LORO from Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices
- 1. Update on the LORO journey: from repositories to OER to OEP Anna Comas-Quinn, Tita Beaven and Caroline Rowan Olive Department of Languages, The Open University “Learning from Languages at the OU and beyond” eLearning Community, 25 April 2012
- 2. Session outline • What was LORO about? Success measures • Promoting and embedding openness: from OER to OEP • A user’s experience
- 3. Languages Open Resources Online http://loro.open.ac.uk/
- 4. Languages Open Resources Online http://loro.open.ac.uk LORO is about: • ...making all teaching materials for all levels and languages available to all users, • …allowing users to share their own materials with the OU languages community, • …making all tutorial materials available to the wider languages community, • …starting a change in the way we work (OER, access, reflection, transparency, quality).
- 5. Success measures • 1.5 million page views to date • 20,000 downloads in the last 6 months • over 1100 registered users • over 2500 resources • 900+ visitors a month from around the world (data from LORO inbuilt stats and Google analytics)
- 6. Success measures LORO Project, Highly Commended in the Learning Contexts category OPAL Awards for Quality and Innovation through Open Educational Practices.
- 7. The 'embededness' of the OER practice within courses is praiseworthy. It is anchored in a clear vision and strategy and aims fundamentally to change the practice of both the academics and the teachers to include processes of sharing, showcasing, adapting and re-using resources. (OPAL jury statement)
- 8. Definitions • Open Educational Resources (OER) are “materials used to support education that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared by anyone” (Downes, 2011). • Open Educational Practices (OEP) “support the production, use and reuse of high quality OER through institutional policies, which promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path.” (ICDE, 2011).
- 9. Integrating OER into practice: OEP • Embed LORO into workflows • Make openness and OER part of other activities DoL Training workspace Performing Languages www.performinglanguages.eu Collaborative Writing and Peer Review
- 11. Although the primary aim of the learning partnership is not to produce materials but to share experiences and develop common understandings, the resources we produce for our project (such as workshop activities, lesson plans, texts and video recordings) will be made into Open Educational Resources (OER), freely available under a Creative Commons license. (…) In this way, we will ensure that the experiences and ideas from this project can be either replicated by others as such, or adapted to their specific context and needs, thus increasing the impact of the project.
- 12. LORO: a user’s view Digital natives at work (I am not one of these).
- 13. Life before LORO
- 14. My life with LORO • Member of first Focus Group • Uploaded Open University materials for L313 Variationen (Advanced German) • And so far 18 of my own resources for L313 and L193 Rundblick, Beginners German
- 15. • Download and use numerous materials, usually as a source of ideas, which I adapt to my own teaching style, student group, learning objectives etc. • but sometimes to use as they are “off the peg.” In some emergency situations, LORO has made the difference between a tutorial and no tutorial. • 2012: took part in the Collaborative Writing project, sharing the process of peer review.
- 16. Short-term fellowship July 2011 developed my • theoretical understanding of OER in a global context Web-based open and distance learning holds considerable potential for sustainable development by increasing access and quality of education towards realisation of the fundamental right to http://wikieducator.org/UNESCO_OER_Toolkit_Draft education for all.
- 17. • Gave me time and support to develop a substantial teaching resource on Migration in Germany, addressing cultural difference and racism. http://loro.open.ac.uk/1263/
- 18. LORO as a virtual staff room Collaborative writing project • Give and receive feedback • Introduction to peer review • Generate ideas • Keep up to date with technology (e.g. Jing) • Maximise use of existing resources
- 19. Working across languages – adapting resources from different languages
- 20. “When something you’ve done is going to be on paper for years and your name will be attached to it, you feel the need to ensure it is perfect. When it’s online, even if it’s open to the rest of the world, it is incredibly temporary, it can be changed all the time. There is no perfect final product. I’ve never been so aware of it before.” (participant in the Collaborative Writing and Peer Review project)
- 21. Thank you for your attention! Contact FELS-Repository@open.ac.uk or Anna Comas-Quinn A.Comas-Quinn@open.ac.uk
Editor's Notes
- #13: digital immigrant – not like these – old enough to be impressed by wonders of ICT, just about young enough to learn how to use it – above all, benefits for producing attractive interactive teaching materials self evident.
- #14: Teaching languages to adults at Oaklands College, Hertfordshire, which was committed to e-learning so was well supported, lots of training whilst at Oaklands, action research projects led to websites using free Web 2.0 technology
- #15: Joined OU in 2008. LORO set up late 2009 (?)My involvement with LORO (chronology)
- #17: SCORE 1 – theory of OER and social usefulness
- #18: SCORE 2 – sipport in developing a substantial resource, including pedagogical aspects