International Conference on Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow9-11 June 2015

Welcome

Pete CannellDeveloping Open Educational Practices

to Support Transitions

Widening participation and open education

• Challenges and contradictions• Advocates of open education suggest that it

opens up the possibility of wider participation• But in general university WP practitioners are

not engaged with open education• Our students and potential students live and

learn in a digital world• MOOCs and OER materials mainly studied by

the educational haves

What is OER?• OER = Open Educational Resources• Free educational materials (and mainly courses) that are licensed

to allow the 5Rs:

• reuse, • revise, • remix, • redistribute• retain

• MOOCS?

Opening Educational Practices in Scotland

The Project

Cross-sector project in Scotland tasked to increase the awareness and use of OER, with a focus on widening participation and transitions. Led by OU in Scotland as part of its outcome agreement with the Scottish Funding Council.

www.oepscotland.org

Origins• Explosion of available

OER • An extensive range of

partnerships between the OU in Scotland and other organisations: third sector, unions, employers, colleges and schools. An increase in interest in OER.

OER Repositories

Developing OER in partnership From around 2010 OU in Scotland began to develop new OER in partnership and also to explore the use of existing OER in workplace and other social settings

Towards open educational practiceInternationally there is a shift from OER as ‘learning objects’ to an interest in OEP Our experience suggests that open educational practice is about design, structure and supportBut also about partnership, networks and social models of learning

OEPS and transitions• OEPS has worked with

more than 50 organisations in Scotland in its first year.

• A key finding is that there is real potential for developing open practice in the ‘in between’ spaces where student and potential students are in transition.

www.flickr.com

Emerging themes

• Partnership involves trust and negotiation of boundaries – sustained commitment

• Curating resources is critical• Working with partners who are embedded in their own

well established networks enables use at scale• Engaging partners where individuals play intermediary or

facilitating roles with fellow workers, clients is important - trusted gatekeepers

• Embedding practice in learning networks• Extending learning design and practice to include the use

of materials in social settings – importance of peer support

Supporting transitions

Requires: • Redrawing the boundaries between informal

and formal learning and between community/workplace learning and college/university learning

• Combining best practice in adult and community education pedagogy with the affordances of open education

Contact the OEPS project

Email:OEPScotland@open.ac.uk

Social media:@OEPScotland

www.oepscotland.org