Transcript From the roots up Exploring the use of Open Educational

From the roots up
Exploring the use of Open Educational
Resources to widen participation in
deprived communities
The project
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North and Mid Wales Reaching Wider
Partnership project.
• Brings OER, OpenLearn, to mid and north
Wales
• Building capacity in communities to use the
resource to widen access and participation.
• Currently in year 2 of a 3 year project.
Main aims of the project
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Develop capacity through recruiting and
training OpenLearn Champions within
communities to help people access OpenLearn
and further learning.
• Develop virtual ‘communities of practice’ to
share learning from the project as it develops.
• Research and evaluate the use of OERs and
impact on Widening Participation groups.
What are Open Educational Resources?
(Schaffert and Geser, 2008)
Who are the Champions?
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Community workers
Local adult education tutors
Librarians
Union Learning Reps
Job Centre Plus Advisors
Community and voluntary sector groups
All must complete an application form to demonstrate how
they promote learning as part of their paid or voluntary
role.
The Role of Champions
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Be a friendly face in your community and show
others how to get started on OpenLearn.
• Tell colleagues and students/clients about Open
learn.
• If you have a teaching role you may find that
Open learn has material you can use
• Role should complement your current job or
volunteer role.
Case study – Local rural Library
Resources and support for
Champions
• Training – A mixture of instruction, hands-on practice of
the OpenLearn content and group discussion around
how they will use OpenLearn.
• A resource pack includes promotional materials,
certificates, OpenLearn and progression guide.
• On line forum
• Daily tweets with OpenLearn recommendations
• Mentor support from project team member
Engagement
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52 people trained as Champions Year 1,
we estimate to have 112 Champions by
the end of the project 2014
Difficult to track and monitor the full
spread and reach.
Reaching over 600 learners
Barriers to access and the
promise of OER
(Adapted from Lane and van Dorp, 2011)
Some research questions
Perceived value?
Approach of learners?
What is good
OER to WP?
Bridge to formal
learning?
Levels of support?
Approach
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Range of methods
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Observation at training sessions
Semi-structured interviews
Project feedback and evaluation data
Other documentary evidence
Case studies developed
Themes and lessons
Focus on mediation and
transformation
Aspects of In/Formality
Process
Location /
setting
Content
Purposes
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Everyday
Pedagogy
Pedagogic support
Assessment
• Physical location
• Flexibility
• Expected outcomes
• Prescription
• Primacy of learning
• Teacher or learner led
(Adapted from Malcolm, Hodkinson and Colley, 2003)
Discussion – Mediating Open
Educational Resources
OpenLearn
Courses
Process
Location and
setting
Content
Purposes
OpenLearn
mediated or
embedded in
community-based
organisation
Transformation 
Recommendations
Community-based organisations
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IT
Belonging
Social
Signpost
Less formal
OER developers
• Audience
• Look to introductory / access curriculum
WP practitioners
• Choose your Champion
• Pathways
Where will the project go next?
• More guidance on courses and content, the
development of informal pathways using OpenLearn
content.
• Links to the new Future Learn, UK MOOCs (massive
open online courses) developments.
Contacts/ information
•[email protected]
(practice based)
•[email protected] and
[email protected]
(research side)
•Twitter: #OLRW
•Project Blog :
http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OpenLearn_in_
North_and_Mid_Wales
References
Lane, A. and Van Dorp, K. J. (2011). Open educational resources and widening participation in higher
education: innovations and lessons from open universities. In: EDULEARN11, the 3rd annual
International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 04-05 July 2011,
Barcelona
Malcolm, J., Hodkinson, P. & Colley, H., 2003. The interrelationships between informal and formal
learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15(7/8), pp.313-318. at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13665620310504783
Schaffert, S., & Geser, G. (2008). Open educational resources and practices. eLearning Papers, 7. at
http://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=11198&doclng=6&vol=7
About Openlearn
What is it?
• Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Biggest repository of OER in Europe
• Over 650 units of free courses and
content
• 11 million users worldwide
• OER a growing area, eg. Coursera and
other platforms
What can learners do?
• Over 650 courses - History and the Arts, Science, Maths
and Technology, Body and Mind, Society, Education and
Languages
• Plan and prepare for a course of study by enrolling on
one of the free courses
• Browse the subject categories to discover articles, watch
videos and interact with features and games
• Explore new topics to build their personal knowledge or
look for reference material for a course they are already
studying
• Keep track of their learning and print off a record of the
courses they have undertaken
Why is this relevant to groups and
individuals in the Widening Access
community?
• OpenLearn is free, informal and flexible and can
be accessed from any computer which connects
to the internet.
• Material from introductory to advanced level is
available – something for everyone
• Stepping stone to build confidence, ready for
work or further study
OU and the BBC
There are constantly changing topics highlighted
on Open learn, many linked to the BBC e.g.
• ‘Stargazing’ with Brian Cox
• Wartime Farm
• BBC Story of Wales
• Bang Goes theTheory
• Coast
All with related materials on OpenLearn and
additional hard copy resources available.