ROER4D Update March 2016 - Presentation to the Hewlett Foundation

Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams with the ROER4D team

Presentation to the Hewlett Foundation, UCT, Cape Town14 March 2016

Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) in the Global

South:Update March 2016

Rising numbers of students in the education sector

Education institutions under political & financial pressure to provide equal access to education

Expensive, limited in number, often outdated textbooks are not entirely relevant to the contextEmployability of graduates

Reduction of educational funding by governments

Key challenges facing education in developing countries

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APCoE_students_at_AICTE_Regional_Office_in_Mumbai.jpg

Shortage of qualified teachers

Key challenges facing education in South Africa

#Feesmustfall protests in Nov 2015 & Feb 2016 in South Africa• Cost of tuition & learning

materials• Relevance of curriculum

By Discott (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

OER as a response to some challenges facing education in general – NMC Horizon Report 2015

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Open education systems as a competing model – NMC Horizon Report 2016

MOOCsOpen badgingLittle OER?

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http://oermap.org/oer-evidence-map/

Most OER research taking place in Global North

ROER4D Funding

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)Open Society Foundations (OSF)UK Department for International Development (DFID)

IDRC

OSF DFID

ROER4D Hosting – Network Hub

Wawasan Open University

Penang, Malaysia

Centre for Innovation in Learning & Teaching (CILT)

Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED)

University of Cape TownSouth Africa

3 year project (27 Aug 2013 - 27 Aug 2016)

CAD 2.4 million

3 Regions & 15 countriesSouth America - 4 countriesSub-Saharan Africa - 3 countriesSoutheast Asia - 5 countries

16 Time zones

12 projects in 7 clusters

58 researchers & research associates

1 Full-time Project Manager, 3 Half-time Project staff and 1 day-a-week Principal Investigator at 1 host institution – Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town (UCT)

ROER4D Phase 1: Adoption

3 and half year project (27 Aug 2013 - 27 Feb 2017)

CAD .5 million in addition to 2.4 million

3 Regions & 26 countriesSouth America - 4 countriesSub-Saharan Africa - 14 countriesAsia, Southeast Asia - 8 countries

16 Time zones18 projects in 7 clusters100+ researchers & research

associates1 Full-time Project Manager and 1 Full-

time Curation & Dissemination Manager, 3 Half-time Project staff, 2 Half-time Project staff members and 2 day-a-week Principal Investigators at 2 host institution - Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town (UCT)

& Wawasan Open University

10

ROER4D Phase 2: Adoption & Impact Studies

In what ways, for whom and under what circumstances, can the adoption of OER impact upon the increasing demand for

accessible, relevant, high-quality, and affordable education in the Global South?

Global South

Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D)

ROER4D

Network hub

OER Desktop overview

(1)Survey of OER adoption by academics & students (1)

Academics’ adoption of OER

(2)

Teacher educators’ adoption of OER

(3)OER adoption in one country (1)

OER impact studies (7+1)

Baseline educational

expenditure (2)

Overview of ROER4D’s 7 Project Clusters

Knowledge building

Research capacity

Networking

1. Build an empirical knowledge base on the use and impact of OER in education

2. Develop the research capacity of OER researchers

3. Build a network of OER scholars

5. Communicate research to inform education policy and practice

ROER4D Objectives4. Curate & disseminate research openly

Curation & dissemination

Research capacity

Communication

Leadership

Management

Communication

Curation & dissemination

Networking

Research capacity

Specific objectives

Enabling objectives

ROER4D Specific & enabling objectives, evaluation

Knowledge building

EVALUATION

Visible

Less visible

ROER4D Implicit objective: Open researchTo meet our explicit objectives we realised that we needed to undertake our research as “openly” as possible

Open research

ROER4D Building a network of OER scholars1. Attend workshops, webinars, meetings & conferences2. Find synergies with the other OER research projects (e.g. OER Research

Hub)3. Find mutually supportive activities with the GO-GN OER PhD network &

OER World Map4. Track growth of network since the inception of the ROER4D project5. Encourage mentors and researchers to participate in social media sites

related to the project (e.g. Twitter, Facebook)

ROER4D Networking within ROER4D

Prepared by Sarah Goodier 11 March 2016

ROER4D Research capacity building progress1. Operationalised instruments2. Refinement of conceptual and theoretical frameworks3. Writing of research reports with written in-text and global comments

with follow-up Face-to-face or Skype sessions

ROER4D Curating & disseminating research● Provide a content management and publishing service to SP

researchers and the Network Hub team in order to advance research capacity development efforts.

● Address infrastructure deficits and provide content management solutions (including content hosting) in a research community with uneven institutional support and capacity challenges.

● Ensure that the ROER4D legacy is freely accessible for reuse in line with international curatorial and publishing standards.

● Support Principal Investigators and SP researchers in editorial development of ROER4D outputs.

● Complement Network Hub Communications efforts in an integrated communications/dissemination approach.

Open Research – ROER4D instruments

Copies of the instruments and a description of the context in which these instruments were used is available for downloading from UCT’s Data First portal.

https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/

Open Research – ROER4D research data

Copies of both quantitative and qualitative research data are available for downloading from UCT’s Data First portal if you login to the site.

https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/

Open Research – ROER4D dissemination plan

Using an Open Textbook platform as an Open Research platform

Different layers of detail of reports:• Executive summaries• Multi-media summary (5 min video, presentation, digital story,

etc.)• Individual project reports linked to open data (where available &

suitable)• Individual portfolio reports linked to open strategy documents

Remixing of content (e.g. all the regional South American reports together)

ROER4D Communicating initial findings

http://roer4d.org/category/blogarchive

Initial findings published in Blogs and

on SlideShare

http://www.slideshare.net/ROER4D/

INFLUENCING FACTORS Structural: Few national or

regional OER policies exist [SP4 South Africa]; Very few national OER repositories exist [SP5 India]; knowledge of legal structures (copyright and Creative Commons) not widespread [SP 5 India]

Cultural: Institutional policy compliance may depend strongly on the type of institution [SP4 South Africa]

Agential: Educators are keen to share, but may be constrained within the education system [SP5 India]

OER PRACTICES The term “open

educational resources” is not well enough understood to be able to ask respondents directly if, or how, they use OER [SP2]

The OER practices - Wiley’s 5 Rs (reuse, revise, remix, redistribute and retain) do not all translate easily into other languages [SP2] and need more nuanced conceptual work

IMPACT INDICATORS Cost-savings are

difficult to establish as baseline data on government expenditure on teaching and learning materials in the school sector is not always available [SP11 South Africa, SP12 Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay]

Networking among teachers to share materials seems to be growing due to engagement with OER [SP5 India]

ROER4D Knowledge building – initial findings

ROER4D Evaluating research progress1. Mapping activities against the original objectives2. Identifying the outputs3. Defining short-term outcomes

Example of the Networking objective

26

● How to undertake “open research” in an environment when “closed research is most prevalent

● How best to curate project documents and data with open licences wherever possible

● When to make documents or data “open” and when not● How to optimise online communication engagement across 16 time

zones● How best to engage with researchers when we don’t speak their home

language or can’t read the questions or responses in the instruments● How best to assist researchers with their research instrument

development, data analysis and synthesis, data curation, report-writing and identifying publication avenues

● How to showcase the provisional research from the network before researchers have been able to publish their own findings

● How to identify what “impact” means in various contexts and how to tease out the various indicators - even analytically, if not in practice.

ROER4D Still grappling with …

ROER4D Looking forward to …Leveraging the ROER4D research by:

1. Undertaking cross-regional comparison from Impact Studies with Adoption studies

2. Undertaking translation and re-writing for specific audiences – e.g. inter-governmental agencies, government policy makers in various countries, institutional decision-makers (Spanish, Portuguese, Behasa Melayu and Hindi translator and re-writers would be needed)

3. Disseminating project outputs in layers – executive summaries, regional reports, country reports, policy briefs (Digital resource curator and communicator) and link to other projects (e.g. Open Education Research Hub, OER World Map)

Thank you!Questions?Comments?

Additional slides for explanations

https://stateof.creativecommons.org/report/

In what ways, for whom and under what circumstances, can the adoption of OER impact

upon the increasing demand for accessible, relevant, high-quality, and affordable

education in the Global South?

31

CHALLENGES FOR WHOM OR AT WHAT LEVEL: Global to student

INFLUENCING FACTORS: Contextual - structural, cultural, agential

OER PRACTICES: OER creation, location, reuse (or non-use), revision, remixing, redistribution, legal retention of original and copies

IMPACT INDICATORS: accessible, affordable & high-quality materials (relevant, current), learner performance, teacher practice

ROER4D Main research question & themes

INFLUENCING FACTORS

(See Archer) Structural:

Infrastructure Policy Repositories ...

Cultural Compliance

culture Management

styles ...

Agential Will / volition Awareness

32

OER & OER PRACTICES(Innovation) (See Wiley,

Beetham, Hodgkinson-Williams)

OER as the object/product

OER as a practice/process

Creation Location Copy/Reuse Customisation/

Revision Combination/

Remixing Copy Keeping legal

copy/Retaining Redistribution

IMPACT INDICATORS

(of aspect of educational problems/ development imperatives) (See Mulder)

Learning materials

Cost Quality:

relevance, currency

Learner Performanc

e Satisfaction

Teacher Practices Perceptions

ROER4D Relationships being investigated

ROER4D 1. Knowledge buildingStrategies – some open, some closed1. Sharing Open Access

literature and/or reference list • Reference list in a

Google spreadsheet with links

• Links to the IDRC databases

2. Sharing some draft versions of reports

3. Brokering relationships between researchers inside and outside of ROER4D

ROER4D Knowledge building progressAdoption Studies• SP1 – Released one of three

overviews• SP2 – Received draft report of

survey of … students & educators across 3 regions & researcher part of new study

• SP3 – Received draft report & instruments released in a paper

• SP4 – Received draft report and released instruments & open data & paper in press

• SP5 – Received draft report• SP6 – Waiting for translation of

draft report• SP7 – Fieldwork being completed• SP8 – Received draft report • SP 9 – Received final report &

researcher now part of new study• SP 11 – Received final report, 1

blog• SP12 – Received final report, 1

conference paper

Impact Studies• SP10.1 Fieldwork in progress• SP10.2 Fieldwork in progress• SP10.3 Fieldwork in progress,

annotated bibliography released, conference papers

• SP10.4 Fieldwork in progress• SP10.5 Fieldwork in progress• SP10.6 Fieldwork in progress• SP10.7 Fieldwork in progress

ROER4D 2. Research capacity building

1. Consulted 9 major OER surveys to develop a bank of potential questions in a cloud-based spreadsheet made public with comment rights

2. Shared Qs with researchers, showing how they would appear via an online survey site

3. Engaged with researchers online via webinars to harmonise questions & continued discussion off-line via discussion on Sakai-based forum and/or email

4. Piloted survey based on harmonised questions with ROER4D members and other OER colleagues (version 1), assessed results and fed results of pilot survey back to network & revised the questions and shared them with network (version 2)

5. Had researchers present their adaptations of the survey for their specific sub-projects via webinars

6. Provide guidelines for research reporting7. Continue to provide on-going feedback on

reports

Strategies – some open, most closed

ROER4D 3. Building a network of OER scholarsStrategies – most open 1. Attend workshops, webinars, meetings & conferences2. Find synergies with the other OER research projects (e.g. OER Research

Hub)3. Find mutually supportive activities with the GO-GN OER PhD network &

OER World Map4. Track growth of network since the inception of the ROER4D project5. Encourage mentors and researchers to participate in social media sites

related to the project (e.g. Twitter, Facebook)

ROER4D 4. Curating & disseminiating researchStrategies – most open, some closed1) Share research documents tracking entire cycle:• Institutional repositories for long term curation• Institutional learning management system for short and long-term

repository of versions of developing documents• Open repositories (Zenodo, etc.) for maximum discoverability• Website and social media sharing sites for maximum visibility and

discoverability2) Share research instruments and data openly (DataFirst)3) Share final research report as an ebook (using an open textbook software platform – PressBooks Open Textbook)

ROER4D Archiving – Open & closed resources

ROER4D 5. Communicating researchStrategies – open

ROER4D Website – http://roer4d.org

1. Establish project visibility through website and social media.2. Share and disseminate project outputs (proposals, presentations on

SlideShare).3. Share process of research through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and

newsletters to build credibility and invite feedback.4. Maintain presence and schedule regular updates on media channels.5. Develop a ‘voice’ for project and profiles for researchers.

ROER4D 6. Evaluating researchStrategies – some open, some closed1. Understand what is needed in terms of the

scope of evaluating the ROER4D project – the evaluation work is iterative by nature.

2. In collaboration with the ROER4D network hub team, formulate an evaluation plan – including what to evaluate and how.

• The experience of the evaluation process and the effect this has is a key component of the evaluation.

3. Get feedback from DECI-2 around the evaluation work and incorporate this into the process.

4. Connect with members of the ROER4D, where needed, to conduct surveys, interviews, etc.

5. Assess the findings.6. Share products of the evaluation work (e.g.

slides around process and results, reports, etc.) timeously to allow the findings and recommendations to effect change.

7. Be aware of all components of the evaluation work and collaborate/share information where possible and where needed.

ReferencesArcher, M. (2003) Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hodgkinson-Williams, C. & Gray, E. (2009). Degrees of openness: The emergence of open educational resources at the University of Cape Town. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology, 5(5), 101-116. Available online: https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/8860 [Last Accessed 23 January 2015].

Hodgkinson-Williams, C. A. (2014). Degrees of Ease: Adoption of OER, OpenTextbooks and MOOCs in the Global South. Keynote address at the OER Asia Symposium 2014. Available online: https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/1188 [Last accessed 3 March 2015]

Smith M. & Casserly C. (2006) The Promise of Open Educational Resources. Available online: http://learn.creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/changearticle.pdf [Last accessed 4 March 2014]

Wiley, D. (2014). The Access Compromise and the 5th R. Retrieved from: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221

Links

Website: www.roer4d.org

Contact Principal Invesigator: [email protected]

Follow us: http://twitter.com/roer4D

Presentations: www.slideshare.com/roer4D

Acknowledgments & Attribution

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Written by Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, Henry Trotter, Tess Cartmill, Sukaina Walji,

Sarah Goodier, Thomas King & Michelle Willmers

Contact:

[email protected]

Graphics by Rondine [email protected], Cheryl

Hodgkinson-Williams & Henry Trotter [email protected]