Reflecting open practices on digital infrastructures. Functionalities and implications of knowledge. [Preprint]

Open practices in education focus on the actions of learners and teachers regarding openness. The sharing and collaborative creation of open educational resources is at the core of such practices. Digital infrastructures do not only provide environments for these kinds of practices but reflect ide-as and implications of open practices through the functionalities they offer. Those infrastructures can be seen as drivers for enabling open practices to become default. However, a common understanding of open practices has yet to be defined. As such, designing digital infrastructures that foster open prac-tices might be a challenge. This chapter shows the relation between open practices and digital infrastructures. (DIPF/Orig.

An Exploration of Factors Influencing Faculty Engagement With Open Practices at the School of Education: A Pilot Study

Background: Open practices in academia are emerging as affordable tools in widening research access by removing many barriers in the scholarly research and learning process. While faculty engagement with open practices is increasing, there remain some barriers to widespread participation. Though research to date suggests faculty perceptions about promotion and tenure (P&T) policies influence faculty engagement with open practices, many studies limit their focus on a few influencing factors. Answering calls for more research, this pilot study aims to explore the influence of various factors on faculty engagement with open practices, with a focus on promotion and tenure (P&T) policies based and their unique influence on faculty decisions through the lens of Social Exchange Theory. Methods: During the first phase, 15 faculty members completed the survey about their perceptions, engagement in open practices, and demographic data such as faculty classification. To better understand the quantitative data, we will conduct focus groups and individual interviews. Results: Most faculty members felt the importance and benefits of open practices. However, beliefs about the valuing of open practices in P&T and professional reputation did not show consensus. This implies group uncertainty about support for engaging in open practices in general. Conclusion: The quantitative results support the previous research (Lwoga & Questier 2014, Kim 2010, Kirschner, 2019). While refining the survey measures could be the next step for research, the preliminary implication for higher learning institutions could be increasing faculty awareness about the availability of resources for open practices faculty engagement.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1170/thumbnail.jp

Open Practices in Academic Professional Development Programmes

In this reflective practice work, we will examine critically the process of evaluating and redesigning academic professional development programmes through the lens of open educational practices and resources. For over 15 years, the DIT’s Learning Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC) has offered a suite of accredited postgraduate programmes and modules for staff. Demand for these programmes and modules has increased since 2013 with 187 participants graduating and a further 221 completing modules for continuing professional development (CPD). DIT was the first higher education institution (HEI) in Ireland to state a requirement that newly appointed lecturers complete a postgraduate qualification in teaching and learning. During 2018, formal evaluation and review of these programmes has taken place, and we are now redesigning and revalidating our offerings. The evaluation and redesign process has followed a formal methodology inclusive of a desk study, data collection with graduates and other stakeholders, an institutional quality assurance review and ongoing reflection by the team

Researching factors influencing faculty engagement with open practices

“Researching factors influencing faculty engagement with open practices” provides an overview of a current research project at VCU which is attempting to identify which factors influence faculty engagement with open practices (for this project, publishing an open access article or book or creating or customizing OER), focusing on the VCU School of Education. An initial quantitative survey has been completed and the project will soon move to a qualitative data collection phase of interviews and focus groups. This presentation provides an overview on the current project status, initial results, how the team hopes to apply our findings, and next steps. Initial results includes how faculty are generally supportive of the concept of open, but are unsure how it will be received by promotion and tenure committees

Increasing research impact and visibility from day one: the benefits of Open Research for PhD students

Dr Marcello De Maria – who recently completed his PhD at the University and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development – highlights how using open practices during his PhD improved his research and supported his professional development. Open Access publications, Open Data, Open Source software and Open Research networks can be harnessed by PhD students and young researchers to build a competitive advantage from the very beginning of their careers

Use and Reuse of OER: professional conversations with language teachers

In the last ten years prestigious Open Education Resources projects have been set up, often with generous support from funders. Funders and institutions that support OER want evidence of their use and reuse; it seems, however, that OER have not yet been widely adopted by teachers as part of their daily practice. This paper investigates the use and reuse of OER from a subject-specific repository for language teachers. In particular, the small scale study investigates how and why language teachers use OER in their teaching and rework existing resources. It also examines whether the teachers understand the resources and how to use and adapt them effectively, as an inability to do so has been considered an impediment to their reuse (Dimitriadis et al. (2009), Conole (2010b)). One of the difficulties in working with open resources and open practices is that “the open is the enemy of the knowable” (Beetham, 2011): investigating the adoption of OER and open practices is indeed not without difficulty, and this study proposes a qualitative enquiry based around professional conversations to investigate use and reuse of OER. The research found that, far from not engaging in reuse, the teachers in the study did adapt OER, although most of those changes were not published again. In addition, they drew on considerable professional knowledge when considering the use and reuse of OER for their lessons. The current study suggests that evidence of use and reuse cannot simply be gathered through metrics; some of the reuse and sharing is not necessarily visible, and sharing might not always be appropriate. It is possible that the adoption of more open educational practices will result in reuse and sharing of both resources and practices becoming more visible in the future but, for now, more research is needed to provide evidence of the “invisible” reuse and sharing

Temporary techno-social gatherings? A (hacked) discussion about open practices

This paper is rooted in an experimental inquiry of issue-oriented temporary techno-social gatherings or TTGs, which are typically referred to as hackathons, workshops or pop-ups and employ rapid design and development practices to tackle technical challenges while engaging with social issues. Based on a collaboration between three digital practitioners (a producer, a researcher and a designer), qualitative and creative data was gathered across five different kinds of TTG events in London and in Tartu which were held in partnership with large institutions, including Art:Work at Tate Exchange within Tate Modern, the Mozilla Festival at Ravensbourne College and the 2017 Association of Internet Researchers conference hosted in Tartu. By analysing data using an open and discursive approach manifested in both text and visual formats, we reflect on the dynamic and generative characteristics of TTG gatherings while also arriving at our own conclusions as situated researchers and practitioners who are ourselves engaged in increasingly messy webs where new worlds of theory and practice are built

Open educational practices for curriculum enhancement

Open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) are relatively new areas in educational research. How OER and OEP can help practitioners enhance curricula is one of a number of under-researched topics. This article aims to enable practitioners to identify and implement appropriate open practices to enhance higher education curricula. To that aim, we put forward a framework of four open educational practices based on patterns of OER reuse (‘as is’ or adapted), mapped against the processes of curriculum design and delivery. The framework was developed from the in-depth analysis of 20 cases of higher education practitioners, which revealed patterns of OER reuse across disciplines, institutions and needs. For each open practice we offer evidence, examples and ideas for application by practitioners. We also put forward recommendations for institutional policies on OER and OE

Open practice in science and education – a discussion with researchers and educators who tested to be open

How can we make the shift from closed to open practice in research and education? What are incentives for researchers to apply open science and open educational practices, and what hinders them to do so? The OPER study (Open Practices of Educational Researchers), funded by the Leibniz Research Alliance Open Science, investigates those questions. Study participants chose open scenarios for their daily research or teaching practices and tested them for six to 12 month. They wrote down their experiences with and opinions on open practices in dairies. The starting workshop was held in April 2019 with the first round of participants. First discussions on relevant topics were collected in Wikiversity and online pads.Wie können offene Praktiken im Lehr- und Forschungsalltag umgesetzt werden? Was sind die Anreize, offene Wissenschaft und offene Lehre zu praktizieren, und was hält uns davon ab? Die vom Leibniz-Forschungsverbund Open Science geförderte OPER-Studie (Open Practices of Educational Researchers) wollte dies herausfinden und ließ Bildungsforscher*innen offene Praktiken während eines Zeitraums von 6 bis 12 Monaten in unterschiedlichen Anwendungsfällen testen. Ihre Erfahrungen und Meinungen hielten sie in Tagebucheinträgen fest