Refining Open Educational Resources For Both Learner And Institution

Law, Patrina (2019). Refining Open Educational Resources For Both Learner And Institution. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000e826

Abstract

The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement over the past ten years has described many benefits of releasing learning for free, including business remunerations to institutions as well as a means to altruistically reach underserved groups. By examining learner behaviour and motivation, the papers collated for this PhD by Published Work bring a critical analysis to the experience of delivering OER addressing the broad research question “How can the refinement of OER benefit both learner and institution?”.

A range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and associated website analytics are used to investigate the challenges of repurposing OER together with how the motivations of those wishing to take advantage of OER usage can be better supported. During the five-year time line of these papers, formal students and informal learners, predominantly UK-based, were surveyed by the author generating several thousand responses.

These surveys focussed mainly on a large institutional endeavour to deliver OER at The Open University, key findings from which show the business impact of open educational practice where literature had provided only theoretical assumptions. The data also exposes the many and varied motivations of learners using OER where literature has focused largely on the experience and attitudes of educators.

The thesis reveals learners’ problems with OER usability more generally, and critically, the desire for certification of OER study against the prohibitive costs of studying in higher education. It describes the development by the author and associated impact of the application of digital badges (or ‘micro-credentials’) to reward users of OER as recognition for informal learning achievements.

The thesis includes recommendations that extend beyond one institution’s OER policy, regarding the design and curation of OER globally to better serve the needs of learners, particularly those who cannot afford formal study. It also highlights the need to bring together OER and micro-credentials more cohesively to explore the potential of a framework of core work-related skills needed for a digital economy.

It is concluded that there is an economy of scale to the delivery of OER, but that the key to successful impact is through robust open educational practice, instructional design and tangible recognition to learners of their achievements.

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  • Item ORO ID
  • 59430
  • Item Type
  • PhD Thesis
  • Extra Information
  • Publications

    Law, Patrina; McAndrew, Patrick; Law, Andrew; Warner, Kathy; Runyon, Jean; Lascu, David; Arundel, Anne and Muramatsu, Brandon (2012). A bridge to success. In: Cambridge 2012: Innovation and Impact – Openly Collaborating to Enhance Education, a joint meeting of OER12 and OpenCourseWare Consortium Global 2012, 16-18 Apr 2012, Cambridge, UK.

    McAndrew, Patrick; Farrow, Robert; Law, Patrina and Elliott-Cirigottis, Gary (2012). Learning the Lessons of Openness. In: Cambridge 2012: Innovation and Impact – Openly Collaborating to Enhance Education, a joint meeting of OER12 and OpenCourseWare Consortium Global 2012, 16-18 Apr 2012, Cambridge, UK.

    Law, Patrina; Perryman, Leigh-Anne and Law, Andrew (2013). Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. In: Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2013, 23-25 Oct 2013, Paris, France, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), pp. 204–219.

    Perryman, Leigh-Anne; Law, Patrina and Law, Andrew (2013). Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences. In: Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2013, 23-25 Oct 2013, Paris, France, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), pp. 270–286.

    Perryman, Leigh-Anne; Law, Patrina and Law, Andrew (2013). Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences. In: Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2013, 23-25 Oct 2013, Paris, France, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), pp. 270–286.

    Law, Patrina; Perryman, Leigh-Anne and Law, Andrew (2015). Badging and employability at The Open University. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, Best of EDEN 2013-2014, article no. 704.

    Law, Patrina (2015). Recognising Informal Elearning with Digital Badging: Evidence for a Sustainable Business Model. Open Praxis, 7(4) pp. 299–310.

    Law, Patrina (2015). Digital badging at The Open University: recognition for informal learning. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 30(3) pp. 221–234.

    Law, Patrina and Jelfs, Anne (2016). Ten years of open practice: a reflection on the impact of OpenLearn. Open Praxis, 8(2) pp. 143–149.

    Law, Patrina (2016). The Identified Informal Learner: Recognizing Assessed Learning in the Open. In: Bliss, TJ and Blessinger, Patrick eds. Open Education: International Perspectives in Higher Education. Open Book Publishers, pp. 137–158.

    Law, Patrina and Perryman, Leigh-Anne (2017). How OpenLearn supports a business model for OER. Distance Education, 38(1) pp. 5–22.
  • Keywords
  • open educational resources; OER; digital badges; open badges; OpenLearn; internet in education; electronic information resources; open learning; distance education; computer-assisted instruction
  • Academic Unit or School
  • Learner and Discovery Services (LDS)
    Learner and Discovery Services (LDS) > Open Media & Informal Learning (OMIL)
  • Copyright Holders
  • © 2018 The Author
  • Related URLs
  • Depositing User
  • Patrina Law
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)

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