Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College open textbooks

This paper presents the results of collaborative research between OpenStax College, who have published 16 open textbooks to date, and the OER Research Hub, a Hewlett funded open research project examining the impact of open educational resources (OER) on learning and teaching. The paper focuses primarily on the results of two surveys that were conducted with educators during 2013 and 2014/2015. These surveys focused on use and perceptions of OER and OpenStax College materials, financial savings and perceptions of impact on both educators and students. This paper reports on the research findings related to the impact of OER on educator practice and make a series of specific recommendations based on these findings

Assessing OER impact across varied organisations and learners: experiences from the "Bridge to Success" initiative

and detailed analysis of how resources impact learning. Simultaneously, it is inherent in the concept of OER that resources are to be used in different contexts and in varied ways. Encouraging institutions to appropriate resources to their needs is important to the effective application of OER. A major challenge is to develop research practices that can effectively evaluate this heterogeneous usage and impact. In this paper we consider experiences of assessing impact from Bridge to Success: an initiative in which online courses in mathematics and study skills, originally developed at the Open University UK, were remixed for a US audience and made available as OER. The released materials were subsequently used in more than 16 US-based institutions including colleges, universities, high schools, and projects to help the long-term unemployed. The materials were used in a variety of ways. In some cases, units of these open online courses were used as supplementary materials, whilst elsewhere the courses were used in drop-in labs and face-to-face sessions. In several contexts, the materials were provided to a cohort of students to help them prepare for formal assessments. In others, underachieving students were specifically targeted and advised to use the resources. This variety of pilot contexts provided a challenging dimension to understanding the value of the OER intervention to the learner. Understanding use is seen as a key component in the further development of OER (Atkins, Seely Brown & Hammond, 2007). However approaches to this where institutions have been encouraged to contextualise materials to their own needs are currently limited. We explore different approaches to evaluating this type of impact across contexts. Analysing data on frequency and type of access, learning gains, institutional enrolment and persistence of students are critical areas for this type of research, and require an understanding of institutional and learner characteristics, in addition to the varied ways in which the materials are facilitated. Openness creates challenges for researchers to collect and link data about all kinds of use. For example, institutions collect information on enrolment, assessment and retention in different formats: this data can be sensitive or difficult to share. In addition, to truly understand impact, researchers need to be able to distinguish different forms of resource use and connect this to specific user groups. The paper evaluates our experiences by defining the types of impact data required by a range of stakeholders, and the achievements and challenges in delivering this information as part of the Bridge to Success initiative. A wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods were used in researching the impact of the initiative, but limitations exist in our current ability to understand use and to link this to the requirements of the different contexts of use. Based on both the successes and failures we had in monitoring impact we outline suggested approaches towards an effective general model for assessing OER impact

Open Research

Open Research is an open textbook based on the award winning course of the same name. The course ran two facilitated iterations during 2014 and 2015 on Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU). Open Research was co-authored and delivered by the OER Hub team, leaders in open education research and open research practices. Open Research explores what it means to be more 'open' in your research, ethical considerations, dissemination and the role of reflection. This open textbook also incorporates previous participant contributions into new activity commentary sections

Who are the Open Learners? A Comparative Study Profiling non-Formal Users of Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources (OER) have been identified as having the potential to extend opportunities for learning to non-formal learners. However, little research has been conducted into the impact of OER on non-formal learners. This paper presents the results of a systematic survey of more than 3,000 users of open educational resources (OER). Data was collected between 2013 and 2014 on the demographics, attitudes and behaviours of users of three repositories. Questions included a particular focus on the behaviours of non-formal learners and the relationship between formal and non-formal study. Frequency analysis shows that there are marked differences in patterns of use, user profiles, attitudes towards OER, types of materials used and popularity of different subjects. The experience of using OER is fairly consistent across platforms in terms of satisfaction and impact on future behaviour. On the whole, non-formal learners surveyed were highly positive about their use of OER and believe they will continue to use them. With regards to this making formal study more likely some degree of polarization was observed: some believed formal study was now more likely, while others felt it made this less likely. On the whole, while non-formal learners are enthusiastic about using free and online resources, the language and concept of OER does not seem to be well understood in the groups surveyed. A range of findings relating to OER selection and use as well as differences between repositories are explored in the discussion

Exploring Faculty Use of Open Educational Resources at British Columbia Post-Secondary Institutions

This research examines the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) by post-secondary faculty in British Columbia, including their motivations and perceptions, as well as what factors help to enable or act as challenges for OER use and adaptation. Although the findings provide a snapshot of the BC post- secondary system as a whole, we also explore similarities and differences in OER use among faculty across the three institution types in British Columbia: research-intensive universities, teaching-intensive universities, and colleges/institutes (see Appendix A). This research also investigates the relationships between faculty use of OER and institutional policies, the tendency to share teaching materials, and the personality trait of openness

Adapting the Curriculum: How K-12 Teachers Perceive the Role of Open Educational Resources

It has been suggested that open educational resources (OER) can lower cost and lead to greater flexibility, however while there has been significant investment in opening up content there have been few studies looking at how these resources are perceived by those who might use them. This quantitative article contributes to fill a gap in our knowledge of how K-12 educators teaching in face-to-face, online and blended contexts currently think about and use OER. It is part of the research carried out by the Hewlett-funded OER Research Hub (OERRH) Project to examine the impact of OER on teaching and learning practices. The authors report findings from a survey of 600+ schoolteachers who answered a set of attitudinal and behavioural questions in relation to how they use OER, what types of OER they use and what influences their selection of content, in addition to the purpose, challenges and perceived impact of OER in the K-12 classroom. The research highlights how OER allow schoolteachers to personalise learning through adaptation, and argues that mainstreaming OER in K-12 education is not only a matter of raising awareness but of changing teachers’ habits

Building open bridges: collaborative remixing and reuse of open educational resources across organisations

In this paper we analyse the remixing and reuse of online learning materials offered as Open Educational Resources (OER). We explore the practices that developed as a set of course materials were released as OER from the UK, remixed for a US context by a cross-organisational, cross- cultural team, and then reused in a broad range of educational settings. We analyse the approaches taken during these remixing and reuse activities as novel forms of creative collaboration. As a basis for comparison, we explore similarities and differences with other Open practices. We identify how openness provoked novel inter- organisational collaboration and forms of ownership; define forms of open practice that need support, and present issues that should be considered in devising and supporting open projects in education and beyond

OER Hub Researcher Pack

The OER Hub researcher pack will be of interest to anyone conducting research into the impact of open educational resources (OER) or open education. Building on the earlier release of tools developed, used and released by the OER Hub, the researcher pack provides explanation and guidance on how to use these tools. All material and tools are CC BY licensed and are available for reuse

The problems, promise and pragmatism of community food growing:Introduction to Special Issue: 'Critical Foodscapes'

Alongside associated forms of socially and politically conscious food production, community food growing is routinely connected to a wide range of social and environmental benefits. However, robust evidence in support of these associations remains scant, and while the conversation has shifted in recent years to take account of the sometimes unintended or negative aspects of these activities, no consensus has been reached about how such forms of food growing should adapt to new conditions, or be scaled up to maximize their positive impacts. A July 2016 conference was organized to address this strategic shortfall. This themed issue presents the papers resulting from the conference

A critical analysis of the discursive representation of homelessness in News24, District Mail and Ground Up from 2018 - 2020

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis reports on a qualitative and quantitative study of the discursive representation of homelessness in three South African news media publications, District Mail, News24, and Ground Up between 2018 and 2020 through the analytical lens of van Dijk’s (1993) sociocognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The aim of the study was to analyse the role that the news media play in constructing attitudes toward vulnerable groups, like homeless people, as the ways in which such groups are constructed in public discourses typically (re)produces dominant ideologies and public stigma that marginalises the groups by allowing for unfair government policies to be passed that keeps them at the outskirts of society. This research also made use of Braun and Clarke’s (2012) approach to Thematic Analysis (TA) in order to establish the main themes that were found in news items that either sustained stereotypes and stigmas about the group, or challenged them. In addition, it also drew upon Scollon’s (1997) theory of attribution in order to explore how the local news media either gave a voice to the homeless community or silenced them. The study’s findings identified five thematic representations across the news publications, namely ‘A war against the homeless’; ‘A neighbourhood nuisance’; ‘Homelessness does not discriminate’; ‘The homeless are idle’; and ‘Ambitious and determined’. Findings also revealed that in anti-homeless publications, stigmas about the group are constructed through discourse that characterises homeless people as being unclean and dangerous substance abusers that are involved in criminal activity and pose a risk to public health. Additionally, the study found a strong trend of polarisation in such media representations of homeless people, typically describing in-group (non-homeless people) suffering and good actions, alongside negative outgroup (homeless people) representations, who were marked as the cause of in-group suffering due to their negative actions and characteristics. In contrast, pro-homeless publications characterised as the homeless as victims of injustice whose human rights are being violated by placing emphasis on their lack of access to basic necessities, and the failure of local municipalities to care for their homeless populations. The findings further showed that articles found in Ground Up, which reports on behalf of vulnerable communities, were significantly more pro-homeless whereas the community news publication District Mail’s corpus was largely anti-homeless in their reportage. The study concluded with a number of recommendations for journalists who wish to make their reportage on homelessness more constructive, including avoiding stereotyping; giving agency to individuals or groups who marginalise homeless people in order to show who is responsible for the group’s marginalisation; including the voices of homeless people in articles that topicalise them; and situating the problem of homelessness within the socio-economic context of poverty, unemployment, and a lack of appropriate government support instead of attributing it to personal shortcomings and poor decision making.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis lewer verslag oor ’n kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe studie oor die diskursiewe verteenwoordigings van haweloosheid in die drie Suid-Afrikaanse nuusmedia-publikasies, District Mail, News 24, en Ground Up tussen 2018 en 2020, deur die analitiese lens van van Dijk (1993) se sosio-kognitiewe benadering tot Kritiese Diskoers-analise (KDA). Die doel van die studie was om ’n analise uit te voer rakende die rol wat die nuusmedia speel in die konstruering van houdings teenoor kwesbare groepe, soos hawelose mense, aangesien die maniere waarop sulke groepe gekonstrueer word in publieke diskoerse, tipies dominante ideologieë en publieke stigma (her)produseer, wat die groep marginaliseer deur toe te laat dat onregverdige regeringsbeleide aanvaar word, wat hulle op die buitewyke van die samelewing hou. Hierdie navorsing het ook gebruik gemaak van Braun en Clarke (2012) se benadering tot Tematiese Analise (TA) ten einde die hooftemas vas te stel wat gevind is in nuusitems wat óf stereotipes en stigmas oor die groep handhaaf, óf hulle uitdaag. Verder is Scollon (1997) se teorie van toeskrywing-teorie benut om ondersoek in te stel rakende hoe die plaaslike nuusmedia óf ’n stem gee aan die hawelose gemeenskap óf hulle stilmaak. Die studie se bevindinge het vyf tematiese verteenwoordigings geïdentifiseer oor die nuuspublikasies heen, naamlik “’n Oorlog teen die haweloses”; “’n Oorlas vir die buurt”; “Haweloosheid diskrimineer nie; “Die haweloses is ledig”; en “Ambisieus en vasberade”. Die bevindinge het ook onthul dat stigmas oor die groep in anti-haweloosheid publikasies gekonstrueer word deur diskoers wat hawelose mense karakteriseer as vuil en gevaarlike middelmisbruikers wat betrokke is in kriminele aktiwiteite en wat ’n risiko vir publieke gesondheid inhou. Verder het die studie ’n sterk tendens van polarisering gevind in hierdie mediaverteenwoordigings van hawelose mense, waar die lyding en goeie dade van in-groep lede (nie-hawelose mense) gewoonlik beskryf word, tesame met negatiewe verteenwoordigings van uit-groep lede (hawelose mense), wat gemerk is as die oorsaak van ingroep lyding weens hulle negatiewe aksies en eienskappe. In kontras hiermee karakteriseer pro-hawelose publikasies die haweloses as slagoffers van onreg wie se menseregte geskend word, deur klem te lê op hul gebrek aan toegang tot basiese noodsaaklikhede, en die versuiming van plaaslike munisipaliteite om vir hulle hawelose bevolking te sorg. Die bevindinge het verder getoon dat artikels van Ground Up, wat verslag lewer namens kwesbare gemeenskappe, merkbaar meer pro-haweloos was, terwyl die gemeenskapsnuus-publikasie District Mail korpus grotendeels anti-haweloos was in hul verslaggewing. Die studie sluit af met ’n aantal aanbevelings vir joernaliste wat hul verslaggewing oor haweloosheid meer konstruktief wil maak, insluitend om stereotipering te vermy; om agentskap te gee aan individue of groepe wat hawelose mense marginaliseer ten einde te wys wie verantwoordelik is vir die marginalisering van die groep; om die stemme van hawelose mense in te sluit in artikels wat hulle aktualiseer; en om die probleem van haweloosheid te situeer binne die sosio-ekonomiese konteks van armoede, werkloosheid, en ’n gebrek aan voldoende ondersteuning van die regering, eerder as om dit toe te skryf aan persoonlike tekortkominge en swak besluitneming.Master