Now Published: OER implementation in higher education – Chapter in: Changing Cultures in Higher Education (Ehlers/Schneckenberg)

Ulf Ehlers and Dirk Schneckenberg now published their book „Changing Cultures in Higher Education: Moving Ahead to Future Learning“ (Springer).

Their abstract:

More and more educational scenarios and learning landscapes are developed using blogs, wikis, podcasts and e-portfolios. Web 2.0 tools give learners more control, by allowing them to easily create, share or reuse their own learning materials, and these tools also enable social learning networks that bridge the border between formal and informal learning. However, practices of strategic innovation of universities, faculty development, assessment, evaluation and quality assurance have not fully accommodated these changes in technology and teaching.

Ehlers and Schneckenberg present strategic approaches for innovation in universities. The contributions explore new models for developing and engaging faculty in technology-enhanced education, and they detail underlying reasons for why quality assessment and evaluation in new – and often informal – learning scenarios have to change. Their book is a practical guide for educators, aimed at answering these questions. It describes what E-learning 2.0 is, which basic elements of Web 2.0 it builds on, and how E-learning 2.0 differs from Learning 1.0. The book also details a number of quality methods and examples, such as self-assessment, peer-review, social recommendation, and peer-learning, using illustrative cases and giving practical recommendations. Overall, it offers a step-by-step guide for educators so that they can choose their own quality assurance or assessment methods, or develop their own evaluation methodology for specific learning scenarios.

The book addresses everyone involved in higher education – university leaders, chief information officers, change and quality assurance managers, and faculty developers. Pedagogical advisers and consultants will find new insights and practices for the integration and management of novel learning technologies in higher education. The volume fosters in lecturers and teachers a sound understanding of the need and strategy for change, and it provides them with practical recommendations on competence and quality methodologies.

Basing at our work in the project OLCOS and some publications about Open Educational Resources I brought together existing experiences about the implementation of Open Educational Resources in higher education institutions. Following, the abstract of my contribution:

Open Educational Resources (OER) can be seen as social movement but are also implemented as strategic measures in higher education (HEI). This chapter describes the current aims and experiences with the implementation of OER in HEI: Starting with definitions and milestones in respect of the current status, this chapter will therefore give an overview of projects and implementation objectives and it describes two concrete case studies, i.e.: the MIT Open CourseWare project and the OpenLearn project at the Open University in the UK. The aim of this chapter is to give a comprehensive overview to decision makers and policy drivers within higher education organisations and thus it develops a blueprint of an implementation model.

My summary of envisaged organisational changes through strategic implementation of OER:

Figure 1: Envisaged organisational changes through strategic implementation of OER. Annotation: The basic idea of this illustration is derived from a figure in Euler & Seufert, 2005 (about innovations through e-learning)

The blueprint for an implementation of OER in HEI looks like this:

Figure 2: Implementation model of an Open Educational Resources (OER) policy

More here:

• Schaffert, Sandra (2010). Strategic Integration of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education. Objectives, Case Studies, and the Impact of Web 2.0 on Universities. In: Ulf-Daniel Ehlers & Dirk Schneckenberg (eds.), Changing Cultures in Higher Education – Moving Ahead to Future Learning, New York: Springer.