IAU Training and Support Programmefor

Academic Librarians on OER Use, Reuse and Production

Accra, Ghana 12-13 September 2013

A world map of institutional OER Initiatives:Can the global OER community design and build it together?

Susan D’Antoni

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Outline of presentation

1 Personal background and interest in libraries and openness in education

2 OER Community at IIEP and network of UNESCO Chairs in OER

3 An OER world map

4 An international conversation on mapping institutional OER initiatives

5 Next steps

6 Questions for reflection and discussion

7 Contact

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1 Personal background

• An early love of libraries and an appreciation of the role of librarians

• Experience with correspondence education and importance of information

• Exploration of new technologies for distance education and the concept of the virtual university

• Interest in the growing open movement – and supporting international online communities on FOSS and OER

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2 OER Community at IIEP and a Network of UNESCO Chairs in OER

International OER Community

• Community initially convened in 2005 by IIEP and supported until 2009 by the Hewlett Foundation

• Started with 500+ members – and grew to almost 1,000 by 2009

• Series of virtual seminars with background documents and reports

• Intended to promote capacity building and collaboration

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Network of UNESCO and *UNESCO/COL Chairs in OER

• Network of Chairs to extend the work of the original OER Community– *Athabasca University, Canada (Dr. Rory McGreal)– Open University: Netherlands (Dr. Fred Mulder)– UNICAMP: Brasil (Dr. Tel Amiel)– *OER Foundation: New Zealand (Dr. Wayne

MacIntosh)• Main activities

– Global OER Graduate Network – OER Knowledge Cloud– OER mapping

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3 An OER world map

• In 2005 OECD set out to map the scale and scope of OER and reported in 2007 with the publication, Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources

• More than a decade of growth in the OER movement - but still hard to have an overview …

• However, increasing interest in using maps to communicate information visually …

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Open CourseWare Consortium

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UK Open University Olnet Project

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Rational for mapping the OER world

• No comprehensive mapping of the significant growth in institutional initiatives worldwide

• Difficult to know all the OER projects or initiatives and those involved in our own country or region

• Also difficult to know where there are OER initiatives in our own language or languages

• No list of experts

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Potential value of an OER World Map

• Make visible the geographic spread of OER initiatives, including those less well-known

• Trace life cycles of initiatives over time• Identify a global roster of OER experts• Enable partnerships and collaboration among OER

people and projects • A map could serve as a tool and resource for

– Awareness raising beyond the OER community– Communication and advocacy with policy and

decision makers– Inclusive community-building

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4 An international conversation on mapping institutional OER initiatives

• The first step was to engage with a number of organisations, including IAU

• Next a prototype map was developed – but intended only as an example for discussion

• Then members of the original IIEP OER Community and others were invited to have a conversation on the topic

• With the engagement and energy of the OER community in a collaborative exercise, an OER world map of institutional initiatives might be feasible

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The organisation of the discussion :

12-30 November 2012

Week 1

What could an OER world map look like?

Why map the OER landscape

Essential information and visual presentation

Week 2

Could a world map be built collaboratively?

Organizational approach for collaboration

Ensuring the quality of the information

Week 3 …

Reflection and next steps

Design of a map and collaboration

Resources available/needed

Next steps

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The conversation• About 900 people joined the session and the discussion

was lively – if not always on topic• Positive reaction to creating a geographic map of the

OER landscape• Various comments about its potential use• Consideration of what information would be essential and

how to present it• Proposed organisation with centralised and local

functions• An abiding concern about different licenses and their

implications

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Prototype map for discussion

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• The advice of the OER Community– Keep it simple = feasible and sustainable– Use Free and Open Source Software and

international standards– Build the map collaboratively with light central

promotion and coordination – with local data collection and quality checking

– Avoid duplication of information and link in existing data

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• The proposed use of the map– A map of the OER world – a resource/tool to

illuminate visually the OER world and communicate its scope

– A roster of OER experts – a resource to support networking, sharing and collaboration

– Stronger connection with the sister Open Access movement

 

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OER Community consensus

1. Use Free and Open Source Software

2. Define data collection clearly, use a form and draw from existing sources

3. Collect a limited amount of data e.g.

OER initiative name

OER initiative web site

OER initiative working language(s)

Contact person name

Contact person email

Latitude and Longitude

4. Organise with central coordination and local data collection, quality control and updating. Engage other communities such as librarians.

5. Link and include other efforts to avoid duplication of effort.

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5. Next steps

• A Request for Proposals – currently under consideration by the Hewlett Foundation – would be an appropriate way to support follow up to the discussion

• This fits with the open philosophy and allows OER Community members to self organise for collaboration– Idea is to start with a small focussed project to launch

a mapping of the global OER landscape of institutional initiatives

– Then build upon this infrastructure and database through a global collaborative effort aiming to make it comprehensive

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6 Questions for reflection and discussion

Some questions for reflection

1. How would you use an OER world map?

2. What information do you feel is essential to make a map most useful to you?

3. What should the role of the library and librarians be in creating and using an OER world map and in supporting OER?

Your own questions for Discussion

1.

2.

3.

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7 Contact

Web site for OER community

discussion report and updates:

https://unescochair.athabascau.ca/oer-mapping-exercise

To receive information about next steps:

Subscribe to the OER community

Oer-community-request@athabascau.ca

(type subscribe in the subject line)