Open educational resources sharing content and knowledge differently is a driver of innovation in education

OPEN EDUCATIONAL

RESOURCES: SHARING

CONTENT AND KNOWLEDGE

DIFFERENTLY IS A DRIVER OF

INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

Dirk Van Damme – OECD/CERI

• Why have ICT and the internet – which profoundly changed production and distribution in so many sectors and improved productivity – not had the same impact on education so far?

• Open Educational Resources (OER) can be seen as a social innovation (not a technological one) with the potential of reforming (not revolutionising) education if they are linking to what we know about learning and to what teachers need

Starting points

• How innovative is the educational sector?

• The innovation potential of open educational resources

• How?

– Fostering pedagogies for 21st century learning

– Fostering teachers’ collaboration and professional development

– Significantly improving the quality of resources

• Some conclusions and final comments

Outline

HOW INNOVATIVE IS THE EDUCATION SECTOR?

• Oslo Manual (2005):

– “the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service) or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations.”

Innovation in education

• Applied to the educational sector:

1. new products and services, e.g. new syllabi, textbooks or educational resources

2. new processes for delivering their services, e.g. use of ICT in e-learning services,

3. new ways of organising their activities, e.g. ICT to communicate with students and parents, and

4. new marketing techniques, e.g. differential pricing of postgraduate courses.

Innovation in education

Percentage of graduates working in highly

innovative workplaces, by sector, 2005 or 2008

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

% Health Manufacturing Business activities All economy Education

Percentage of graduates working in the education

sector in highly innovative workplaces, 2005 or 2008

37.6

43.6

49.8 50.2 51.4 53.2

55.2 58.9 59.1 60.1 61.4 61.8 62.6 63.9 64.6

66.3 67.2 67.7 71.0 72.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80%

Knowledge or methods

Percentage of graduates working in the education

sector in highly innovative workplaces, 2005 or 2008

21.8 22.3

29.2 30.9

32.7 32.9 33.8 35.5 36.4 37.3 37.6

39.1 39.3 40.5 42.0

44.2 45.9

48.4 50.3

52.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80%

Product or service

Percentage of graduates working in the education

sector in highly innovative workplaces, 2005 or 2008

19.1

23.7 25.5

28.6 28.8 30.4

32.7 33.9 35.8 36.1 36.4 37.1 37.3

40.4 42.9 44.2 45.3 45.7

51.2 53.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

% Technology, tools or instruments

THE INNOVATION POTENTIAL OF OPEN

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

• “teaching, learning and research materials that make use of appropriate tools, such as open licensing, to permit their free re-use, continuous improvement and re-purposing by others.”

– Any type or form

– Mostly, though not exclusively, in digital format

– Allowing for re-use, revise, re-mix and re-distribute (the ‘four Rs’ of OER)

Defining OER

• The innovation potential of OER resides in their usage in a teaching and learning setting by:

– Substitution: The OER replaces a similar learning material allowing for the same functionalities.

– Augmentation: The OER constitutes an improvement in terms of previous learning materials’ efficacy.

– Modification (redesign of the learning activity): The OER enables a substantial learning activity redesign compared to the previous learning material.

– Redefinition (of the pedagogical approach): The OER allow for new forms of learning that were previously unavailable with the previous teaching and learning configuration.

(Puentedura, 2006)

OERs’ innovation potential

HOW?

1. FOSTERING PEDAGOGIES FOR 21ST CENTURY LEARNING

• In reality, most OER are used in existing educational settings

• At best, augmenting the teaching-learning process and the resources used

• But 21st century learning requires a focus on more innovative skills development and pedagogies

1. Fostering pedagogies for 21st century

learning

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Changing skill demand

40

45

50

55

60

65

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Routine manual

Nonroutine manual

Routine cognitive

Nonroutine analytic

Nonroutine interactive

Source: Levy and Murnane, 2005

Me

an

ta

sk in

pu

t a

s p

erc

en

tile

s o

f t

he

19

60

ta

sk d

istr

ibu

tio

n

Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (US)

1.56

1.76

1.76

1.81

1.94

1.95

1.97

1.98

1.99

2.00

2.02

2.05

2.11

2.15

2.18

2.24

2.34

2.44

2.97

1.00 2.00 4.00

assert your authoritynegociate

knowledge of other fieldsperform under pressure

write reports or documentswork productively with others

mobilize capacities of othersuse time efficiently

make your meaning clearuse computers and internet

write and speak a foreign languagecoordinate activities

master of your own fieldanalytical thinking

present ideas in audiencealertness to opportunities

willingness to question ideasacquire new knowledge

come with news ideas/solutions

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Critical skills for innovation

Likelihood (odds ratios) of reporting the following job requirements: people in the most innovative jobs vs. least innovative jobs

Source: OECD, based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data

From what we know from learning research, teaching and learning environments and pedagogies should be:

• Learner-centred: highly focused on learning but not as an alternative to the key role for teachers

• Structured and well-designed: needs careful design and high professionalism alongside inquiry & autonomous learning

• Profoundly personalised: acutely sensitive to individual and group differences and offering tailored feedback

• Inclusive: such sensitivity to individual and group differences means they are fundamentally inclusive

• Social: learning is effective in group settings, when learners collaborate, and when there is a connection to community.

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Redefining teaching and learning

Industrial Post-industrial

Cognitive skills Cognitive & non-cognitive skills

Discipline Character

Routine skills Non-routine skills

Curriculum centred Skills centred

Linear concepts of learning Non-linearity

‘Learning to the test’ ‘Joy of learning’

Formal education centred Continuum from formal to

informal learning

Evidence-poor teaching and learning environments

Evidence-rich teaching and learning environments

Pedagogy for selection of few Pedagogy of success of all

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The direction of change

• Changes in teaching practices

• Changing the role of learners from passive consumers to active producers

• Fostering peer-to-peer learning

• Stimulating problem-based learning

• Enriching learning resources through collaborative production

• …

How can OER support innovative pedagogies?

HOW?

2. FOSTERING TEACHERS’ COLLABORATION AND

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• ICT technology and the ways to use them in a productive way in teaching and learning cited by teachers as one of the most important needs of professional development

• Professional collaboration is still the most contentious and difficult dimension of professionalism among teachers

2. Fostering teachers’ professional

development

Teachers’ need for professional development

0 10 20 30 40

Knowledge of the curriculum

Knowledge of the subject field(s)

School management and administration

Pedagogical competencies

Developing competencies for future work

Teaching cross-curricular skills

Student evaluation and assessment practice

Student career guidance and counselling

Approaches to individualised learning

Teaching in a multicultural or multilingual setting

Student behaviour and classroom management

New technologies in the workplace

ICT skills for teaching

Teaching students with special needs

France Average

Percentage of lower secondary teachers indicating they have a high level of need for professional development in the

following areas

TALIS 2013

Professional collaboration still the most

contentious aspect of professional growth

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Shared vision Focus on studentlearning

Reflection De-privatisation ofpractice

Collaborativeactivities -exchange

Collaborativeactivities - teach

jointly

Me

an

fa

cto

r sco

re

Professional learning community

Belgium (Fl.)

Belgium (Fl.) profile A: 80% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)

Belgium (Fl.) profile B: 13% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)

Belgium (Fl.) profile C: 8% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)

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TALIS 2008

• Training and professional development for teachers on using OER

• Using OER in teacher training and teacher professional development

• Collaborative production of OER

• Stimulating teachers in reusing, revising, remixing and redistributing of OER

• …

How can OER support teachers’ professional

development?

HOW?

3. SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF RESOURCES

• Many people see open resources as a quality challenge because of lack of trust in products from other people and the dispersed nature of the production process

• OER can provide access to high-quality resources

• Collaborative practices, feedback, adaptability should work in favour of quality, by

– Keeping resources up-to-date

– Providing adequate quality assurance mechanisms

– Aligning OER to accepted standards

3. Significantly improving the quality of

resources

• Creating communities of practice purposefully evaluating and enhancing quality of resources through user feedback, adapting and modifying resources, etc.

• Improving access to and sharing of high-quality materials

• Providing targeted search tools to high-quality materials

• Flexibly adapting resources to new environments

• Better organising procedures of peer-review and use feedback

• Refusing to be tolerant to low-quality resources

How can OER improve the quality of

resources?

SOME CONCLUSIONS AND FINAL COMMENTS

• Ultimately, the relevance of OER will consist of the way it impacts on and improves teaching and learning processes and facilitates better skills development

• Content and teaching-learning practices are not completely distinct

• OER should be able to demonstrate its intrinsic superiority over proprietary materials in its pedagogical dimension and substantive quality

• OER should move from a pioneering community of believers, or even an ideology, into professional practice

Some conclusions and final comments

• Much more research is needed on the usage of OER in teaching and learning environments and on the impact they have

– Measurement issues

– Opportunities of ‘big data’ research, learning analytics

• OER opens a window on how future societies, knowledge workers and educators will process knowledge: through sharing, collaborating, communities of practice, …

Some conclusions and final comments

Thank you !

[email protected] www.oecd.org/edu/ceri

twitter @VanDammeEDU

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