Easy OER: mainstreaming open courses at scale [1063] Home : #OER16

Public Group Active 7 years, 12 months ago

Tue, Apr 19 2016, 2:00pm – 3:30pm

Authors: Patrina Law

Room: Prestonfield

Theme: Strategic and reputational advantages of openness

Type: Presentation

Description

The OpenLearn platform was developed in 2006 as the home for The Open University’s (OU) free learning provision. It was to be a showcase for the OU’s taught modules, providing free extracts from the University’s taught curriculum. It now supports a diverse range of learning materials ranging from around 2,500 videos, hundreds of blogs and articles by academics, interactive games and around 900 free courses, some of which offer OU-branded digital badges as markers for achievement. It receives over 5 million new learners each year is used by around 150,000 OU students to inform module choice, develop study skills and confidence in their learning.

The 2007 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2007 report identifies six arguments for why organisations should develop open educational resources (OER) (OECD, 2007, pp. 64-5): offering potential students a taster of paid-for content; altruism; an appropriate leveraging of taxpayers’ money; course development cost cutting; providing a showcase to attract new students; and to stimulate internal innovation. In a year that celebrates 10 years of OpenLearn, it is easy to reflect that the platform and the innovation that sits behind it, has grown to support these six arguments. Indeed, research and evaluation of learners using OpenLearn has been extensive, particularly in recent years. Findings from studies in 2013 were the basis for recommendations about how the platform could be further developed to deliver a better user experience and to issue free recognition for informal learning through digital badges (Perryman, Law and Law, 2013, Law and Perryman, 2015).

The process of course development on OpenLearn has historically involved basic modification of OU module excerpts. As a platform that has historically driven 13% of its learners through to make an enquiry at the OU, the piloting of embellished online courses containing rich media and formative assessment in 2014, saw this percentage grow to around 30%. Hence, from 2016, all OU module specifications will be developed with dual learning design outputs: the OU module (for paying students) and the enriched open course (for publication on OpenLearn). This is a cultural shift for the OU inasmuch as all module teams will be required to engage with openness from module inception; previously, identified content may have been ‘topped and tailed’ by course editors.

By taking what has been learnt from MOOC production, understanding what pedagogical features work in an open, unsupported environment, the OU is able to influence module production at the specification stage to produce meaningful and engaging free open courses.

References:

Law, P. and Perryman, L-A. (2015). “Internal Responses to Informal Learning Data: Testing a Rapid Commissioning Approach.” European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning pp. 76–84.

OECD (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: the emergence of open educational resources. OECD/CERI. Available from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/38654317.pdf. [Accessed 19 November 2015]

Perryman, L-A., Law, P. and Law, A. (2013). “Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences.” The Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2013, Paris, EADTU (Proceedings pp. 270–286).

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