The open educational resources impact map: researching impact through openness and collaboration.

Much sharing and use of open educational resources (OER) is relatively informal, difficult to observe, and part of a wider pattern of open activity. What the open education movement needs is a way to draw together disparate fragments of evidence into a coherent analytic framework. Rob Farrow provides background on a project devoted to consolidating efforts of OER practitioners by inviting the open community to contribute directly and submit impact narratives. Through the mapping of these contributions, the data can continue to grow iteratively and support the decisions made by educators, students, policymakers and advocates

OER Impact: Towards an Evidence Base

The open education movement has achieved much in the last decade, but there remains wide acknowledgement that the impact of OER has yet to be fully understood. A suggested approach is to address this through collective approaches that collate information and present them back in an integrated way. This has some appeal, particularly in the way it matches to ideals of openness, but needs to be implemented with care. In this presentation I critically evaluate attempts that have been made to support communication and collaboration through ‘mapping’ OER. After endorsing the basic rationale for mapping evidence surrounding OER implementation I review two examples of where this has been attempted. The Open Learning Network (OLnet) Evidence Hub used the concept of ‘Contested Collective Intelligence’ to inform a discourse-centric social-semantic web application that could structure the discourses of the OER community. I provide a short critique of this approach which focuses on the data model and the metadata requirements made upon users. I go on to consider the UNESCO OER Mapping Project which set out some quite specific protocols for metadata (despite never getting beyond the prototype stage). The value of a ‘mapping’ approach is defended at the same time as noting that different audience will likely have very different needs in terms of evidence. A rationale for a new, improved evidence hub is provided along with a number of design considerations and a proposal for future development. I conclude with a brief presentation of the new Evidence Hub being developed as part of the OER Research Hub (OERRH) project. I describe the ways in which our evidence model tries to overcome some of the issues which were manifest in these earlier projects, a range of different data sources, the importance of data visualization, and account for how different types of evidence might be flexibly accommodated. The final part of the session will be given over to group discussion about the idea of ‘mapping’ the OER evidence base and what the OER community might want from such services

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

Forms of Innovation Inspired by Open Educational Resources: A Post-Project Analysis

It has been argued that Open Educational Resources (OER) present opportunities for innovation in education. However, there has been a lack of retrospective analysis of the forms of innovation that can emerge through OER, and the processes and challenges these entail. This paper presents a post-project analysis of the diverse uses and impacts of open courses produced through an international OER initiative. A thematic analysis of retrospective interviews and documentation from this case study is reported on, guided by a review of relevant concepts from innovation and OER literature. Through this we identify three archetypal forms through which the OER created opportunities for innovation: Specific Adoption; Preferred Practice; and Foundations for Innovation. We identify drivers and inhibitors through which these forms of innovation interacted with each other in this initiative. This elaborates on the notion that a single existing model does not capture the multi-faceted relationships between innovation and OER

How is Digitalisation Affecting the Flexibility and Openness of Higher Education Provision? Results of a Global Survey Using a New Conceptual Model

The adoption of open, online, flexible and technology-enhanced modes of learning (in short: of OOFAT) differs by higher education institution, despite the general cries of revolution and disruption due to digitalisation. This paper presents a new conceptual model for framing difference in three key educational processes (content, delivery and recognition) related to the potential of digitalisation to make these processes more flexible and more open. It is based on the results of a global survey of 69 higher education providers. The findings reveal six distinct archetypes of technology-enhanced higher education which vary according to the extent to which digitalisation is harnessed for content, delivery and recognition, and suggest different institutional strategies of digital adoption. It is hoped that this contribution will support comparative analysis of digitalisation strategies and peer learning between institutions

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 Impact of OER on Teaching and Learning Practice

The OER Research Hub has been investigating the impact of OER, using eleven hypotheses, and a mixed methods approach to establish an evidence base. This paper explores the findings relating to teaching and learning. The findings reveal a set of direct impacts, including an increase in factors relating to student performance, increased reflection on the part of educators, and the use of OER to trial and supplement formal study. There are also indirect impacts, whose benefits will be seen after several iterations. These include the wide scale reporting of adaptation, and the increase in sharing and open practice that results from OER usage

Identifying Categories of Open Educational Resource Users

The Open Educational Resource (OER) movement has been successful in developing a large, global community of practitioners, in releasing high quality learning material and influencing policy. It now stands at the cusp of mainstream adoption, which will require reaching different audiences than previously. In this contribution the findings of the OER Research Hub are used to identify three categories of OER user: OER active, OER as facilitator and OER consumer. These groups have different requirements of OER and thus varying strategies would be required to meet their needs if mainstream adoption was to be realized

The Global OER Graduate Network: An Example of a Community of Care

The Global OER (Open Educational Resources) Graduate Network (GO-GN) was founded in 2013 to support and connect doctoral researchers on OER worldwide and to promote open education research and its potential impact on society. In its ten-year history GO-GN has brought together doctoral students, experts, and educators from all five continents. GO-GN organises face-to-face events, online webinars and other activities that promote support and collaboration among its members. The pandemic impacted on GO-GN members and the network; this research shows how the network moved from a community of practice to a community of care

On-line monitoring and controlling of cell apoptosis in mammalian cell culture processes using dielectric spectroscopy

We investigate a method to control critical quality attributes and apply Process Analytical Technology (PAT) via online dielectric spectroscopy (DS) feedback. This system has been intensively explored and successfully implemented in GMP manufacturing processes at Biogen. The present bioreactor application however, is basic and only allows the prediction of biomass. To further enhance the cell culture process robustness, we investigated the feasibility of using the full-spectrum dielectric spectroscopy scanning function to detect dielectric property changes in the cells associated with shifts in cell health and/or metabolism. In this proof of concept study, we used several CHO cell processes to demonstrate that DS probes can be used to not only measure the biomass but also reflect the cell’s physiological state changes (e.g. cell apoptosis). The results showed that one or more of the key parameters of delta capacitance (De), critical frequency (fc), and Cole-Cole Alpha (a) from the multi-frequency scanning data could reflect the cell’s early apoptosis induced by chemical treatment, nutrient depletion, or shear stress, which were seen earlier than that obtained from off-line methods (e.g. trypan blue exclusion). In some cases, by responding to the earlier detection, the cell apoptosis was reversed in time and the batch was saved. This enables a potential application, transferrable across programs, of full-spectrum dielectric spectroscopy for earlier detection of physiological changes, allowing for timelier bioreactor process adjustments. In addition, the feasibility of the application of multifrequency scanning in cGMP process for monitoring and control was also explored in this study