Over the past decade, more and more studies have been published about OER adoptionby educators and educational institutions. The largest part of these studies is about OER in Higher Education and a growing amount is about OER and open textbooks in K-12 education. In addition, according to De Olivereira Netoet al (2017), most studies are focused on the Global North where education instructors “enjoy comparatively higher levels of economic development, educational provision, policy elaboration, and technological access than those in the Global South. This means that less is known about educators’ OER-related practices in the regionwhere OER is touted as having its potentially greatest impact”(De Olivereira Netoet al,2017:2-3).Despite the steadily growing number of studies on the use of OER by educators, there is part of the realm of education that still is ‘a dark continent’ for OER and OER studies, namely Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). As an indicator, we have analyzed the database from the OER Knowledgecloud1, considered representative for the current state of international OER research, being available as Open Access. With a total of 1638 items in the database (27 October, 9:35 CEST), searching on “technical AND vocational” only gave 2 results (dating from 2011 and 2012).The research presented in this paperprovides the results of a systematic international literature review with the aim of localizing relevant studies on the potentialities and use of OER in TVET. The information from this literature review has been complemented by data from an international quantitative survey taken by members of an UNESCO TVET forum, and from semi-structured interviews with international TVET experts.
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In the fall of 2015 the Research Group Open Educational Resources of Fontys University of Applied Sciences - School of ICT has conducted a survey into the production and/or reuse of OER and MOOCs by Dutch publicly financed Higher Education (HE) institutions: 15 research universities, 38 university of applied sciences and 8 university medical centres. The goal of the survey was to provide an overview of the current situation regarding the creation, sharing and reuse of OER and MOOCs. Until then information was anecdotal, mainly about individual projects and programs. In this paper data are presented on the following three main issues: production and publication of open educational resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), re-use of OER and/or MOOCs (motives, forms and target audiences) and the presence or absence of an institutional vision and policy. Some of the outcomes of the survey are compared with the results of two other surveys: the survey of the OER Research Hub and a survey on policy for OER in the Netherlands in 2012. The results of the current survey indicate that on many places in universities (including university medical centres) and universities of applied sciences OER and/or MOOCs are being published and reused, but also that many institutions still lack a coherent vision or policy on this subject. The data of the survey, however, do no yet provide an overview on which conclusions may be drawn for individual institutions. Further research must enhance the current picture.
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After 15 years of digital openness in education with as its most visible elements OER and MOOCs, the open community is challenged to widen adoption of openness in teaching practices to (as Rogers puts it) the early and late majority of teachers. For them to adopt, the gain should be clear and directly visible to have them adopt openness. Arguments like it saves students money, it is efficient because you will not reinvent the wheel or publishing quality OER and MOOCs adds to the reputation of our institution are, how true they might be, not appealing to teachers who are in most cases crowded with their day-to-day teaching tasks. One approach to overcome this hurdle is to connect to the core of a teacher’s job: pedagogy. We assume each teacher has a vision on when his/her course can be called a success and what this means for activities s/he and the students have to perform. Many teachers experience challenges in realizing their optimal lectures. For some of these challenges forms of open online education can be of use, especially in enhancing pedagogical opportunities. The latter is called Open pedagogy. To create awareness of the world of open and the opportunities it may have, we have developed a workshop for teachers and teacher support. This workshop has been delivered several times in Fall 2016. In the presentation we elaborate on the content of this workshop, the experiences we had, the feedback of the participants and the impact it had after taking the workshop. The materials used in this workshop and a script is published under a CC BY license and is available in both Dutch and English. This creates the opportunity to conduct the workshop locally for everyone interested, stimulating/increasing chances for widespread adoption of open education in (formal) education.
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In the Netherlands, many activities have been carried out to stimulate adoption of open online education in higher education. Still, large-scale adoption by (in Rogers’ terminology) the early and late majority is not taking place. In order to achieve large-scale adoption of OER, it is crucial to know what factors will stimulate such adoption. From previous inquiries it may be concluded that inclusion of openness at the institutional policy level is a necessary but insufficient precondition. Educators are considered to be the decisive change agents in large-scale adoption. A survey conducted in Fall 2015 provided some insight into the state of affairs of adoption by educators, but the data were insufficient to draw conclusions about why there is a lack of adoption. Therefore, in Fall 2016, a qualitative research has been carried out. Educators in 5 Dutch HE-institutions have been interviewed about their actual involvement with OER and other forms of open education: what do they do, how they do it, why they do what they do, what they want to achieve, what difficulties they encounter, what support they receive? As the institutional setting or environment of the educator is expected to play an important role in the adoption process of individual educators, other stakeholders within the HE institutions have been interviewed too. The approach taken in this research is that of a mixed-method approach, combining the results of the Fall 2015 survey and the qualitative research of Fall 2016 with outcomes of several other recent surveys in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Finally, a set of actions and activities both on the level of an institution and on a national level is being proposed, that could lead to large-scale adoption of open online education by Dutch HE educators.
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The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has funded a five years program to encourage the use, creation and sharing of Open Educational Resources (OER) by teachers from various types of education. This program is known as Wikiwijs. Ultimo 2013, the program has come to an end. As some of the assumptions at the start of Wikiwijs proved to work out in unexpected ways the lessons learned could fuel the next steps in developing Wikiwijs. Besides, other national initiatives on opening up education may also benefit from the lessons learned reported here. The main conclusion from five years Wikiwijs was that to accomplish mainstreaming OER, the Wikiwijs program should go along with other interventions that are more oriented toward prescriptive policies and regulations. In particular: the Dutch government should be more directive in persuading executive boards and teachers on schools to adopt OER as an important part of educational reform and the acquisition of 21st century skills.
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This report is the result of a study commissioned by UNESCO-UNEVOC to fill the gap both on mapping the landscape of the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and open practices in the field of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and to provide Member States and UNESCO, in particular UNESCO-UNEVOC, with recommendations to support the creation and the use of OER in TVET.
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June 2015 the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science formulated an ambitious program for open and online education in the Netherlands in its Strategic Agenda “HO2025, de waarde(n) van weten” (“Higher Education 2025, the value(s) of knowledge”). According to Minister Mrs. Jet Bussemaker: “I aim to ensure that all Dutch higher education institutions have made their teaching materials available in open format by 2025 (Open Access to Higher Education), propelling the Netherlands to a leading global position.”(…) “As apart of this process, we must also ensure that the various Dutch higher education institutions recognise each other’s MOOCs and Open Educational Resources” (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2015, p. 30) To realize these ambitions, a taskforce within the Ministry investigated which measurements where needed for this. This resulted in a program “Open and connected higher education – Exchange of digital learning materials”. One of the elements was to start with two so-called “moonshot projects” in cross-institutional open sharing of learning materials. These projects should on the one hand serve as good practice for Dutch Higher Education and on the other hand provide more detailed insight into what is needed for the Ministry to take the next step in implementation of their ambitions. The two projects are on developing resources on mathematics, done by the 4 Universities of Technology, and on developing resources for the Bachelor Nursing program, done by 5 Universities of Applied Sciences. In this presentation we will provide more insights into the background and approach of these projects and compare them with similar approaches for supporting national policies elsewhere.
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One of the claims the OER movement makes is that availability of (open) digital learning materials improves the quality of education. The promise is the ability to offer educational programs that take into account specific demands of the learner. The question is how to reach a situation where a customized demand can be met using OER with acceptable quality against acceptable costs. This situation resembles mass customization as is common in industry for several decades now. Techniques from an industry where an end product is assembled with the demands of the customer as a starting point can be translated to the field of education where courses and learning paths through a curriculum are assembled using a mixture of open and closed learning materials and learning services offered by an institution. Advanced IT support for both the modeling of the learning materials and services and a configurator to be used by a learner are necessary conditions for this approach.
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Dit Trendrapport Open Educational Resources 2013 beschrijft de trends op het gebied van open educational resources (OER) en open onderwijs in binnen- en buitenland, geschreven vanuit de context van het Nederlandse hoger onderwijs. Dat gebeurt aan de hand van vijftien artikelen van Nederlandse experts op het gebied van open en online onderwijs. Ook bevat het vijftien korte intermezzo’s met spraakmakende voorbeelden.
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Jan Hylén also attending the Surf Education Days 2005, held a presentation about Open Source Software and Open Content (such as the MIT Open Courseware project and the Open Access initiative). Jan Hylén is working at the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). I had an interview with him at the Surf Education Days. The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development and science and innovation.
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