Presentation given at OE Global Conference 2017 on 10 March in Cape Town by Anna Page for the Opening Educational Practices in Scotland Project. How can open educational practices be used to enable more learners to benefit from specialist knowledge online in accessible, engaging ways? Opening Educational Practices Project (OEPS) is collaborating with external partners to develop course creation skills they need to deliver their first free, open online courses.
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Opening Practice on Participatory Course Production - OEPS OE Global17
1. Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Opening Practice on participatory
course production
Anna Page, Pete Cannell, Ronald Macintyre (OEPS)
10 March 2017 for OE Global
CC BY
2. Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
About us
The Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
project facilitates best practice in Scottish open
education. We aim to enhance Scotland’s
reputation and capacity for developing publicly
available and licenced online materials, supported
by high quality pedagogy and learning
technology.
“”
3. Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
What do we mean by
OEP?
We think of Open Educational Practices as those educational
practices that are concerned with and promote equity and
openness. Our understanding of ‘open’ builds on the freedoms
associated with “the 5 Rs” of OER, promoting a broader sense of
open, emphasising social justice, and developing practices that
open up opportunities for those distanced from education.
“”
5. 5
Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Reasons for engaging with OER
• Purpose – may have material to share – their expertise and
knowledge of learner context
• Existing and potential audience – wider exposure and
uptake of their material
• Interested in using collaborative supportive networks but
need advice
• Want guidance on level and tone to suit their audience
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Working in partnership
Partnership as a design process*
• Explore the Partner’s needs and what they know about the
learners
• Explain the different types of open courses/OER
• Learning through doing – participatory design
• Draw out their expertise, they draw on our education expertise
• Help them identify uncertainties, build expertise and revise their
content
• Build their confidence in course creation
• Challenge our thinking – for example is existing OER relevant for
their context?
* Cannell, P., Macintyre, R. and Hewitt, L. (2015) ‘Widening access and OER: developing new
practice’, Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 17(1), pp. 64-72.
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Models
• Curation and supported pathways
• Single-authored (one organisation or one person
authoring)
• Multi-authored (several organisations or several people
authoring)
• With or without open review
‘Curate’ drawn by Beck Pitt, from Anna Page (OEPS Project) OE Global 2017 CC BY 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/Srhwyj
Logo for Writers and Poets Portal, Kontos, Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P_author.svg
Working together teamwork puzzle concept, Scott Maxwell CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/4fUsNL
Symbol of Review, Stephen Baum, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Review.png
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Curation and supported pathways
Union Learning
• Unite are developing their own VLE portal using
guidance from OEPS.
• This will guide learners to existing OER and help
them think about their readiness for
online courses and other learning options.
• It will also provide guidance for Union Learning
Reps about running supported group learning
activities in the workplace for learners using
existing OERs.
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Single-authored (one organisation)
Understanding Parkinson’s
• OEPS guided Parkinson’s UK through the process of
creating an open course from existing workshop
materials which they had previously shared online
via PDFs.
• OEPS assisted with adapting materials, with
Parkinson’s UK approving final content
• OEPS assisted with writing the quizzes for
assessment as existing questions in workshop
materials was geared for face-to-face use only.
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Single-authored (one organisation)
My seaweed looks weird
• OEPS guided Scottish Association of Marine Sciences
through the process of creating an open course
about seaweed parasites for a small international
postgraduate level audience.
• OEPS reviewed the content and provided editorial
feedback to authors.
• OEPS assisted with writing the quizzes for
assessment.
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Multi-authored (single organisation)
OEPS – Becoming an open educator
• OEPS wanted to write a course about open
educational practices
• Whole OEPS team collaborated, initial drafts
by Beck Pitt revised by whole team after open
review
• Shared online documents for content authoring
• Quiz questions suggested by whole team and
refined by Rosemarie McIlwhan and Anna Page
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Multi-authored (2 teams)
How to make an open online course
• OU expertise in learning design and course production
• Course authored by Free Learning Team at The Open University with
2 sections co-authored by OEPS project
• Free Learning team and OEPS team collaborated, initial drafts by
different team members revised by whole team after review
• Shared online documents for content authoring
• Quiz questions suggested by authors and refined by two members
of the Free Learning team
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Multi-authored (several organisations)
Introduction to Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice
• Content from several organisations curated and
authored by a single person from one organisation
• OEPS guided author through the process of creating
an open course and helped review the content
• OEPS provided advice on quiz writing and reviewed
the quiz questions
• Already writing two more courses as this is the
first of a set of 3 linked courses
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
OEPS open courses so far
Created collaboratively with partners
• Understanding Parkinson’s
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/UnderstandingParkinsons
Case study at
http://www.oeps.ac.uk/create-your-own/building-oer-partnership-understanding-parkinsons
Evaluation early findings
https://oepscotland.org/2016/07/14/preliminary-findings-evaluation-pilot-cohort-studying-under
• My Seaweed looks weird
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/SAMS_SeaweedWeird
• Introduction to Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice – about to be published at
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/dyslexia-inclusive-practice
• Social Determinants of Death – final weeks of production
Created collaboratively by the OEPS team with open review
• Becoming an open educator
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/becoming-open-educator
• How to make an open online course
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Understanding Parkinson’s
• Published April 2016
• By 1 March 2017 there are 527 enrolments
• By 1 March 2017 144 badges issued
• Course in 5 sections with ungraded practice quizzes at the end of
first 4 sections and a graded end of course quiz at the end of
section 5.
• To receive badge users need to look through all materials and
complete the quizzes, passing the last quiz.
• Course being used by Health and Social care workers though can
also be used by general users interested in knowing more about
Parkinson’s and how it is treated and managed
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Understanding Parkinson’s learner feedback
Users liked the format of the course
• “I found it very good and easy to follow step by step”
(Care worker)
•“it was easy to understand, information was clear and video
interviews were helpful” (Senior social care worker)
•“Best online course I’ve done. I’d be very interested in doing more
that were set out like this.” (Senior social care worker)
•“Good level of information, good mix of written, videos and
quizzes to consolidate learning.” (Speech & Language Therapist)
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Understanding Parkinson’s learner feedback
• “Thoroughly enjoyed this course. Very informative
and the videos were very personnel and definitely
added to the learning process.“ (5 stars)
Some learners used the downloadable versions of the materials
• “I loved being able to download and work on the course offline, it
meant I could take it anywhere with me to do a little bit of work
when I could.” (Care home manager)
• “I found it easier to read the sections this way, just my personal
preference.” (Senior social care worker)
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Understanding Parkinson’s learner feedback
Some liked the reflective log they were invited to
complete as they worked through the course
•“I thought it was an excellent way of learning. I really thought the
CPD part was a great way of retaining information and perfect for
keeping as a reference.” (Senior social care worker)
•“The reflective parts were good as it made you really reflect on
how you would feel in those situations which I always think is the
only way we can really and truly treat every individual.” (Care Home
Manager)
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Understanding Parkinson’s learner feedback
Some learners said they would change their
practice as a result of studying the course
•“Will have a better understanding when assessing someone with
Parkinson’s for care management. Hope to pass knowledge gained
on to colleagues. Important thing I learned is the impact of not
getting drugs on time.” (Care Manager)
•“Will promote and enable discussion with colleagues and where
appropriate with people affected by dementia within my remit
where Parkinson’s or Parkinsonism is a feature or a concert, with
appropriate signposting to health professionals and support
networks.” (Dementia advisor)
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Next steps for Understanding Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s UK are:
• Running their own survey of learner feedback
• Actively promoting the course to their known audience and
online via social media
• Monitoring learner progress
• Writing two new Parkinson’s courses with some advice from
OEPS but taking the lead on authoring and production
based on their experiences of creating the first course
• Building their own quizzes for the new courses
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Becoming an open educator
• Published September 2016
• By 1 March 2017 there are 66 enrolments
• By 1 March 2017 12 badges issued
• Course in 5 sections with ungraded practice quizzes at
the end of first 4 sections and a graded end of course
quiz at the end of section 5.
• To receive badge users need to look through all
materials and complete the quizzes, passing the last
quiz.
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Becoming an open educator feedback
• “Great course, lots of attention to detail and practical application
in becoming an Open Educational Practitioner ... and you get a
lovely open digital badge (what's not to love ?)” (4 stars) (Debbie
Baff)
• “Awesome!!” (5 stars) (Nikesh Balami)
• (5 stars) (Anil Mathew)
• Promoted so far via twitter, blog posts and OEPS newsletter
• Honourable mention 2017 @OEConsortium awards
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
How to make an open online course
• Published November 2016
• By 1 March 2017 there are 21 enrolments
• By 1 March 2017 3 badges issued
• Course in 10 sections with an ungraded practice quiz after
section 5 and a graded end of course quiz at the end.
• To receive badge users need to look through all materials and
complete the quizzes, passing the last quiz.
• Promoted so far via twitter, blog posts and OEPS newsletter
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
My seaweed looks weird
• Published May 2016
• By 1 March 2017 there are 16 enrolments
• By 1 March 2017 5 badges issued
• Course in 3 sections with an ungraded practice quiz after section
1 and a graded end of course quiz at the end.
• To receive badge users need to look through all materials and
complete the quizzes, passing the last quiz.
• Course written for a very specific small specialist audience
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Development of new content and new practices
Practice based
knowledge
Practice based
knowledge
Technical
capability
Technical
capability
OEPS team Partner
Academic
knowledge
Academic
knowledge
Collaboration via adapted
course team methodology
Collaboration via adapted
course team methodology
Skills in
educational
design
Skills in
educational
design
Intellectual
property
Intellectual
property
Quality
processes for
production
Quality
processes for
production
LearnersLearners
NetworksNetworks
Contributions
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Development of new content and new practices
Quiz co-
authoring
Quiz co-
authoring
Video editing
(use external
contractor)
Video editing
(use external
contractor)
OEPS team Partner
Advice and
guidance
Advice and
guidance
Current roles and responsibilitiesCurrent roles and responsibilities
Quiz co-
authoring
Quiz co-
authoring
Video filming
(external
contractor)
Video filming
(external
contractor)
Content
tagging,
rendering
Content
tagging,
rendering
Authoring,
identify assets
Authoring,
identify assets
Quiz testingQuiz testing
Critical
reading
Critical
reading
Critical
reading
Critical
reading
Quiz building
and testing
Quiz building
and testing
Draft Course
reviewing
Draft Course
reviewing
Badge set upBadge set up Badge designBadge design
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Development of new content and new practices
Quiz co-
authoring
Quiz co-
authoring
University Partner
Advice and
guidance (on
OEPS hub)
Advice and
guidance (on
OEPS hub)
Future roles and responsibilitiesFuture roles and responsibilities
Video filming
& editing
(external
contractor)
Video filming
& editing
(external
contractor)
Authoring,
identify assets
Authoring,
identify assets
Quiz building
and testing
Quiz building
and testing
Critical
reading
Critical
reading
Draft Course
reviewing
Draft Course
reviewing
Badge design
and set up
Badge design
and set up
Content
upload
Content
upload
What services
might be offered?
What services
might be offered?
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Open production checklist
Allow time for discussion to understand about OER, purpose of online course,
potential audience, open licenses, possible course structures and assessment
options, including badging
Allow time to adapt existing materials as they might not be suitable for online
learning – follow good practice guidelines for online learning
Agree roles and responsibilities for course management, authoring, asset
compiling and creating, quiz writing and building, badge design, set up of course
materials online, testing quiz, set up of badge, making course live
Use a sample schedule early in discussions to inform discussion, expectations, roles,
responsibilities and future planning leading to an actual production schedule
Compile an asset register as the course is written to keep track of all assets, their
Title, Author, Source and Licence (TASL)
Involve partner in every element of the process – enable them to take ownership
Use ‘How to make an open online course’ and
‘Becoming an open educator’ as good practice guidance
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
What are the implications for
Widening Participation?
If partners use OER to fill structural holes in individual
learning journeys, what are the implications for formal
learning providers with a remit for widening participation in
Higher Education?
Does this exclude formal providers from widening
participation?
Do formal providers partner with external organisations to
enhance the formal curriculum and fill these holes?
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Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
References and courses
Cannell, P., Macintyre, R. and Hewitt, L. (2015) ‘Widening access and OER: developing new
practice’, Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 17(1), pp. 64-72.
Kemmis, S. (2010). Research for praxis: Knowing doing Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 18, 1, 9-
27.
Macintyre R. (2015) Designing Open Learning Journeys http://www.oeps.ac.uk/create-your-
own/designing-open-learning-journeys [accessed March 2016]
Understanding Parkinson’s
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/UnderstandingParkinsons
My Seaweed looks weird
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/SAMS_SeaweedWeird
Becoming an open educator
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/becoming-open-educator
How to make an open online course
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/how-to-make-course
32. Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Contact Us: Email:
OEPScotland@gmail.com
Social media:
@OEPScotland
www.oepscotland.org
www.oeps.ac.uk
Notas del editor
The project encompasses a number of activities over a three year period (2014-2017):
Analysis of current open educational practices
Events programme across Scotland to raise awareness of OEP
Development of an online hub to encourage and share best practice in open education
Development of a small number of high quality OERs of particular benefit to Scotland
Badging of informal learning
Learning design for widening participation
Research and evaluation building a strong evidence base
Evaluation of various economic models of openness
Over 60 organisations and groups have engaged with OEPS since the project started in 2014
Advice on reusing and remixing resources, coproduction of courses, exploring open practice, sharing knowledge on evidence of good practice, advice on supported portal redesign for open learning, co-presenting a conference
Some impact case studies will follow shortly
15 partnerships are currently live
External organisations new to open learning may have some material to share
They may already use traditional methods of teaching/training
Seek to get wider exposure and uptake of their material – OER is one way of doing this
Keen to harness collaborative working through supportive networks but not sure how to start
OEPS works with partners to explore what openness and the power of their existing networks might do which they might not have been able to do before
Aim to embed open practices within networks or organisations
This partnership approach is important to OEPS – we’re using it both with HE and organisations outside the academy. The range of organisations who are interested in and starting to engage in open educational practices goes beyond the traditional formal learning routes of FE and HE.
Partner might have published workbooks to accompany f2f workshops
Cannot just assume “built it and they will come” – work with them to identify users, needs, behaviours and methods which would work best for their context
OEPS has treated partnership as a design process – build on an understanding of the partner’s needs and what they know about their learners.
Both the partner and OEPS learn through the doing as we participate in designing an open course, it has not just been a ‘transmit our expertise’ exercise as we have learned an enormous amount in the process from their questions and while using and updating existing OU systems
Partners may not want to expose the initial discussions about their plans to explore ‘open’ – they may want to understand the options and possible routes to sharing materials before committing to share assets openly – it is brave to do open
How ‘open’ – public scrutiny at course development stage or later at community review stage? - Even after committing to share assets, partners may want to work only with OEPS team to develop the assets for online use rather than expose the development of their online courses or resources to public scrutiny as they are built, even if there are advantages with public scrutiny
OEPS works with them to identify where uncertainties exist and where expertise is needed to complement and strengthen what the partner is proposing to share openly
In future, after developing one course and gaining confidence, partner might be more willing to develop course in the open from the start
During discussions with partners, OEPS explains about the different types of online courses and resources
OER which don’t require enrolment
MOOCs (start/end dates)
BOCs (perpetually open or series of cohorts)
Supported or unsupported (teacher/tutor or standalone)
Assessment for informal learning? Methods (quiz, reflective learning) Rewards (badge, statement of participation/certificate)
Who does the curation?
Who does the authoring?
Who reviews the course?
Work in progress – pilot stage is using four Badged OpenLearn and OpenLearn Create courses
Introducing Practical Healthcare
Caring for Adults
Digital Literacy: succeeding in a digital world
Succeed with Maths – Part 1
OEPS working with partners is illustrated by this diagram showing what each partner contributes.
Collaborative partnership – bringing together expertise to create an open course
Valuing all contributions and using an adapted course team methodology to create a good quality open online course
Roles and responsibilities – what each partner did in the course production process for the first collaboratively built courses
Future roles and responsibilities after OEPS project – what each partner would do in the course production process
OEPS project comes to an end in July 2017. It leaves learning and principles about how to work in partnership to build open courses which could be adopted by any university offering their expertise to potential partners.
What service to offer?
In our experience the design aspect is key to getting it right.
Depending on balance of work we might also offer production support or even do the production for the partner.
Existing OU system of production for formal learning is not flexible enough or cost effective for one off bespoke short courses with partners, though its OpenLearn course production system for short courses is evolving and improving on this model.
For example a series of PDFs of workbooks which are used in a f2f workshop may not transfer into an guided online learning experience particularly well
Sometimes a series of LD discussions are needed to familiarise the partner with open learning concepts and practices – this needs to be built into the timescale for the project with the partner
A production schedule can help expose all the steps that might need to be taken depending on what the OER is likely to include
SCHEDULE: A sample production schedule is a crucial tool in early meetings as it helps inform discussion, expectations, roles, responsibilities and future planning leading to an actual production schedule
Encouraging a partner to compile an asset register helps them re-evaluate the content they want to share
Compiling the asset register reminds the partner to seek copyright information about the assets they wish to use and to confirm that they can share them openly. For example some video they might previously have used in f2f sessions might not have the relevant permission from participants for sharing on the open web so may need to be re-filmed or placed online behind a password.
Taking care of the actual production on behalf of a partner can risk preventing them from learning how to do it themselves, so keeping the partner involved in every step and decision is importantIt is very tempting to take complete control as it might seem quicker but the whole purpose is to embed unfamiliar practices by learning together – empowering them to do it for themselves another time
- Partner with subject expertise redrafts their existing material with OEPS team providing guidance on appropriate pedagogy- Ideal if the partner has someone to do the content upload otherwise OEPS arranges this activity
Production issues with OU and external partner model
Roles and responsibilities need to be agreed in the early production stages to avoid misunderstandings and delays
Authoring – who is writing it and what impact on their time?
Assessment – who writes quiz questions?
If badged, who is designing the badge?
Who sets up and tests the materials?
Internal OU production methods are geared to OU materials for students or OpenLearn, for example video production
Some OU systems not ‘open’ to external users – a direct authoring tool for OpenLearn Create is coming, but is several months away
Getting things done in time depends partly on who is leading/driving the work – is OEPS driving it or is the partner driving it? Who is authoring the content, what is their motivation and is it done on the fringes of their time or have they been specifically contracted to author the course?
Internal processes for video production resulted in long delays and frustration – in future we advise contracting external video production expertise if using OU platform for hosting the course
Direct authoring – OU platform OpenLearn Create is Moodle and supports OU structured content. Moodle is open for anyone to edit, but OU SC is OU staff only. Other platforms may be easier for the partner to use instead, though may not have all the features of OU open platform.
Does increase in external organisations using OER squeeze out formal providers? Or can they work together?
OU is successfully using OER as a bridge to formal learning
Learners can be provided with qualifications relating to career and lifelong learning