal contexts which are evolving rapidly.
 Open practices are enabled by a highly connected socially
networked environment.

14. Collaborative practice
 "Collaborative practice has emerged as important during this
funding phase. Cross disciplinary approaches are beginning to
have an impact at an institutional level and reveal a new benefit
of open content - that it is easily shared and co-constructed
across existing boundaries. Engaging with partners outside the
academic sector has been challenging but has encouraged new
partnerships, trust and levels of understanding. Several projects
comment that working across boundaries to develop project
outcomes (business/community/academy, staff/consultants,
students/teachers) has been one of the most radical aspect of
their experience and has the potential to change practice more
widely.“
UKOER phase 2 synthesis report - Practice Change

15. Tensions around rules
closed resources
open resources
tension
strict limited The tension between
adherence adherence
to IPR to IPR • limited adherence to IPR rules when
resources are not openly available &
• strict application of IPR rules when
resources are open
Means that individuals may find
application of IPR rules a major inhibitor

16. Tensions around rules
traditional open resources
resources
Tension between:
tension
Traditional quality procedures assess
resources in the pedagogic context within
quality which they will be used.
quality
assessed assessed
within Openly released resources lack control of
out of
pedagogic pedagogic context, and cannot 'carry'
context
context quality assurance into a more open
environment
eg. Humbox: Dickens, Borthwick, Richardson,
Lavender, Mossley, Gawthrope, et al, 2010

17. Tensions around tools
static resources dynamic resources
tension
‘social’ tested ( eg
(eg Web2.0) repository) The tension between hosting
hosting hosting solutions for ‘dynamic’ and ‘static’
resources

18. Tensions around roles
existing roles new roles
tension
The tension between existing
emerging established
roles and practices & new roles
practice practice
requiring novel practices may
make OER release unfeasible
without significant
organisational restructuring.
Example is ‘students as
producers of content’..

19. Tensions around roles
institution individual
tension
extends attracts A further tension focuses around who
reputation students & gains recognition - the individual or the
funding institution
This tension reflects the need to balance
collective responsibility for quality,
branding, and commercialisation with
incentives to release

20. Tensions around communities
tightly knit loosely bound
communities networks
tension
untested trusted The tension between trust within tightly
relationships relationships knit, established communities and
relatively low levels of trust across loosely
bound networks poses issues for OER
release.