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Goodpracticeguideandrecommendations
PUBLIC
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Authors
RaimundHudak,ResearcherDHBWHeilbronnHenriPirkkalainen,JYU
Contributors JanPawlowski,MarkusBick,Safa'aAbuJarour,ArisVidalis,PitsilisVassilis,DimitraPappa, Constantinos Makropoulos, Airina Volungeviciene, Elena Trepule, MigleBagucanskyte, Anna Frankenberg, Ulf Ehlers, Ralf Scheubrein, Anne-ChristinTannhaeuser
TheOEI2ConsortiumUniversityofJyväskylä FI JYUDualeHochschuleBaden-Württemberg DE DHBWESCPEuropeBusinessSchoolBerlin DE ESCPNationalCentreforScientificResearch“Demokritos” GR NCSRVytautasMagnusUniversity LT VMU
ThisprojecthasbeenfundedwithsupportfromtheEuropeanCommission.Thispublicationreflectstheviewsonlyoftheauthors,andtheCommissioncannotbeheldresponsibleforanyusewhichmaybemadeoftheinformationcontainedtherein.
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Thiswork is licensedunder theCreativeCommonsAttribution4.0 InternationalLicense.To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GBDocumentTitle BestPracticeReport1ProjectTitle OEI2GrantAgreementNo 539990-LLP-1-2013-1-FI-ERASMUS-EQMCDeliverable D2.2–GoodpracticeguideandrecommendationsWorkpackage WP2–ConceptualDevelopmentConfidentialityStatus:
Public
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1. INTRODUCTION
OEI2 project deals with new forms of working for educators and students.
During the 2,5 years of project lifetime, we developed the Idea Space – collaboration
environmentandwentthroughmultipleformsofpilotsandvalidations.Theseexperiences
of researchers, teachers and students lead to good practices. These good practices are
essentiallyaboutideasharingthatisorganizedinacollaborativemanner.Someactivities
are solely organized in Idea Space but not all collaborations can be organized, being
emergentandsudden.Thesepracticesarediscussedinthereport.Ontopofthis,wecreate
recommendationshow tobuildyourownsuccessful idea sharingprocess (e.g. for future
mobilityactivities).
This task aims at clearly defining the conceptual base for Emotional
Ownership and thus Open Educational Ideas and Innovation developing a new Open
Education Lifecycle. The conceptual approach will consist of processes and activities
(initiation, partnership / trust building, idea sharing, design, development, re-use, re-
publishing,practicesharing,improvementetc.).Oneofthekeytasksistheprocesshowthe
userswithsimilarideasarematched–itisessentialtobringtogethereducatorswhowill
then collaborate in their course development. In particular, this phasewill definewhich
artefactswillbeusedforsharingasdifferenttypesofartefactscanbeshared
The clear overall goal of the project is to improve the uptake of OER and
increase access for and engagement by educators and learners. The project aims at
achieving this by engaging users in early stages of the OER development process:when
courses or program developments are started. The key idea of the project is to enable
exchange of and collaboration around Open Educational Ideas, Resources and Practices
(OEI,OER,OEP)inEurope.Theprojectwillfocusondevelopingdesignguidelinestoenable
re-useandcollaborationacrossborders.Ingeneral,OEI2aimsto:
• To implement and validate the concept of Open Educational
IdeasandEmotionalOwnership in the educationaldomain.Themain idea is to
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involve users at early stages of the development process. Currently, users have
accesstocompleteresources.Theprojectaimsatengagingeducatorsatanearlier
stage, i.e. when they develop resources. This will lead to higher acceptance and
collaborativedevelopmentofOERaswellastocross-bordercollaborations.
• Tocreate collaborative teachingandVirtualMobility: Early idea
sharingleadsinmostcasestocollaborativedevelopmentofcourses–thesecourses
can be designed in project virtual environment in the form of a virtual mobility
action.Whenparticipatinginacoursedevelopment,thisshouldbedoneasavirtual
mobilityactionleadingtoacommonlyownedoutcome(course,learningmaterials).
• To createmoreawareness andengagementonopenapproaches
and cross-border collaboration in educator communities. The current main
barriersofOERuptakehaveclearlymotivationalreasons.Therefore,itisnecessary
toincreaseawarenessandengagementinthecommunities.
• Toallowfeedbackprocessesbyindustryandstudents:Openingup
new course ideas allows students and businesses to provide feedback and
requirementsalreadyatanearlystage.
• To create idea sharing toolswhich support the full lifecycle. The
existing tools tomodify and adapt resources are inmany casesprototypical tools
which havemany functionalities but are complex to use.We need to utilize tools
whicharesimpleandfulfillthebasicrequirementsofeducators.Thus,toolsneedto
be implemented which allow easy sharing processes: from sharing ideas to
collaborativelydevelopingeducationalresources.
• To engage a broad community across Europe in sharing and
collaboratingacrossborders.Theproposedapproachmainlyaimsatincreasinguser
engagement. The project will run validations with higher education teaching
communities,mostlybusiness,managementandICTcontentswhichareespecially
importantforSMEs,youngentrepreneursandnewbusinesses.
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• Tocreatesustainablesolutions.Theprojectaimsatcreatinginitial
experiencesandgoodpractices.Startingwiththeawarenessworkshops(WP1)the
resultswill opt to be sustainable by providing goodpractices aswell as engaged,
self-containingcommunities.
The main idea of the project is to create emotional ownership to OER by
engaging at an early stage of the development process (Open Educational Ideas &
Innovation) in collaborations with peer educators. Emotional ownership can play an
important role in the adoption of OER and OEP. However, newmechanisms of sharing,
collaboratingandcommunicatingneedtobedevelopedandsupported.
ThecenteroftheprojectisthepracticalapplicationoftheOEIconcept.From
all practical settings, we will extract good practices which provide evidence that the
concept is feasible and successful. From all trials and validations, we will provide good
practicesandguidanceforeducatorshowtousethecollaborationenvironmentandhowto
embedandusethis intheirowncontext.Wealsoproviderecommendationsfordifferent
stakeholders(institutions,policymakers,educators,learners)howtoembedOEIintotheir
programs.
2METHODOLOGY
Thisreportwillprovidegoodpracticesandguidanceforeducatorshowtouse
the collaboration environment andhow to embed anduse this in their own context.We
also provide recommendations for different stakeholders (institutions, policy makers,
educators,learners).
1. .Goodpracticecollection:Thefollowingreportcomprisesgoodpracticesfor
differentscenarios(e.g.crossbordercollaboration,virtualmobilityincourse
development,inclusionofrequirementsbybusinessesandstudents).
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2. Recommendations:Recommendationswilldescribehowtointegrateand
implementthenewapproachintoorganizations’andeducators’operations.Wealso
willproviderecommendationsforfurtheractionsintheOpenEducationarea.
WeacknowledgeandhaveidentifiedduringtheOEI2-projectthateducatorshavediffering
preferences and methods for dealing with OERs. We also have witnessed that multiple
types of environments are suitable for working collaboratively on OER. This is why the
reportathanddoesnotonlyreportgoodpracticeshowtouseIdeaSpaceforcollaborative
development of ideas towards educational resources and outputs but also reports also
general good practices for working collaboratively towards similar goals. Therefore, we
distinguishtwotypesofpractices:
For-GeneralGoodPractices–eachpartnerprovidedGoodPracticeshowOpenEducation
Resources(OER)arecreatedcollaborativelyaccordingtotheknowledgeorwhatbenefits
userswillhavecollaboratingwithothers.
For-OEI2-GoodPractices-eachpartnercollectedGoodPracticesperformedandusedin
the idea space platform of our project and described the interaction among the
collaborators.
3SUMMARYOFGOODPRACTICES During 2014 and 2015 several ideas were created and collaborated on in Idea Space
platform(idea-space.eu).Withinmanyof the ideas, severalother toolswereusedbeside
the Idea Space itself. The good practices range from international and cross-border
collaborationtocampussettingsaswellastobridgeindustries/worklifetoeducation.The
goodpracticescanbeclassifiedtothetwotypesofgoodpracticesinthefollowingway:
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3.1GENERALGOODPRACTICES–inandoutsideIdeaSpace Socialpeerreviewingofacademicpapers(Academia.edu)Academia.eduisasocialnetworkingwebsiteforacademics.Theplatformisusedtosharepapers,monitortheirimpact,andfollowtheresearchinaparticularfield.Textbookco-creationinvolvingeducators,youngpupilsandgraphicdesignersTheinitiative“Schulbuch-O-Mat”(SBOM)setouttotransparentlyprovidefree-of-costandup-to-dateteachingmaterials.MorespecificallySBOMaimedtocreateanopenlylicensedtextbookforbiologyalignedtothecurriculumofgrade7and8inthefederalstateofBerlin,Germany. Bar-CamponopeneducationalresourcesBar-Campsareuser-generatedconferencesduringwhichparticipantsshareandlearninanopen environment. Unlike traditional conferences that work with a pre-scheduledprogramme,Bar-Campsrelyoninputfromattendeestocreatethesessionprogrammeonthespotandcollaboratead-hoconemergingtopics.
3.2GOODPRACTICESINIDEASPACECo-developmentofTermPapersOneofthemaintargetgroupsofOpenEducationalIdeasarestudentsatuniversities.This good practice is showing the collaboration of students developing a term paper inclassfocusingonentrepreneurialskillsininternationalbusiness.DevelopmentofaComputerClassinPrimarySchoolOneofthemaintargetgroupsofOpenEducationalIdeasareschools.Thiscasehasaimedatdeveloping a computer class focusing on programming skills in first grade. Around 6collaboratorswereinvolved.Theinitialideasharinghasledtoacollaborationaswellastonewideas,impulsesandinnovationsHOW GREEK ENGINEERING STUDENTS COLLABORATE ON LAB ASSIGNMENTSTHROUGHANONLINEPLATFORMTechnology and engineering in higher education requires hands-on training. Usuallyundergraduatestudentsgethands-onexperiencethroughlabsessionsthataresupervisedbypostgraduate students.Moreover in these lab sessions students collaboratewitheach
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other and with the supervisor exchanging knowledge and completing their groupassigmentwork.AttheUniversityofMacedoniainThessalonikiengineeringstudentsandtheirsupervisorsextendandintensifythisexchangethroughtheIdeaSpaceeCoursecreationattheUniversityofAthense-CoursedevelopmentisdonecollaborativelybetweenateamoftechnologyandeLearningexperts and the academics or industry experts (domain experts). Implemented as acollaborative exercise within an extendedmultidisciplinary team it provides continuoustechnicalknow-howandsupporttotheacademicsthroughoutthedevelopmentprocess. ResearchPaper-BachelorThesisatUniversityofAppliedScienceBachelorthesisisaresearchprojectandthedevelopmentisdonecollaborativelybetweenateamofbusiness(companyexperts),academicexpertsandthestudentwritingthethesis.Theco-creation,implementedasacollaborativeexercisewithinamultidisciplinaryteam-provides continuous research know-how, methodologies and support to the studentthroughoutthedevelopmentprocessofthethesistopics.CreationofaMasterCourseThe Master program course named „Concepts of adult education“ for virtual mobilityincubatesanewideaonopeneducation.TheideawastocreateacourseinENforvirtualmobilityofstudentsofseveralpartneruniversities.Preparationofaninternationalcoursefor virtual mobility with co-creators from several European required a common virtualspace for collaboration. The IdeaSpace was useful because of its given course creationtemplatewithstructurenecessaryforcoursecreation.LeadusercollaborationReviewsandsummarizeswhatmadetheideaspacecollaborationsuccessful The full list of good practices with all related details is presented in the Annex.
4HIGHLIGHTEDGOODPRACTICESThis section presents some of the selected good practices we wish to share. The goodpracticeshavebeensharedwithOEI2communitiesinbothFacebookandTwitteraswellasintheOEI2blog:http://project.idea-space.eu/blog/
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4.1GENERALGOODPRACTICES–inandoutsideIdeaSpace
4.1.1 “SCHULBUCH-O-MAT” – A COLLABORATIVELY AUTHORED OPEN TEXT BOOK FORBIOLOGY
The “open educational ideas and innovations (OEI2)” initiative has worked towards a
better uptake of OER and increased engagement among educators and learners. We
promotedopencollaborationalreadywhen ideas forOERdevelopmentarebeing formed
sothattrustintotheeducationalmaterialsgetshigherandexistingresourcesbecomemore
likelytobere-used.
Now, our team would like to share successful practices of OER creation, presenting
initiativesthatsharedinitialplansandideasopenlyandreachedoutto(new)collaborators
alsoatanearlystage.Someofthosepracticesmadeuseofourcustom-designedplatform
Idea Space whereas others organized their work through other online tools. We’ll start
with“Schulbuch-O-Mat”fromGermany:
WHATISITABOUT?
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Theinitiative“Schulbuch-O-Mat”(SBOM)setouttotransparentlyprovidefree-of-costand
up-to-dateteachingmaterials.MorespecificallySBOMaimedtocreateanopenlylicensed
textbook for biology aligned to the curriculum of grade 7 and 8 in the federal state of
Berlin,Germany.
Initiators are biology teacher Heiko Przyhodnik and consultant/media producer Hans
Wedenig.
Itreceivedhighattentionfromtheblogosphereandmedia.Theinitiativewaslaunchedin
2012andfinancedthroughacrowd-fundingcampaignatstartnext.degathering10.000€in
donations.Thefirstversionofthetextbookwaspublishedin2013.
WHOWERECOLLABORATORS?
Secondaryschoolteachers,pupils,translators,graphicdesigner
WHYDIDWECHOOSETHEINITIATIVEASGOODPRACTICE?
SBOM initiators shared the intention to create an OER textbook early via social
networkinginordertopromotethecrowdfundingprojectandraiseawarenessonopenly
licensedtextbooks.Twitter,FacebookandGoogle+wereusedregularlytocallforvoluntary
authors,presentupdatesonthestateof thebook,revisions,newcontributorsandfuture
plans. Community members suggested revisions or up-to-date topics for the book. The
initiativesreachedmorethan760followersonFacebookand480onTwitter.
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Younglearnerswereinvolved intheauthoringofthetextbook.Itcanbedownloadedin
twoformats(ePub,pdf)oraccessedinhtmllicensedunderCreativeCommonsBY-SA.Itis
accessible in improved version 1.3 at http://schulbuch-o-mat.de/biobuch/ . The book
contains numerous figures and media files as well as class activities. Furthermore, a
teacherinCologneproducedanIbookversionwithhispupils.
The Austrian Ministry of Education BMUKK contracted an evaluation of the initiative
(costs,savingscomparedtonon-openlylicensedtextbook)andthequalityofthetextbook
alsoinvestigatingthetransferabilitytoAustria.
HOWWAS THE COLLABORATIONORGANIZED?WHATWEREMAINACTIVITIES, TOOLS
USEDANDORGANISATIONS/INDIVIDUALSINVOLVED?
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Schulbuch-O-MAT held an open authoring workshop to engage voluntary teachers in
creating sub chapters in collaboration with the team. The workshops covered desk
research, licence check, didactical fine tuning and upload using a specific cloud-based
authoringsoftware(LOOP,basedonMediawiki)
Supportedby federal funding, Schulbuch-O-MATpromotedandheld “Textbookhacking
days”in2013.Pupilscollaborativelyworkedonaglossaryoftechnicaltermsdescribedin
theirownwords.The resultsbecamepartof the textbookundera specific section “from
pupilsforpupils”.
Theinitiativereceivedsupportfromseveralorganisations
• WikimediaGermanyhostedtheauthoringworkshopsforteachers
• Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien im Internet (ZUM) which runs a large wiki for
Germanteachersofallsubjects,hostedandpromotedtheinitialauthoringspacefor
thebiologytextbook
• UniversityofLübecksupportedthroughtheirauthoringtoolLOOPatalaterstage
• Serlo,aGermanOEReditorandrepositorywithfocusonbiologyandmath,further
developedthecontentofthebookatitsownplatform.
Socialmediawerecontinuouslyusedforupdates,queries,feedbacketc.
HOWDIDTHEINITIATIVEEVOLVEFURTHER?
The initiative served as pilot project. There are on-going efforts to work towardsmore
openlylicensedtextbooks:
• A textbook for politics/economy aligned with the curriculum in North-Rhine
Westphaliaisbeingauthored
• TheinitiativeheldanotherauthoringworkshoptofinanceanOERthematicbooklet
on“Neuralinformationprocessing”
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NOTABLEDETAILS
Itisnoteworthythattheinitiativesucceededtocollectarespectableamountofdonations
andbuildalargecommunity.
Schulbuch-O-Mat, however, could not find as many voluntary authors among teaching
professionalsaswashopedfor.ThechallengewassolvedbytranslatingsuitableOERfrom
aUSplatform(CK12Foundation).
4.1.2 ANNUAL BARCAMPSONOER – HOWANOPEN EVENT INSPIRESOPEN EDUCATIONALACTIVITIESINGERMANY
The “open educational ideas and innovations (OEI2)” initiative promoted open
collaborationalreadywhenideasforOERdevelopmentarebeingformedsothattrustinto
theeducationalmaterialsgetshigherandexistingresourcesaremorelikelytobere-used.
Nowattheendofourproject,weareexcitedtosharegoodpracticesthatdemonstratesuch
an apporach. Belowwewill describe how the annual unconferences called “OERCamps”
established a growing grassroot community for open educational resources (OER) in
Germany.
WHATISITABOUT?
BarCampsareparticipant-drivenconferencesduringwhichattendeesshareandlearninan
open informal environment. Unlike traditional conferences that pre-scheduled a
programme,BarCampsrelyoninput
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SessionplanningwithallOERCampattendeesPhotoby“jmm-Hamburg”underCCBY2.0
Generic
from attendees to create the session programme on the spot and collaborate ad-hoc on
emergingtopics.TheformatwasfirstestablishedintheITsectorbywebdevelopersand
softwareengineers.TheOERCampinGermanyisbasedonthiseventformatwithafocus
open educational resources (OER). Since 2012, several such camps have taken place in
Bremen, Bielefeld and Berlin. On top of the ad-hoc sessions also some workshops are
offeredbytheemergingOERcampcommunitymembers.
Maingoalsareto:
• networkandconnectstakeholdersacrossdiverseeducationaldomains
• shareknowledgeandexpertiseonOER
• spreadthewordonexistingaswellasnewinitiatives
• promote open education among educational practitioners and to decision- and
policy-makers
WHOWERECOLLABORATORS?
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Practitioners and educators in media for education, adult educators, school teachers,
researchers,policy-makers,educationalpublishers,OERadvocates
WHYDIDWECHOOSETHEINITIATIVEASGOODPRACTICE?
Theeventsareveryparticipatory, incubatenewideasandattrackattendeeswithdiverse
backgrounds.
PublicationonOERstakeholdersandactivitiesinGermany,AustriaandSwitzerland
TheOERCamphasdirectlyorindirectlyresultedinthefollowingoutcomes(selection):
• The low threshold to initiate discussions and share knowledge has been a main
driverofagrowingOERgrassrootcommunityintheGerman-speakingcountries.
Several established educational platform providers for school education have
started to license resources with Creative Commons. The event built and
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strengthened acommunity onOERwhich had amajor influence on the growing
politicalsupportforthetopic inGermany,e.g. theavailabilityofnationalfunding
forawarenessraisingandfurthereducationmeasures.
• A concise guide for teachers on the objectives behind OER, Creative Commons
licenses and main educational repositories/platform has been developed by
OERCamp participants from Austria and has been remixed and adapted to the
Germancontext
• PlanstoissueanOERawardwerediscussedopenlyduringtheOERCamp2015and
putintopracticeearly2016.Alsoasaresultoftheawardplanstheeventgrewinto
2 day BarCamp and a 1 day forum involving 7 partners, 30 supporters, 272
registrations,109 speakers.Froma largenumberof submissions to theaward26
jury members selected 32 nominees and finalists. The organizers presented all
submissions in a CC-BY licensed publication that gives a good insight into the
currentOERlandscape(seepicture).OERAward2016PhotounderCC0(Courtesy
ofKarlKirst)
HOWWAS THE COLLABORATIONORGANIZED?WHATWEREMAINACTIVITIES, TOOLS
USEDANDORGANISATIONS/INDIVIDUALSINVOLVED?
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Participant-drivensessiondocumentionviaEtherpads
Thecampshaveevolvedasseparateeventsoutofunconferencesfocusingoneducational
technology,mediaeducationandinnovationineducation.Botharecoordinatedbythenon-
profitassociation“EduCampe.V.”(websiteinGermanhere).Theorganisationofthecamps
is financed throughprivatesponsorsandpublic funding that isacquired foreveryevent.
The listofmediaandothersupporters (location,manpower)hasgrowneachyearsince
thefirstOERCamp.
Allsessiondocumentationisinthehandsofparticipantswiththeorganizersprovidingthe
technicalinfrastructureandcorepointstoberecordedsuchas:
• Contacttosessionorganizers
• Coreresults
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• Interestingquotes
• Callforparticipation/follow-upevents
Examplesofparticipant-leddocumentationinGermanisavailablefor2014and2015.
Twitterisusedbyahighpercentageoftheattendeestosharethoughts,criticallycomment,
promoteandreflectonsessionsorsharethedocumentation.
HOWDIDTHEINITIATIVEEVOLVEFURTHER?
ItisforeseentocontinuetheorganisationofannualOERCamps.
NOTABLEDETAILS
OERCampsareattendedbybothadedicatedcommunityofexpertsandnewattendees.The
eventsattracts individualswhoarenewtoOER;approximately50%ofparticipantshave
neverbeentoanOERCampbefore(accordingtotheorganizers).
4.2GOODPRACTICESINIDEASPACE
4.2.1OERSFORINTERNATIONALMANAGEMENT–CASESTUDIESCO-CREATEDBYLEARNERS&EDUCATORSONTHEIDEASPACEPLATFORM
One of the main target groups of Open Educational Ideas are students and lecturers in
highereducation.Amongthoseit isstilluncommontoopenlyshareclassroomworkwith
other students or colleagues they do not know. The “open educational ideas and
innovations (OEI2)” initiativehasworked towardsabetteruptakeofOERand increased
engagementamongeducatorsandlearners.Wepromotedopencollaborationalreadywhen
ideas forOERdevelopmentarebeing formedso that trust into theeducationalmaterials
getshigherandexistingresourcesbecomemorelikelytobere-used.
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ThefollowingpracticedescribeshowateamofstudentsandlecturersofanMBAclassin
Germany co-created OER with students/lecturers at other universities making use of
custom-designedtemplatesattheplatformIdeaSpace.
WHATISITABOUT?
By engaging students in business conflicts developed from real events cases immerse
studentsinthechallengestheyaretofaceinthefuture.Challengesthatrequirethoughtful
analyses with limited or even insufficient information. That require effective responses
withinambiguouscircumstancesorcomplexeconomicandpoliticalcontexts.That,mostof
all, demand decisive action thatmust be articulated –and even defended – among other
talented,ambitiousindividuals.
Baden-WürttembergCooperativeStateUniversity(DualeHochschuleBaden-Württemberg
/ DHBW) engaged anMBA class of international studentswhowere familiarwith open
learning andMOOCs in co-creating case studieswithother researchers at the institution
andelsewhere.
Theoverall learningobjectivewastocreateaninitialawarenessformanagementfailures
andriskmanagement.Indetail,theaimswereto
• AuthoreatermpaperinInternationalManagement
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• Utilizeexistingresourcestominimizeresearcheffort
• Analyseandelaborateonthefindingspublishedinthecasestudymaterial, iterate
andreachthekeyresultsoftheresearchtopic
• Maplearningobjectivestoexistingrealcasesituations.
Thework thatwas organized as a pilot during one semester in the frame of the “OEI2”
projectofwhichDHBWisacorepartner.
WHOWERECOLLABORATORS?
MBAstudents,professors,researchersatBaden-WürttembergCooperativeStateUniversity
(DHBW)and2otherinstitutions.
WHYDIDWECHOOSETHEINITIATIVEASGOODPRACTICE?
Thecollaborationledtonewopenlylicensedresourcesinformofcasestudiesforbusiness
andmanagementinHigherEducationthatcanbeofusetomorelearnersandeducatorsat
DHBWandotherinstitutions.Thoseprovideinsightsintothefastfashionindustry(e.g.on
themultinationalH&MandBenetton)orprojectmanagementoflargescaleconstruction
works(e.g.thebuildingBurjKhalifainDubai)forexample.
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TheideaspacescontainingthecasestudiesinprogressweresharedwithHEIteachersof
thesameprogrammeatotheruniversitieswhoalsorelyonresearchpaperstoassesstheir
students.Twomoreclassesjoinedthecollaborationandnewinputsweregiventothe
differentideaspaces,inparticularmanyopenresourceswhichcouldbeused.
Theaimandobjectivestodevelopanefficientprocessofcollaborationamongstudentsand
professorsinresearchandprojectworkwereachieved.Thecollaborationwiththe
networkofstudentsandHEIteacherswasespeciallyhelpfulinprovidingnewefficient
ways,resourcesuggestionsandexchangeofthoughtshowtoapproachtheresearchtopic.
TheexternalHEIlecturersshowedthewillingnesstofurtherworktogetherand,hence,the
co-creationapproachatDHBWsupportednetworkingamongpeereducators.
HOWWASTHECOLLABORATIONORGANIZED?WHATWEREMAINACTIVITIES,TOOLS
USEDANDORGANISATIONS/INDIVIDUALSINVOLVED?
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ExamplehowoneoftheIdeaSpacetemplateswascustomizedtoco-createcasestudies
After the research topic had been defined and laid out by the course leader, students
received a business case andwere asked to place themselves in the role of the decision
makerastheyexploredthesituationandidentifiedtheproblemtheywerefacedwith.The
next stepwas toperform thenecessaryanalysis–examining thecausesandconsidering
alternativecoursesofactionstocometoasetofrecommendations.
In order to facilitate the collaborative work and establish a more efficient way of
collaborationontheresearchtopics,thecourseleaderatDHBWcustomizedthetemplate
“research project” on the Idea Space platform and initiated the collaboration among the
studentsandotherresearchersattheuniversity.20participantswereenrolledtotheIdea
Space platformwho then authored and provided input to the five different case studies
alongthestepsprovidedonline.
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HOWDIDTHEINITIATIVEEVOLVEFURTHER?
ThesameapproachisnowusedinfurtherclassestaughtbythecourseleaderatDHBW,i.e.
thepilotturnedintoalastingeducationalpractice.Discussionsareon-goingwhetherand
how the Idea Space can be used for class work organized by other lecturers at the
institution.
NOTABLEDETAILS
Aftertheinitialsuccessfulusageoftheplatform,studentsconfirmedtheeffectivenessand
high level of knowledge distribution among the collaborators. Furthermore, students in
other universities realized, that their knowledge grows faster, when they openly invite
existingdataandresources.
Thekeychallengewastofindcollaboratorswhosharesimilarobjectivesandrequirements.
Regardingthecollaborationwithstudentsatotheruniversities,itseemedtobeimportant
toinitiateabasisandstructurewithpioneersactingasleadusers.
TheuseinclassatDHBWledtoseveralimprovementsoftheIdeaSpaceplatformtoease
futurecollaborationandideasharingonOERandopeneducation.
4.2.2 OPEN COURSE DEVELOPMENT IN THE IDEA SPACE: PROGRAMMING FOR FIRSTGRADERS
The “open educational ideas and innovations (OEI2)” initiative has worked towards a
better uptake of OER and increased engagement among educators and learners. We
promotedopencollaborationalreadywhen ideas forOERdevelopmentarebeing formed
andAFTERtheireducationalusesothattrustintotheresourcesisincreasedandexisting
resourcesbecomemorelikelytobere-used.
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Inanumberofblogpostswesharesuccessfulpracticespresentinginitiativesthatshared
initialplansandideasopenlyandreachedoutto(new)collaboratorsatanearlystage(see
also the previous post on a collaboratively authored open text book for biology). In this
article,wesharehowagroupofindividualswithdiversebackgroundsindifferentlocations
usedthe IdeaSpacetocollaborativelydevelopacourseonanup-to-date topic forschool
learning:Programminginfirstgrade.
WHATISITABOUT?
SourceWikipedia,CreativeCommonsAttribution3.0Unported
The initiative developed a course on programming for first class kids in primary school
withafocusonthecombinationofphysicalandcomputeractivities.Acoreaimwastouse
existing resources to keep thedevelopment effort lowand tomap learningobjectives to
existing(andnew)curricula.Thelearningobjectivesofthecoursewere:
• Creatinginitialawarenessforcomputersandprogramming
• problemsolvingskills
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• combinationofsubjectcurricula(maths,languages,…)withcomputercontents
• understandingandcreatingbasicalgorithmswithandwithoutcomputers
The initial idea sharing has led to a collaboration aswell as to new ideas, impulses and
innovations.TheresultofthecollaborationispublishedasanOERaswell.
Amain asset for the course developmentwas the new curriculum in Switzerlandwhich
introducesmediaandinformationliteracyfromKindergartentoK9.Thiswastakenasan
orientation for the course and can be transferred to countries which have not yet
progressedthatfar.
WHOWERECOLLABORATORS?
Around core 6 collaborators were involved: a Higher education teacher (Information
Systems),apedagogicalresearchinstitute,contentexpertandschoolteachers
Furthermore,acomputerclassinprimaryschoolandthepubliccontributed
WHYDIDWECHOOSETHEINITIATIVEASGOODPRACTICE?
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WeselectedthisinitiativebecauseincontrasttoOERsharingatalate/complete
developmentprocess,afulllifecycleofopeneducationalpractice:
• early&openideasharingengagingnewcollaborators
• collaborativeOERdevelopment
• useoftheOERindifferenteducationalcontext
• exchangeofexperienceandcollaborativeimprovementoftheOER
The initiator used a combination of channels to engage collaborators with similar
objectivesandrequirementsatanearlystage:Abarcamp,socialmediaandtheIdeaSpace
platform.
Itresultedinafullcourse(OER)includinglessonplansandlearningscenariosforabout
30hoursincludingcommentsforteachers.Thecoursemakesuseofofopeneducational
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resources,suchasworksheets,andopensourceproducts.Theresultarefullyaccessible
andeditableintheideaspaceandgooglesheets.
The collaboration led to new ideas and concepts for the course and was especially
effective inwhen providing initial feedback/recommendations to the idea, creating new
scenariosandsuggestingeducationalresources.Thesharedcoursedevelopmentdecreased
thedevelopment effort significantly by about2months, inparticular identifying existing
OER and other materials, and collaboratively. Most individuals involved have agreed to
continuetoworktogetherandextendthecollaboration.
Thecoursehasbeeninitiallyvalidatedwithteachersandthematerialswillbeimproved
afterthecourseswereheld.
HOWWAS THE COLLABORATIONORGANIZED?WHATWEREMAINACTIVITIES, TOOLS
USEDANDORGANISATIONS/INDIVIDUALSINVOLVED?
Ideaspaceforcoursedevelopment
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Theinitiativewaslaunchedatanunconferenceforeducatorsandinnovatorsineducation
(EduCamp) in Germany. The initial idea developed in this open context through a
brainstorming session. About 10 participants participated and provided input regarding
the idea. Those were enrolled in the idea space and results were documented there
collaboratively. The collaboration was made easier through a pre-set template for
collaborative course development which was enriched with information by the idea
initiatorfornewcollaborators.Especiallytheideaprocesswassupportedandfacilitatedin
the platform created by the OEI2 project and the outcomes are accessible here
(contributionsarestillwelcome).
After the initialbrainstormingphase,a looselycoupledproject teamwasestablished. In
thisphase,threecorecollaborators(fromGermanyandSwitzerland)agreedtodevelopthe
coursetogether.Thisteamestablishmentwithleaduserswasimportantasabasisforthe
development.
The ideawasthenshared inrelevantcommunitiesonFacebookandTwitterbymaking
useofspecifichashtags.Afewrequestscameandnewinputsweregiventotheideaspace,
in particular useful resources. New collaborators with different degrees of involvement
wereattracted.
Forthecorecoursedevelopmentfurtheronlinesoftwarewasused, i.e.googledocsand
graphicaltools.Theresourceswillbepostednexttoapublicrepository, feedbackisthen
collectedagainthroughtheideaspace.
HOWDIDTHEINITIATIVEEVOLVEFURTHER?
The collaborators will continue to work together. In 2016 the team plans further
improvementandexchangeofexperienceafterthecourseshavebeenheld.
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Furthermore, the collaborators have agreed to develop a further course and a project
whichwillextendthescopetoothercountriesintheEuropeanUnion.Theresourceswill
alsobeusedforteachereducationinthefuture.
Thus, the networking effort has been very successful as a strong teamwas established.
Also,looseconnectionstofurthercollaboratorshavebeendevelopedwhichcanbeutilized
inthefuture
NOTABLEDETAILS
The course development was driven by three lead collaborators. However, in between
othershaveprovidedfeedbackand(OER)suggestions.
A key challenge to the initiative was the selection and combination of tools for
authoring/adaptingoutside the ideaspace. Itwashelpful thatallparticipantshadrather
advancedtechnicalskills,soresultscouldbetransferredbetweentools.
4.2.3 OPEN COLLABORATION ON INDUSTRY-RELATED RESEARCH AMONG B.A. STUDENTS,ACADEMICSANDCOMPANIES
The “open educational ideas and innovations (OEI2)” initiative promoted opencollaborationalreadywhenideasforOERdevelopmentarebeingformedsothattrustintotheeducationalmaterialsgetshigherandexistingresourcesaremorelikelytobere-used.Nowattheendofourproject,weareexcitedtosharegoodpracticesthatdemonstratesuchanapporach.On this page youwill read howB.A. students’ research for andwith companies becamemorecollaborative,efficientandbetterguidedwhentheirsupervisoroptedfortheonlineplatform“IdeaSpace”asacentralworktool.WHATISITABOUT?Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg)isprofessionalhighereducationinstitutionwithstrongtiestocompanies.AtDHBWeachsemesterisdividedintotwophases:Learnersattendlecturesandseminarsatthe university and spend practice phases at a private company or in the public sector.
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Furthermore, the cooperationpartner from industryoffers researchquestions and fieldsfor final theses. By engaging company members and exploring real work scenarios inbusiness, working on their thesis students means researching the challenges they areexpectedtofaceintheworldofworld.Forathoughtfulanalysiseffectivecollaborationisneeded among the student, her supervisor/other academics and the companymanagers/experts.Insteadofbeinglimitedtooccasionalmeetingsinordertodiscussthegoalsoftheresearch,methodologyandresults,someB.A.studentsintheprogramme“InternationalBusiness”atDHBWdeployed the onlineplatform “Idea Space” to co-createwithin amultidisciplinaryteam.Thisgroupprovidedcontinuousresearchknow-how,methodologiesandsupporttothestudentthroughoutthedifferentresearchprocesses.WHOWERECOLLABORATORS?B.A.students,B.A.supervisorsaswellasotheracademicexpertsatDHBWanda teamofbusiness/companyexpertsatuniversitiescooperationpartners.WHYDIDWECHOOSETHEINITIATIVEASGOODPRACTICE?Theco-creationthroughtheonlineportal transformedhowresearchgoalsandprocessesare defined by both young and established researcher and associated industry partners.The practice overcomes a lack of disclosing research methodologies and results amongotheracademicsandindustryandfurthertightensthetiesbetweentheworldofworkandprofessionalhighereducation.Itprovidesagoodexamplehowtoopenupinthatsectorofhighereducation.Openinguptheresearchapproachhelpedtoaddresschallengesthatstudentstypicallyfacein their industry-related researchwork, such as limited or even insufficient informationfromthecompanies,actingunderambiguouscircumstancesor incomplexeconomicandpoliticalcontexts.HOWWAS THE COLLABORATIONORGANIZED?WHATWEREMAINACTIVITIES, TOOLSUSEDANDORGANISATIONS/INDIVIDUALSINVOLVEDOn topofpersonalmeetings, the collaborationon theB.A. theseswasorganized throughtheIdeaSpaceinthefollowingphases:
• Initiation:TheB.A.thesissupervisorprovidedastructurefortheresearchtopicsontheIdeaSpaceplatformbyfurthercustomizingthetemplate“OpenResearch”.
• Industry and peer involvement: The supervisor initiated the online collaborationamongtheB.A.studentandthemanagerintheindustry.Theideawasalsoshared
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with professors at other universities running industry-related research projectswith their students that result in research papers for bachelor theses. Twomoreprofessors joinedthecollaborationandnewideasandresourceswereinitiatedontheIdeaSpaceplatform.Collaboratorsprovidedinputontheresearchtheme.
• Resource sharing: The different collaborators gathered resources, information andliteratureanddiscussedconstraints.
• Conductingtheresearch:Studentsdevelopedtheresearchmethodologyandgathereddatafororwithinthecompaniesinordertoachieveallresearchprojectgoals.
• Improvement ideas and validation: Feedbackwas collected through the idea spacefrom associated professors and/or researchers. The theses and publication wasvalidatedbytheB.A.supervisorandcompanymanagers.
Theprimarychallengeoftheresearchprojectswastoagreeonamethodologyandmeansforquantitativeanalyses.Thesecondary—andmoreambitious—challengewas to findcollaboratorstocontributetheirinputthatcanbeintegratedtomeetpre-definedresearchobjectives.HOWDIDTHEINITIATIVEEVOLVEFURTHER?As a result of the co-creation process several DHBW academics recommended someexisting OER as well as other learning materials which are now used in classes in thefollowingyearsandwillbefurtherimproved.Furthermore,somestudentsandacademicsagreedtocontinuetoworktogetheronotherresearchtopicsandprojectsinclass,i.e.teambuilding/networkingwasstrengthened.NOTABLEDETAILSThe company representatives supported the research team to different degrees. AmaindriveroftheircontributionswasthecommittmentoftheB.A.supervisorregardinganopencollaboration on the Idea Space platform. The working method and tools used wereacknowledgedbyfurthercollaborators.Students and researchers perceived that open collaboration on the idea space platformimprovedknowledgegenerationandtransfer.Italsoprovidedmoreclarityonthedifferentperspectivesfromacademicsandindustry.Furthermore,openlysharingtheresearcheffortand collaboration opportunities in the “Idea Space” engaged entire courses andsignificantly decreased the development effort of B.A. projects and research work ofstudents(alsofortermpapers).
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4.2.4 HOW GREEK ENGINEERING STUDENTS COLLABORATE ON LAB ASSIGNMENTSTHROUGHANONLINEPLATFORM
Technology and engineering in higher education requires hands-on training. Usually
undergraduatestudentsgethands-onexperiencethroughlabsessionsthataresupervised
bypostgraduate students.Moreover in these lab sessions students collaboratewitheach
other and with the supervisor exchanging knowledge and completing their group
assigmentwork.
AttheUniversityofMacedoniainThessalonikiengineeringstudentsandtheirsupervisors
extendandintensifythisexchangethroughtheIdeaSpaceplatformdevelopedintheframe
ofthe“Openeducationalideasandinnovations”initiative.Hereyoucanreadmoreonhow
a group of undergraduate and graduate students made use of and benefited from the
platformwhencollaboratingonagroupcourseassignment.
The details:HowGreek engineering students collaborate on lab assignments through an
onlineplatform
Some background info: Idea Space is a collaboration and idea sharing environment for
expertsandnewbiesinOpenEducationandOpenEducationalResources(OER).Onecore
focusisconnectingeducatorsandlearnerswithinthisarea.TheUniversityofMacedoniaas
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wellasseveralotherTechnicalUniversitiesinGreeceparticipatedinthepilotstomakeuse
the platformwithinHigher Education teaching and learning. After several conversations
theeducatorscaughtontheideatousetheplatformforgroupstudentassignmentswhich
isacommonpracticeforseveralcoursesinallparticipatinginstitutions.
4.2.5 CO-CREATING A VIRTUAL MOBILITY COURSE ON ADULT EDUCATION FOR MASTERSTUDENTS
The “open educational ideas and innovations (OEI2)” initiative has worked towards a
better uptake of OER and increased engagement among educators and learners. We
promotedopencollaborationalreadywhen ideas forOERdevelopmentarebeing formed
and sharing practice AFTER their educational use so that trust into the resources is
increasedandexistingresourcesbecomemorelikelytobere-used.
In a number of blog postswe share successful practices presenting initiatives thatwere
openwith initial plans& ideas openly or reachedout to (new) collaborators at an early
stage. In thenextparagraphesyouwill readabouthowHigherEducation lecturers from
two European countries co-created an online course for learners at their universities
makinguseoftheIdeaSpaceplatform.
WHATISITABOUT?
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VytautasMagnusUniversity(VMU)offersstudentsthepossibilitytoparticipateinvirtual
mobilityprogrammes,i.e.tolearnforalimitedtimewithstudentsatapartneruniversity
withoutphysicallyleavingtheirhomecountrybymeansofonlinetechnology.Theideawas
tocreateacourseon“Conceptsofadulteducation“inEnglishforstudentsofseveral
partneruniversities.VMUwasalreadyrunningacourseonthetopicinLithuanian,butthe
coursecurriculumneededtobecomemoresuitableforvirtualmobilityandstudentsfrom
differentnationalandculturalcontext.Developingandlaunchingthecoursewasfundedby
anERASMUS+projectcalled„OUVM–Openinguniversitiesforvirtualmobility“.
WHOWERECOLLABORATORS?
Higher education teachers at Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania) and University of
Pavia(Italy)
WHYDIDWECHOOSETHEINITIATIVEASGOODPRACTICE?
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Courseoutline“ConceptsofAdultEducation”(Clickonthepictureforthefulldocument)
The course leaders co-created the course online at the Idea Space platform. The three
course leaderssharededucationalresourcesearlyandusedthose torunthecoursewith
learners at two universities in Lithuania and one in Italy. Those efforts resulted in a 14
weekcourse.
HOWWAS THE COLLABORATIONORGANIZED?WHATWEREMAINACTIVITIES, TOOLS
USEDANDORGANISATIONS/INDIVIDUALSINVOLVED?
Collaborators used different tools for communication (email, Skype, etc.) and the Idea
Space platform with its course creation template that provides a tested structure for
collaborativecoursecreation.
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The topics of the curriculumwere accommodated to better take advantage of the cross-
national collaboration between Italian and Lithuanian Higher Education lecturers. The
followinglearningoutcomeswereagreedon:
• ToassesstendenciesoflifelonglearningineducationalpolicydocumentsoftheEU.
• Topreparecriticalanalysisofthechosentheoriesofadultlearning.
• Toidentifyliteracyskillsforadultsforemploymentandactiveparticipation
• Toanalyseethicalproblemsinadultlife
ToadaptandfurtherdevelopthecourseforlearnersfromEurope,thecourseleaders
sharedmaterialsinEnglishsuchasreadings,videos,tests,etc.Thecourseitselfisgrounded
inEducationscienceandlearnersneedtoconsideradulteducationtheoriestointerpret
thetopicsdiscussed.ThecourseispartofVMUformalMasterofEducationManagement
studyprogrambutithasbeenelaboratedtomakeitinEN,suitableforvirtualmobilityand
outsidestudentsfromotherpartneruniversitieswhowillundertakevirtualmobility.
HOWDIDTHEINITIATIVEEVOLVEFURTHER?
TwoinstancesofthecoursewereheldstartinginSeptemberandNovember2016.Those
carried6ECTSforstudentsofthe“MasterofEducationManagement”studyprogrammeat
VMU.
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NOTABLEDETAILS
Collaborators found the Idea Space platform useful, especially to share educational
resources in English and to agree on a course structure. Feedback from VMU lecturers
helpedtoimprovetheplatformfurther,inparticularthetemplateforcollaborativecourse
development.
5.RECOMMENDATIONS
This section discusses what made the good practices recommendable and how idea
sharing can be successful in the educational domain by integrating and adopting idea
sharingasaworkpractice.
EmbeddingOERandcollaborativedevelopmentofideastoanorganization
Thiswasoneoftheleadingproblemsoftheproject,eventhoughbroaderthanideasharing.
Our work was motivated by what are some effective tactical and strategic methods to
encourage sharing of information andHow do youmost effectively affect organizational
behaviortosupportcollaboration,cross-departmentalinterest,community,innovation?
Open Educational Resources, and open educationmore generally, is considered to have
huge potential to increase participation and educational opportunities at large and to
promotewideningparticipationandlifelonglearning.Atthesametimethepastdecadehas
shown that openness in itself is not enough to unfold these potentials. A number of
elementsneed tobe taken intoaccount inorder tomove fromOER toOpenEducational
OpportunitiesandGoodPractices.
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VariousstudieshavedocumentedadditionalbenefitsoftheadoptionofOpenEducational
Resourceprinciples.Thus,ithasbeenarguedthatOERincreasestheinnovationimpactof
work by stimulating cooperative work (Larsen & Vincent -Lancrin, 2005). A review of
studiesonopenpublishing foundconsistent increases in thenumberofdownloads from
open access journals as compared to subscription - model journals. It also listed 10
differentstudieswhichclaimthat freeoropenaccess toscientificpublications leads toa
significant increase in article citations. (Davis & Walters, 2011). Importantly, the data
collected in the same review seems to indicate that open access of datamakes a larger
impactinnon-scholarlycontexts.
In addition, the increasing scopeofOpenEducationalResources, increasesopportunities
foraccesstoeducation,andpotentiallywidensparticipation.
Recognition of the importance of investment and effort into promotion of the use and
uptakeofOERisevidentistheprominencegiventoOERdevelopmentsinarecentmajor
report on Cyberlearning, commissioned by the UK National Science Foundation (NSF,
2008).Oneof the fivehigher-levelrecommendations intheconclusiontothereport is to
‘adoptprogramsandpoliciestopromoteOpenEducationalResources.’Onecanstatethat
OERandopeneducationarechallengingtraditionalstructuresoftraditionalHEinstitutions
aswellaslearningandtraininginallothereducationalsectors.
Theeffectiveuseofonlineportalsrequiresbothatransformationofthepedagogicalgoals
andtheprocesses the lecturerassociatewith teachingmanagement.Thegoalsarenot to
setupavirtualcampusbuttoestablishatechnological frameworkinwhichthestudents
willlearnaboutbusiness,andareabletoproducereusablemodulesthatcanbesharedand
improvedbytheircolleagues.Innovationinclassrequiresrethinkingtherelationship
between the skills wewould like to develop, the technologies we deploy, and the
methodologiesweusetoevaluatetheirsuccessorfailure.
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RECOMMENDATIONSFORINDIVIDUALSANDORGANIZATIONSONIDEASHARINGThe aim and objectives to develop an efficient process of collaboration among students,
teachers and professors in teaching, education and research project work could be
achieved and is shown in the good practice collection. The collaboration has been very
successful in someof the cases among the stakeholders.New ideasandconceptswere
developed. Sometimes, the collaboration did not initiate even though far amount of
interestwasinitiallyshown.SomeofthereasonsforthiscanbereadfromD2.1bandthe
validation reports. However, the collaboration with the network of students and
professorswasespeciallyhelpfulinprovidingnewefficientwaysanddataresource
suggestions and exchange of thoughts how to approach the teaching or research
topic.
Among students, teachers and lecturers at schools and universities it is not easy to find
userstoopenlysharetheirworkdoneintheclassroomwithotherstudentsorcolleagues
they do not know. The key challenge was to find collaborators which have similar
objectives and requirements. Sometimes even when sharing similar objectives,
emotionalownershipcanbecomeabarrierifwegetprotectiveaboutourideas.See
D2.1b for details. Therefore,use emotional ownership as an enabler! Start the online
collaboration in a private mode with the peers you are comfortable sharing your ideas
with. Gradually see whether including wider networks could be useful. When that time
comes and you are already collaborating in idea space, turn the privacy setting of that
projecttopublic,notbefore
Currentgoodpracticeshaveshownaculturewhererelationshipsarehighlyvalued,most
oftenmaintained and developed through a lot of face-to-face interaction, the adoption
rate for thedigitalplatform forknowledgesharingand information integrationhasbeen
lowatthebeginning.Inmanyofthecasesdocumentedhereandalsoregardingmanyother
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collaborativeeffortsinIdeaSpace,thecollaboratorsareshowingthewillingnesstofurther
work together and extend the collaboration. Therefore, the networking effort that
combinesF2Fandonlinecollaborationmovingstepbystepfromclosedsettingsto
sharinginanopenandtransparentwayhasbeenverysuccessful.
A key success factor for further usage of the same idea by other collaborators is the
selection and combination of data foundwithin one idea spacewhichwill be further
developed–authoring/adaptingishappeningnowamongotheruniversitiesandstudents.
Fornewusers itwashelpful thatallparticipantscouldbuiltonanexistingstructure.
And the technical skills of new users are sufficient to use the platform and
understandthefunctionsofthetools.
Asdiscussedhereand inD2.1b, thekey issue is that the leadingusers lead theway in
ideadevelopment.Only the can thebenefitsbe reaped. Itneeds tobe stated thatwhile
sharing similar goals in Idea Space, educators might only be interested to try out
whethertheideahaspotential,nottodevelopitfullyinideaspace!Itiscriticaltoset
thecleargoals for thecollaborationandespecially,whichpartsare foreseen tobe
handledinIdeaSpace. Inmanyofthewitnessedcollaborationsinideaspace,thefocus
haschangedalsoduringtheprocess.Therefore,objectivesandgoalscanchange,discuss
thiswithcollaborators.Discussclearlythebenefitsaswell.
We also have witnessed during the project that previous engagement to online
collaborativeactivities, nomatter if those related toOER, foster futuremotivation to
takepartincollaborativeworkaswell.Whenindividualsarewillingtoworkwithearly
ideas and to expose those for others to contribute on, they aremore likely to be
acceptingtowardsIdeaSpacecollaboration.
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Toconclude,thefollowingguidelinesarestillapplicableandrecommendableforbuilding
onideasinacollaborativemanner.Justconsidercarefullytherecommendationsaboveand
avoid the pitfalls mentioned in D2.1b. The following describes 9 key statements for
successfulideasharing:
When we start building new OERs in a collaborative manner or start thinking about
educational innovationswithourpeerstorevolutionizeeducation,wenaturallywantthe
collaborativeefforttobeasuccessfulone.Itshouldberathersimple,right?
During the last 2,5 yearswe have explored differingways to collaborate on educational
ideaswiththeOEI2-team.Ingeneralwecansaythatanoptimalprocessissomethingyou
see in the figure here. The reality is sometimes slightly different. Below we raise few
statementsregardingideasharingoneshouldconsider.
STATEMENT1:LEADUSERSGUIDETHEWAY
What we have learned is that there are certain educators who are extremely active in
collaboratingon ideas.These leadusersareoften the initiatorsofa certain idea. In such
caseit isveryobviousthatsuchpersonhasthestrongestmotivationtodevelopthatidea
further.
Ifthisdescriptionsoundedlikeyourself,youronagoodwaytosuccessfulideasharing!
STATEMENT2:ONLINEENVIRONMENTNOTTHEPLACEWHEREALLMAGICHAPPENS
IntheOEI2projectwehavelearnedthatfullydistributedideasharingprojectshardlyexist
or sustain. The successful projects usually had some face-to-face activity where like-
mindedpeoplegottogether.
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Use all opportunities of co-located collaboration to your advantage and atminimum, set
regularconferencingsessions.TrytheconferencingtoolincludedineachIdeaSpace!
STATEMENT3:EDUCATORSCANBEPROTECTIVETOWARDTHEIRIDEAS
Whileweneedtofeelabondtoourideastobemotivated,educatorscanalsobeprotective
towardtheirideaswhentheyfeelthoseare“theirown”.Thiscanturnoutinawaythatone
doesnottakepartinideasharing.
Agree early on with your collaborators whether the process can be fully open and
transparent. If some are hesitant, agree on approach that the ones uncertain are happy
with.Thisisanecessarysteptodo!
STATEMENT4:FINDTHEMOTIVATEDPEOPLE
Sharedpassioniscritical.Settingupcollaborationswherenotallparticipantsaredevoted,
isunlikelytotakeoff.Additionally,thechancesforsuccessfulcollaborationishigherifthe
participantshavepreviousexperienceinworkingcollaborativelyinICTenvironments.This
doesincreasesharingintentions.
STATEMENT5:EXPECTCONTRIBUTORSTOGETINVOLVEDATDIFFERENTSTAGES
Whiletheleadusersusuallyremainfromstarttotheend,contributors(bothinofflineand
onlinesettings)tendnottoremainfromtheearlyideasettingtothediffusionofideas.This
iswhy it isbeneficial thatseveralonlinenetworksareutilizedthroughouttheprocessto
keep an ongoing activity and discussion up and running. Ideas that stop, even for days,
oftenremainuntouchedandunchanged.This iswhengreat ideasremainas ideasanddo
notcomeoutasOERs,practicesetc.
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Therefore, don’t worry if not everyone is interested in every single step of the way.
Acknowledgethisandutilizeseveralnetworksindifferentstepsoftheprocess.
STATEMENT6:KEEPINMINDTHATPREFERENCESMATTER
OneofthelessonslearntearlyintheOEI2projectwasthateducatorshaveverydifferent
typesof attitudesandbehaviorsandevenhiddenagendas to technologyuseand to idea
sharing. These attitudes and behaviors are unfortunately very hard to detect except
afterwardswhen idea sharing shouldhave takenplace.Oneof themost critical factor to
sharing open educational ideas is the preference to collaborate on early, not-so-fully-
thought-through ideas. The second issue is whether educators appreciate to brainstorm
(bothasynchronouslyandsynchronously)ontheseearlyideaswithprofessionalstheydo
notknowwell,evenbytheirreputation.
Idea sharing is highly creative so ensure participation of individuals who truly like
brainstormingandarehappytodiscussvariousperspectivesandsolutions.
STATEMENT7:IFOBJECTIVESANDGOALSCHANGE,STAYFLEXIBLE
What might start as an idea toward a new course or course material might result in a
nationaloreveninternationalproject.NotallprojectssetinIdeaSpaceevenhaveaclear
outcomeinmindbuttheprocessandcommonideaswillbepursuedfurther.
Beopenmindedaboutchangingthedirectionwhengoodopportunitiesarise.
STATEMENT 8: BENEFITS NEED TO BE CLEAR WHILE RAISING STATUS OR
REPUTATIONDONOTPLAYABIGROLEINOEISHARING
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Outcomeexpectationssuchasanincreaseinreputationandpositioninacertainnetwork
do not seem to influence the sharing intentions of educators. This does not mean the
benefitsforsharingshouldnotbeevident.Onthecontrary,ourvalidationresultsindicate
thatthebenefitsforsharingneedtobeperfectlyclearforbothshort-andlong-term.
Discuss what value the collaboration brings to participants and adapt your approach
accordingly.
STATEMENT9:IFYOURCONTRIBUTORSARENOTFULLYATEASEWITHEARLYIDEA
SHARING,GOOPENGRADUALLY
Whileeducatorscanbeprotectivetowardstheirideas,thefindingsofourstudiesinthelast
twoyearshaveshown the importanceof interactionbetweeneducatorsand thebenefits
theygetfromtherichcontributionsofothers.
Thus,starttheonlinecollaborationinaprivatemodewiththepeersyouarecomfortable
sharingyourideaswith.Graduallyseewhetherincludingwidernetworkscouldbeuseful.
When that time comes and you are already collaborating in idea space, turn the privacy
settingofIdeaSpacetopublic,notbefore.
Withtheseconsiderationsinmind,you’rewellpreparedtoideasharingonline!
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CONCLUSION
OpenEducationPracticesaremoreandmoredefinednowadaysaspracticeswhichsupport
the (re)use and production of OER through institutional policies, promote innovative
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pedagogicalmodels,andrespectandempower learnersasco-producerson their lifelong
learning path. OEP address the whole OER governance community: policy makers,
managers/administratorsoforganisations,educationalprofessionalsandlearners(Ehlers,
2011).
ThegoodpracticecollectionhasshownthatinOERdevelopmentwehaveseenashiftfrom
afocusonresourcestoafocusonopeneducationalpracticesbeingacombinationofopen
resources use and open learning architectures to transform learning into 21st century
learningenvironmentsinwhichuniversities’,adultlearnersandcitizensareprovidedwith
opportunitiestoshapetheirlifelonglearningpathwaysinanautonomousandself-guided
way.
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ANNEX–FULLLISTOFGOODPRACTICES
________________________________________________________________________ GeneralGoodPracticesandOEI2-GoodPractices:Overviewofgoodpractices(Example1:NCSR-Greek)
GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
Socialpeerreviewingofacademicpapers(Academia.edu)
Good practice on openidea sharing and OERcreation
SocialpeerreviewingofacademicpapersWhilethenewserviceproposedbyAcademia.edu,isaimedatcreatinga“morerigorouspeer-reviewsystem”,linkedwiththeOpen science movement, this approach opens a new waytowardsOpenScientificEducationResources.Academia.edu is a social networking website for academics.The platform is used to share papers, monitor their impact,andfollowtheresearchinaparticularfield.ItwaslaunchedinSeptember2008andcurrentlyhas29millionregisteredusersandover8millionuploadedtexts.
GoodPracticesinOpenEducation(Internet)
1
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Type of Collaborators:(The field that the usersrepresent)
Academics/scholars
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describetheideaanditsobjectives)
SocialpeerreviewingofacademicpapersAcademia.edu is a social networkingwebsite for academics.The platform is used to share papers,monitor their impact,andfollowtheresearchinaparticularfield.Itwaslaunchedin September 2008 and currently has 29million registeredusersandover8millionuploadedtexts.The site’s new tool, called Sessions, lets researchers postpapers that are still in progress, and invite colleagues tocomment on them so the papers can be improved beforebeingsubmittedtopeer-reviewedjournals.Richard Price, chief executive of Academia.edu, says theintention is to recreate online what happens at academicconferences, where scholars present new research and facequestions and critiques from peers in the field. In Sessions,researchers upload a draft paper and then invite a list ofother scholars on the network to comment on it. After thereview time has expired, the author can either extend thesessionorcloseoffcomments.Anyonecanseethataresearchercreatedasession.Someoftheir followers and qualified users (e.g. professors andfaculty) canautomatically join this session.Otherswillneedto request access to be able to see the comments andcontributetheirfeedback.Opening a paper to comments creates a special pagewherepeersandcolleaguescanleavecomments,eitheronthepaperingeneral,orwithline-specificannotations.SessionsusestheScribid viewer to display content and a hypothes.is like
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annotationsystem.The tool guards the privacy of those making comments.CommentsinSessionsarenotsearchableontheinternet(viaGoogleetc).References:Academic Social Network Hopes to Change the Culture ofPeerReviewhttp://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/academic-social-network-hopes-to-change-the-culture-of-peer-review/57419Academia.edusupporthttp://support.academia.edu/customer/en/portal/articles/2080806-opening-your-draft-to-feedbackhttp://support.academia.edu/customer/en/portal/articles/2080805-drafts-and-feedbackAcademiaopens'Sessions'togeneralaudiencehttp://phys.org/news/2015-09-academia-sessions-audience.htmlWhyIhavestartedtolikeAcademia.edurecentlyhttp://openscience.com/why-i-have-started-to-like-academia-edu-recently/\http://openscience.com/why-i-have-started-to-like-academia-edu-recently//Social network launches bid to get academics chatteringaboutpapersonlinehttp://www.nature.com/news/social-network-launches-bid-to-get-academics-chattering-about-papers-online-1.18410Accidental blogging: some thoughts on academia.edu'ssessionsformathttp://lagraciada.blogspot.gr/2015/08/accidental-blogging-some-thoughts-on.html
Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this a
The toolwas opened to the general audience only recently,aftermonthsofbeing testedwithasmallgroupofusers. Itsaim is to allow writers of research papers to get peerfeedbackbeforesubmittingforpublishing.
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good practice and whatdifferentiate this OER andcollaborationfromothers?)
According toRichardPrice, chiefexecutiveofAcademia.edu,themixof a social network and a collaboration tool is new,and could change how scholarswork. Through Sessions, heargues, there could emerge a “more rigorous peer-reviewsystem”
WhatpracticalcontextdoCollaborators use withintheircollaboration?
Aim of the tool is to foster academic discussion aroundpublished research work at an early stage. Until now thetypicalwayforscholarstoreceivecommentsfromthewideracademiccommunitywastopresentanddiscusstheirpapersatacademicconferences.Draft versions of unpublished papers could be exchangedprivately between selected individuals (e.g. professors andfaculty)forcommenting.TheSessionstoolaimstoreplicateonlinethekindofdebatethattakesplaceinacademicconferences,openingtheprocesstoawideonlinecommunity.Apapermightreceiveattentionfrom those in your extended network, or beyond, who canoffervaluableinsights
Any own thoughts howthis practice evolvesfurther?
Theserviceisalreadystirringdiscussionsaboutcollaborativeprocesses in the public domain. Given the novelty of thisapproach,Sessionsismetwithskepticismbyacademics.The tool’s usefulness and provided functionalities are alsounderscrutiny.Whoarethepotentialusersofthisservice?Whatincentivedoacademicshavetoshareonlineanearlydraftoftheirwork?Would an experienced academic make their unfinishedpapersavailableforpubliccommentary?Istheservicemoresuitableforlessexperiencedscholars?Aretheauthor’sIPRprotected?WouldaDropbox,GoogleDocs,oremail-basedcollaborationbeequallyeffectiveorpreferable?Should collaboration be limited to commenting or should it
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alsoallowforjointediting?ThepresumedadvantageofSessionsisthatacademicsgettouseamassivepeernetworktoimprovetheirwork.Achievingtheright-levelof“openness”remainsachallenge.The original notification process had to be modified, afterusersstartedcomplainingaboutreceivingunsolicitedreviewrequests. Similarly, authors complained about the fact that,onceuploaded,theirdraftpaperswereautomaticallyopentocommentby certaingroupsof followers (e.g. supervisorsormutualfollowers).
Any further comments tothebestpractice?
Although not strictly related to the teaching function ofacademics, this case highlights another important area ofacademiccollaboration.With respect to the OEI2 platform this case points to thedirection of a multipurpose academic platform linkingacademics and students for the exchange of ideas and thecollaborative production of various artifacts: educationalresources,researchpapers,groupassignmentsetc.
Overviewofgoodpractices(Example2:NCSR-Greek)
GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
eCoursecreationattheUniversityofAthens
Good practice on openidea sharing and OERcreation
eCoursecreationattheUniversityofAthense-Course development is done collaboratively between ateamoftechnologyandeLearningexpertsandtheacademicsorindustryexperts(domainexperts).Thisisadifferentparadigmofco-creation,implementedasacollaborative exercise within an extended multidisciplinary
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team that provides continuous technical know-how andsupport to the academics throughout the developmentprocess.Thiscaseissignaledasbest-practicebecauseitaddressesanimportantbarriertoOpenEducation:thelackofdigitalskills(eLearning)amongseveralacademics.
GoodPracticesinOpenEducation(ideaspace)
2
Type of Collaborators:(The field that the usersrepresent)
Professors,externalexperts,ITspecialists,employers
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describetheideaanditsobjectives)
eCoursecreation(eLearning&OpenCourses)In 2001 the University of Athens established an E-LearningCentre for Continuing Education and Training of(https://elearn.elke.uoa.gr/). The E-Learning Centre hasimplementedalargenumberofcorporatetrainingprogramsandprojectsincooperationwiththirdpartiesandbusinesses.Currently, they provides more than 150 training programscovering areas like Business Administration, Shipping,Logistics, Finance, Entrepreneurship,Marketing,Accounting,Human Resource Management, Information Technology,Tourism, Environment, Educational Studies, Psychology,Special Education, Sociology, Health, Nutrition, Culture,Philosophyetc.The trainingprogramsare conductedsolelyvia the Internetandareaimedathelpingparticipantsdevelopadynamicandcompetitive professional profile. They are designed for
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peopleofanyagegroup,i.e.peoplewhoarejuststartingtheirprofessional career, people who are already working inbusinessandarekeentoupdatetheirknowledgetobecomemore competitive in the labormarket, people whowant toreturntolabormarketortomovetoanotherindustryetc.TheE-LearningCentreconstantlyproposesnewprogramstoaddress specific knowledge and professional skills needs ofthe labor market. For this purpose they recruit domainexperts,eitherfromwithintheUniversityofAthens,orfromexternal organisations, to develop the course materials.Course development is done in collaboration with the E-LearningCentreteammembers.In addition to providing eLearning courses to the generalpublic, the University is opening up existing courses(curriculum courses). The initiative, titled "Open AcademicCourses at the University of Athens"(http://opencourses.uoa.gr/), aims to develop open digitalcourses,andtomakethemfreelyavailabletobothstudentsofthe University of Athens and the general public. The term"OpenCourse"meansthat freeaccesstotheenvironmentofthecourseandeducationalmaterialisprovided.Theaimistoproduce self-containing courses for independent use andconsumption.Theactionisnotpartoftheformalcurriculaofthe University, does not constitute a distance educationprogramanddoesnotgrantadegreeorcertificate.The University of Athens and the involved academicpersonnel retain the intellectual property rights of theeducational material of the Open Course. The use of thismaterialbythirdpartiesisallowedunderspecificlicense.The Open Courses of the University are hosted in theeducationalplatformOpeneClass.(http://eclass.uoa.gr/).The action is part of "Central Repository of Greek OpenCourses" project, a national support initiative for thedevelopment,hostingandfreeonlinedeliveryofdigitalopen
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courses, with the participation of the majority of Greekuniversities and technological institutes(http://opencourses.gr/).
Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this agood practice and whatdifferentiate this OER andcollaborationfromothers?)
TheE-Learning Centre coordinates the development of newprogramstailoredtothespecificknowledgeandskillsneedsof the labor market. For this purpose they recruit domainexperts,eitherfromwithintheUniversityofAthens,orfromexternalorganisations,todevelopthecoursematerials.Similarly, the Open Course team works closely with theUniversity’sprofessorstocreateanopenelectronicversionoftheircourses.Inboth cases, e-Coursedevelopment is done collaborativelybetweentheteammembersandtheacademicexperts.Thisisadifferentparadigmofco-creation,implementedasacollaborativeexercisewithinamultidisciplinaryteam.This has significant advantages for the engagement of lessdigitallysavvyeducators,whowouldotherwisebeunabletobenefitfromOpenEducation.
WhatpracticalcontextdoCollaborators use withintheircollaboration?
In both cases the course development work is a lengthyprocess, involving a multidisciplinary team (course domainexpert, technology experts, managers etc.) in face-to-facemeetings, electronic exchange of documents, onlinecollaboration etc. Exploiting the potential of an onlinecollaboration space linking together all the involvedstakeholderscanimprovetheeffectivenessoftheprocessandfacilitateitsscaling-up.
Any own thoughts howMembers of both teams of the University of Athens, wereinvolvedintheOEI2validation:participantsfromtheteamin
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this practice evolvesfurther?
charge for thedesignanddeploymentof eLearning servicesandmembersoftheteamresponsibleforthe“OpenCourses”action. The latter are also responsible for the technicalcoordinationofanationalinitiativeforthedevelopmentofarepositoryofGreekopencourses.Inthislight,theinvestigationoftheapplicabilityoftheOEI2platformis twofold:asameanstosupport thecollaborationwithin the two teams (the E-Learning Centre team and theOpen Courses team) and also between the teams and thedomainexperts (contentauthors fromwithinoroutside theUniversity).A specialised toolset could support collaborativedevelopment, bringing together people, ideas and resourcestoincreasetheeaseofcollaborationwithremoteexpertsandacceleratecontentproductionoverall.Theuseoftheplatformcould also benefit the internal operation of the two teams,allowing for a better coordination and overview of theprojectsinprogress.Early collaboration and continuous peer support providesignificantadvantagestowardstheengagementofacademicsin Open Education practices. The online environment couldserve as a workspace for the development of synergiesbetween academic institutions for the development of jointcoursesandmaterials.Individual academic institutions could leverage thecapabilities of the wider academic community to producequalityOER.
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______________________________________________________________________________ GeneralGoodPracticesandOEI2-GoodPractices:Overviewofgoodpractices(Example1:ESCP-Germany)
Good practice on openidea sharing and OERcreation
Text book co-creation involving educators, youngpupilsandgraphicdesigners.
Goodpracticeonhowtosetupcollaboration
Early idea sharing via several social media channels(Facebook,Google+,Twitter)Collaborativeauthoringonwikisandduringdedicatedface-to-faceauthoringworkshops.
GoodPractice:Earlyideasharingforopeneducation
Schulbuch-O-Mat
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TypeofcollaboratorsSecondaryschoolteachers,pupils,translators,graphicdesigner
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describetheideaanditsobjectives)
The initiative “Schulbuch-O-Mat” (SBOM) set out totransparentlyprovide free-of-costandup-to-dateteachingmaterials. More specifically SBOM aimed to create anopenly licensed textbook for biology aligned to thecurriculumof grade7and8 in the federal stateofBerlin,Germany.Initiators are biology teacher Heiko Przyhodnik andconsultant/mediaproducerHansWedenig.Itreceivedhighattentionfromtheblogosphereandmedia.Theinitiativewaslaunchedin2012andfinancedthroughacrowd-funding campaign at startnext.de (10.000€donations).Thefirstversionofthetextbookwaspublishedin2013.
Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this agood practice; distinctivefeatures of OER andcollaboration?)
SBOM initiators shared the intention to create an OERtextbookearlyviasocialnetworking inordertopromotethe crowd fundingproject and raise awarenessonopenlylicensed textbooks. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ wereused regularly to call for voluntary authors, presentupdates on the state of the book, revisions, newcontributors and future plans. Community memberssuggestedrevisionsorup-to-date topics for thebook.Theinitiatives reachedmore than 760 followers on Facebookand480onTwitter.
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Younglearnerswereinvolvedintheauthoringofthetextbook.Theoutcomeisatextbookthatcanbedownloadedintwoformats (ePub, pdf) or accessed in html licensed under
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CreativeCommons BY-SA. It is accessible in improvedversion 1.3 at http://schulbuch-o-mat.de/biobuch/ . Thebookcontainsnumerousfiguresandmediafilesaswellasclass activities. Furthermore, a teacher in CologneproducedanIbookversionwithhispupils.The initiative (costs, savings compared to non-openlylicensed textbook) and the textbook itself (quality) wasevaluated by an external body. The evaluation wascontracted by the AustrianMinistry of Education BMUKKalsoinvestigatingthetransferabilitytoAustria.
Core elements of thecollaboration (tools,activities,organisations/individualsinvolved)
Schulbuch-O-MAT held an open authoring workshop toengage voluntary teachers in creating sub chapters incollaborationwith the team.Theworkshopscovereddeskresearch, licence check, didactical fine tuning and uploadusing a specific cloud-based authoring software (LOOP,basedonMediawiki)Supportedbyfederalfunding,Schulbuch-O-MATpromotedand held “Textbook hacking days” in 2013. Pupilscollaboratively worked on a glossary of technical termsdescribed in theirownwords.The resultsbecamepartofthe textbook under a specific section “from pupils forpupils”.Theinitiativereceivedsupportfromseveralorganisations● WikimediaGermanyhostedtheauthoringworkshops
forteachers● Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien im Internet e. V.
(ZUM)whichrunsalargewikiforGermanteachersof all subjects, hosted and promoted the initialauthoringspaceforthebiologytextbook
● University of Lübeck supported through theirauthoringtoolLOOPatalaterstage
● Serlo,aGermanOEReditorandrepositorywithfocus
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onbiologyandmath,furtherdevelopedthecontentofthebookatitsownplatform.
Socialmediawerecontinuouslyused forupdates,queries,feedbacketc.
How did the practiceevolvefurther
The initiative served as pilot project. There are on-goingeffortstoworktowardsmoreopenlylicensedtextbooks:● A text book for politics/economy aligned with the
curriculum in North-Rhine Westphalia is beingauthored (http://politik-wirtschaft.oncampus.de/loop/Hauptseite)
● The initiative held another authoring workshop tofinance an OER thematic booklet on “Neuralinformationprocessing”
Further comments to thepractice
It is noteworthy that the initiative succeeded to collect arespectable amount of donations and build a largecommunity.Schulbuch-O-Mat, however, could not find as manyvoluntary authors among teaching professionals as washopedfor.ThechallengewassolvedbytranslatingsuitableOERfromaUSplatform(CK12Foundation).
Overviewofgoodpractices(Example2:ESCP-Germany
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Good practice on openidea sharing and OERcreation
AnnualBar-Camponopeneducationalresources
Goodpracticeonhowtosetupcollaboration
Open unconference format of with participant-driven ad-hoc session planning (presentations, discussions,workshops) Collaboration and event documentation inetherpadsandWikisMajordriverofagrassrootmovementforOERinGermany
GoodPractice:Earlyideasharingforopeneducation
OERCamp
TypeofcollaboratorsPractitioners in media for education, adult educators,school teachers, researchers, policy-makers, educationalpublishers,OERadvocates
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describetheideaanditsobjectives)
Bar-Camps are user-generated conferences during whichparticipants share and learn in an open environment.Unlike traditional conferences that work with a pre-scheduled programme, Bar-Camps rely on input fromattendeestocreatethesessionprogrammeonthespotandcollaboratead-hoconemergingtopics.OER-Camps transfer the concept focussingon the topicofopen educational resources (OER). Since 2011, severalOER-Camps have taken place in Bremen, Bielefeld andBerlin.Theapproachcombinestheunconferenceapproachwithsomepre-scheduledworkshopsandpresentations.Maingoalsareto:
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● network and connect stakeholders across diverseeducationaldomains
● shareknowledgeandexpertiseonOER● spreadthewordonexistingaswellasnewinitiatives● promote open education among educational
practitionersandtodecision-andpolicy-makers
Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this agood practice; distinctivefeatures of OER andcollaboration?)
Theeventsareextremelyparticipatoryandattendeeshavediversebackgrounds.TheOER-Camphas led to the followingresults (selection)andoutcomes:● The low threshold to initiate discussions and share
knowledgehasbeenamaindriveroftheOERgrassroot movement in the German-speaking countries.Severalestablishededucationalplatformsforschooleducation have started to license resources withCreativeCommons.
● A core guide for teachers on the objectives behindOER, Creative Commons licenses and maineducational repositories/platform has beendeveloped by OER-Camp participants from AustriaandwillbeadaptedtotheGermancontext
● Plans to initiate a German OER award were madepublic and discussed during the OER-Camp 2015(andputintopracticein2016)
● Inspired by the practice, further OER-Camps wereheldinColognebyadifferentprovider.
OER-Campsareattendedbybothadedicatedcommunityofexpertsandnewattendees.Theeventsattractsindividualswho are new to OER; approximately 50% of participantshaveneverbeentoanOER-Campbefore.
Core elements of theThe camps have evolved as separate events out ofunconferences focusing on educational technology, media
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collaboration (tools,activities,organisations/individualsinvolved)
education and innovation in education. Both arecoordinatedby thenon-profit association “EduCampe.V.”.Theorganisationof thecamps is financedthroughprivatesponsorsandpartneringforpublicfundingthatisacquiredforeveryevent.All session documentation is in the hands of participantswith the organizers providing the technical infrastructureandcorepointstoberecordedsuchas:● Contacttosessionorganizers● Coreresults● Interestingquotes● Callforparticipation/follow-upevents
Examples of user-generated documentation can be foundfor20141and20152.
1 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N0Ky_0hDywXvyGaoMG8JdM5qNBc74a6pTMq1qF_Vh3M/edit#gid=0 2 https://ecber15.educamps.org/sessions/
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Twitter is used by a high percentage of the attendees toshare thoughts, critically comment,promote sessions, linktotheirdocumentationorreflectontheircontent.
How did the practiceevolvefurther
A larger-scale OERCamp will take place in April 2016,combiningtheunconferenceformatwithanawardforOERinGermanyandanOERforumforpolicy-makers.Itisforeseentocontinuetheorganisationofannualevents.
Further comments to thepractice
Depending on the input from participants, OERCampsconstitute a mix of promotional/informative sessions onexisting initiatives and educational materials with morediscursive elements, discussions and exchange on newideas.
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______________________________________________________________________________ GeneralGoodPracticesandOEI2-GoodPractices:Overviewofgoodpractices(Example1:DHBW-Germany)
GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
Co-development of Term Papers - Case Study Class –UniversityMasterProgramOneofthemaintargetgroupsofOpenEducationalIdeasarestudentsatuniversities.Thisgoodpracticeisshowingthecollaborationofstudentsdeveloping a term paper in class focusing onentrepreneurialskillsininternationalbusiness.ThestudyofcompanycasestudiesinteachingiscommoninMBAclassesmainlyinInternationalBusinessprograms.
GoodpracticehowtomaketheideaorOERsharingsuccessful(e.g., how to set up thecollaboration)
TheportalIdeaSpacewasintroducedbythelecturertofivegroupsconsistingofupto4students.Theplatformwaswellacceptedbythecollaborators.Asimplebutsuccessfuluser-traininghasbeenusedcombiningelectronicdataandotherpublications to kick-off the research work. Through thedynamic process of exchanging perspectives, counteringand defending points, and building on each other’s ideas,students become adept at analysing issues, exercisingjudgment,andcollecteddifferenttypeofdatatokick-offtheprojectwork.
GoodPracticesinOpenEducation(Internet)
1
Type of Collaborators: (Thefieldthattheusersrepresent)
ProfessorfromthefieldofInternationalBusinessMBACourseatuniversityofappliedscienceStudents
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TeachersPublic
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describe theideaanditsobjectives)
Co-development of Term Papers - Case Study Class –UniversityMasterProgramWhen students are presented with the case, they placethemselves in the roleof thedecisionmaker as they readthrough the situation and identify the problem they arefaced with. They perform the necessary analysis -examining the causes and considering alternative coursesofactionstocometoasetofrecommendations.Thisgoodpracticeisshowingthecollaborationofstudentsdeveloping a term paper in class focusing onentrepreneurial skills in international business. Around 4collaborators were involved in each of the idea spacecreated.The initial idea sharinghas led toa collaborationas well as to new ideas, impulses and innovations. Theresult of the collaboration is published as anOER aswellandnowusedatdifferentuniversities.Thecasemethodisaprofoundeducationalinnovationthatpresents the greatest challenges confronting leadingcompanies, non-profits, and government organizations –completewiththeconstraintsandincomplete informationfoundinrealbusinessissues–andplacesthestudentintheroleofthedecisionmaker.Aimsandobjectives:Improvingtheeffectivenessinteachingagivendiscipline-management in this case - isa longanddifficult task.Theeffective use of online portals requires both atransformationof thepedagogicalgoalsandtheprocessesthelecturerassociatewithteachingmanagement.Thegoalsare not to set up a virtual campus but to establish atechnological framework inwhich the studentswill learnaboutbusiness,andareabletoproducereusablemodules
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that can be shared and improved by their colleagues.Innovation in class requires rethinking the relationshipbetween the skills we would like to develop, thetechnologieswedeploy, and themethodologiesweuse toevaluatetheirsuccessorfailure.Byengagingstudentsinbusinessconflictsdevelopedfromrealevents,casesimmersestudentsinthechallengestheyare expected to face. Challenges that require thoughtfulanalyseswithlimitedoreveninsufficientinformation.Thatrequire effective responses within ambiguouscircumstancesorcomplexeconomicandpoliticalcontexts.That, most of all, demand decisive action that must bearticulated –and even defended – among other talented,ambitiousindividuals.● Developingatermpaperinprojectmanagement● Utilizingexistingresourcestominimizeresearcheffort● Analysingandelaboratingonthefindingspublishedin
thecasestudymaterial,iterateandreachthekeyresultsoftheresearchtopic
● Mappinglearningobjectivestoexistingrealcasesituations.
● Overalllearningobjectives:Creatinginitialawarenessformanagementfailuresandriskmanagement
ProjectPhasesWhen students are presented with the case, they placethemselves in the roleof thedecisionmaker as they readthrough the situation and identify the problem they arefaced with. The next step is to perform the necessaryanalysis–examiningthecausesandconsideringalternativecoursesofactionstocometoasetofrecommendations.Itwasachievedinthefollowingphases:● Initiation:TheprojectwaslaunchedduringaPHE
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programme–ProjectManagement.● Collaboratorinvolvement:Thefirstcollaborators
withdifferentdegreesofinvolvementwereattractedwiththesupportofthelecturer.Nowotherstudentsatthesameuniversity,butalsooutsidefollowtheexampleanduseitintheirclassestoo.
● Projectdevelopment:ThefirstprojectwasintheMBAclassroomatoneuniversityandwith20students.DivegroupswerebuiltwiththetargettoanalysefourcasesandresearchpapersandcollectdatafromdifferentresourcesanduploadalldocumentsanddatatotheIdeaSpaceplatform.However,nowafterthreeyearsofexperiencemorecollaboratorsfromdifferentuniversitiesbuiltonandhaveprovidedfeedbackandinitial(OER)suggestions.
● Initialvalidation:Thetermpaperandpublicationhasbeeninitiallyvalidatedwithprofessorsandwaspartoftheexamination.
● Improvementandexperienceexchange:TheOERisnowusedby4differentuniversitiesandbecamepartoftheannuallectureprogramfor2016.
● Extensionofactivities:Thecollaborators(universityteachers)haveagreedtodeveloptheOERfurtheranduseitalsoinotherclassesandprogrammes,whichwillextendthescope.
ReducingbarriersandbuildguidingcoalitionAlsoamongstudentsand lecturersatuniversities it isnoteasy to findusers to openly share theirworkdone in theclassroom with other students or colleagues they do notknow. The key challengewas to find collaborators whichhave similar objectives and requirements, which was thecase for the five groups in one class. The combination to
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collaboratewith researchers from the institutionwith thetasktopresenttheresults,whichwereexamined,helpedtokick-offtheusageoftheplatformKickOffbyprojecthostsThe initial idea was developed in a MBA class ofinternational students being familiarwith open educationlearningandMOOCs. In thiscontext,aprofessorbuild thestructurefortheresearchtopicsontheIdeaSpaceplatformand initiated the collaboration among the students andother researchers at theuniversity.About20participantsparticipatedandprovidedinputregardingthefivedifferentideas generated on the platform. All 20 participantswereenrolledintheideaspace.IdeaandcontextdevelopmentThe initial idea development was done in the idea space(http://www.idea-space.eu/idea/85/info) developed as apilotintheclassroomwith20students.Especiallytheideaprocess was supported and facilitated by the professorseeking for a more efficient way of collaboration ofresearchers in projects. The core development was thendonestructuringthestepsofaresearchprojectontheIdeaSpaceplatform.• Motivational issues are emphasized because students
hadtoparticipate• Context preparation is easier and lead to fewer
problemsingroupdynamics.Thereneedstobealeaderatthebeginningoftheexperiment
• Technological problems were not encountered.Studentshadsimilartechnicalbackgrounds
• Interaction is successful after explaining to studentstheirroleinthevirtualteam.
• Structure provides ways of reducing variability in
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activitiesandproceduralaspectsofprojectsaswellasuseoftechnology.
• The initiator of the idea used this opportunity tostructurestudents'activitieswithinthisenvironment.
• Process reinforces students' beliefs about activitiessuchasplanningwithinprojectmanagementarea.
• Nationalculturalbackgroundisnon-existentinourideacollaboration.
• Professional background reflects different ways ofworking.Allparticipantsarestudentmajors,sothiswasnotanissueinthiscollaborationproject.
• Creative content formation is achieved by the stronginteraction of three categories of users: students,teachers (specifically those involved in the scenarios)andadministrativepersonnel.
In addition external research papers and case studymaterialsweregiventothestudents.Othersourcessuchasexternal database, literature and online data, such asvideos, where used and uploaded to the Idea Space. Theresources were posted next to a public repository, andfeedbackwas then collected again through the idea spacefromassociatedprofessorsorresearchers.DistributionofconceptThe idea was next shared with professors at otheruniversities running the same programme and using thesametypeofresearchpaperforexamsintheirclassroom.Twomore classes joint the collaboration and new inputsweregiventothepage(inparticularresourceswhichcouldbeused).Sustainability
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After the initial successful usage of the platform studentsconfirmed the effectiveness and high level of knowledgedistributionamongthecollaborators.Studentswereeasilyconvincedbythehostsandprofessorstousetheplatformand thewayof lecturingalso inother classes. Students inother universities but in the same study programmerealized, that the knowledge further improves,when theybuiltonexistingdatafromstudentsatdifferentuniversitiesareclassesfrompreviousyears.Itseemedtobeimportanttoinitiateabasisandstructurewithpioneersactingasleadusers.ConclusionThe aim and objectives to develop an efficient process ofcollaboration among students and professors in researchandprojectworkcouldbeachieved.Thecollaborationhasbeen very successful among the stakeholders. New ideasand conceptswere developed. The collaborationwith thenetworkofstudentsandprofessorswasespeciallyhelpfulin providing new efficient ways and data resourcesuggestionsandexchangeofthoughtshowtoapproachtheresearchtopic.The collaborators are showing the willingness to furtherwork together and extend the collaboration, also thenetworkingaspecthasbeenverysuccessful.Akeysuccess factor for furtherusageof thesameideabyothercollaboratorsistheselectionandcombinationofdatafound within one idea space which will be furtherdeveloped–authoring/adaptingishappeningnowamongother universities and students. For new users it washelpful that all participants could built on an existingstructure. And the technical skills of new users aresufficienttousetheplatformandunderstandthefunctionsofthetools.
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Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this a goodpractice and what differentiatethis OER and collaboration fromothers?)
ResultsThe project has led to practical results which areimplemented now at four different universities andfaculties.Keyresultsare:● Projectstructureforstudentsandresearchersand
theIdeaSpaceplatform● Coursematerialforfourdifferentprogammesbased
oncase-studyteachingandlearning● Dataandprojectresultsfrompreviousclassesof
threesemestersincludingfinaltermpapersandpresentations
● OpenSourceproductstospeedtothedevelopmentprocessforthenextuserswithinthesameteachingprogramme
● NetworkofcollaboratorsatdifferentuniversitiesEffortandImpactIt can be reported that the collaboration has led to adecreaseofthedevelopmenteffortofprojectsandresearchwork of students significantly. Through recommendationsby professors within a HE institutions, existing OER andmaterials are now used in classes in the following years.Also, sharing the project effort has led to engagement ofentire classes and reduced the time for development ofresearchandtermpaperssignificantly.FutureactivitiesThe collaboration has led to the agreement that thestudentsandprofessorswanttocontinuetoworktogetherin other research topics and projects in class. The teambuilding approach and setting up a network of students,researchers and professors has been very successful interms of efficiency and quality of knowledge generation.
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Theworkingmethodsandtoolsusedwillbeacknowledgedby further collaborators and outcomes will be utilized inthefutureandimproved.
What practical context doCollaborators use withintheircollaboration?
The collaboration was a combination of students,researchers and professors from different faculties anduniversities. However, the results are mainly used forstudents and training with case-studies. The portal IdeaSpacehasbeenviewedveryfavourablybyalargemajorityof MBA students. The portal was explicitly mentioned inwritten evaluations of both their course and theirinstructor.Moststudentshavepraisedtheuseoftheportalto explore and structure their course work rather thanusing the technology simply to "store PowerPointpresentations".Themajorityof students also feel that theproject focuses on developing competencies that weremarket relevant and not just abstract knowledge. Finally,severalstudentshaveunderlinedthatpublicaccesstotheirworkwouldbeadefiniteadvantageinsellingtheirskillstocurrentandfutureemployers.
Any own thoughts how thispracticeevolvesfurther?
Although teaching staff they felt that the technical skillsrequired tomanage their course on theportal Idea Spaceareeasilyattainable,theystrugglewithhowtoadapttheircurrentcoursecontentandprocesstobenefitfromtheIdeaSpaceproject.Manyhaveexpresseddifferentopinionsoverthe required coherence degree of programme's learningobjectives,aswellastowhatdegreetheircoursescouldbedigitized.Most feel that the IdeaSpaceentailsmoreworkthan more traditional instruction, and many haveexpressedconcernsofhowsuchworkwouldberecognizedby their professional communities. However mostprofessorsmentionedthatthispracticewillevolvefurtherandprofessorswilluse italso formaster thesisandother
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researchwork incollaborationwithexternal stakeholdersintheworldofwork.Firstpilotprojectscanbefound,butarenotshowasopenresources.
Any further comments tothebestpractice?
Themajorityofstudentsalso feel that theplatform–IdeaSpace - focuses on developing competencies that weremarket relevant and not just abstract knowledge. Finally,severalstudentshaveunderlinedthatpublicaccesstotheirworkwouldbeadefiniteadvantageinsellingtheirskillstocurrentandfutureemployers.
Overviewofgoodpractices(Example2:DHBW-Germany)
GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
Research Paper - Bachelor Thesis at university ofappliedscienceOneof themain target groupsofOpenEducational Ideasarestudentsatuniversities.Bachelorthesisisaresearchprojectandthedevelopmentis done collaboratively between a team of business(company experts), academic experts and the studentwritingthethesis.
GoodpracticehowtomaketheideaorOERsharingsuccessful(e.g., how to set up thecollaboration)
The platform was well accepted by the collaborators. Asimple but successful user-training has been usedcombiningelectronicdataandotherpublications tokick-offtheresearchwork.
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GoodPracticesinOpenEducation(Internet)
2
Type of Collaborators:(The field that the usersrepresent)
ProfessorfromthefieldofInternationalBusinessBachelorThesisatuniversityofappliedscienceStudentTeachersIndustryPartnerNon-Public
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describetheideaanditsobjectives)
Bachelor Thesis – University of Applied ScienceProgramBachelor thesis isaresearchprojectandthedevelopmentis done collaboratively between a team of business(company experts), academic experts and the studentwritingthethesis.Thisisadifferentparadigmofco-creation,implementedasa collaborative exercise within a multidisciplinary team -that provides continuous research know-how,methodologies and support to the student throughout thedevelopmentprocessofthethesistopics.Thiscase isusedasgood-practicebecause itaddressesanimportantbarriertoOpenEducation:thelackofdisclosingresearchmethodologies and results among other users inanopenenvironmentandseveralacademics.Aimsandobjectives:Improvingtheeffectivenessinteachingagivendiscipline-management in this case - isa longanddifficult task.Theeffective use of online portals requires both atransformationof thepedagogicalgoalsandtheprocessesthelecturerassociatewithteachingmanagement.Thegoals
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are not to set up a virtual campus but to establish atechnological framework inwhich the studentswill learnaboutbusiness,andareabletoproducereusablemodulesthat can be shared and improved by their colleagues.Innovation in class requires rethinking the relationshipbetween the skills we would like to develop, thetechnologieswedeploy, and themethodologiesweuse toevaluatetheirsuccessorfailure.Theplatform isused tosharepapers,monitor theirusageandreadcommentsandfollowtheresearchinaparticularfield.By engaging company members and using real workscenariosinbusinessfromrealevents,thethesisimmersestudents in the challenges they are expected to face.Students are facing challenges in the thesis that requirethoughtfulanalyseswithoften limitedoreven insufficientinformation from the companies. That require effectiveresponsesfromthethreecollaborators(student,professor,manager) within ambiguous circumstances or complexeconomicandpoliticalcontexts.That,mostofall,demanddecisive action that must be articulated –and evendefended–amongothertheoreticalknowledge.● Developingathesispaper● Utilizingexistingresourcestominimizeresearcheffort● Analysingandelaboratingonthefindingsandcompany
data,iterateandreachthekeyresultsoftheresearcheffort
● Mappingresearchobjectivesfromtheinstitutioncomparingtoexistingrealcasesituations.
● Overalllearningobjectives:writingthesispaperbasedonatheoreticalframeworkandfieldanalysesresults
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ProjectPhasesWhen students are presented with the thesis topic, theyplacethemselves intheroleof thedecisionmakerastheyread through the situation and identify the problem theyare facedwith. The next step is to perform the necessaryanalysis–examiningthecompanyissuesandproblemsandconsideringalternativecoursesofactionstocometoasetof recommendations. It was achieved in the followingphases:● Initiation:ThethesiswaslaunchedduringaPHE
programme–InternationalBusiness● Industryinvolvement:Thecompanysupportedthe
researchteamwithdifferentdegreesofinvolvementbutwereattractedwiththesupportoftheprofessor.
● Projectdevelopment:Theprimarychallengeofthesisworkwastoachievealloftheprojectgoalsandconstraints.Therequiredresources,informationandliteraturewasdescribedfirst,whichiscreatedatthebeginningofthedevelopment.Theprimaryconstraintsoftheresearchwasthequantitativeanalysesandmethodologyusedfor.Thesecondary—andmoreambitious—challengewastofindcollaboratorstogathernecessaryinputsandintegratethemtomeetpre-definedobjectives.
● Initialvalidation:Thethesispaperandpublicationhasbeeninitiallyvalidatedwiththeprofessorsandcompanymanagers.
● Improvementandexperienceexchange:Theconceptisnowusedbytheprofessorstosupportotherstudentsintheirthesisworkwiththesameapproachofcollaboration,e.g.Student,professorandindustrymanageronthelearningplatformIdea
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Space.● Extensionofactivities:Thecollaboratorshaveagreed
todevelopthedataexchangefurther,whichwillextendthescope.
ReducingbarriersandbuildingguidingcoalitionThepotentialvalueofcollaborativetechnologiesisstronglyinfluencedbyorganizationalcontext,both inandbetweenthe university and the business community. Usersproposed that the effectiveness of collaborativetechnologiesdependstoalargedegreeuponthedepthandcoherenceof learningobjectivesdesigned for the learningandworkplaces.Also amongmanagers andprofessors atuniversitiesitisnoteasytofindcollaboratorstosharedatarelevant for the thesis and research study. The keychallenge was to find collaborators which have similarobjectivesandrequirements,whichwasthecaseonlyinanon-public environment. The combination to collaboratewith researchers from the institution with the task topresent theresults,whichwereexamined,helped tokick-offtheusageoftheplatform,butnotwithintheideaitself.KickOffbyprojecthostThe initial idea was developed in between a student andprofessorbeing familiarwith the IdeaSpaceplatformandthe possibilities to share data and knowledge among thethree stakeholders in a threemonths research project. Inthis context, the professor build the structure for theresearchtopicsontheIdeaSpaceplatformandinitiatedthecollaborationamongthestudents,otherresearchersattheuniversity and themanager in the industry. Collaboratorsprovidedinputregardingtheresearchtheme.
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IdeaandcontextdevelopmentThe initial idea development was done in the idea space(http://www.idea-space.eu/idea/80/info) developed as apilot in the classroom. Especially the idea process wassupported and facilitated by the professor seeking for amore efficient way of collaboration of researchers inprojects.ThecoredevelopmentwasthendonestructuringthestepsofaresearchprojectontheIdeaSpaceplatform.In addition external research papers and case studymaterialsweregiventothestudent.Othersourcessuchasexternal database, literature and online data, such asvideos, where used and uploaded to the Idea Space. Theresourceswere postednext to a repository, and feedbackwas then collected again through the idea space fromassociatedprofessorsorresearchers.DistributionofconceptThe idea was next shared with professors at otheruniversities running the same type research projects andusingthesametypeofresearchpaper forbachelor thesis.TwomoreprofessorsjointthecollaborationandnewideaswereinitiatedontheIdeaSpaceplatform.SustainabilityProgram lecturers stressed the contrast between thepotentialusingtheportal–IdeaSpace-anduniversityrealenvironment. On the one hand, they have applauded thefocus on developing individual and team competenciesratherthan"classroomlearning"inanopenenvironment–theonlineportal.Theyhave stressed thepositive spin-offfor recruiting and developing professional networks. Onthe other hand, they feel poorly equipped to driveorganizationalandpedagogicalchangesneededtoreapthe
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full benefits from this proposal. They have cited realchallengesincompensatinginstructorsfortheiruseoftheportal, in dealing with administrative concerns overstandarduniversitypractice,andinprovidingaclearroadmapforthefutureofblendedlearning.ConclusionThe university administrationmust also be considered inevaluatingOEIandtheIdeaSpacesuccess.TheUniversity'spolicy of centrally driven technology initiatives has beenperceived to be directly challenged by this departmentalinitiative using an open platform – the Idea Space-. Someuniversity officials have been concerned that using theportaltoprovidemaximumvaluetotheprogramconflictswithuniversitygoalsofassuringminimumfunctionalityinan e-learning platform across departments. Given thevisibility of e-learning initiatives on campus and withinUniversity community, the project has been subject toconflictsof interestpresent inmostuniversities that limitthe possibilities of a shared vision concerning the roleplayedbyITinsupportinghighereducation.
Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this agood practice and whatdifferentiate this OER andcollaborationfromothers?)
ResultsThe project has led to practical results which areimplemented now at four different universities andfaculties.Keyresultsare:● Projectstructureforstudentsandresearchersonthe
IdeaSpaceplatformforfurtheruse● Coursematerialfordifferentprogammes● Dataandprojectresultsfrompreviousclassesof
threesemestersincludingfinaltermpapersandpresentations
● OpenSourceproductstospeedtothedevelopment
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processforthenextuserswithinthesameteachingprogramme
● NetworkofcollaboratorsatdifferentuniversitiesEffortandImpactIt can be reported that the collaboration has led to adecreaseofthedevelopmenteffortofprojectsandresearchwork of students significantly. Through recommendationsbyprofessorswithin theHEinstitutions,existingOERandmaterials are now used in classes in the following years.Also, sharing the project effort has led to engagement ofentire classes and reduced the time for development ofresearchandtermpaperssignificantly.FutureactivitiesThe collaboration has led to the agreement that thestudentsandprofessorswanttocontinuetoworktogetherin other research topics and projects in class. The teambuilding approach and setting up a network of students,researchers and professors has been very successful interms of efficiency and quality of knowledge generation.Theworkingmethodsandtoolsusedwillbeacknowledgedby further collaborators and outcomes will be utilized inthefutureandimproved.
WhatpracticalcontextdoCollaborators use withintheircollaboration?
The collaboration was a combination of students,researchers and professors from different faculties anduniversities. However, the results are mainly used forstudentsandtrainingwithcase-studies.
Any own thoughts howthis practice evolvesfurther?
Thelearningplace,IdeaSpaceasacollaborativeworkplacein education and training, is defined by the nature of therelationships with other students, faculty andadministrators, aswell as the learning agenda, structures,
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and outcomes.Howeverkeyquestionsremainandneedtobedefinedfortheteachingstaff,suchas:
• What is the institution's learning agenda, and whatrole does information technology play in shapingthatagenda?
• How is the university structured to support e-learning, and to what degree does informationtechnology strengthen (or weaken) itsorganizationalfoundations?
• Howhavetheprogramsdefinedthedesiredoutcomesoruniversityexperience,andtowhatextentdoese-learningenrichthisexperience?
Any further comments tothebestpractice?
StudentsperceivethattheusageoftheplatformIdeaSpaceimproves the knowledge transfer and clarify the differentperspectivesofthecollaboratorsinanefficientway.
______________________________________________________________________________ GeneralGoodPracticesandOEI2-GoodPractices:Overviewofgoodpractices(Example1:JYU–Finland)
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GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
ComputerClassPrimarySchoolOneof themain targetgroupsofOpenEducational Ideasareschools.Thiscasehasaimedatdevelopingacomputerclass focusing on programming skills in first grade.Around 6 collaborators were involved. The initial ideasharinghasledtoacollaborationaswellastonewideas,impulsesand innovations.Theresultof thecollaborationispublishedasanOERaswell.
GoodpracticehowtomaketheideaorOERsharingsuccessful(e.g., how to set up thecollaboration)
TheportalIdeaSpaceisnotyetverywellknowninthecommunity.Therefore,itisnecessarytoattractpossiblecollaborators in different channels. A simple butsuccessfulstrategyhasbeenusedcombiningelectronicandtraditionalchannels.
GoodPracticesinOpenEducation(Internet)
1
Type of Collaborators:(The field that the usersrepresent)
ProfessorfromthefieldofInformationSystemsResearchInstitute(Pedagogical)ContentexpertsTeachersPublic
Description of goodpractice: (Briefly describetheideaanditsobjectives)
ComputerClassPrimarySchoolOne of themain target groups of Open Educational Ideasareschools.Thiscasehasaimedatdevelopingacomputerclassfocusingonprogrammingskillsinfirstgrade.Around
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6collaboratorswere involved.The initial ideasharinghasledtoacollaborationaswellastonewideas,impulsesandinnovations.TheresultofthecollaborationispublishedasanOERaswell.Keyobjectives:● Developingacourseonprogrammingforfirstclasskids
inprimaryschoolwithafocusonthecombinationofphysicalandcomputeractivities
● Utilizingexistingresourcestominimizedevelopmenteffort
● Mappinglearningobjectivestoexisting(andnewcurricula):AmainassetforthecoursedevelopmentwasthenewcurriculuminSwitzerlandwhichintroducesmediaandinformationliteracyfromKindergartentoK9.Thiswastakenasanorientationforthecourseandcanbetransferredtocountrieswhichhavenotyetprogressedthatfar.
● Overalllearningobjectives:Creatinginitialawarenessforcomputersandprogramming,problemsolvingskills,combinationofsubjectcurricula(maths,languages,…)withcomputercontents,understandingandcreatingbasicalgorithmswithandwithoutcomputers
PhasesGenerally,thepracticehasledtowardsafullcourse/OERwithmore than 30 hours of contents including scenarios,resourcesandlessonplans.Itwasachievedinthefollowingphases:● Initiation:Theprojectwaslaunchedataneducational
conference(seebelow).● Collaboratorinvolvement:Newcollaboratorswith
differentdegreesofinvolvementwereattaracted.
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● Coursedevelopment:Thecoursewasmainlydevelopedbythreecollaborators.However,inbetweenothercollaboratorshaveprovidedfeedbackand(OER)suggestions.
● Initialvalidation:Thecoursehasbeeninitiallyvalidatedwithteachers.ThecoursewillrunfromJanuary2016inprimaryschools.
● Improvementandexperienceexchange:Thisphaseisplannedfor2016.
● Extensionofactivities:Thecollaboratorshaveagreedtodevelopaprojectwhichwillextendthescope.
FindingcollaboratorsUsually, one of the key challenges is to find collaboratorswhich have similar objectives and requirements. Acombinationofchannelswasusedinthispractice:KickOffatConferencesTheinitial ideawasdevelopedinaconference/barcampspecifically for educators(https://ecber15.educamps.org/). In this context, a shortbrainstormingsessionwasinitiated.About10participantsparticipated and provided input regarding the idea. Thiswas documented in the idea space. Participants wereenrolledintheideaspace.SocialMediaDistribution:TwitterandFacebookTheideawasnextsharedinrelevantcommunities/usinghashtags on twitter.A few requests cameandnew inputsweregiventothepage(inparticularresourceswhichcouldbeused)ProjectteamestablishmentAfter the initial brainstorming phase, a loosely coupled
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project team was established. In this phase, three corecollaborators (from Germany and Switzerland) agreed todevelop the course together. This team establishmentseemed important as a basis for the development (leadusers).IdeaandcoursedevelopmentThe initial idea development was done in the idea space(http://idea-space.eu/idea/92/workspace). Especially theidea process was supported and facilitated in the OEIworkspace. The core course development was then doneusing external tools: google docs and graphical tools. Theresources will be posted next to a public repository,feedbackisthencollectedagainthroughtheideaspace.ConclusionThecollaborationhasbeenverysuccessful:newideasandconcepts were developed. The network was especiallyhelpful in providing new ideas (for scenarios), resourcesuggestionsandinitialfeedback.As the collaborators have agreed to continue to worktogetherandextendthecollaboration,alsothenetworkingaspecthasbeenverysuccessful.Asoneofthekeychallenge,theselectionandcombinationof tools can be identified – authoring / adapting ishappeningoutsidetheideaspace.Here,itwashelpfulthatall participants had rather advanced technical skills, soresultscouldbetransferredbetweentools.
Description of the goodPractice: (Why is this agood practice and what
ResultsThe project has led to practical results which areimplementedinschools.Keyresultsare:● Courseforprogramming/computerintroductionfor
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differentiate this OER andcollaborationfromothers?)
firstgrade● Learningscenariosforabout30lessonsincluding
commentsforteachers● Resourcesfor30lessonsincludingworksheets● InclusionofOER/OpenSourceproductstospeedto
thedevelopmentprocess● Networkofcollaborators
EffortandImpactItcanbereportedthatthecollaborationhasledtodecreasethe development effort significantly. Throughrecommendations, existing OER and materials wereidentified.Also, sharing thedevelopment effort has led toengagement while reducing the time for developmentsignificantly(about2months).ThecoursehasadirectimpactasitwillbeusedinschoolsinGermanyandlaterinothercountries.FutureactivitiesThe collaboration has led to the agreement thatcollaborators want to continue to work together (for afurthercourseandalsotowardsaEuropeanproject).Thus,thenetworkingefforthasbeenverysuccessfulasastrongteam was established. Also, loose connections to furthercollaboratorshavebeendevelopedwhichcanbeutilizedinthefuture.
WhatpracticalcontextdoCollaborators use withintheircollaboration?
Thecollaborationwasacombinationof researchers (bothpedagogical and technical), teachers, and the openpublic.However,theresultsaremainlyusedforschoolsandlaterforteachereducation.
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Overviewofgoodpractices(Example2:JYU–Finland)
GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
LeadUsercollaborationinIdeaSpaceThis goodpractice reviews existing collaborations in ideaspaceandreflectswhatmadethemsuccessful.
Best Practice on idea-space
2
NoofCollaborators:2-20
Type of Collaborators:(The field that the usersrepresent)
e.g.:Professors,students,employers
Description of Idea:(Briefly describe the ideaanditsobjectives)
Theideaspaceincludedvariousideaswithvarioustopics.Withineachtherewasusuallyonepersonthatleadthewayand moderated the discussion. This lead person was theonemaking sure the collaboration reached the objectivesanddecidedhowlongIdeaSpaceisneeded.
Description of the BestPractice:(Whyisthisideaa
Lead users facilitating and moderating idea sharingprocess
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best practice and whatdifferentiate this idea andcollaborationfromothers?)
WhatpracticalcontextdoCollaborators use withinideacollaboration?
The created idea spaces within OEI2-project and therelated empiric data collected by the project showscertainpracticesthatenabletheexchangeofideas.One of the key things is relating to a lead user whodrivestheprocess.SharedgoalnotenoughWe can observe from the created idea spaces that acommon goal is not enough to drive the onlinecollaborationoflike-mindedpeersonline.E.g.aforeseenpotentialprojectorcommoncourseHowever, if the common goal is pressing enough (e.g. thecourse that requires a new collaboration to emerge isintegratedtothecurriculum),theeffortislikelytobetakenContributionsdifferThe lead users do not expect everyone will contributeevenly. Small comment might be all that is needed at aparticularphaseNewandexistingtiesThe lead users know what to expect from newcommunities. When they need feedback, they combine
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smartly various channels to awaken their networks. Theideaspaceistheplacetohandlemuchoftheworkbutnottheonlysite.The lead user has strong networks that step up whenneeded(strongandtrustedties).Lead users know that the fresh perspectives often comefromoutsidethestrongcoreteamsoneworkswith.Thisiswherenewinterestingcontactsareneeded.EmotionalownershipasanenablerTheleadusersarehighlydevotedandfeelownershipoftheideas that are being exchanged with the community.Doesn’t get too attached to early ideas as those are oftenimprovedby increasingdiscoursewith thecontacts in thenetwork.Leaduserdoesnotbecomeprotectivetowardstheir ideaswhen they realize the potential but discuss it with hisnetwork to find mutual benefits that would help thecollaborationtocontinue.Whatdrivestheleaduser?Moreresearchisneededtoexplainwhyleaduserskeeponpushingtheideafurther.However,weseefewkeyissues:LeadusersareextrovertsLeadusersareinterestedtosharetheirearlyideasLead users are interested in collaborating on their earlyideasLead users are willing to take criticism and change the
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courseofcollaborationifthereisaneedforitLeadusersaretech-savvyLeadusersmighthavea contractual obligation to run thecollaborationLead users benefit from the outcome of the collaborationdirectly
Any own thoughts howthis practice evolvesfurther?
IntheideaSpacemanyoftheideaswerenotcollaboratedtotheendintheplatform.Therearemanyreasonsforthis.Forsomeofthecollaboration,thepurposewastogetinitialideas together that the team or parts of it can work onthose further in their own work or in a collaborationbetweenseveralpeers.
Any further comments tothebestpractice?
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_____________________________________________________________________________ GeneralGoodPracticesandOEI2-GoodPractices:Overviewofgoodpractices(Example1:VMU-Lithuania)
GoodpracticehowtorunideaorOERsharinginpractice(e.g.,school,university)
CreationofaMasterCourseYour idea or OER needs to be findable. Youmay open itandbewillingtoshare,butitneedstobefindabletothosewhoneedit.Thusitisimportanttoplaceitinplaceswhereinterested users would likely to be looking for it. Forexample a European Commission innitiative platformEPALE for adult educators is a very good place to storeOERforadulteducators.Correcttaggingisveryimportantaswell.
GoodpracticehowtomaketheideaorOERsharingsuccessful(e.g.,howtosetupthecollaboration)
Dealingwitheducatorsindifferentsectorswefoundthat:- Educators are not aware about OER and about open
licences. In thebest case theyhaveavaguenotionofwhat OER is – „probably if it is online...“ and haveheardanotionofopen licensesor creative commonslicenses. Therefore, there is a need ofinformation/training about the basics of OER, openlicensesandsharing.
- Middle-aged and senior educators are copyright-minded.Theyneed toopen theirminds to thenotionof open sharing as such. Young people, who aresoakinginsocialnetworks,arequiteimmersedinthecultureofsharing.
- ThereisaneedtocreateacultureofOERandculture
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ofsharingineducationworld.
OthergoodpracticeshowtouseOER
SeekingtomakeOERmoreusableandacceptablenotonlyinahighereducation,butinaschoolsaswell:- Shareyourideaswithothersandacceptotheropinion;- Collaboratewithcoleagues,teachers,students.
Good Practices in OpenEducation (Internet orideaspace)
1
Type of Collaborators:(The field that the usersrepresent)
Higher education teachers from several EU countriescollaboratingtocreateaMastercourseforuniversities.
Descriptionofgoodpractice:(Brieflydescribetheideaanditsobjectives)
WecreatedaMasterprogramcoursenamed „Conceptsofadulteducation“forvirtualmobility.Thiscourseincubateda new idea on open education. Mainly it is for adulteducation.TheideawastocreateacourseinENforvirtualmobilityofstudentsofseveralpartneruniversities.The course itself is grounded in Education science. Adulteducation theories have to be considered and used tointerpret the topics discussed. The course is part of VMUformal Master of Education Management study programbut it has been elaborated to make it in EN, suitable forvirtual mobility and outside students from other partneruniversitieswhowillundertakevirtualmobility.Thetopicsofthecourse:Lifelong Education. Lifelong learning and the state: link
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between learning, economy and social cohesion.Intergenerational learning. Learning in later age.Analysis of Adult learning and Education Policies.Analytical policy models of adult learning and education:Democratic emancipatory model;Modernisation and state control model;Human resources management model.Literacy.OECDandUNESCOasPolicyactorsinEducation.Lifelong learning: state supervision and individualresponsibility.Validation of non-formal and informal learning. Methods,measures, procedures, developments in EU countriesAdult learning related learning theories: humanistic (CarlRogers), experiential (David Kolb), andragogy (MalkolmKnowles), transformative (Paulo Freire, Jack Mezirow)learning.PracticesofOERinadulteducation.
DescriptionofthegoodPractice:(WhyisthisagoodpracticeandwhatdifferentiatethisOERandcollaborationfromothers?)
Preparationofan international course forvirtualmobilitywith co-creators from several European required acommon virtual space for collaboration. We used othertoolsforcommunication(email,skype,etc.),butIdeaSpacewas useful because of its given course creation templatewith structure necessary for course creation. That washelpful.
WhatpracticalcontextdoCollaboratorsusewithintheircollaboration?
The main aspects of the course were transfered from anexisting course in Lithuanian. However, course creationincluded elaboration of the course curriculum to make itsuitable for virtual mobility and students from differentnational and cultural context, adding materials in EN(readings, videos, tests, etc.) and accommodating parts ofthe curriculum (topics and materials) from teachers thatbelonged to two universities (LT and IT). In this caseIdeaSpacewasuseful.
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Anyownthoughtshowthispracticeinvolvesfurther?
Ouruniversitywill probably continue experimentingwithvirtualmobilityandcoursecreation.
Anyfurthercommentstothebestpractice?
New open contexts require new open spaces for sharingandcreating.