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Teachers' toolkit for creating and re-purposing OER using FOSS/A toolkit for creating and re-purposing OER using FOSS tools (view source)
Revision as of 08:31, 19 March 2017
, 08:31, 19 March 2017no edit summary
In a society that is becoming increasingly [[wikipedia:Digital|digital]], it is no surprise that educational processes are also getting impacted by digital technologies (popularly known as [[wikipedia:Information_and_communications_technology|Information and Communication Technologies]], or simply ICTs). A significant development in the educational domain has been the rise of [[wikipedia:Open_educational_resources|Open Educational Resources]] (OER), with the promise of delivering quality education. An essentially, digital phenomenon, OER seek to leverage the possibilities of digital methods for accessing, creating, modifying and sharing educational content. OER has redefined the copyright regime, stimulating the sharing of content with license to re-use, modify and share / publish.
In a society that is becoming increasingly [[wikipedia:Digital|digital]], it is no surprise that educational processes are also getting impacted by digital technologies (popularly known as [[wikipedia:Information_and_communications_technology|Information and Communication Technologies]], or simply ICTs). A significant development in the educational domain has been the rise of [[wikipedia:Open_educational_resources|Open Educational Resources]] (OER), with the promise of delivering quality education. An essentially, digital phenomenon, OER seek to leverage the possibilities of digital methods for accessing, creating, modifying and sharing educational content. OER has redefined the copyright regime, stimulating the sharing of content with license to re-use, modify and share / publish.
While the advantages seem obvious in terms of increased availability of curricular materials and reducing costs of education, research suggests that OER seems to have not achieved its potential for adoption<ref>The term ‘adoption’ of OER is used in this note in a comprehensive manner, to include creation, use, re-use, revision, re-mixing,retaining and re-distributing.</ref>.
While the advantages seem obvious in terms of increased availability of curricular materials and reducing costs of education, research suggests that OER seems to have not achieved its potential for adoption<ref>The term ‘adoption’ of OER is used in this note in a comprehensive manner, to include creation, use, re-use, revision, re-mixing,retaining and re-distributing.</ref>.
=== What is OER ===
This toolkit proposes to enable teachers to use FOSS tools to create and re-purpose OER. . The term Open Educational Resource (OER) was coined at the 2002 UNESCO Forum on Open Courseware. Subsequently, its definition has been updated to the following:
…teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” (2012 Paris OER declaration).
Even with this definition, what constitutes an OER can still be subject to interpretation and is sometimes confused with other learning resources. However, a more practical description as provided by Hoosen, Moore, and Butcher (2012) gives a clearer indication of the range of possibilities under this definition:
“They are educational materials and resources that are offered freely, are openly available to anyone and, under some licences, allow others to reuse, adapt and redistribute them with few or no restrictions. OER can include lecture notes and slides, lesson plans, textbooks, handouts given to students, videos, online tutorials, podcasts, diagrams, entire courses, and any other material designed to be used in teaching and learning. Thus, the scale of OER can vary significantly. They can be as large as a textbook or as small as a single photograph. They can make up an entire course or curriculum or can be used to enhance existing textbooks” (p. 2).
Using this definition, we can see that OER can support the free sharing and expansion in availability of educational resources. In any case, this toolkit should enable teachers to create and re-purpose OER, materials that are available freely for re-use, revision and re-distribution.
===What limits OER adoption===
===What limits OER adoption===
‘’Build it and they will come?<ref>Hatakka, M. (2009). Build it and they will come? - Inhibiting factors for reuse of open content in developing countries. ''The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries'', 37(5), 1-16. Retrieved from <nowiki>http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/viewFile/545/279</nowiki></ref>’’ This perhaps captures the current paradigm in the OER space, with more and more materials being made available from educators and institutions, but with limited uptake from users. One important reason behind this is the low level of awareness about OER and its possibilities. Causes could be:
‘’Build it and they will come?<ref>Hatakka, M. (2009). Build it and they will come? - Inhibiting factors for reuse of open content in developing countries. ''The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries'', 37(5), 1-16. Retrieved from <nowiki>http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/viewFile/545/279</nowiki></ref>’’ This perhaps captures the current paradigm in the OER space, with more and more materials being made available from educators and institutions, but with limited uptake from users. One important reason behind this is the low level of awareness about OER and its possibilities. Causes could be: