Something for everyone? The different approaches of academic disciplines to Open Educational Resources and the effect on widening participation

Coughlan, Tony and Perryman, Leigh-Anne (2011). Something for everyone? The different approaches of academic disciplines to Open Educational Resources and the effect on widening participation. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 15(2) pp. 11–27.

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Abstract

This article explores the relationship between academic disciplines‘ representation in the United Kingdom Open University‘s (OU) OpenLearn open educational resources (OER) repository and in the OU‘s fee-paying curriculum. Becher‘s (1989) typology was used to subdivide the OpenLearn and OU fee-paying curriculum content into four disciplinary categories: Hard Pure (e.g., Science), Hard Applied (e.g., Technology), Soft Pure (e.g., Arts) and Soft Applied (e.g., Education). It was found that while Hard Pure and Hard Applied disciplines enjoy an increased share of the OER curriculum, Soft Applied disciplines are under-represented as OER. Possible reasons for this disparity are proposed and Becher‘s typology is adapted to be more appropriate to 21st-century higher education.

Item Type:	Journal Item
Copyright Holders:	2011 The Authors
ISSN:	1179-7673
Extra Information:	Special theme issue on Open Educational Practices
Keywords:	open educational resources; OER; widening participation; work-based learning; education; distance education; e-learning; open education; open learning; online learning; educational inclusion; disciplinary differences; study skills; OER repositories
Academic Unit/School:	Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) Learning and Teaching Innovation (LTI) > Institute of Educational Technology (IET) Learning and Teaching Innovation (LTI)
Item ID:	31071
Depositing User:	Tony Coughlan
Date Deposited:	12 Jan 2012 11:36
Last Modified:	31 Jan 2018 08:01
URI:	http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/31071
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