DESIGNING AN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY AMONG TEACHER EDUCATORS

Online course delivery is rapidly growing among educational institutions all over the world, especially in Open and Distance Learning institutions. The frequent criticisms on distance education for having only limited interactions between teachers and students as opposed to traditional face to face teaching can be significantly minimized with the increased use of online methods, due to its unique instructional capabilities. Online learning provides ample opportunities for students learning at a distance to constantly interact with their teachers as well as peers, sharing experiences and working collaboratively. The creation of a sense of social presence is essential to establish a collaborative online learning environment, as it is a most important factor that helps people actively collaborate, thus increasing a sense of belonging to the learning community. The Faculty of Education of the Open University of Sri Lanka offered the online course, "Teacher Educator as an Educational Technologist" in December 2007, using the learning management system Moodle. The course was designed using a collaborative learning model, allowing adequate opportunities for the distant learners to actively engage in their learning process, engaging in a number of learning and assessment tasks with the support of learning resources and instructor guidance, while collaborating and sharing experiences among each other, mainly through discussion forums. Using the case study approach, an investigation was carried out to find out the specific strategies and techniques adopted by designers, instructors and students in enhancing community building among the participants in the online learning environment. It further explored the impact of community building on the distant learners, who were also novices to online learning. This paper discusses the development process in the building of an online learning community and emphasizes on the roles of designers, teachers, and learners

Development of the Open Educational Practices Impact Evaluation Index

The OEP-IE Index was developed as part of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project implemented at the Open University of Sri Lanka, to evaluate the impacts of the integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) by school teachers. The Index functions as an instrument to capture perceptions, perspectives and practices of practitioners who engage with OER in their teaching and learning activities and how these might change over time. Drafts and revisions of the pilot survey instrument are presented along with some results from the pilot test

Designing integration of OER and OEP

Using a design-based research approach, some initiatives in Open Educational Resources (OER) and practices (OEP) were implemented at the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL): integrating ICT & OER in Teacher Education Programmes (OERTE); implementation of an OER-based e-Learning Online Course (OEReL); reflection and evaluation on impacts of OER integration in Teacher Education (OERTL). The presentation outlines challenges, strategies and “changes” that emerged in each programme. Key challenges faced during the ‘change’ process were successfully addressed through carefully designed interventions

Impacts of OER : what difference does it make and how?

The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) provides a major role in awareness raising among educators about OER, and encouraging use and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) within the education system. This presentation outlines details of a proposed study regarding integration of OER and their impact on teaching and learning in Sri Lankan schools

Open Educational Practices

Open educational practices (OEP) is an umbrella term that includes the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER); pedagogical practices encouraging peer learning, collaborative knowledge creation, sharing, and empowerment of learners; and systemic and structural initiatives to support and embed openness. The underlying values of OEP match those of open education more broadly, i.e. enabling educational access, ensuring inclusivity, and furthering equity. Examples of OEP include using OER, renewable/non-disposable assignments (where students publish work openly), collaborative annotation, Wikipedia editing, open courses, and engaging in open learning/teaching communities, among many others. Some people use the terms 'OEP' and 'open pedagogy' interchangeably, while others consider OEP to be a broader concept, inclusive of open pedagogy, as the latter focuses primarily on teaching practices (see Open Pedagogy). OEP can be enacted at the level of individual artifacts, modules or programs (via OER, open pedagogy, open textbooks, open learning design) as well as systemically across institutional structures (via open education policies, open publishing practices, reward/recognition structures). Recent OEP research focuses on the importance of critical and social justice approaches, reflecting wider trends in digital and higher education. Such approaches acknowledge the importance of context and power relations and encourage diverse, inclusive, and equitable approaches to openness

Dreamweaving open educational practices

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) are making education accessible to all through open licensing of materials. Case studies in this book represent a realization of the dreams of participating teachers from the Sri Lankan school system. Their stories are a testament to a thirst for knowledge and for the improvement of the lives of their students, as well as their own as teachers. Through the 5-Rs framework: Retain; Reuse; Revise; Remix & Redistribution, OER supports the ‘opening up’ of education, providing teachers and learners with opportunities for sharing educational resources openly and freely

Open Educational Practices

Open educational practices (OEP) is an umbrella term that includes the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER); pedagogical practices encouraging peer learning, collaborative knowledge creation, sharing, and empowerment of learners; and systemic and structural initiatives to support and embed openness. The underlying values of OEP match those of open education more broadly, i.e. enabling educational access, ensuring inclusivity, and furthering equity. Examples of OEP include using OER, renewable/non-disposable assignments (where students publish work openly), collaborative annotation, Wikipedia editing, open courses, and engaging in open learning/teaching communities, among many others. Some people use the terms 'OEP' and 'open pedagogy' interchangeably, while others consider OEP to be a broader concept, inclusive of open pedagogy, as the latter focuses primarily on teaching practices (see Open Pedagogy). OEP can be enacted at the level of individual artifacts, modules or programs (via OER, open pedagogy, open textbooks, open learning design) as well as systemically across institutional structures (via open education policies, open publishing practices, reward/recognition structures). Recent OEP research focuses on the importance of critical and social justice approaches, reflecting wider trends in digital and higher education. Such approaches acknowledge the importance of context and power relations and encourage diverse, inclusive, and equitable approaches to openness

EdTec Implementation in a global higher education network: Empirical data from a field study in South Asia

This paper examines the appropriateness of using educational technologies toward increasing flexibility of learning in a global higher education in South Asia. The integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into education is widely perceived as an essential aspect of teaching and learning in contemporary society and therefore embodied in education policies across many countries, Cambodia and Sri Lanka included. Authors consider the argument that while interactive educational technologies may be appropriate in countries in which self-directed study and student autonomy are emphasised, a similar use of educational technologies may be found appropriate. Yet, in South Asian countries, education has traditionally been more tightly structured and teacher-directed that is why this paper does examine government policies toward the use of educational technologies in higher education in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. Qualitative analyses of both needs and challenges of introducing and implementing ICT in these particular cultural contexts are considered as preconditions for an effective implementation of Higher Education (HE) skill development. Subsequently, a plan is concluded of how to implement EdTec in that HE network to trigger awareness about further steps of the recent measure

Towards Digital Thinking and Practices: Experiences of Sri Lankan Teachers and Students

Commonwealth Digital Education Leadership Training in Action (C-DELTA), an open and free online programme of the Commonwealth of Learning, provides a framework to foster digital education. The Open University of Sri Lanka implemented an intervention during 2020-2021 to promote digital education in Sri Lankan secondary schools, through the adoption of C-DELTA. This paper presents how C-DELTA supported developing digital thinking and practices among teachers and students, challenges faced and supports received by them, and impacts of the intervention. Participants’ experiences were captured through questionnaire surveys, concept maps, focus group interviews, reflective stories, and video narratives. The findings revealed that the intervention has enhanced developing digital learning skills of teachers and students, and changing their thinking and practices, yet, amid various challenges. While the implementation of C-DELTA in schools has been slow during the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic itself has shown the significance of improving digital literacy and digital practices

Openness in Education as a Praxis: From Individual Testimonials to Collective Voices

Why is Openness in Education important, and why is it critically needed at this moment? As manifested in our guiding question, the significance of Openness in Education and its immediate necessity form the heart of this collaborative editorial piece. This rather straightforward, yet nuanced query has sparked this collective endeavour by using individual testimonies, which may also be taken as living narratives, to reveal the value of Openness in Education as a praxis. Such testimonies serve as rich, personal narratives, critical introspections, and experience-based accounts that function as sources of data. The data gleaned from these narratives points to the understanding of Openness in Education as a complex, multilayered concept intricately woven into an array of values. These range from aspects such as sharing, access, flexibility, affordability, enlightenment, barrier-removal, empowerment, care, individual agency, trust, innovation, sustainability, collaboration, co-creation, social justice, equity, transparency, inclusivity, decolonization, democratisation, participation, liberty, and respect for diversity. This editorial, as a product of collective endeavour, invites its readers to independently engage with individual narratives, fostering the creation of unique interpretations. This call stems from the distinctive character of each narrative as they voice individual researchers’ perspectives from around the globe, articulating their insights within their unique situational contexts