Skip to main content
  • Special Section: Open Educational Resources Initiatives in Oceania
  • Open Educational Resources Initiatives in Oceania
  • Open access
  • Published:

OER adoption: a continuum for practice

La adopción de los recursos educativos abiertos: un continuo de práctica abierta

Abstract

Whilst Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for broadening participation in Higher Education, reducing course development and study costs, and building open collaborative partnerships to improve teaching and learning practices, they have yet to gain significant mainstream traction. Research surrounding open education has focused on adoption at the institutional level, identifying key enablers and barriers to practice, but the practicalities of engagement with open resources are not often addressed.

By reviewing existing literature, and studying prior models used to explain OER (re)use, this paper proposes a continuum of use model. The proposed model seeks to acknowledge the complexity of applied knowledge required to fulsomely engage with open education by examining practitioner behaviours and the necessary supporting mechanisms. This conceptual model aims to be of use to both practitioners and also those responsible for designing professional development in an educational setting. Whilst the proposed model is designed for teaching staff use, some discussion is given as to how it could be applied to student learning using open resources as well.

Resumen

Si bien los recursos educativos abiertos (REA) presentan nuevas opciones para facilitar el acceso a la educación superior, reducir el coste de los estudiosy del desarrollo de los programas docentes y establecer relaciones de colaboración abierta con el fin de mejorar la práctica de la docencia y del aprendizaje, aún les queda mucho camino por recorrer para ganar mayor difusión y aceptación. Las líneas de investigación en torno a la educación abierta se han centrado en su adopción en la esfera institutional, y han identificado los elementos clave que facilitan y los que obstaculizan la práctica educativa; pero a menudo no se tratan las posibilidades de aplicación práctica que supone aprovechar los recursos abiertos.

Tras revisar la literatura disponible sobre la materia y estudiar los modelos existentes que se han usado para explicar la (re)utilización de los REA, el presente artículo propone un continuo como modelo de uso. El modelo propuesto quiere dar a conocer la complejidad de los conocimientos aplicados que se requieren para alcanzar una implicación completa en la educación abierta mediante el análisis de las conductas de los profesionales de la docencia y los mecanismos de apoyo que precisan. Este modelo conceptual pretende ser de utilidad tanto para los profesionales de la docencia, así como para aquellos que se encargan de diseñar el desarrollo profesional en cualquier entorno educativo. Aunque el modelo propuesto se ha concebido para ser utilizado por el personal docente, también plantea cómo podría aplicarse en aquellos procesos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes basados en el uso de los recursos abiertos.

References

  • Armellini, A., & Jones, S. (2008). Carpe diem: seizing each day to foster change in e-learning design. Reflecting education 4(1), 17–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armellini, A., & Nie, M. (2013). Open educational practices for curriculum enhancement. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 28(1), 7–20. doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2013.796286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkins, D., Brown, J., & Hammond, A. (2007). A review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement: achievements, challenges, and new opportunities (Research report). California: William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaven, T. (2013). Qualitative methods for researching teachers’ (re)use of OER. Paper presented at OER13: creating a virtuous circle, Nottingham, UK.

  • Bossu, C., Bull, D., & Brown, M. (2012). Opening up Down Under: the role of open educational resources in promoting social inclusion in Australia. Distance Education, 33(2), 151–164. doi 10.1080/01587919.2012.692050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bossu, C., Brown, M., & Bull, D. (2013). Adoption, use and management of open educational resources to enhance teaching and learning in Australia: final report to the Office for Learning & Teaching (Research report). Australia: Office of Learning and Teaching.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boston Consulting Group (2013). The Open Education Resources ecosystem: an evaluation of the OER movement’s current state and its progress toward mainstream adoption (Research report). California: William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boulos, M. N., Maramba, I., & Wheeler, S. (2006). Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Medical Education, 6(41). doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-6-41

  • Butcher, N., & Hoosen, S. (2012). Exploring the business case for Open Educational Resources. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conole, G. (2013). Designing for learning in an open world (Vol. 4). New York, NY: Springer. doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8517-0

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, D., Mackintosh, W., McGreal, R., Murphy, A., & Witthaus, G. (2013). Report on the assessment and accreditation of learners using OER (Research report). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Antoni, S. (2008). Open Educational Resources: the way forward, deliberations of an international community of interest (Research report). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, H., Carr, L., Hey, J., Howard, Y., Millard, D., Morris, D., & White, S. (2010). Bootstrapping a culture of sharing to facilitate Open Educational Resources. IEEE transactions on learning technologies, 3(2), 96–109. doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2009.34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dhanarajan, G., & Abeywardena, S. (2013). Higher education and open educational resources in Asia: an overview In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.), Open educational resources: an Asian perspective (pp. 3–20). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimitriadis, Y., McAndrew, P., Conole, G., & Makriyannis, E. (2009). New design approaches to repurposing open educational resources for collaborative learning using mediating artefacts. Paper presented at Same places, different spaces. Proceedings ascilite, Auckland

  • Do, M. (2013). Open educational resources in Vietnam. In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.), Open educational resources: an Asian perspective (pp. 159–172). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia

    Google Scholar 

  • Downes, S. (2007). Models for sustainable Open Educational Resources Interdisciplinary journal of knowledge and learning objects 3, 29–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehlers, U., & Conole, G. (2010). Open Educational Practice: unleashing the power of OER. Paper presented at the UNESCO workshop on OER, Windhoek, Namibia.

  • Ehlers, U-D. (2011). From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices. eLearning Papers, 23, 8–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falconer, I., McGill, L., Littlejohn, A., & Boursinou, E. (2013). Overview and analysis of practices with Open Educational Resources in adult education in Europe. In C. Redecker, J. Munoz, & Y. Punie (Eds.), JRC scientific and policy reports. Luxembourg.

  • Geith, C., & Vignare, K. (2008). Access to education with online learning and Open Educational Resources: can they close the gap? Journal of asynchronous learning networks, 12(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geser, G. (2012). Open educational practices and resources — OLCOS roadmap 2012. Retrieved from http://www.olcos.org/cms/upload/docs/olcos_roadmap.pdf

  • Glennie, J., Harley, K., Butcher, N., & van Wyk, T. (Eds.). (2012). Open Educational Resources and change in Higher Education: reflections from practice: perspectives on open and distance learning. Vancouver: commonwealth of Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harishankar, V., Balaji, V., & Ganapuram, S. (2013). An assessment of individual and institutional readiness to embrace open educational resources in India. In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.), Open educational resources: an Asian perspective (pp. 53–72). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harley, D. (2008). Why understanding the use and users of open education matters. In T. Iiyoshi & M. Kumar (Eds.), Opening up education: the collective advancement of education through open technology, open content, and open knowledge (pp. 197–211). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbsleb, J., & Goldenson, D. (1996). A systematic survey of CMM experience and results. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 18th international conference on software engineering, Berlin. Retrieved from http://herbsleb.org/web-pubs/pdfs/herbsleb-systematic-1996.pdf

  • Hylen, J. (2006, August). Open educational resources: opportunities and challenges. Paper presented at the 2006 Open Education Conference, Paris, France. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/37351085.pdf

  • Keller, P., & Mossink, W. (2008). Reuse of material in the context of education and research. Netherlands: Creative Commons Nederland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malik, N. (2013). The genesis of OER at the Virtual University of Pakistan. In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.), Open educational resources: an Asian perspective (pp. 133–140). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masson, P., & Udas, K. (2009). An agile approach to managing open educational resources. On the horizon 17(3), 256–266. doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10748120910993286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masterman, L., & Wild, J. (2011). JISC Open Educational Resources programme: Phase 2 OER impact study (Research Report). United Kingdom: JISC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masterman, L., & Wild, J. (2013). Reflections on the evolving landscape of OER use. Paper presented at OER13: creating a virtuous circle, Nottingham, UK.

  • Mawayo, M., & Butcher, N. (2012). Sharing existing teaching materials as OER: key considerations from practice. In J. Glennie, K. Harley, N. Butcher, & T. van Wyk (Eds.), Open educational resources and change in higher education: reflections from practice. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, A. (2012). Benchmarking OER use and assessment in Higher Education. Paper presented at ascilite: Future challenges, sustainable futures, Wellington, NZ.

  • OECD (2007). Giving knowledge for free: the emergence of Open Educational Resources. France: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papachristou, N., & Samoff, J. (2012). Open educational resources: a survey of academic publications. In J. Glennie, K. Harley, N. Butcher, & T. van Wyk (Eds.), Open educational resources and change in higher education: reflections from practice. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paulk, M., Curtis, B., Chrissis, M., & Weber, C. (1993). Capability Maturity Model for software, version 1.1 (Vol. Technical report CMU/SEI-93-TR-024 ESC-TR-93-177). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M., & Casserly, C. (2006). The promise of Open Educational Resources. Change magazine, Fall, 1–14.

  • van Wyk, T. (2012). Taking OER beyond the OER community: policy issues and priorities. In J. Glennie, K. Harley, N. Butcher, & T. van Wyk (Eds.), Open Educational Resources and change in Higher Education: reflections from practice. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiley, D., & Gurrell, S. (2009). A decade of development. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 24(1), 11–21. doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680510802627746

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamada, T. (2013). Open educational resources in Japan. In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.), Open educational resources: an Asian perspective (pp. 85–106). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adrian Stagg.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stagg, A. OER adoption: a continuum for practice. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 11, 151–165 (2014). https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v11i3.2102

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v11i3.2102

Keywords

Palabras clave