ICT and OERs in Life Style Entrepreneurship Training

1. Module IIThe Use of Information Communication Technology and Open Education Resources in training on Life Style Entrepreneurship This project has been funded with support the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. No 2015-1-LT01-KA204-013404

2. The aim of Module II The aim of Module II is to develop adult educators' digital competence to ensure the effective use of ICT-based methods and tools in adult education, specifically in training on LSE.

3. The objctives of the Module II The Module will: • Introduce the possibility and effectiveness of incorporating of ICT-based tools and methods into the training of disadvantaged learner. • Analyse the innovative reversed training methodology based on Open Educational Resource (OERs). • Review the variety of the OERs forms, which are used in LSE training for self-learning. • Present the set of digital stories (OERs) on successful running of LSE. • Create awareness about e-shops and their benefits on promoting LS businesses.

4. General part of the Module II In the General part of the Module II the following topics are presented: • Possibility and effectiveness of incorporating ICT-based tools and methods into the training of disadvantage learners. • Innovative reversed training methodology based on Open Educational Resource (OERs).

5. Possibility and effectiveness of incorporating ICT-based tools and methods into the training of disadvantage learners (1) Nowadays Information and Communication Technology (ICT) very rapidly intervenes into the learning process making it more attractive to learners. Thus, the quality of trainings provided by adult educators to learners with disadvantaged backgrounds highly depends on trainers‘ possibility to incorporate the ICT tools and methods into their training course.

6. Possibility and effectiveness of incorporating ICT-based tools and methods into the training of disadvantage learners (2) • Incorporating ICT into the training process allows adult educators to use innovative methods like reversed/flipped learning and Open Educational resources (OERs). • In recent years educators around the world widely discuss about “Open educational resources”-OERs. Within the LSE training the OERs are used as well, thus, it is important to agree on a clear definition of OERs and their impact on the quality of the learning process.

7. Possibility and effectiveness of incorporating ICT-based tools and methods into the training of disadvantage learners (3) The analysis of the different scientific sources is provided in the Module II. As a result, the definition of OER, which will be used for the LSE training course is: “OERs are digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research. They are typically made freely available over the Web or the Internet.”

8. OER vs online learning, e-learning or mobile learning OER is not synonymous with online learning, e-learning or mobile learning, although many people make the mistake of using the terms interchangeably, however use of OER can support open learning/open education and the main purpose of Open Educational Resources is to provide open access to high quality digital educational materials.

9. The term “Open educational resources” OER is defined very broadly, and analysis of the literature allows presenting rather big variety of OER forms: • curriculum; • full courses/programmes; • course materials and modules; • textbooks; • interactive materials such as simulations and role plays; • tests, quizzes and other practical exercises; • digital stories (written and video-based); • assessment tools and instruments; • learners guides; • teaching notes; • multimedia applications; • podcasts; • research articles; • databases; • software; • apps (including mobile apps); • any other materials that have been designed for use in teaching and learning.

10. Innovative reversed training methodology based on Open Educational Resource (OERs) • The importance of OER has been widely demonstrated recently by development of resource repositories and other services. • Lifestyle Entrepreneurship training course for adult educators as well as for disadvantaged learners is built on ICT-based reversed training methodology using Open Educational Recourses (OERs). • A Reversed training methodology means that an adult educator has the role of a facilitator and guides trainees/learners to make an initial analysis of the on-line training materials presented as OERs by themselves. • After fulfilling their independent learning tasks, the trainees discuss the results with the facilitator in face-to-face meetings. It means that trainees use the flipped learning method to improve their skills and competences. • The importance of such ICT-based training methodology is to promote the participatory approach for learners, especially for disadvantaged ones, by giving them the possibility for self-learning with further discussion on the results with facilitator.

11. Traditional Model vs Flipped Model

12. Specific part of the Module II In the Specific part of the Module II the following topics are presented: • Review the variety of the OERs forms, which are used in LSE training for self-learning. • Set of digital stories (OERs) on successful running of LSE. • On-line shop.

13. Review the variety of the OERs forms, which are used in LSE training for self-learning The OERs are used in both training programs: • for adult educators to develop their competences to promote learner’s Lifestyle Entrepreneurship, • for disadvantaged learners to encourage them to start their lifestyle businesses.

14. The forms of OERs, which are using within the developed training course for adult educators are: • Curriculum on LSE (see http://www.ace-erasmusplus.eu/curriculum.php?lang=en) • Training course (theoretical materials) with five Modules for adult educators (see www. • Digital stories on successful running of LSE (24 written and 12 video-based) (see http://www.ace-erasmusplus.eu/success-stories/index.php?lang=en) • Assessment tool for adult educators (see http://www.ace-erasmusplus.eu/self-assessment/index.php?lang=en)

15. The forms of OERs, which are using by disadvantaged learners are: • Training course for disadvantaged learner on LSE in the form of readings about the principles of the lifestyle entrepreneurship, which consist of the short abstracts of the sub-modules of LSE training course (see www. • Digital stories on successful running of LSE (24 written and 12 video-based). The purpose of these stories is to encourage disadvantaged learners to get self-employed around their lifestyle, hobbies, talents (see www. • Assessment of the skills and knowledge of learners with disadvantaged background (see www. • Learners Guide (see www.

16. Set of digital stories (OERs) on successful running of LSE (1) One of the forms of the OERs which recently approve an impact on learners is a digital story. Within the LSE training course both adult educators and disadvantaged learners could use 24 written and 12 video-based digital stories. The purpose of these stories is double: • to convince adult educators about the importance of the Lifestyle entrepreneurship, thus, to motivate them to organize the training for disadvantaged learners on LSE. • to encourage disadvantaged learners to get self-employed around their lifestyle, hobbies, and talents. • In the sheet below the list of 36digital stories which have been developed to support the training on Lifestyle entrepreneurship both for adult educators and disadvantaged leaners are presented. The links to these stories are provided too. • These stories give the overview to adult educators about the variety of the OERs which they could use during the training program on LSE in accordance with the need of the target group of disadvantaged learners and their interest in the type of LSE.

17. Set of digital stories (OERs) on successful running of LSE (2)

18. Set of digital stories (OERs) on successful running of LSE (3)

19. Set of digital stories (OERs) on successful running of LSE (4)

20. Online stores - definition Online store is a special type of a website, which allows to sell products through the Internet. In the last years online stores gained a lot of popularity, partially due to the growing popularity of electronic payments. Owners of traditional stores seeing advantages of so-called e-shopping, often expand their business to operate in the Internet as well. However, online stores are not reserved only to those people who already have a stationary stores, as each person is able to create their own e-shop and sell their products. This might be beneficial for Lifestyle Entrepreneurs, as setting up own online store is relatively simple and involves little effort.

21. 10 benefits of using online stores • Unlimited number of customers • Online store can be run by only one person (Lifestyle Entrepreneur) • Products can be stored in any place • Cost reduction – running an online store costs much less than traditional shop • Online store can be easily promoted through social media • Time saving – every customer is able to buy anything without even leaving their house. • Accessible 24 hours a day • Different payment methods • Customer profiling is easier, e.g. collecting information during shopping • Competition for big business, e.g. shopping centres

22. Available payment methods Most of the people that are using online stores, are also using electronic (online) payment methods such as credit cards or PayPal. However, online stores support many alternative ways to pay for purchased product: • Cash on delivery (C.O.D.) • Debit card • Gift cards • Wire transfer/delivery after payment • Invoice • Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies It is possibly worth mentioning, that online store usually does not provide all the facilities for payment processing. Lifestyle Entrepreneur is required to sign separate agreement with payment processing entity (like a bank or some general payment provider) and then integrate it with online store.

23. Examples of online stores (1) Homemade knives and accessories. Knives are handcraft by one person in home garage. http://www.english-handmade-knives.co.uk/acatalog

24. Examples of online stores (2) http://jewelry.novica.com

25. Examples of online stores (3) http://africanhandmadeshoes.com

26. Setting up own online store (e-commerce software) Every online store offers a way to manage products, create categories, insert products descriptions with pictures, registration of users, at least few payment methods and product search engine, moreover, many of them provides free website templates and partnership programs. Without programming skills, the best way to start own e-shops is to use an e-commerce software. The most popular platforms include: • Ashop (http://www.ashopcommerce.com/), • BigCommerce (https://www.bigcommerce.com/), • CoreCommerce (https://www.corecommerce.com/) or • Shopify (https://www.shopify.com/). They usually offer online payments integration, mobile-friendly and multilingual interface, but sometimes these features are available for a fee. Often, there is a limit of number of products, but it also depends of type of the platform. These constraints should be taken into consideration while choosing this type of online stores.

27. Setting up own online store (self-hosted solutions) Besides services providing online stores solutions, there are also free self-hosted platforms available for technically capable Lifestyle Entrepreneurs. It is possible to download them from the Internet and install on own server. Good examples of the most popular online stores are • Magento (https://magento.com), • Prestashop (https://www.prestashop.com) or • osCommerce (https://www.oscommerce.com). Self-hosted online stores are free of charge, but one have to consider other costs associated like owning a server, and also implementing new functionalities can be troublesome, and usually incurres some costs. To extend such platforms, it is necessary to buy extensions or hire a software developer to create them.