Benchmarking open educational practices in higher education

Open Educational Resources (OER) is a world-wide phenomenon due partly to the massive impact of the Open Course Ware (OCW) initiative of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) among higher education institutions. OCW has benefits for both institutions and people involved in teaching-learning procedures. But OCW also has some disadvantages and limitations, as currently designed. Some of them might be balanced if decision makers looked at the future from a more ambitious perspective in order to guarantee not only innovation and open content, but also full teaching assessment and accreditation. We offer some reflections on these subjects.

Open Education Studies, 2022

Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education cannot be put into practice without considering institutional contexts, which differ not only globally but also within the same country. Each institutional context provides educators with opportunities or limitations where Open Educational Practices (OEP) and OER for teaching and learning are involved. As part of a broader research project, and as a follow-up to national perspectives, an international comparison was conducted, based on institutional cases of nine different higher education systems (

2016

Currently in Australia, there are no policies and regulations at national levels to promote and encourage the adoption of Open Educational Practices (OEP) across the higher education sector. As an attempt to bridge this policy gap, a project proposal was developed by a group of OEP advocates and researchers and then successfully funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training (AGDET). This paper explores and discusses the approaches, deliverables and recommendations of this project titled Students, Universities and Open Education (OpenEdOz) Project. One of its main deliverables was a National Policy Roadmap, which aimed to assist the government to realise the potential of OEP for the Australian higher education sector and open up opportunities for further national policy development and support in which OEP can flourish. The policy roadmap was informed by a range of national and international evidenced-based case studies related to OEP projects and initiatives.

2019

This commentary explores paradigm shifts in education; in particular, the shift toward openness in higher education, drawing attention to critical perspectives and current debates related to open online learning and highlighting the importance of pedagogy in these discussions. Citation (APA): *Koseoglu, S. (2019). A commentary on the paradigm shift toward openness in higher education. In A. Bozkurt, & A. Hilbelink (Eds.), Paradigm Shifts in Global Higher Education and E-Learning: An Ecological Perspective [Special issue], e-learn Magazine. Available at https://elearnmag.acm.org/special-issue-2019.cfm

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the evolution of Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives in the world in general and in India in particular in the backdrop of an emerging knowledge-based economy. This paper is divided into three sections, namely: discussion on the conceptual issue of Open Educational Resources (OERs); a review of current OER initiatives and highlights some of the approaches; and a discussion on how the Distance Education Council can lead the Open Universities in this direction by coordinating the conversion of their academic resources into OERs. Through promotion and adoption of OERs, Open Universities can further democratize educational opportunities to the masses and foster lifelong learning, upskill the workforce and scale up the quantum of knowledge workers.

2012

2021

Sustainable ICT, Education and Learning, 2019

Open Educational Resources (OERs) has entered the world of academia and has inspired innovation in education since 1990s, yet OERs awareness in higher education (HE) remains very low in Tanzania. Educators in Higher learning institutions (HLIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa are striving to provide effective learning experiences to address the needs of university students in crowded classes with limited printed resources. OERs currently hold great promise for instructing university students because unlike traditional curriculum materials, OERs content can be copied, used, adapted, adopted and re-shared for free. This paper presents findings obtained from the baseline study conducted at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) to explore the students' OERs awareness. In the academic year 2014/2015, 352 out of 713 first year undergraduate students (randomly sampled) from three campuses participated in the study. Online questionnaire survey was employed and the data were analyzed. We first show that there is a serious gap in OER knowledge followed by a number of structural and contextual barriers. We further revealed that more than 40% of students are not exposed to OERs offerings. Overall the data revealed that the use of OER at university is low, however, there is potential for growth of OERs as many students have mobile and are using ICT for education. Most participants cited limited access, limited connectivity, and affordability to be significant barriers to wider adoption of OERs. There were also concerns about the limited ICT infrastructure at SUZA and the need to build the capacity of academics on OER integration.