Research Paper received Gold Medal for the "Best Practice Award" at the AAOU-2016 Conference, held in Manila, 26-29 October, 2016.

1. A Design-Based Approach to
Support and Nurture
Open Educational Practices
Shironica
Karunanayaka
The Open University of Sri
Lanka
Som Naidu
Monash University, Australia

2. 2
Context
• Faculty of Education, OUSL
• ROER4D-IS – SP10.6 (2015-2016)
• Project - Integration of OER and
adoption of OEP by school teachers,
and ascertaining its impact.
• Research Focus - How and to what
extent a Design-based Research (DBR)
approach supported the adoption of
OEP among teachers in terms of
changes in their
– use of instructional resources
– pedagogical thinking and
– pedagogical practices
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

3. 3
Open Educational Practices (OEP)
• The opportunity to adopt varying degrees of ‘openness’ in
the use of OER, empower educators to become more
creative and innovative in their educational practices.
• OEP, “…constitutes the range of practices around the
creation, use, and management of OER...to improve quality
and innovate education” and “…practitioners essentially
need to engage in innovative practices in the integration of
OER” (Ehlers, 2011; OPAL, 2011).
• Design of effective, efficient, and engaging experiences
based on innovative pedagogical models would offer a
feasible solution to support changes in thinking and practices
among practitioners (Naidu & Karunanayaka, 2015).
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

4. 4
Design-Based Research (DBR)
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16
Analysis
of Practical
Problems by
Researchers and
Practitioners in
Collaboration
Development of
Solutions
Informed by
Existing Design
Principles and
Technological
Innovations
Iterative Cycles of
Testing and
Refinement of
Solutions in
Practice
Reflection to
Produce ‘Design
Principles’ and
Enhance Solutions
Implementation
(Adapted from Reeves, 2006, p.59)
Refinement of Problems, Solutions, Methods, and Design Principles

5. Research Methodology
5
DBR Approach –
Design,
Development and
Implementation of
a Professional
Development
Intervention
Programme on OER
Integration in
Teaching and
Learning.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
C R Ka Ku M B A J Ba
Male
Female
Participants -
 Stage 1 – 230 teachers ;
 Stage 2 - 85 teachers in 21 teams
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16
Data Collection & Analysis -
 Methodological Triangulation
 Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
 A ‘realist, process-oriented approach’

6. IR PPPT
Redistribute Collaborative Collaborative
Remix Creative Creative
Revise Critical Critical
Reuse Challenging Challenging
Retain Contextual Contextual
O
E
P
Simple/
Basic
Complex
DBR
OEP through DBR - Framework
TESTING &
REFINING
REFLECTION
SOLUTIONS
ANALYSIS

7. Analysis
7
 Questionnaire survey
 Concept mapping
 Lesson plan observations
 Focus group interviews
 Self-reflections
Analysing current thinking and practices
of teachers in relation to their use of
instructional methods and materials in
the teaching-learning process.
Analysis of practical
problems by researchers &
practitioners in
collaboration
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

8. Solutions
8
 A series of interactive workshops
 An Online environment (LMS) to support
 Awareness raising; Capacity building
 Monitoring; Supporting; Motivating
 Reviewing; Evaluation
Designing a sequence of experiences to
enhance OER & OEP adoption,
pedagogical thinking and pedagogical
practices.
Development of solutions
informed by existing design
principles & technological
innovations
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

9. 9
Intervention Workshops

10. 10
Online Environment - LMS
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

11. Testing & Refinement
11
 Hands-on individual and group activities to search,
identify, select and integrate OER in lessons
 Encouraging teachers to share OER found/reused/
revised/remixed/ created
 Stimulate healthy competition; Motivate sharing of
good practices; Promote reflective practice
Capacity building, support, monitoring,
motivating adoption of OER through:
 Interactive workshops
 Online environment (LMS)
Iterative cycles of testing
and refinement of solutions
in practice
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

12. Use of Instructional Resources
12
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Print
Audio
VideoM
ultim
edia
O
nline
O
ER
O
thers
5
4
3
2
1
I could find information easily using OER.
We could identify appropriate OER.
We were able to find interesting presentations.
When I use OER I modify it to local language.
I edit it according to my lesson.
Sometimes we made copies and distributed
among students
PRE- I MID- I
POST- I
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

13. OER-integrated teaching and learning
13

14. Pedagogical Thinking
14
• ...I can now understand the meaning of OER... Before that I
mostly used copyrighted data and information without
permission...now I use free usable data with permission...
• …OERs helped us to plan and implement very attractive
lessons. The teachers as well as students were encouraged…
• …This created an opportunity for us to share subject related
resources such as activities, assessments, video clips etc…
• …Through the integration of OER…we have got the
opportunity to “think out of the box”... The creation of our
own OER enhanced our thinking capabilities…
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

15. Concept Mapping
15
PRE- I
MID- I POST- I
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

16. Pedagogical Practices
16
• I use the OER materials in the class room according to the
needs of the children.
• I reused OER for my lessons so far and trying to remix them.
• I created more than 30 OERs and uploaded to LMS and also
searched and found more than 50 lessons to different subjects.
• One member wrote a booklet in Sinhala about OER for teachers
and any others who are interested in this concept.
• We felt proud to publish a magazine on OER titled “Integrating
OER in Learning Teaching Process.”
• I shared my OER knowledge with my school teachers by
organizing a workshop.
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

17. Sharing
17
Booklets
Workshops

18. Reflection
18
 Reflective writing by teachers and researchers,
based on their experiences
 Compilation of “Stories” based on the reflections
 Creation of a weblog to share the stories
Use teachers and researcher’s reflections
to find and implement solutions to
authentic problems.
Reflection to produce design
principles and enhance
solution implementation
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

19. ‘Stories’
19
https://oertlousl.wordpress.com/
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

20. Conclusions & Implications
• OEP among practitioners can be supported and nurtured
through a DBR approach using iterative analysis, design,
development, and implementation of carefully planned
intervention strategies.
• This process allowed the researchers to function as
‘designers’, while investigating real life issues in
collaboration with the practitioners through a reflective
enquiry to further refine innovative practices towards OEP.
• This provides valuable insights for improved design
solutions for future interventions in similar contexts.
20
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16

21. 28 October 2016 21
Acknowledgements
• This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC),
Ottawa, Canada, through the Wawasan Open University
(WOU) Malaysia, as part of the Research on Open
Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D)
programme.
• The active participation of the student teachers of the
PGDE Programme at OUSL and
contributions of the Resource
Persons and Research Assistants
of Faculty of Education, OUSL, is
much appreciated.
Shironica Karunanayaka_Som Naidu
AAOU-2016_27.10.16