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OER research agenda
From OER_Wiki
Developing a research agenda for Open Educational Resources
A UNESCO-IIEP OER Community discussion, March and April 2006
OER research agenda discussion report
Peter Bateman and Kim Tucker's report of the discussion on developing a research agenda for Open Educational Resources can be downloaded here:
- Part 1: the main report and Appendices 1-3 (PDF 207KB)
- Part 2: Appendix 4 Conversations map (external site, PDF 1.5MB)
The main report provides a brief overview and synthesis of the discussion. The research questions can be found in Appendix 1 (orginal "longlist") and Appendix 2 (list of priority questions), while Appendix 3 gives more detail on the main conversation threads. Appendix 4 represents those coversation threads schematically in a "conversations map".
In 2009, UNESCO published the main report in the volume Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace - the Organization's first openly licensed publication.
Users with limited or expensive connectivity should note that the PDF files may take some time to download.
[edit] Introduction
During the first week of the discussion on building a research agenda for OER, community members were asked to identify research questions. By the end of the week a "longlist" of 110 questions had been identified, sorted into focus areas.
Members were then asked to each identify their priority research question. This resulted in the "shortlist" of 25 questions below. The number of votes is indicated for all questions receiving more than one vote.
In a later discussion thread Fred Beshears likened the community's research agenda discussion to the discussions that took place in the early days of learning technology standards development.
[edit] OER research questions shortlist
[edit] Background research
What do we know already? What can we learn from the past and present?
2. Why isn't this [scale of Sourceforge, etc.] happening in the OER movement? What makes content different to software? What is different about the people involved?
5. Understanding the demand for OERs.
10. What is the current level of use of OERs among instructors in higher education?
12. Research the roles of learners and educators in the development and use of OERs with reference to the FLOSS analogy.
19. Establish a database of available OERs, including experts to author and evaluate.
2 votes
21. What evidence do we have that learners actually learn more by using OERs? Why do OERs work better?
2 votes
[edit] Economic analyses
25. How can OER development be sustainably financed?
26. Serious research is needed to define economic and business models for OER not just for development but for operational deployment and ongoing evolution.
2 votes
[edit] Creation of OERs... tools, collaboration, best practices
35. How can we start to create our own resources?
49. How can a community of professional peers be created around OER development and reuse - a community of co-producers and users?
This is a very interesting question.
[edit] Quality assurance
53. How do we determine Quality assurance criteria and develop minimum academic standards for OER initiatives?
54. Research quality requirements and relevance in different contexts: content, flexibility, multi-media applications, learner level, technology level, etc. Survey question: What would be the categories by which you would rate an OER?
56. A set of "guiding principles" can be developed and shared that provide criteria for authors to use so that quality and interoperability are ensured.
2 votes
[edit] Finding OERs... research on tagging, metatdata, search
68. How do educators and learners access, identify and select OERs that meet their needs, and what barriers exist to doing so?
3 votes
[edit] Use of OERs... research on effective use of OERs
74. In what ways do they use OERs, what modifications do they make to resources to support these uses, and how effectively do the resources meet user needs?
[edit] Localisation
78. There is no comprehensive and appropriate mechanism for contextualizing (modifying) these resources.
[edit] Scenarios research
80. Evaluate the role of Web 2 technologies, social software, etc. - scenario planning, futures research - conceptual modelling, scenario planning and foresighting techniques.
87. On what do we focus on when we design the ecology of open education resources? Consider human activities related to the use of OERs (self study, learning how to improve living conditions in a community, to get a qualification for a job, seeking to enrich learners' experiences...). Learning design patterns research.
2 votes
[edit] Policy
90. Policy/ethics/licensing research (see Adelphi Charter and creativecommons.org).
91. Social/anthropological research on the values and aspirations of target communities. Are we really improving quality of life in their terms?
91. Policy support and integration of OERs therein – helping policy/decision makers adopt OERs as a sustainable part of their public education mandate (rather than relying on donor funding).
95. How are we as OERs communities going to challenge the present status quo scenario where money is poured into the developing nations to pay for the expertise of expatriates re: ICT projects that are designed symptomatically rather than inclusively as Peter and Kim are suggesting?
97. Assess pedagogical challenges & legal difficulties associated with the mix and match problem between different copyleft licenses.
98. Best Practice Case Studies - This is an action research focusing on documentation of best practices of integrating OER by educators
[edit] Interventions... research on
100. How are open education resource initiatives structured and what are the key decisions required for implementation?
105. For each intervention, at various stages, ask: what worked, what did not work, how do we improve the process, what new features are needed in OERs, localisation questions, anthropological perspective, learner support, people and roles...?
[edit] Pages in the OER research agenda section
- Research agenda homepage and research questions shortlist
- Research questions longlist
- Notes on leveraging the experience of the IMS
