IPTS study on Open Educational Resources in Europe (OEREU)
Yves PunieHead of Research ICT for Learning and Inclusion
Alexandra HachéResearch fellow ICT for Learning
DG EAC TWG “ICT and Education”, BXL, 22-23 May 2012
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IPTS Study Plan
Current IPTS focus:
‐
Sustainability ‐
Adult EducationOpen Educational Resources In Europe (OEREU)
Setting the scene
Challenges and
opportunities of OER/OEP
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Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public
domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution (UNESCO, 2002).
OER provide a strategic opportunity to improve the quality of education, foster pedagogical innovation in teaching & learning, improve knowledge sharing and capacity building in Europe.
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Setting the Scene
Already in 2001, MIT decided to release nearly all its courses on the internet for free: Open Courseware (OCW). In 2002, the UNESCO organized the 1st Global OER Forum where the term OER was adopted;
In 2011, over 2700 Open Access Repositories were identified, the tenth largest ones hosted 15 million records (EFQUEL/OPAL, 2011);
Sourceforge, an Open Source Software repository contains over 1300 software applications under education (EFQUEL/OPAL, 2011);
Higher Education: 6.500 open course modules are available from 300 universitiesfrom around the world (EFQUEL/OPAL, 2011);
School Education: A large number of OER are available but not widely used;
Adult Education: The potential of OER in making learning opportunities available openly and freely to a general audience has not (yet) been exploited widely to support lifelong learning measures or targeted adult education;
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Allow for educational institutions to widen participation and access;
Overcome physical barriers to teaching and learning;
Foster pedagogical innovation in learning and teaching (collaboration, UGC);
Modernise learning to address digital natives and 21st century competences
Embrace non‐formal and informal learning;
Engage difficult‐to‐reach learners (E.g. disabled, early school leavers, etc.);
Increase quality and excellence of teaching via internationalisation, collaborative creation and production, up‐to‐date learning content, re‐use and sharing;
More cost‐effective ways of operating / cost‐saving potential
OER Advantages
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Even if
OER are high on the agenda of some educational policies/institutions, their
use in education is not mainstreamed. Bottlenecks include:
Awareness: Low amongst policymakers and educational practitioners;
Know How:Methods and practices that enable learners, teachers and institutions to best engage with OER are not yet established;
Recognition:Motivations to engage in a Commons‐based peer production are not recognised or rewarded;
Technological barriers: Accessibility, reusability and interoperability between resources;
Standards: Search and retrieval of relevant resources, interoperability and quality are required;
Quality: Control of OER quality and applicability need to be further improved;
Sustainability: Financial viability together with the development of innovative business models currently hampers the development, deployment and effective use of OER.
OER Challenges
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Policy Challenges
Shifting from OER production towards Open Educational Practices:
Enabling legislation to facilitate OEP: Reduce legislative burdens through harmonisation + Rethinking IP laws for the 21st Century;
Empower learners to take up OEP: Address fragmentation in Learning Resources + Allow OER assessment and recognition to take place;
Culturing Innovation though networks: Support truly open collaboration + Build a coalition of stakeholders around principles of openness
Improve trust in OEP: Integrate OEP into Institutional Quality Procedures + Create Open Academic/Scientific Trust Infrastructure
Strength evidence‐base of OEP: Help institutions nurture OEP + Address sustainability concerns + make societal befits explicit
Source: EFQUEL/OPAL, 2011
IPTS/EAC project on
Open Educational Resources in Europe
(OEREU)
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Objectives OEREU project
To provide policymakers and stakeholders with evidence and guidance
on how to further support and promote the use of OER
within the context of Open
Learning Environments
in school education, higher education and adult education
In particular:Provide a critical assessment of existing OER initiatives and practices in Europe;Develop foresight scenarios for seizing the benefits of Using OER in each of the three sectors (School education, Higher education and adult education);Carry out a representative survey on the Use of OER in one education sector in a sample of European countries;Identify challenges across all sectors and, jointly with stakeholders, develop, discuss and propose recommendations for the further development and mainstreaming of OER in Europe
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Project planPhase Objectives Methods Timeline
WP1 Scoping and aligning to policy needs
(detailed technical specifications:
research plan and methodology)
Kick off meeting
Scoping workshop
October –
December
2012
WP2 Research evidence on OER in Europe
and elsewhereDesk research April 2013
WP3 Future scenarios on OER use in Europe
in dedicated sectors Three scenarios foresight
workshopsJune 2013‐
September 2013
WP4 Representative Survey on the Use of
OER in one education sectorOnline survey September 2013
WP5 Policy Recommendations based on
stakeholder consultations Online expert consultation &
Interviews; Validation WorkshopApril 2014
WP6 Synthesis, publication and
dissemination Publication and dissemination April 2014 –
June 2014
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1. Current contribution to WP2: In house exploratory study on Sustainability and Business models for OER
In particular:Literature review on potential and challenges associated to sustainability and business models inside OER initiatives; Clarify links between Open Education, Access to knowledge movements, and current Intellectual Property Rights debates in relation to Education, Innovation and Creativity in the Digital era;Identify (following a sector‐specific approach) the nature of current and potentially interesting businesses and sustainability schemes for OER;Propose recommendations for the further development and deployment of most promising sustainability and business models for OER in Europe.
Methods: Desk research + Online survey (20 OER initiatives) + experts interviewsTiming:
April 2012 –September 2012
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Market economy
Social economy
Public economy
Cooperative peer to peerproduction
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Aim:
Overview
of
OEP
in
Europe
by
identifying,
describing
and
classifying
a comprehensive
number
of
OER
initiatives
in
the
area
of
Lifelong
Learning
and
adult
education; Identify bottlenecks and barriers to the innovative implementation of OER and discuss factors for the successful implementation, up‐scaling and mainstreaming of innovative practices with OER.
In particular:Collect evidence and record in a database OER initiatives for Adult Education in Europe and beyond;Develop a typology of educational practices with OER by classifying the initiatives recorded according to their most salient common and distinguishing features;Provide for each of the OER types an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in supporting Lifelong Learning and adult education.
Methods: Desk research + database inventory + validation workshopsTiming:
June 2012 –
January 2013
2. Current contribution to WP2: OER Initiatives for Adult Education (Outsourced)
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• http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/eLearning.html
• http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/EAP/eInclusion.html
Thank you!
