The impact of openness on bridging educational digital divides

Openness has been a feature of higher education for many decades, particularly through the establishment of Open Universities, although there remain debates about what openness means in practice. Digital technologies, some based on open principles, and digital content, aided by open licences, have both recently contributed to an extension of what is deemed possible under the heading of openness. Nevertheless, while in principle there may be greater degrees of openness available in higher education it does not mean in practice that many people can still readily avail themselves of these new opportunities to learn, not just because they do not have access to digital technologies but personal circumstances mean they also lack the necessary skills and the confidence to use such technologies in general or for education in particular. In fact it can be argued that this new openness, characterised mainly through the open educational resources movement, may actually widen rather than bridge the digital and educational divides between groups both within and across national boundaries through the increasing sophistication in both technologies and the competencies expected of learners. This paper reviews some of the evidence supporting these different areas of interest and attempts to provide a synthesis of them. It then argues that actions may be required by many inter-mediaries to help reduce the diverse social and cultural digital divides within education, including through the mediated use of open educational resources between teachers and learners

Student-centred approaches in Mathematics

Student-centred approaches in Mathematic

Best Practice Report on Widening Participation in Higher Education Study through Open Educational Resources

This document provides an overview of the literature and includes the full set of case studies provided by partners describing how OER can or might influence participation in higher education in different states across Europe. Executive summary 1. The level of participation and achievement within higher education is viewed as crucial for social and economic development. While widening participation in higher education is a goal of all 46 countries within the European Higher Education Area there is no common or simple definition of what widening participation means in practice. In principle it is a variable mix between how many people, what type of people and what type of achievement those people gain through engaging in higher education level study. 2. Whether from the perspective of the learner or a higher education institution it is possible to consider the availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability of taught educational provision and educational resources. A large number of physical, social, economic, cultural and psychological factors or barriers influence how many and what types of people participate and what achievements they gain. 3. There has been a growth in interest in open education and open educational resources. This interest in openness both builds upon the pioneering work of open and distance learning institutions to address widening participation, many of which participated in this study, and also extends the concept of what it means to participate or engage in higher education level study. 4. Open educational resources come in many forms and their availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability vary depending on the licence used and the technology employed to create and deliver them. As with participation in higher education there are a number of multi-faceted and multi-layered reasons why people may be excluded from using open educational resources. 5. The evidence from the pioneering work of the partners in this study is that open and distance learning offers great scope to expand the availability and accessibility of higher education study where traditional campus based institutions cannot take on many more students as quickly or where students wish to ‘learn why they earn’ as life long learners. It can also be more affordable and acceptable although this depends on individual contexts in individual countries. The modular nature of their programmes also provides more flexibility for there to be higher education study achievement below a first cycle Bachelors qualification. 6. The partners’ work with publishing open educational resources indicate that this can also greatly increase the opportunities for people to engage with informal (self-organised and non credit bearing) or non-formal (peer group or employer organised and non credit bearing) higher education study. Such opportunities are able to provide better bridges into formal study for those groups currently excluded from higher education study and better bridges with employers and voluntary organisations seeking more customised educational experiences for their employees or members. 7. These developments around openness and in particular open educational resources are leading the partners in this study to closely examine their business models and modes of operation in terms of how many people they recruit and teach, what type of people they recruit and teach, the modes by which they provide educational resources and structure educational experiences and what constitutes successful engagement or participation. 8. New policies and practices are required at all levels in the higher education system to address issues of openness and open educational resources in higher education study and the role that both can play in increasing and widening engagement and participation

Ακουστική διάκριση μαθηματικών εννοιών ατόμων με οπτική αναπηρία

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2018.Εξαιτίας της δυσανάλογης πρόκλησης όπου αντιμετωπίζουν τα άτομα με οπτική αναπηρία στην εκμάθηση των Μαθηματικών έχει παρατηρηθεί πως οι επιδόσεις τους στο συγκεκριμένο μάθημα είναι σημαντικά χαμηλότερες από οποιοδήποτε άλλο μάθημα και ότι υποεκπρωσοπούνται στις Θετικές Επιστήμες. Επομένως, γίνεται αισθητή η ανάγκη για ποιοτική πρόσβαση των ατόμων αυτών στις Θετικές Επιστήμες όπου θα συμβάλλει σημαντικά στην αύξηση της ανεξαρτησίας τους και θα τους παρέχει περισσότερες ευκαιρίες στην αγορά εργασίας. Σκοπός της παρούσας έρευνας, ήταν να μελετηθεί η ακουστική αντίληψη μαθηματικών εννοιών ατόμων με οπτική αναπηρία, έπειτα απο την ηχητική τους απόδοση απο ένα λογισμικό ανάγνωσης οθόνης. Στην έρευνα έλαβαν μέρος 30 άτομα με οπτική αναπηρία, 14 με ολική τύφλωση, 10 με βαριά οπτική αναπηρία και 6 με μέτρια οπτική αναπηρία. Σύμφωνα με τα αποτελέσματα, δεν υπήρξε μαθηματικός τύπος ο οποίος δεν αναγνωρίστηκε επιτυχώς απο κανένα συμμετέχοντα απο την πρώτη κιόλας προσπάθεια. Οι επιδόσεις των συμμετεχόντων ως προς την εύρεση των μαθηματικών τύπων αυξάνονταν όσες περισσότερες φορές άκουγαν τον ίδιο τύπο. Τέλος, τις επιδόσεις τους, φάνηκε να επηρεάζει και το μορφωτικό τους επίπεδο

Access to mathematics in web resources for people with a visual impairment: Considerations and developments in an open and distance learning context

This paper discusses issues in the representation of mathematics within web resources and how this affects access for people with a visual impairment. Firstly it outlines the distance and open learning context at the Open University and the needs of people with a visual impairment. The paper then describes and discusses different approaches to making maths online accessible to people with a visual impairment. Two key projects at the Open University are outlined and some reflections made on future directions for the work