Please help!! Refine my research ideas for #OER #OpenEdMOOC

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I have been trying to come up with a good research proposal around Open Educational Resources (OER) for some time now.  Although it is an assignment for the Open Education MOOC I am involved in, it is real for me because I actually want to follow through with it – fellowship or not. Please comment and rip my ideas apart if you see any issues or have any suggestions for improvement. Below I share most of my thought process leading to the possibly final idea so if you aren’t in a mood to read you can scroll down to the proposal at the end.   The fellowship requires an action research project that is grounded in current literature, feasible and under 500 words.

The Initial Idea

As mentioned in previous posts I am surrounded by people who both support OER and caution against it. In the month leading up to the strike on campus I spent a lot of time talking to people on both sides of this debate over OER. It felt like my biggest problem was dealing with anti-OER people on campus. A team of us got together and came up with an idea. We wanted to focus on identifying the perceived risks of OER among faculty at our institution using Q-methodology. While opinions of OER are known in the literature we do not know what faculty at our institution thinks beyond anecdotal evidence. We would gather the discourse on OER perceptions and narrow it down to a representative list of statements around “What are the most significant barriers for you in the adoption of OER.” Q-methodology asks participants to sort a set of statements that are subsequently grouped together mathematically. For the fellowship, this approach was best conducted by a team since the intent was to use the identified perceptions to develop professional development opportunities for faculty that would address the identified barriers using existing literature in a workshop type format. An additional component of the study could be to measure the effectiveness of the professional development activities, but that portion of the idea was not flushed out before the strike began. The original idea would be feasible for me because of my experience with Q-methodology. However, in an information session about the fellowship we learned that we cannot apply as a team. It was also suggested that this idea may not fit with “action research” for me in my current role as a course professor. Since the idea was vetted by my institution we may move forward with it anyway, but not for the fellowship proposal. Two of our team members are submitting separate research ideas.

Action Research

Action research is meant to solve immediate problems faced by educators like me in an attempt to constantly improve (Ferrance, 2000).  There are different types of action research. The idea above would fit with a group approach, but I feel the need to focus on something more closely tied to my own teaching. As a new adopter of OER in the classroom I am faced with the issue of finding something to research that would also add something meaningful to what is known in the broader literature since I want to use it for ongoing scholarship. I must find a problem that is both relevant to my current context and a gap in current literature. Step 1: Identification of a Problem  Coming into this week’s content I was still thinking of focusing on the perceived risks of OER, but I am not sure that would add enough to the literature after finding out about so much more research than I was aware of through the MOOC. Asking about perceived risks of OER is a more basic level question, which Wiley says has been done. What is Known  In the video below, Wiley indicates that research shows that student outcomes are the same or better when comparing OER to Costly textbooks.  The course then directs us to this page where it is quite clear that studying efficacy and perception has been done. I am really interested to see what comes out of the research Wiley discusses in the video above where he says his team is looking at if there is a difference in student outcomes when the teacher is involved in the development of OER or simply adopting it. That is really interesting and helps to answer, in part, the fear of faculty who are concerned about OER. Many of those fears could also be addressed in a few minutes on YouTube or by reading literature. I think Rajiv Jhangiani says it perfectly in the video below … Abundant literature exists suggesting the perceived and measured value of OER for students and educators. For me it is not a question of if OER is useful – I have logic and research to back that up. I have had too many students in my office crying over finances to ignore the impact of costly textbooks on their lives to ignore it. Identifying Gaps Downes questions the impact of OER on a student’s ability to develop relationships and contribute to society. He elaborates in a way that sounds to me more like questioning the influence of OER on openness as a mindset, which facilitates collaboration and making a meaningful contribution to society. That is a great idea, but way beyond the scope of an action research project. Or is it. If the focus of the research is on open pedagogy a qualitative study could explore student perceptions of how it changed their mindset. A lot of research has been conducted on OER. I tell my students that a good place to start looking for gaps is by reading literature reviews. Hilton (2016) calls for the replication of this study, and designs that overcome issues of potential bias in previous research. Quantitative evaluation in this way would be a good idea if I had something already in place that could be evaluated. However, one of my biggest challenges in nursing is finding open textbooks in the first place.  

Problems that I Face

YouTube and Creative Commons     In a previous post I shared some of my concerns around making my YouTube channel fit the 5Rs of OER. Maybe I could look at the impact of Creative Commons licensing on the performance of my YouTube videos. There are so many variables to try and control for that I have no idea where to start. In a brief literature search it YouTube seemed to be the focus of many articles in relation to how patients and students use it as well as factors influencing popularity, but none that measured popularity or ranking in conjunction with the creative commons licensing. Much of the literature I came across was dated. YouTube is constantly updating their search algorithm so research would get dated quickly. Would anyone else even care about that? How many YouTube educators are out there? I am going to shelf that idea for now, but it is an interesting one for the future. Or, if anyone reading this blog post wants to help me flush out an idea we can try something.   Open Pedagogy  The review project notes a need to study open pedagogy, which is intriguing. Instead of studying the impact of a resource it would be interesting to study the next step – engagement in the 5R activities as a teaching tool. The textbook I have adopted needs to be adapted. Unfortunately as far as I know I will not be teaching a course where I could get students to help me adapt it within the time frame of the institute. Maybe I could get students to help me create OER as an assignment – an idea taken from one of the previous OpenEdMOOC course videos. Encouraged by reading Mays (2017) open textbook, it is worth a try. Two courses that I teach in January do not have current textbooks and could really use one. This idea is quite intriguing. It has been done before in environmental science. Why not nursing? It may be a huge success or a failure. Either way it fits well with an action research approach and will produce meaningful data and an OER! I could definitely use the support of eCampusOntario for something like that. The fellowship would be ideal. I struggled a little (okay a lot) with the design choice. There seem to be quite a few case studies in the book I am using to guide the implementation of my project. As I wanted to focus on the student experience it makes sense to take a qualitative approach, but I am not sure if that is realistic. Since I sit on the Ethics committee at my institution I know they would question the vulnerability of my participants while they are still in my course. It may be more ethical to do something quantitative … or return to Q-methodology in an electronic way. I am also not sure if I should study myself in some way as I engage in this process. I need to talk this idea through with someone! After some searching for methodologies I came across Narrative self-study. While I would prefer to involve student perceptions in the study I think I will focus on my experience – it will be more within my control to get participation that way and eliminate some vulnerability concerns for ethical review boards. The way it is described in this article (and some other non-open ones) seems to fit in a way that would add meaningful data to the literature. So here it is … the idea I will be submitting later this week in the application for the OER fellowship later this week (unless I change my mind again) … please critique it!!

congerdesign / Pixabay

My Proposal:

A narrative self-study of engaging in open pedagogy with students 

Open Educational Resources (OER) have been shown to decrease student cost and improve student satisfaction, retention and graduation rates among numerous other outcomes (Hilton, 2016; Hilton, Fischer, Wiley, & Williams, 2016). In nursing, OER have been implemented in Sweden with some concern expressed about the quality and overwhelming nature of it (Elf, Ossiannilsson, Neljeso, & Jansson, 2015). Quality of OER, like books from big publishers, must be evaluated based on various factors including peer review (Gurung, 2017).  Development of and peer review for OER is increasing. As Gallaway (2016) and  Doan (2017) have identified, the most challenging barrier to OER use is finding appropriate resources. The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (n.d.) has identified potential sources of OER. Still, finding OER that fits the needs of a specific nursing course has been challenging given the limited peer-reviewed open textbooks and other resources available in specific content areas. Derosa and Jahngini (2017) recommends that educators partner with students to build OER as a way of modeling open pedagogy and offering students a way to derive meaning from their assignments. While several case studies exist, an in-depth understanding of how one navigates the challenges is needed in order to support novice educators attempting open pedagogical practices for the first time. This narrative self-study aims to unearth the lived experience of a nursing educator engaging in a collaborative open textbook creation project with students.  Studying oneself is an innovative approach to research enhances the understanding of teaching practices (Hamilton, Smith, & Worthington, 2008). Consistent with this methodology and open pedagogy, reflective and open journaling through a blog will be used to document experiences. Open journaling will enable discussion of challenges through comments on the blog that will facilitate problem solving and alternate perspectives that will be used to prompt further reflection and enhance the rigour of the study. Key questions guiding the initial reflections are: What is the meaning behind experiences of facilitating a collaborative open textbook creation project? How are student reactions to the project shaping the educator’s view of it? What challenges are experienced? How can those challenges be navigated? What lessons can be derived from this experience? Further questions will emerge as the experience unfolds.

3dman_eu / Pixabay

Note:  Students will be offered the choice of engaging in OER development through creating a learning object that will be licensed under creative commons, evaluated for marks and edited by the professor or completing a traditional assignment for the course. Prior to implementation rubrics and memorandum of understandings will be adapted from Mays (2017) book. Those who choose to engage in the OER development will participate in planning the topics for a textbook and placed into groups or assigned to work individually. Support will be sought from eCampusOntario to promote quality of the end product and educational experience for students.    

References

Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. (n.d.). Open educational resources for nursing. Retrieved from http://www.casn.ca/education/5656-2/ Derosa, R., & Jahngini, R. (2017). Open pedagogy. In E. Mays (Eds.), A guide to making open textbooks with students. Retrieved from https://press.rebus.community/makingopentextbookswithstudents/chapter/open-pedagogy/ Doan, T. (2017). Why Not OER?. Portal: Libraries & The Academy, 17(4), 665-669. Elf, M., Ossiannilsson, E., Neljesjö, M., & Jansson, M. (2015). Implementation of open educational resources in a nursing programme: experiences and reflections. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 30(3), 252-266. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2015.1127140 Ferrance, E. (2000). Action research. Retrieved from https://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/sites/brown.edu.academics.education-alliance/files/publications/act_research.pdf Gallaway, T. O. (2016). OER Commons. Charleston Advisor, 17(4), 35-38. doi:10.5260/chara.17.4.35 Gurung, R. A. R. (2017). Are OE resources high quality?. In R. S. Jhangiani & R. Biswas-Diener (Eds.) Open: The philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science (pp. 79–86). London: Ubiquity Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.f. License: CC-BY 4.0 Hamilton, M. L., Smith, L., & Worthington, K. (2008). Fitting the Methodology with the Research: An exploration of narrative, self-study and auto-ethnography. Studying Teacher for Education, 4(1), 17-28. Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: A review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Education Technology Research and Development, 64(4), 573-590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9 Hilton, J. Fischer, L., Wiley, D., Williams, L. (2016). Maintaining momentum toward graduation: OER and the course throughput rate. International Review of Research on Distance and Open Learning, 17(6), 1-10. Mays, E. (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Retrieved from https://press.rebus.community/makingopentextbookswithstudents/

Connectivism is open pedagogy

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Reflections on Week 4: #OpenEdMOOC

Discussions are going on about what the connectivism is... Is it a theory, a model, or an approach? Well, I do not care about how to name it, my experiences say that, whether you like it or not, connectivism exists if you traverse among the networks and learn from networks.
Here is a recent review on "Knowing Knowledge" a book by Siemens which addresses many issues including connectivism.
There won't be much to say, but a declaration by a node  (that is me ;) ) in the vast network of open spaces. There is open pedagogy and connectivism starts right over here...
Peace ;)

Creating, Finding and Using OERs #OER #OpenEdMOOC

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In order to be open it is critical that educators have the skills to find and use Creative Commons licensed materials so they do not infringe on Copyright. Open Educational Resources (OER) are really not all that different than what I normally create – the only difference is the licensing. My resource curation for learning to date has occurred primarily inside of the learning management systems at intuitions where I have taught and on YouTube. Typically I search library databases, Google, YouTube and relevant reputable websites using key terms. The only shift I need to make in order to create and use more OER online is to ensure that the license supports that. It really isn’t a huge shift for me since I am use to using public domain or paid images in my YouTube videos. For YouTube I need to check if my current paid resources allow CC BY licensing. Now that I have discovered the creative commons license option inside YouTube my options for finding CC BY content for OER has expanded.

geralt / Pixabay

Since I am actively expanding the use of my domain it only makes sense to move to curating OER. It would be awesome to have students use my website for a full learning experience. The Curator module on the extend website has opened up new possibilities for approaches for curating OER. I frequently use the Pixabay plugin for images on my word press blog. Recently I have also discovered the creative commons search tool. As explained in the Open Ed MOOC, when searching Google I can use the advanced filters to identify CC BY licensed material. On YouTube I often use playlists to organize and share key videos, including videos created by others. These playlists are then available for public perusal. In my experience it is not really that hard to create OER. At times it is easier to create it than to find it. Sometimes finding OER can be more challenging based on the subject you are teaching. At the Ontario Extend Institute I remember sitting with someone who taught Anatomy in French. She had a really hard time finding resources. For me, the textbooks are quite limited right now, but the good news is that they can be adapted to suit the learning needs of your students. More and more open textbooks are being produced so someday they will get to nursing. Until then I can adapt books, which is easier than starting from scratch. The largest barrier to fully embracing OER is the time required to create them. I have written an eBook and have been using my Summers to work on another one. They take a lot of time. While I would love to make them open it is hard to justify all that time away from my family if there is no compensation. It was hard enough to convince my husband that the first eBook was worth writing. Instead of publishing with a major publisher right now I am keeping my eye out for relevant textbook proposal calls. There are a few textbook projects I would love to work on if I could justify the time for it. All of them are because I could not find a good enough paid resource.

PIRO4D / Pixabay

Second, is the lack of clarity around if I am “allowed” to produce OER if it relates to a course I am teaching – an issue that should get sorted out soon. No one wanted to broach this issue right before a strike but my workplace policy needs some clarity. I will probably engage in OER creation regardless because I believe in it, but it would be nice if it could be connected to what I am actually teaching. Also, if given compensation in some way it would influence how large of a contribution I can make. There is a world of possibilities in front of me.

StockSnap / Pixabay

Third, there is a lot of resistance to OER among my peers, which actually has been helpful for me when trying to think of what to research around OER. I am a researcher and want to come up with something meaningful. Thankfully there is an OER supportive community where I work that balances out these pessimists. If you are still reading – Thank you. Maybe you can help me sort out a related question – Is blogging creating OER? Is it hypocritical that I call it OER since students aren’t allowed to cite them in formal papers in my program?        

Creating, Finding, and using OERs

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The end of Week 4 already, and it has been a week of highs and lows. I started the week thinking a lot about last week’s readings and videos. A silly joke stuck in my mind. I tried out a new piece of software and created the joke at the same time. Well, it wasn’t the funniest, but it WAS great fun to create!
One of the courses I put together and teach is Appreciation of eLearning Tools, which is why I am always playing with software. I have worked for Manukau Institute of Technology for 17 years, but I have only been in my current position since February 2017. Since then I have revamped four courses in the Graduate Certificate in Applied eLearning, I have revamped a course in the old Certificate in Tertiary Teaching, and I am currently looking at creating content for two courses in the new NZ certificate in Tertiary Teaching. The one course is Creative Delivery. Finding OER resources is a perfect way to go!
I enjoyed reading David Wiley’s blog (May 2, 2017) On OER Enabled Pedagogy. He claimed that the “the terms “open pedagogy” and “open educational practices” are understood so differently by so many people that there is literally no hope of achieving a useful consensus about the meaning of either of these terms”. I have noticed this in the readings and in the interviews I conducted for my Week 3 video. The use of the term OER-enabled pedagogy seems to be a laudible solution. David defined OER-enabled pedagogy as “ the set of teaching and learning practices only possible or practical when you have permission to engage in the 5R activities”. This definition looks at the teaching and learning strategies using OER that are made possible through the use of OER and how these strategies impact on both learners and teachers. There is a simple logic underlying this pedagogical approach:
  • we learn by “doing” 4
  •  copyright limits what we can do, therefore, it limits the way we learn 4
  •  removing copyright opens up the possibilities and allows us to learn in new ways.
I also acknowledge the logic in the argument from Stephen Downes on Creating, Finding, and Using OERs. He discussed the background of Connectivism and his conversations with George Siemens. The similarity between the 5 Rs and the Connectivist model of learning with aggregation, remix, repurpose, and feed forward, is striking. Stephen argued that the underlying value and importance of OERs is not just in the realm of educational content. He suggested that instead of looking at OERs as merely educational content, we should be seeing them as conversations between learner and teacher, and between the learners themselves, with the ultimate goal of learning.
I have downloaded a copy of the book Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science
, edited by Robert Biswas-Diener and Rajiv Jhangiani. I have enjoyed the chapters of this book that I have read so far. The book’s introduction outlined some ideas on open access to education, something dear to my heart, As a foundation (bridging/enabling) educator for nearly ten years, teaching on a programme with open access, I have thought about these issues intensively. I attended a conference called Success and opportunity in Challenging Times (National Association of Enabling Educators of Australia, NAEEA 2015, held at Western Sydney University). I wrote a review of the discussion which centred on the reach of education, widening participation, and open access.
Western Sydney University, NAEEA, 2015
The book Open was of particular interest as the educators come from a background as researchers in psychology. Prior to qualifying as an educator at all levels of the curriculum, I was a qualified psychologist. I am very aware of the benefit of open research and open data in the area of psychology.
In the final chapter by Rajiv Jhangiani stated “The opposite of open is not closed; the opposite of open is broken”. He backed up his argument by referring to broken academic publishing practices, broken science protocols, and even “chips and cracks” in pedagogical beliefs. As he stated, “A great many educators continue to teach in a manner that assumes their principal role is that of content delivery, despite living in an age of unparalleled access to information” (p.268). He outlined the requirements for making open access, open science, open educational resources, and open pedagogy, the default practices in higher education.
Jhangiani used a delightful analogy, “The pencil metaphor” by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (licensed under CC BY 4.0.) based an idea from a friend and mentor, a fellow member of the Virtual Worlds Working Group, Lindy Orwin. 
Pencil Metaphor
He stated that instead of approaching open evangelism as disparate factions, we should be united in a recognition and response to the wood (the audience), i.e. the mainstream who would follow open practice if it was required or they could see the benefits of doing so. I like to see myself as a sharp one, following the leaders, in this care George and David!
 
So, why do I mention lows for the week? One low stands out so clearly for me. If you want to find out what I did, check out my little video (a direct export from PowerPoint 2016, so nothing flash!) I cannot mention it again – if you want the facts, check out the video!
 
The highs? Well, using the information provided in the course material, I have been searching for resources using the links provided. What a wealth of material! I had not even realised that the Google Advanced Search would sort by usage rights. The OER Commons and the Creative Commons search – wonderful! My only problem now is selecting from the huge amount of OER resources available. I am so looking forward to the Week 6 challenge! I want to use, create, adapt, and contribute towards OER.

Elevation gain

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Week 4: Open Ed MOOC + signals from the network

I’m writing this post at high elevation. I’m in the mountains of Colorado after spending the week at the WCET conference. In addition to my very important role as sole Canadian representative present, I spent my time listening and trying to translate differences between the American and Canadian education systems.

This post is a mash-up of ideas that have been floating around the network for #OpenAccessWeek and #OpenEdMOOC and have combined with some of the conversations I had at WCET.

There are two undercurrents:

The textbook: I’ve heard it won’t be with us for long.

The end of the textbook narrative has been coming primarily from brilliant educators who believe everyone should put 100% of their creative effort into teaching. These people can make the case for a mash-up of openly licensed materials in their sleep and it sounds so right. I think it is.

But, I’m also hearing from administrators and others who are working hard to get the idea of openly licensed materials into the culture of their institution. For them, the open textbook is the gateway to the larger culture shift. Even if an educator adopts an open textbook it is likely they will still want their students to have a print option. Digital itself is still a bridge too far for some.

As we heard in Week 4 of #OpenEdMOOC, it takes a couple of cycles to fully understand the pedagogical affordances of open. You need to experience the process of iterating and sharing before you have your Bodhi moment. Before you can see the space beyond free.

‘point break rip bodhi’ by Rollan Budi, September 21, 2010

In the meantime, we need to build infrastructure that allows educators to easily find, adapt and retain OER. That infrastructure needs to allow for discovery and adaptation of open textbooks, course materials, modules, streaming video, course outlines – anything that aids teaching.

Commercialization: several zones of the network have expressed concern over commercialization of publicly funded resources.

Jenni Hayman articulated this concern through an analysis of the Cengage announcement.

Geoff Cain chose the otherwise routine commute video as his setting to ask the big question: why is CC-BY the gold standard of open licensing?

It is going to be increasingly important that we support our educators to choose the open license that works best for them. Especially if they are coming to open for the first time. I have been returning to the “How to Destroy Open Ed” live notes from the #OpenEd17 Ethics workshop. There are so many interesting ideas captured here. A few of my favourites to close this post:

How do we ensure that Open Ed is not open?

  • Have commercial publishers who already create open educational resource additives (that have a cost) take over the creation and sale of OER altogether.
  • Not empower teachers/teaching & learning
  • Engage in double-speak where my work is “not really open” because it is not available for a corporation to sell (CC-by-nc)

Questions about Creative Common’s licenses

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This has certainly been an issue for some faculty. I think part of the issue is trust. Open education is more than just the content – once it all becomes just about the “OER” then we lose that sense of trust and the spirit of collegiality. We have reduced faculty work and possibly the teaching and learning itself into a transaction. This faculty member I am talking about is sharing her materials to help students and faculty and is not interested in enabling corporations to monetize, however indirectly, her work. I don’t see an issue with non-commercial licenses, but I am interested in hearing why “CC-by” is such the gold standard ?

What is Open Education #OpenEdMOOC

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Today’s MOOC experience is really challenging my reflective brain as so many questions are being raised about open education. As expressed in previous posts I share a core value with the open education community, but today I am struggling to fit Wiley’s (2015) definition of open with my reality. Below is an honest reflection on the open education movement as I consider if I can be on the cutting edge of this movement in Ontario.

Open is not Free

Open Educational Resources (OER) are free, but they are more than free. In fact, David Wiley (2015) suggests that “open is not free.” This statement makes sense when he explains it, but really causes me to think about my own views and experiences of openness in education. When I first learned of the open movement in Ontario this August I immediately knew I would love it. I thought I was already producing open resources, but YouTube videos are not necessarily open. They are freely accessible online but not truly open. This realization is pivotal one for me. What Wiley (2015) defines as open comes with certain permissions for how the resources can be used. In the course they say that:
Open = Free access + Open Licensing
Open educational resources are licensed under creative commons licenses (or something similar) in order to decrease barriers for users to access and use them. David Wiley and George Siemens talk about the 5Rs of open content in a course I am currently taking Introduction to Open Education through edX. Click here fro more about the 5 Rs. Below I discuss some of my questions and concerns about moving from free to open. Retain Content needs to be owned by the user – they need to be able to retain a copy. In order to engage in the rest of the “Rs” of open content the user needs to be able to own content. For textbooks, this ownership means the ability to download a keep a copy of the book. As a textbook writer I have no concerns about this R for my books. Kindle, Amazon, Google Play etc. all allow offline reading of their books. Downloading and owning a copy of a book would not harm the reach of the book from what I can tell. In fact, the more people that download it the better. For YouTube videos the same would not be true. I have no fears around allowing people to download and keep copies of my videos, but it would hurt my YouTube analytics and therefore my reach. If my goal is to empower as many students as possible I need to play the YouTube game to be found through search. While I do not have a full understanding of the YouTube search algorithm I know that a major consideration is watch time. The higher a video’s watch time the more likely it is that the video will be found in subsequent searches. If people decide to download a video and watch it offline instead of on YouTube that video would be less likely to be found in subsequent searches. If my goal is to reach students allowing downloads seems counter-intuitive. Below is one video that looks at the impact of watch time on a channel’s success. Reuse / Revise / Remix / Redistribute  For traditional textbooks to me it makes sense to allow educators to take a verbatim copy of the book and use it (reuse), make changes (revise) or combine it with other OERs (remix). In fact, I am in the process of reviewing one now and hope to adapt it at some point. I would love to take an OER textbook and have students work with me to adapt it to the needs of our class, but for some courses I can’t find one to use as a starting point yet. I have some hope as this course has made me aware of more places to look. Perhaps I will be able to write one but I first need permission and time to do so. Again, I am uncertain of the implications of allowing YouTube videos to be reused and redistributed. My fear is that it will harm my ability to reach students. I assume that the YouTube Creative Commons option means that people would be free to download the video and upload it to their channel or wherever else. That could be problematic or it could be equivalent to the growth strategy of collaboration that I have used in the past depending on how the videos are presented on the other channel.  I created a video for EmpowerRN that is on her channel and mine. As you can see she introduces the video and credits me for the video. In the context of YouTube, revise and remix makes sense to me. However, colleagues have suggested it may tarnish my reputation if OER are used without appropriate context. When I collaborate with other YouTubers as above I do have some control over how they are used. Is that necessary? Oer GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY Creative Commons licensing would allow me to place restrictions on the types of permissions I grant to users through their website. However, YouTube offers only one Creative Commons licensing option – the CC BY license (YouTube’s description). Maybe I would feel more comfortable with the other options being made available. I like that they say my original video will automatically show up under source videos, but I think I will need to look into how that works. I am not sure how they would know if someone downloaded it and made major edits. In my next video I am going to test out the user end of things to see how YouTube reacts to the uploading of Creative Commons content. Why to embrace the 5Rs  Adopting an open approach and the 5Rs could be amazing. The impact of my work on students could be enhanced and built upon by other educators more readily. If we as educators can build upon the work of others more easily we can be more effective in sharing knowledge, which is what education is all about. Some really insightful things to consider are being raised in the #OpenEdMOOC course. I feel like I am at a turning point in my career. Do the potential benefits of going fully open outweigh the risks? To what extent am I able to go open beyond YouTube? Who will go open with me? Am I allowed to go open in aspects of the courses I teach? Thankfully I have some friends at my institution and outside my institution at eCampusOntario that will be able to support me in this journey. Questions to Explore What they are proposing is a paradigm shift for education. While there are obvious benefits for openness in education, for many that I have talked to it raises questions and fears about the future of educational institutions. There is this sense that in order to protect what makes a professor or institution unique it is essential to keep things closed and copyrighted. I disagree. Based on my not quite “open” educational experience on YouTube I see the value in sharing everything I create at no cost to students. However, I still struggle with some aspects of openness in education as it applies to real-world experiences. Will being truly “open” hurt me? Evidence seems to suggest quite the opposite. Hopefully by the end of this course I will have figured some of these issues out or identified what needs to be discovered. Since I have been involved in this discussion since August I can tell you that there is no quick solution. As an innovator it can be challenging to be on the cutting edge of such a movement when systems are not yet in place to facilitate such a movement. Maybe it is because my union and management are still in contract negotiations, but I was held back from trying some open education ideas this semester (by both sides). In a previous blog I expressed some of these frustrations. I can’t wait for the strike to end so I can get back to discussions about what is allowed or not in terms of high impact open education within the context of the courses I teach. Open education should, after all, decrease student costs and increase their success in learning.  

References

Wiley, D. (2015). OER summit at LLC – Dr. David Wiley. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/sOhaJZMZ-rc  

Awareness of aaRRRRRgh’s

Format ImagePosted on by Rebecca Heiser
In the recent #OpenEdMOOC we reviewed the “5 R’s” to consider licensing curriculum. And here’s where it gets tricky… its not that educators don’t want to use OERs in their courses, it’s that creators aren’t sure they want to be contributors to OER. There’s serious concern with incentivizing and prioritizing OER adoption at a large, research institutions. Who “owns” the content? The creator or the institution? For example, in a course development process, the course author (faculty member) will vet and select the course readings required for the course. This is typically a very time-consuming process. Typically, course authors are aware and interested in providing course materials that can be distributed at lower or no additional cost to the student. Anyway, once the author chooses the course materials,  I determine:
  • How much of the text will be used, is it under the 10-15% rule?
  • If course materials be accessed electronically through our library?
  • If we need to request copyright permission to embed the content in our course?
After working through the above processes to incorporate materials and all the other steps to finalize the course, we move course content from a MASTER development space to a LIVE course space. The course author does not “own” the course. Neither do I. The university does. The current model of education does not actively support ($$$$$) an open community of faculty (and specialized staff) to develop a course space  to distribute their expertise for free while working in an iterative development cycle to improve quality. How can we support a community of faculty and specialists to volunteer their resources, time, expertise and knowledge to create a body of work to share openly, without concerns of recourse?  Some may suggest MOOCs as a possible solution. Education systems value MOOCs as marketing-tools and therefore, offer incentives to have courses produced. The MOOC model can support the disconnect, but has many flaws, including costly production. The OER cultural shift has begun and the biggest challenge is the current business model of education.

On the OER Hunt!

Format ImagePosted on by Alexa Tyler
This week in the edX course, Introduction to Open Education, there is a strong focus on “creating, finding, and using OERS.” This is a nice change from the general focus of copyright and creative commons. I have decided to look into different OER databases and provide them to you with short summaries. Not only could this help you in your future courses, but, it serves as a nice reminder for myself. OpenStax According to the “About Us” page, OpenStax “is a nonprofit based at Rice University, and it’s [their] mission to improve student access to education” (OpenStax, n.d. pp.1). While exploring this site I found that it only covers five different categories of materials: math, science, social sciences, humanities, and AP.  Looking deeper into the resources they are fairly basic in the nature of their content – this content could be used in a entry level course or a general core course at a university. These OERs look and operate just like an eBook from a commercial publisher. While I personally would not use this site as it does not cover the subjects that I teach, I would recommend it to those in the previously states disciplines. OER Commons This website is a digital public library and covers a wider range of topics and concentrations than OpenStax. This website also offers instructors the ability to create using their resource builder, lesson builder, and module builder. The types of material available for use are very diverse, anything from case studies to simulations, you could find anything your academic heart desires. Under each OER there is a “conditions of use” which lets the user know how the user can manipulate the artifact – most are remix and share. I personally plan on using this website for my future courses as there are so many artifacts to choose from and all are at no cost to the student! OER Knowledge Cloud At first glance this site does not offer much visually which could turn-off some viewers who are already familiar with the previous two resources. The website does have an FAQ which does a decent job of answering the most basic questions regarding OERs and creative commons. When searching their database the list of items that appear are hard to read and uninviting despite how good their content may be. Honestly, this website did not offer much and I would not really recommend it to anyone searching out innovative OERs for their classes. Keep in mind there is a vast amount of OER databases and I only covered three for the sake of time – plus no one wants to read while I drone on about my opinion on websites all day. Instead I will include a link where you can find a list of high quality OER databases that I hope you will enjoy: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/infotech/chapter/oer-database-list/

More Credits – Less Commercial Textbooks

Format ImagePosted on by Alexa Tyler
In regards to textbooks, the question has been posed: “Why don’t faculty come together, collaborate, and create their own textbooks and resources for their courses?” The most common and simple answer is time. Faculty do not perceive having the time to invest in creating and regularly updating course materials. However, a group of faculty may be able to achieve more when collaborating than they think. Currently, at the University I am employed at, the director of my department has found a way to increase the number of new online courses created through a cohort model. This model allows for multiple faculty members to work together, review work, and give suggestions to one another during the course of the design process. Each faculty member is also given a list of individuals within the university that could assist them in various areas – from media productions to library services. My question is, can this cohort model be applied to the creation of OERs? While it may not be feasible to do this for every online course, could it be used for the required core courses? Are we really taking full advantage of the talent and the knowledge of our faculty by using commercial textbooks? I don’t think that we are. To me, using commercial textbooks is an indication of the priorities of the faculty in that department. While I do not want to demonize or scrutinize those who use commercial textbooks, I do think it is feasible for faculty to come together to design OERs. As stated in the week 3 lectures in the edX Introduction to Open Education course, Dr. Wiley discusses the idea of incentives and the alignment of incentives. Faculty currently may not see the benefits of using an OER because they are not being “compensated” for their time. However, if students do not have to pay for course materials, it is more likely that students will take more class, and isn’t that the goal of a University? The university does not get paid for adopting commercial textbooks, the university gets paid for students enrolled in courses. With all of this in mind, is it really that wild of an concept to have faculty come together and create OERs for their courses?