1 / 27

The project

From the roots up Exploring the use of Open Educational Resources to widen participation in deprived communities. The project . North and Mid Wales Reaching Wider Partnership project. Brings OER, OpenLearn, to mid and north Wales

wilona
Download Presentation

The project

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. From the roots upExploring the use of Open Educational Resources to widen participation in deprived communities

  2. The project • North and Mid Wales Reaching Wider Partnership project. • Brings OER, OpenLearn, to mid and north Wales • Building capacity in communities to use the resource to widen access and participation. • Currently in year 2 of a 3 year project.

  3. Main aims of the project • Develop capacity through recruiting and training OpenLearn Champions within communities to help people access OpenLearn and further learning. • Develop virtual ‘communities of practice’ to share learning from the project as it develops. • Research and evaluate the use of OERs and impact on Widening Participation groups.

  4. What are Open Educational Resources? (Schaffert and Geser, 2008)

  5. Who are the Champions? • Community workers • Local adult education tutors • Librarians • Union Learning Reps • Job Centre Plus Advisors • Community and voluntary sector groups All must complete an application form to demonstrate how they promote learning as part of their paid or voluntary role.

  6. The Role of Champions • Be a friendly face in your community and show others how to get started on OpenLearn. • Tell colleagues and students/clients about Open learn. • If you have a teaching role you may find that Open learn has material you can use • Role should complement your current job or volunteer role.

  7. Case study – Local rural Library

  8. Resources and support for Champions • Training – A mixture of instruction, hands-on practice of the OpenLearn content and group discussion around how they will use OpenLearn. • A resource pack includes promotional materials, certificates, OpenLearn and progression guide. • On line forum • Daily tweets with OpenLearn recommendations • Mentor support from project team member

  9. Engagement • 52 people trained as Champions Year 1, we estimate to have 112 Champions by the end of the project 2014 • Difficult to track and monitor the full spread and reach. • Reaching over 600 learners

  10. Barriers to access and the promise of OER (Adapted from Lane and van Dorp, 2011)

  11. Some research questions

  12. Approach • Range of methods • Observation at training sessions • Semi-structured interviews • Project feedback and evaluation data • Other documentary evidence • Case studies developed • Themes and lessons • Focus on mediation and transformation

  13. Aspects of In/Formality (Adapted from Malcolm, Hodkinson and Colley, 2003)

  14. Discussion – Mediating Open Educational Resources

  15. Recommendations

  16. Where will the project go next? • More guidance on courses and content, the development of informal pathways using OpenLearn content. • Links to the new Future Learn, UK MOOCs (massive open online courses) developments.

  17. Contacts/ information • Gayle.Hudson@open.ac.uk (practice based) • John.rose-adams@open.ac.uk and jonathan.hughes@open.ac.uk (research side) • Twitter: #OLRW • Project Blog : http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OpenLearn_in_North_and_Mid_Wales

  18. References • Lane, A. and Van Dorp, K. J. (2011). Open educational resources and widening participation in higher education: innovations and lessons from open universities. In: EDULEARN11, the 3rd annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 04-05 July 2011, Barcelona • Malcolm, J., Hodkinson, P. & Colley, H., 2003. The interrelationships between informal and formal learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15(7/8), pp.313-318. at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13665620310504783 • Schaffert, S., & Geser, G. (2008). Open educational resources and practices. eLearning Papers, 7. athttp://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=11198&doclng=6&vol=7

  19. About Openlearn

  20. What is it? Open Educational Resources (OER) Biggest repository of OER in Europe Over 650 units of free courses and content 11 million users worldwide OER a growing area, eg. Coursera and other platforms

  21. What can learners do? • Over 650 courses - History and the Arts, Science, Maths and Technology, Body and Mind, Society, Education and Languages • Plan and prepare for a course of study by enrolling on one of the free courses • Browse the subject categories to discover articles, watch videos and interact with features and games • Explore new topics to build their personal knowledge or look for reference material for a course they are already studying • Keep track of their learning and print off a record of the courses they have undertaken

  22. Why is this relevant to groups and individuals in the Widening Access community? • OpenLearn is free, informal and flexible and can be accessed from any computer which connects to the internet. • Material from introductory to advanced level is available – something for everyone • Stepping stone to build confidence, ready for work or further study

  23. OU and the BBC • There are constantly changing topics highlighted on Open learn, many linked to the BBC e.g. • ‘Stargazing’ with Brian Cox • Wartime Farm • BBC Story of Wales • Bang Goes theTheory • Coast All with related materials on OpenLearn and additional hard copy resources available.

More Related