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Identifying categories of OER users
This document discusses research identifying different categories of open educational resource (OER) users: - OER active users are engaged with the OER community, understand licenses, and actively create and share resources. - OER as facilitator users see OER as a pragmatic tool to achieve other goals rather than the primary focus. - OER consumers use OER alongside other materials without differentiating, have low awareness of licenses, and view OER as optional extras. The research was based on surveys of over 7,000 respondents from various OER projects. It found evidence that users can move between these categories over time as their experience with and understanding of OER grows.
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Identifying categories of OER users
- 1. Identifying Categories ofOER Users Martin Weller, Bea de los Arcos, Rob Farrow, Beck Pitt
- 2. OER Hub overview HewlettFoundation 2012 Create an evidence base for the OER community Shift from belief driven statements Establish impact research
- 3. 11 hypotheses A -Performance: Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfaction B - Openness: The Open Aspect of OER creates different usage and adoption patterns than other online resources C - Access: Open Education models lead to more equitable access to education, serving a broader base of learners than traditional education D - Retention: Use of OER is an effective method for improving retention for at-risk students E - Reflection: Use of OER leads to critical reflection by educators, with evidence of improvement in their practice F - Finance: OER adoption at an institutional level leads to financial benefits for students and/or institutions G - Indicators: Informal learners use a variety of indicators when selecting OER H - Support: Informal learners adopt a variety of techniques to compensate for the lack of formal support, which can be supported in open courses I - Transition: Open education acts as a bridge to formal education, and is complementary, not competitive, with it J - Policy: Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at an institutional level K - Assessment: Informal means of assessment are motivators to learning with OER
- 4. Surveys 7498 respondents: Flipped LearningNetwork (n=118); CCCOER (n=128); Saylor (n= 3213); OpenLearn (n=1668); OU iTunesU (n=1114); Siyavula (n=89); Librarians (n=218); General Survey (n=147); School of Open (n=129); BCCampus (n=85); Open Stax (n= 400) and OU YouTube (n=189).
- 5. Different analyses Formal, informal,educators Against hypotheses Open textbooks Global south
- 6. My question Can weidentify different types of OER users?
- 7. OER active Know whatOER means Active and engaged in community Advocates Understand licences
- 8. Example Community College teacherwho adopts a textbook, adapts it and contributes to open textbooks
- 9. Positive about OER 62.1%of educators and 60.7% of formal learners reported that using OER improved student satisfaction 44.1% of educators and 38.9% of formal learners agreed that OER use resulted in better test scores
- 10. But… Awareness of OERrepositories is low compared with sites such as Khan Academy and TED. Disparity in belief and practice - only 14% of informal learners selected OER with an open license but 84% said they adapted the resources they found to fit their needs. Only 14.8% of educators published resources with a CC license but 70.4% considered open licensing important and 58.9% were familiar with the CC logo
- 11. So… Focus has beenon expanding this group But there may be limits to how much it can grow
- 12. OER as facilitator Havesome awareness of OER, Have a pragmatic approach toward them OERs are of secondary interest to their primary task
- 13.
- 14. Openness is usefulbenefit Online and free is main factor, but 79.4% of all OER users adapt resources to fit their needs “What I do is I look at a lot of free resources but I don’t usually give them directly to my students because I usually don’t like them as much as something I would create, so what I do is I get a lot of ideas”
- 15. Continuum of adaptation Getideas Put it in diff context Adapts resource Importance of open licence increases teachers do not remain static on this continuum - the more educators used OER, the more willing they were to share
- 16. Cost saving Hilton etal (2014) found an average saving of $90.61 per course. 79.6% of formal students reported that they saved money by using open textbooks Improved retention Changes to pedagogy (Tidewater)
- 17. For this group Othergoals may be primary focus OER as practical means of achieving these Some conversion then to OER active
- 18. OER consumer Use OERamongst a mix of other media & don’t differentiate Awareness of licences is low and not a priority OERs are a ‘nice to have’ option Users are largely consuming rather than creating and sharing
- 19. Example A student studyingat university who uses iTunes U materials to supplement their taught material
- 20. Under-reported OER uses 32.4%informal learners using OER to try university-level content before signing up for a paid-for course Using OERs to supplement formal study - 46.9% of formal learners OER had a positive impact in helping them complete their course of study An alternative to formal study - 89% of learners using OER the opportunity to study at no cost 86.3% studying for personal interest
- 21. Quality is key “OERper se does not excite learners. Good content does - free or paid, legal or pirated. Siyavula's stuff works because it is GOOD. Being CC makes it legal to download, not fun to use. There are 100's of free/CC resources. 98% are useless to me” (educator using Siyavula content)
- 22.
- 23. Dark Reuse “If ourgoal is catalyzing and facilitating significant amounts of reuse and adaptation of materials, we seem to be failing. … If our goal is to create fantastically popular websites loaded with free content visited by millions of people each month, who find great value in the content but never adapt or remix it, then we’re doing fairly well.” David Wiley 3 groups represent way of realising both aspects
- 24. New strategies Continue toexpand OER Active group BUT not only strategy Increase OER ‘brand’ Strategic content to compete with Kahn etc
- 25. Movement between groups Canoccur – get the open bug Shouldn’t view as ‘progression’ Can have all three within one project eg Tidewater Z-degree
- 26. Discussion points Do yourecognise these groups? Are there other groupings? What strategies should we adopt to reach them?
- 27. Links Data report: bit.ly/oerhubdatareport Data:bit.ly/oerhubdata Evidence report: bit.ly/oerreport oerhub.net @OER_Hub