Opening up: the openED project

Simon Cross, UK Open University Learning and Curriculum Design & InnovationOpen Distance LearningAssessment BenchmarkingAdaptive and social spaces of learning

James Aczel, UK Open UniversityopenED Academic Project lead

Andreas Meiszner, UNU-MERITPascale Hardy, University of Liverpool / LaureatePatrick McAndrew, UK Open UniversityDoug Clow, UK Open University

Opening up: the openED project

Project aims

What we did

How did it go

Discussion points 1

Discussion points 2

Final remarks

Session plan:

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Project team

Required Disclaimer: This presentation reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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openED 2.0 Project

• “Exploring participatory learning in open educational environments”

• Nov 2009 – July 2012• Joint production of open course by project partners• 3 rounds of facilitator supported delivery starting: Nov 10,

Apr 11, Oct 11.• Analysis and evaluation follows each round

• Funded with support from the EU Lifelong Learning Programme,

• the Swiss Government & UNU-MERIT

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The openED initiative

Defining the openED approach:• OER-based, building on open materials (e.g. OpenLearn)• Web 2.0 refinement of learning materials & course design

(CC BY-SA)• anyone can study, at any time, for free• open to 3rd party service providers

(e.g. for tutoring, assessment or certification)• open participatory learning processes

http://www.open-ed.eu

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Earlier initiatives

• MIT OpenCourseWare• Jorum and other UK initiatives• UNESCO• OpenLearn, OLnet & other Hewlett Foundation initiatives• SocialLearn

David Wiley:“I don't know whether in future the people who answer questions, provide content and provide the degree will be in the same institution”

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Opening up the learning experience

Open:• Educational resources (OER) used and created• Communication/Web 2.0 (‘sending out’/’bringing in’)

technologies• Access that is free and open to all (‘inviting in’)• To other businesses/3rd party services• Participation across the site• Assessment opportunities and feedback• Reward and recognition for participating

So how do different elements of ‘opening’ a course work together?

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Research focus

OER constitute just one element of Open Education: how to different elements of ‘opening’ a course work together?

• open educational resources (OER)• Web 2.0 (‘sending out’)• courses free and open to all (e.g. P2PU) (‘inviting in’)• 3rd party services

(e.g. tutoring, assessment or certification)• open participatory learning

Are such developments sustainable?

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Research questions

• How do materials, services and communities associated with such open initiatives develop over time?

• What learning takes place?• What issues arise associated with cross-cultural and

multilingual settings?• How does this compare with formal education?• How does this compare with informal learning?• What are the factors affecting the speed, effectiveness and

sustainability of such initiatives?

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Open Educational Service

OER should be embedded within an overall Open Educational Service concept (Meiszner, 2010)

• Services characterised by:– large degree of independence (by-and-large) from

existing physical educational infrastructures– self-organised community-based learning processes– community-based production of learning materials (and

activities) which are captured, retained and available for reuse

– flexible learning and teaching roles

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Initial curriculum

• Curriculum created by contribution of one or more module from most project partners

• Titled agreed: “Business and Management Competencies in a Web 2.0 World”

• Writing process managed by one partner• 10 modules, each lasting 10-30 hours• Two strands: academic & professional

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Business and Management Competencies in a Web 2.0 World (http://www.open-ed.eu)

1: Tools for collaboration in a Web 2.0 world

2: Searching for information in business & management

3: Project management

4: Developing personal skills in communication

5A1: What is the question?

5A2: Quantitative & qualitative analysis tools

5P1: Enterprise & managerial functions

5P2: Project management advanced

5P3: Change management

6: The ethical organisation

Discussion points 1

• How do you set about transforming a concept for an open model of learning and the research questions in to a real, live course and getting it off the ground?

• What supports, guidance, help, tools, resources, web- spaces do you need to provide?

• What does online learning look like? How do you know the learning happening or prove it ‘has’ happened?

http://www.open-ed.eu/index.php

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Services

Educational providers around the world are invited to offer extra services to course participants. For example:

• private virtual tuition• face-to-face teaching of classes• assignment marking• certification

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Data capture strategy

W ebsitevisits inc.

ISP

4000+

Learn ing Reflection

Form

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W ebsiteobservationinc. forum s

100+threads

IRC chatsession

logs

10+ hours

Interviewswith

authors

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Participantsurvey

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Data fromm oduletutors

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Participantinterviews(partners)

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Brief author survey

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Participantinterviews

(OU)

-

Rewriteprocess

observation

Learn ingdesign

analysis

-

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Multi-national student survey

National StudentSurvey(UK)

University StudentSurvey

(Greece)

ResearchQuestionnaire(Solem et al. 2003)

(US)

Open UniversityEnd of CourseSurvey (UK)

openEDsurvey

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Design Process Tensions

•Desire for convergence in structure and retaining individual author/tutor style•Greater responsibility for content and need for greater critical evaluation of others contributions•Module author focus on participant learning activity at expense of tutor/facilitator activity and communication of teaching intent•Absent infrastructures and unknown audiences

Discussion points 2

From what you’ve seen of the site so far, what do you think happened next? • How did participation rates (visitors to site) change over time?

• How were the upload and forums used?

• What comments/feedback may we have had back from participants?

• Who visited and from where?

Where are users from?

Greece, Switzerland, France, Norway, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Russia,

Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Singapore, Australia, Canada,

Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala, Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Africa.

Traceable visitors to site: one day in November

Europe andAfrica

Asia andPacific

North andSouth America

Summary

• Practical focus

• Process of developing Open Content for Open Consumption

• Course produced in open international collaboration

• Range of methods to ‘open up’ a course not just the resource

• Question of Effort vs. Chance of use