GOING GLOBAL – VIEWS FROM THE OPEN EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE

Background:
Ten years on from the influential OECD report that in many ways framed the emergence of the developing Open Educational resources (OER) community, this is a good time to reflect on impact of OER and the extent to which the ideals of sharing and reuse have been realised (OECD, 2007).

Aim:
This paper seeks to reflect on the issues of sharing and reuse at an international level from the perspective of a mature project that has been developing and sharing content openly for nearly 20 years.

Method:
The health E-learning and Media team at the University of Nottingham has been developing and sharing open digital content since 1999. Whilst reflecting the changes in technology, throughout this time they have been based on the reusable learning object format. Thus, they are small, highly focused, granular resources. Each consists of a mixture of audio, visual and interactive elements to guide the learner to the achievement of a defined learning goal. The resources are created through a participatory design process involving a range of stakeholders including lecturers, health practitioners, patients and students. As well as being embedded within a range of specific courses, each resource is made openly available for world-wide reuse (University of Nottingham, 2017). To date, approximately 250 resources have been made available and the number grows constantly.

Each resource is supported by an optional online evaluation for users to return. In addition, over the course of the project follow-up surveys of the reuse community has also been conducted.

Results:
Whilst it is difficult to be accurate about the size of the reuse population, we know that the resources are being used in over 50 countries throughout the world, with an estimated 1.5 million users. These countries span every populated continent, including a large number whose first language is not English. Evaluation data shows that over 90% of users rate the objects as “Good” or “Very Good” and state that they are “Helpful” or “Very helpful” for learning. Interestingly, the rates of positive evaluation become higher within the national and international reuse group when compared with the local, or intended, user groups. Reusers include not only learners, but also, practitioners, lecturers “I never thought I would ever be able to teach these concepts but now I can with confidence” (Australia) and health service users “ it helps to see that you as the Health care team see and understand the things that make a difference in Matt's world and offer this to other carers” (Ireland). Analysis shows that links to resources are now widely embedded in a range of other information platforms from which users access them.

Conclusion/recommendations:
Reflections on the drivers for reuse within this project suggests that the accessibility of the resources; their granularity, visual nature and technical portability are central. However, the participation of a wide range of stakeholder groups is also essential as they give the resources credibility and alignment with real-world learning needs as well as an advocate community who will foster their uptake and reuse.

References:
[1] Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources (PDF). Executive Summary ISBN 978-92-64-03174-6.
[2] University of Nottingham (2017) HELMOpen [online] http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen/