#oersymposium2014 S2 P1 KS Yuen and KC Li

How do Hong Kong teachers like

to use open textbooks?

Dr K S Yuen and Dr K C Li

The Open Textbooks for Hong Kong project

Project development to date

Feedback from planners and administrators

• Government officials

• Legislators and head of professional bodies

• University staff

Feedback from teachers

• Views on open textbooks

• Participating in a tryout

• Ways to use open textbooks

• Concerns

Considerations

Benefits of open textbooks

Saves money



Teachers can tailor the content according to the

needs of their school and classes.

Works of different teachers can be shared

among themselves.

The Open Textbooks project

The project contains 4 components:

▪ An online open textbook platform

▪ Online textbooks and teaching materials

▪ Quality assurance

▪ Community and capacity building

Current status of the project

Funding of $17.5M for the project has been

obtained from HKJCCT with support from

EDB.

Project officially started on 1 January 2013.


For primary and secondary schools, only

textbooks on English language have been

planned in this project.

Writers and instructional designers are now

busy writing the textbooks.


We will start trying out the textbooks in

September 2014.

The set of 12 textbooks are expected to be ready

for use in the September 2015 school year.

Feedback from planners,

administrators

Government:

The under-secretary and secretary for Education

were supportive of the OER concept and

approved the project funding in 2012.

HKEdCity, a quasi-government body set up to

provide online learning resources to teachers,

works closely with the project.


administrators

Legislators and heads of professional bodies:

Publicly elected legislators are in general

supportive of such initiatives.

Heads of principals and teachers’ associations

acknowledge the usefulness of such projects,

and have offered assistance in publicizing the

project.


administrators

University admin and academic staff:

A survey was conducted in 2012 to solicit the

views of administrative and academic staff on

the use of OER in tertiary institutions (Yuen and

Wong, 2013).


administrators

They appreciated the potential benefits of OER

in:

• institutional and personal reputation,

enhancing users’ knowledge,

• sharing best practices and

• improving students’ access to learning

resources.


administrators

However, only a few (three) out of the 57

participants in the study had submitted and

published materials as OER. Among those who

had produced OER, the majority was willing to

share them only within their own institution,

whilst only one third wished to share the

materials globally.


administrators

They recognized that OER could help them know

about the most up-to-date developments and

create a sense of community in the course.

They agreed that OER save time for teachers,

allow them to do things they could not do

otherwise, provide convenient access and let

them stay up to date with colleagues.


administrators

In a broader context, respondents believed that

OER could help build fruitful partnerships with

colleagues and institutions worldwide, and

benefit students by providing a range of

approaches to the subject available.

In addition, respondents believed that OER

would enhance the reputation of the university,

and attract better students and better staff.


administrators

As well, OER are a useful way of developing new

courses.

Exploring the available OER worldwide could

enhance the respondents’ teaching and raise

standards across the university.

Nevertheless, the majority of the respondents

would only use OER in their teaching if they

were able to edit and personalize the materials

for use with their students.


administrators

Respondents were divided over whether or not

to make their teaching practices and course

materials open to any users. The latter would do

so only if they had good control over the reuse.


administrators

They used OER in their teaching or course

delivery for practical reasons, such as:

• gaining access to the best possible resources,

• promoting scientific research and education as

public open activities,

• reducing costs for students and course

development,

• reaching out to disadvantaged communities,

• assisting developing countries,

• creating more flexible materials,

• conducting research and development and

• building sustainable partnerships.


administrators

The respondents considered the following to be

important barriers to the use of OER in teaching

by their colleagues:

• the lack of awareness, skills, time, hardware

and ability to locate quality OER, and

• the lack of reward and support from

management.


administrators

During a workshop on OER and Open Textbooks

for vocational training teachers of Hong Kong, a

quick survey found that the attending teachers’

responses tallied well with the findings of the

case study survey.

Feedback from teachers attending

briefing sessions on the tryout

A total of 142 school principals, subject panel

heads and teachers from over 93 primary and

secondary schools attended the sessions.

A questionnaire to investigate the teachers’

opinions about open textbooks was

administered

95 returned (37 from primary and 58 from

secondary schools). Nearly half of participants at

the sessions were panel teachers of the subject.

Current use of teaching materials

Type of teaching materials used Primary Secondary

Commercial Textbooks 25 (67.6%) 28 (48.3%)

School-based materials 6 (16.2%) 2 (3.4%)

Commercial Textbooks +School-based materials

5 (13.5%) 24 (41.4%)

Commercial Textbooks + EDB materials

1 (2.7%) 2 (3.4%)

Commercial Textbooks +School-based materials +EDB materials

0 1 (1.7%)

Did not responded to this question 0 1 (1.7%)

Current use of teaching materials

Senior secondary school teachers use a lot of

school-based materials to help students to

prepare for public examinations

Teachers teaching students with special

educational needs (SEN) find mainstream

textbooks not suitable for their students;

they have to tailor-make texts for their classes

all along.

Views on open textbooks

Can open textbooks/OER reduce workload?

Primary Secondary

Yes 18(48.7%) 34 (58.6%)

Not sure 15(40.5%) 18 (31.0%)

No 4(10.8%) 5 (8.6%)

Have not responded to this question

0 1 (1.7%)


Will you use open textbooks/OER in future

Primary Secondary

Yes 21 (56.76%) 38 (65.52%)

Not yet decided 15 (40.54%) 20 (34.48%)

No 1 (2.70%) 0(0.00%)


Will you develop open textbooks/ OER in future

Primary Secondary

Yes 11 (28.95%) 12(21.19%)

Not yet decided 19 (50.00%) 44 (75.86%)

No 7 (18.42) 0(0.00%)


Many teachers believed the use of open

textbooks would become a trend in future;

others opined that open textbooks could help

students with learning difficulties (because

they are free to adapt the content).

Some teachers said open textbooks could help

students from low-income families because

they are free of charge.

Negative views on open textbooks

There were also some negative views on open

textbooks.

Some teachers felt uncomfortable if their work

would be shared among peers.

One teacher was reluctant to change to new

open textbooks because she did not want any

changes. [She may just add some of the open

textbook content to her existing textbook.]

Trying out on open textbooks

Agreeing to try out Primary Secondary Total

Yes 5 7 12

Maybe 18 40 58

No 9 9 18

Not yet decided 2 2 4

Ways to use open textbooks

Methods Primary Secondary

Using the original content as-is 3 (8.1%) 8 (13.8%)

Edit content 22 (59.5%) 32 (55.2%)

As reference materials 16 (43.2%) 26 (44.8%)

As self-learning resources 8 (16.3%) 14 (24.1%)

As supplementary exercises 0(0.00%) 1(1.7%)

Formats of open textbooks

Primary schools Printed PDF ePub3

Always 14 8 6

Often 4 8 9

Sometimes 4 7 7

Seldom 1 0 1

Never 0 0 0

Not answered 14 14 14

Formats of open textbooks

Secondary schools Printed PDF ePub3

Always 12 3 2

Often 16 12 10

Sometimes 10 18 14

Seldom 0 3 6

Never 0 1 4

Not answered 20 21 22

Concerns

• Need support from their peers, and from

their school principals.

• Worries about the increased workload when

they use the new textbook (compare with

responses increased workload).

Concerns

They have to consider the adoption thoroughly,

and to discuss with their fellow teachers on

issues such as the option of a complete

change to the new book, or whether they

should use the open textbook as an additional

resource.

They have concerns on the quality of the open

textbook (will it be approved by the Education

Bureau at the time when they use it?).

Concerns

• Need to assess the book with regard to the

suitability of the level of the book for their

students.

• Concerns on the availability of the whole

series of the books and whether there are

associated supplementary teaching and

learning resources (assessment tasks,

quizzes, a question bank, a picture bank,

additional readings, etc).

Concerns

• The sustainability of the Open Textbooks

project. Will the textbooks disappear from

the website when the funding of the project

is used up?

• Are there professional development

activities, i.e. training workshops for using

the open books, and experience sharing

sessions for teachers and users?

Concerns

• Schools heavily involved in e-learning would

like to see more interactive elements in the

e-version of the textbooks.

• Could the ePub version could be edited and

adapted?

• Is there an interactive PC version ─ for use

by students who have a desktop PC but may

not have a mobile device?

Considerations

• Government support or blessing to the

concept of OER seems crucial to initiate the

development, and in the subsequent work.

• School principals and teachers are more

willing to join projects which have gained

government consent.

Considerations

• An earlier study on the awareness and

implementation of OER at the tertiary level in

Hong Kong has helped the project team with

the positioning of our project.

• Knowing that very few academics have

engaged in the production of OER or open

textbooks in Hong Kong, the project team

acknowledges that publicity on the subject

of OER and Open Textbooks is a mandatory

precursor of the project.

Considerations

• The majority of teachers indicated that they

will make changes to the books before they

use them. It is therefore important that we

have the ‘Editor’ function ready when the

open textbooks are offered to the public.

• Teachers expected to use the printed version

of the textbooks most often, but they will

also need to refer to the other versions ‘often’

or ‘sometimes’.

Considerations

• It will be an interesting study about how

actually the three versions are used in the

classroom and after class to achieve the

most effective learning.

• To satisfy the needs of teachers interested in

e-learning, more features of the ePub format

should be considered, as these would add to

the attractiveness of the e-textbooks.

Considerations

• We will seriously consider making the e-

versions available on multi-platform, as this

is requested. In our initial plan, we only

provide an ePub version for iPad, or ePub in

iOS format at the first stage.

Considerations

• Teachers need support from peers and the

principal when they adopt open textbooks. A

supportive atmosphere has to be built.

• Frequent seminars and presentations on the

concept and practice of open textbooks, as

well as experience sharing sessions by

teachers, will surely help with the movement.

Considerations

• Teachers’ concern on quality can be resolved

by OUHK’s quality assurance mechanism,

and EDB’s textbook vetting system. Quality

is further enhanced by the peer review and

revision facility on the Open Textbooks

platform.

Considerations

• The sustainability of the project is also an

important issue.

• We are certain that if the project is welcomed

by users, we will have no problem finding the

funds and the human resources to sustain

its development.

Date post:	12-Nov-2014
Category:	Education
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