Category: Progress
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Building an evidence hub plugin for WordPress
I was recently contracted by the Open University to experiment with a solution to record and display evidence for the research hypotheses. Speaking to the project team a number of options were discussed from simple spreadsheet based approaches to re-purposing software versioning systems like Github. In the end it was…
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Sitrep: Goodbye Cetis, hello ALT and the Open University
Martin Hawksey reflects on joining the OER Research Hub team… Sitrep: Goodbye Cetis, hello ALT and the Open University (MASHe).
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Open educational resources: A bridge to formal education?
The relationship between open educational resources and formal education is complex and multifaceted. In the early days of OER, detractors of the OER movement cautioned that universities could suffer financially from releasing free content – a vision of OER as in competition with formal education. To date, OER Research Hub (OERRH) research…
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The financial benefits of OER
Many people around the world continue to think of the primary benefits of OER being in cost savings for both providers and consumers of formal education. These claims have perhaps been best substantiated with respect to the savings made by students making use of open textbooks in the USA. A…
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'Through a glass darkly' Part 3: OER, critical reflection and educators' improved practice – some early evidence
Do OER prompt critical reflection by educators who use them, resulting in improved practice? Part 3 of my blog series on reflection moves from abstract theorisation to concrete evidence around OER Research Hub (OERRH) hypothesis E, which raises this very question. JISC (2013) suggest that the use of OER ‘encourages open educational…
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Motivation for Informal Learners
Mozilla Foundation continues to lead the way in developing the infrastructure to support earning and displaying badges. We are likely to see first the wider implementation of badging pilots along with other forms of alternative credentialing. The promise of badges remains great but whether they will be accepted as valid…
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Snapshot: OER Policy
OER Policies are typically established in order to drive change, and there are now clear examples of where policy is being used as an instrument to drive OER. The Creative Commons OER Policy Registry lists 40 policies which reflect the ways in which policies supportive of OER and open access have…
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Flipped or flipped open?
PHOTO: CC-BY B. de los Arcos Claire Walker and I were scheduled to present at FlipCon13 last Wednesday, June 18th. Sadly, we never made it, as this silly Spaniard single-handedly decided it would be better fun to visit the local hospital, and not exactly to research their use of OER,…
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OER Research Hub – getting started
The OER Research Hub is now three months in but its start still seems such a short time ago so it is worth reflecting on some things that have happened and are happening: the team is building. The research team is now recruited. The first Research Associate, Rob, was able…