OER Wales Cymru
Date: July 2016 – July 2017
Providing advice and support for OER impact evaluation
OER Wales Cymru promote OER and open educational practices in Wales, UK. The project aims to establish an OER portal, a network of OER champions, and provide open content aimed at students who are new to university. The OER Hub team provided analysis of data already collected, including comparing trends across survey data; social network and web analytics; and qualitative data collected across a range of activities. Several useful outcomes have been identified regarding future data collection, strategies for sharing OER, and approaches to online engagement. The team continue to work with OER Wales to shape a cutting edge evaluation strategy.
Models for Online, Open, Flexible And Technology Enhanced Higher Education (OOFAT)
Date: Dec 2016 – Dec 2018
Finding exemplars of best practice in open and distance learning
OER Hub are collaborating with the Research Institute for the Economics of Education and Social Affairs, Berlin (FiBS) to carry out research on behalf of the International Council for Distance Education. The research will cover existing practice of OOFAT in the higher education across the globe, with a focus on exemplary distance provision models which have become common practice for some providers, but would require a pathway to innovation for many others. Part of the study’s remit is to point to such possible pathways to innovative, sustainable practice. The emphasis is on models that have evidence of sustainability, or can demonstrate a viable business model, rather than highlighting emergent trends which have yet to prove themselves sustainable in practice.
Opening up Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS)
Date: July 2014 – July 2017
Researching, documenting, facilitating and connecting best practice across Scotland
OEPS is a Scottish Funding Council project which aims to build capacity and promote open education across Scotland, in all sectors. The OER Hub has led the research strand of the project since September 2014. Comprising of four work packages and led by Beck Pitt and Bea de los Arcos, the OER Hub is delivering a map of Scottish best practice in conjunction with the HBZ led OER World Map project, a series of surveys focused on understanding and use of OER and OEP in Higher Education, Further Education and the Third Sector and a range of research case studies which showcase best practice across Scotland. Beck is the primary author and lead on the development of the OpenLearn Works course Becoming an Open Educator which is due for launch mid-June 2016. Bea and Beck also deliver capacity building workshops on different aspects of open practice across Scotland.
OER World Map
Date: Dec 2013 – Dec 2017
Connecting OER communities through data visualization
OER World Map is an infrastructure development project which collects and visualizes information about actors, activities and resources from the field of OER. The project aims to provide the most complete and comprehensive picture of the global OER movement and to develop a global network of partners and volunteers to guarantee ongoing data curation. Currently in its fourth phase of funding from the Hewlett Foundation, Rob Farrow joined the project in phase two to act as academic and communication lead. OER World Map is run by hbz (Hochschulbibliothekszentrum of North Rhine-Westphalia) with development by graphthinking GmbH.
ExplOERer
Date: Sept 2014 – Aug 2016
Reusing OER to teach about reuse
ExplOERer is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme to promote OER sustainability through OER adoption and re-use in professional practice. It involves partners in the UK, Belgium, Sweden and Poland.
OER Hub’s researcher Bea de los Arcos collaborated on one of the project’s key outputs: she designed and produced ‘Learning to (Re)Use Open Educational Resources’, an open online course that guides participants through the discovery, use and reuse of OER for teaching purposes in all sectors of education. The course has been translated into Polish and Swedish, and received an Award for Open Education Excellence in April, 2016.
GO-GN
Date: July 2016 – July 2019
Developing a global network of OER researchers
The aim of the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) is to both raise the profile of OER research, and offer support for those conducting their doctoral studies in this area. At the core of the network are PhD students whose research projects include a focus on openness in education, and around them a wider community of experts, supervisors, mentors and interested parties. As well as research into openness, the GO-GN seeks to develop opennesss as a research process. This includes developing open dissemination approaches, releasing open data, publishing open access, and sharing findings openly. The GO-GN is currently funded through the OER programme of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and led by the OER Hub team.
biz MOOC
Date: Jan 2016 – Dec 2018
Providing learning design expertise to develop MOOCs for business while researching MOOC usage in European business communities
bizMOOC is an Erasmus+ funded project looking at the development of MOOCs for business. There are 11 partners across Europe, and the outputs will be a MOOC book providing guidelines and research on MOOCs in Europe, a set of MOOCs deploying different approaches and a series of events.
The OER Hub team are working on the development of MOOCs and compiling current MOOC research.
