Defining and developing ‘enabling’ Open Education Policies in higher education

Open education (OE) aims at increasing educational access, effectiveness and equity. The 2019 UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation calls on governments and educational institutions to create enabling policies. Such policies should aim to foster open educational practices in a wide sense, including creation and use of OER. Key elements of OE policies are identified: capacity building; learning accreditation/credit transfer; access and inclusivity; diverse access to knowledge; platform governance; and fostering a culture of openness. OE policies, whether standalone or incorporated into a wider openness policy, should be designed to cohere with other policies addressing open content and practices. This brief seeks to promote the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders in institutional policymaking process via a co-creation approach. Co-creation of policy enables stakeholders’ voices to be heard, supports shared understanding and ownership of policy goals, while also ensuring policy is relevant and fit for local purposes, contexts and communities

Defining and developing 'enabling' Open Education policies in higher education

Open Education (OE) aims at increasing educational access, effectiveness and equity. The 2019 UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation calls on governments and educational institutions to create enabling policies. Such policies should aim to foster open educational practices in a wide sense, including creation and use of OER. Key elements of OE policies are identified: capacity building; learning accreditation/credit transfer; access and inclusivity; diverse access to knowledge; platform governance; and fostering a culture of openness. OE policies, whether standalone or incorporated into a wider openness policy, should be designed to cohere with other policies addressing open content and practices. This brief seeks to promote the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders in institutional policymaking process via a co-creation approach. Co-creation of policy enables stakeholders' voices to be heard, supports shared understanding and ownership of policy goals, while also ensuring policy is relevant and fit for local purposes, contexts and communities

Recursos educacionais abertos: mapeamento da comunicação científica

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação, Florianópolis, 2015.Recursos Educacionais Abertos são materiais oferecidos livre e abertamente para uso e reúso no ensino, na aprendizagem e na pesquisa e podem contribuir para a qualidade e o acesso à educação. Esta pesquisa identifica os artigos publicados em periódicos indexados na Web of Science, com o objetivo de caracterizar a produção científica sobre Recursos Educacionais Abertos, no âmbito do ensino superior. A metodologia, exploratória, descritiva e de abordagem quanti-qualitativa, utilizou-se de métodos mistos, constituindo o corpus da pesquisa por meio da estratégia de levantamento, cujos dados foram analisados descritivamente e por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Como resultado, identificaram-se 115 artigos autorais de 243 pesquisadores, publicados em 43 periódicos, entre 2008 e 2014. Verificou-se que 76% dos periódicos provêm de países europeus, anglo-saxões e/ou de língua inglesa, os quais publicam em idioma inglês e ratificam a tradição editorial eminentemente comercial. 67% dos periódicos nos quais se publicou sobre REA é de acesso pago, concentrando 56% dos artigos em acesso restrito. As instituições no Reino Unido, na Espanha e no Canadá que mais concentram pesquisadores que publicaram sobre REA são todas especializadas em Educação a Distância: a Open University, a Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia e a Athabasca University, respectivamente. Predominaram os autores que atuam na área da Educação (48%), da Computação (22%) e das Engenharias (11%) em relação às demais áreas. Na etapa qualitativa, descartaram-se 6 artigos, de modo que a análise de conteúdo se centrou em 99 artigos em inglês, 8 em espanhol e 2 em português, totalizando 109 artigos analisados na íntegra. Os artigos foram categorizados em 7 categorias: 21% recuperação e repositórios; 19% desafios; 16% tecnologias; 14% produção; 13% políticas de incentivo e sustentabilidade; 10% adaptação e reuso; e 4% Open Courseware (OCW). Conclui que a comunicação científica sobre Recursos Educacionais Abertos de ensino superior iniciou em 2008 nos periódicos indexados na WoS. O núcleo das publicações se concentra em um periódico canadense e em 26 periódicos da área da educação. A distribuição dos autores pode ser interpretada a partir de três modelos: concentrados em universidades especializadas em Educação a Distância (Reino Unido e Canadá); distribuídos em universidades de ensino presencial (Estados Unidos e Finlândia), as quais podem oferecer Educação a Distância simultaneamente; e Misto (Espanha), onde ocorrem os dois casos.Abstract : The Open Educational Resources are materials offered freely and openly to use and reuse in teaching, learning and research, and they can contribute to education access and quality. The present research identifies articles published in journals indexed in the Web of Science to characterize the scientific production on Open Educational Resources, in the higher education area. Descriptive and exploratory methodology of a quantitative and qualitative approach used mixed methods, constituting the research corpus by a survey strategy whose data was analyzed descriptively and through content analysis technique. As a result, it was possible to identify 115 articles of 243 researchers, published in 43 journals between 2008 and 2014. It was found that 76% of the journals are from European, Anglo-Saxon and English-speaking countries that publish in English language and ratify the eminently commercial editorial tradition. 67% of the journals with REA publications are of paid access, concentrating 56% of the articles in a restricted access. Institutions in the UK, Spain and Canada with researchers who have published on REA are all specialized in Distance Education: Open University, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and Athabasca University, respectively. There was a predominance of authors working in the fields of Education (48%), Computing (22%) and Engineering (11%) in comparison to other areas. In the qualitative stage, six articles were discarded so that the content analysis focused on 99 articles in English, eight in Spanish and two in Portuguese, totaling 109 articles analyzed in full. The articles were divided into seven categories: 21% of recovery and repositories, 19% of challenges, 16% of technologies, 14% of production, 13% on incentive policies and sustainability, 10% of adaptation and reuse and 4% on Open Courseware (OCW). It is possible to conclude that scientific communication on Open Educational Resources in the higher education began in 2008, in journals indexed in WOS. The publications core focuses on a Canadian journal and 26 journals about education. Authors distribution can be interpreted from three models concentrated in specialized universities in Distance Education (UK and Canada), distributed in classroom teaching schools (The United States and Finland), which can offer distance education simultaneously; and Mixed Education (Spain), where the two cases occur

How context creates motivation: The effects of social context in a situation of job insecurity - a case study

This research project provides insights in how knowledge workers make sense of their context of job insecurity in terms of motivation and aims to develop a theoretical understanding on motivation from a more conceptual point of view. There are several universally acknowledged motivation theories that claim to explain what motivates people. According to these theories, the job-threatening situation of our research should result in a lasting decrease in motivation. However, our findings suggest otherwise. Job insecurity does not necessarily lead to a lasting decrease in motivation, as the meaning making process of knowledge workers is determined interactively. The interactive aspects culture, norms, morals and identity influence what motivates knowledge workers. From the findings of this research that highlight the complexity of the meaning making process of knowledge workers, we can conclude that there is no magic formula that generates motivation. This research contributes to the motivation literature by applying the ‘motivation triangle theory’ to a real life context for the first time in order to understand motivation from a socio-cultural perspective. As such, we also contribute by testing its validity and usability, even though it cannot be generalized (yet)

Faculty Perceptions of Open Educational Resources in Cyber Curriculum: A Pilot Study

The cyber landscape is growing and evolving at a fast pace. Public and private industries need qualified applicants to protect and defend information systems that drive the digital economy. Currently, there are not enough candidates in the pipeline to fill this need in the workforce. The digital economy is still growing, thus presenting an even greater need for skilled workers in the future. The lack of a strong workforce in cybersecurity presents many challenges to safeguarding U.S. national security and citizens across the world. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines Open Educational Resources (OER) as 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. OERs weaken barriers to learning by reducing costs, increasing access, and allowing adaptability of educational materials to meet the needs of an instructor in their field. In this study, the research aims to study cyber faculty members from higher educational institutions in the United States to determine their perceptions of using OER for cyberlearning. A survey instrument from the Babson Survey Research Group was adopted and adapted by the researcher for use in statistical analysis. Individuals from cyber professional organizations, an academic conference, and professional development opportunities in the Summer of 2019 completed the survey to help build the sample for data analysis. The research questions in the study aim to look for statistically significant differences in perceptions of cyber faculty by looking at their years of experience and the number of specialty roles faculty fill in their cyber endeavors. Further understanding of the perceptions of OER by cyber faculty will help understand the roles these educational tools play in tackling the challenges that exist in the cyber landscape

Open Education Policies: Guidelines for co-creation

These guidelines aim to support institutions and governments in the development of open education policies promoting the adoption of open educational practices and resources, and the fostering of collaborations amongst social-educational actors which favour the democratisation of knowledge access and production. The purpose of this guide is to support policymakers, understood in a broad sense here to include a range of stakeholders, to design appropriate policies for their contexts and communities. Rather than the detail of policy, the focus of this guide is on the process of policymaking, through which the detail should emerge. Although policy might be often thought of as the work of managers, governments or experts that is then adopted, disseminated to the masses and implemented, we consider that, as ‘openness policies’ need to create public value, a transversal and democratic approach to policymaking is necessary. Furthermore, co-creation can be a factor in policy effectiveness, as the sense of co-ownership in a community can enhance the shared responsibility to achieve policy goals (Voorberg, Bekkers & Tummers, 2015; Bryson, Sancino, Benington & Sørensen, 2017). Therefore, we aim with these guidelines to support policymakers and advocates from governments and academia at the national, regional and institutional levels, in adopting a co-creation approach across the policy cycle, toward development of OE policies, strategies, action plans and roadmaps. We also consider these guidelines should be relevant for other institutions or organisations seeking to foster OE, such as civil society, GLAM sector and non-profit organisations, and as well for the Open Science sector, as UNESCO (2020b) recommends promoting the use of Open Educational Resources to increase access to Open Science educational and research resources. This guide has been co-created in collaboration with the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED) and is, in part, based on the Recommendations from OpenMed to University leaders and policymakers for opening up Higher Education in the South-Mediterranean by 2030, and follows the OGP Participation & Co-Creation Standards. These recommendations have been co-authored, reviewed and edited by a group of policy and open education experts

Tracing the creation and evaluation of accessible Open Educational Resources through learning analytics

The adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) has been continuously growing and with it the need to addressing the diversity of students’ learning needs. Because of that, OER should meet with characteristics such as the web accessibility and quality. Thus, teachers as the creators of OER need supporting tools and specialized competences. The main contribution of this thesis is a Learning Analytics Model to Trace the Creation and Evaluation of OER (LAMTCE) considering web accessibility and quality. LAMTCE also includes a user model of the teacher’s competences in the creation and evaluation of OER. Besides that, we developed ATCE, a learning analytics tool based on the LAMTCE model. Finally, it was carried out an evaluation conducted with teachers involving the use of the tool and we found that the tool really benefited teachers in the acquisition of their competences in creation and evaluation of accessible and quality OER.La adopción de Recursos Educativos Abiertos (REA) ha ido en aumento y con ello la necesidad de abordar la diversidad de necesidades de aprendizaje de los estudiantes. Por ello, los REA deben cumplir con características tales como la accesibilidad web y la calidad. Así, los profesores como los creadores de REA necesitan de herramientas de soporte y competencias especializadas. La principal contribución de la tesis es el modelo LAMTCE, un modelo de analíticas de aprendizaje para hacer seguimiento a la creación y evaluación de REA considerando la accesibilidad web y la calidad. LAMTCE también incluye un modelo de usuario de las competencias del profesor en creación y evaluación de REA. Además, se desarrolló ATCE, una herramienta de analíticas de aprendizaje que está basada en el modelo LAMTCE. Finalmente, se llevó a cabo un estudio con profesores involucrando el uso de la herramienta encontrando que ésta realmente benefició a los profesores en la adquisición de sus competencias en creación y evaluación de REA accesibles y de calidad