ROER4D


The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) aims to provide evidence-based research from a number of countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The primary objective of the programme is to improve educational policy, practice, and research in developing countries by better understanding the use and impact of OER. In order to address this objective, the specific objectives of the programme are to:

  • Build an empirical knowledge base on the use and impact of OER focusing in post-secondary education
  • Develop the capacity of OER researchers
  • Build a network of OER scholars
  • Communicate research to inform education policy and practice.

As a number of philanthropic foundations and a few governments have already committed substantial funding to OER initiatives, it is necessary to search for evidence of how OER creation and use are influencing educational practices and policy in the Global South. This will help to ensure that education policy development initiatives and further expenditure by philanthropic foundations and governments are indeed achieving the outcomes of resourcing easily accessible, socially acceptable, high quality and affordable post-secondary education in the Global South.

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Funders

The project is funded by international Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada through a principal agreement with the University of Cape Town, South Africa under the title "Research into Open Educational Resources for Development" (ROER4D). The project covering eleven sub-projects intends to improve educational policy, practice and research developing countries by better understanding the use and impact of Open Educational Resources (OER).

About IDRC

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a Canadian Crown corporation established by an act of Parliament in 1970 to help developing countries find solutions to their problems. IDRC encourages and supports researchers and innovators in those countries to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems their societies face. Its goal is to find ways to reduce poverty, improve health, support innovation, and safeguard the environment. Many of these initiatives create opportunities for researchers from Canada and the developing world to collaborate on research of common interest. Most of IDRC’s funding comes from annual appropriations from Canada’s Parliament. IDRC also receives funds from other sources, such as foundations and other Canadian and international organizations that support international development or fund research. IDRC is guided by an international Board of Governors.

Partners

About University of Cape Town

Founded in 1829, UCT has a proud tradition of academic excellence and effecting social change and development through its pioneering scholarship, faculty and students. It is also renowned for its striking beauty, with its campus located at the foot of Table Mountain's Devil's Peak, with panoramic views of much of Cape Town. UCT is very similar to the city of Cape Town: it has a vibrant, cosmopolitan community. It is a cultural melting pot where each person contributes their unique blend of knowledge and thinking. Staff and students of UCT come from over 100 countries in Africa and the rest of the world. The university has also built links, partnerships and exchange agreements with leading African and international institutions that further enrich the academic, social and cultural diversity in the campus.

Research Questions

The project will address the following questions:

  • How do teacher’s attitudes towards OER are placed in the context of teaching and learning?
  • Is there any difference in attitude towards OER amongst teachers according to different demographic variables?
  • What are teacher’s motivators to use OER and share their work as OER?
  • Is there any difference in motivation to use OER amongst different groups (based on demographic variables) of teachers?
  • How do teachers perceive quality of OER?
  • Are there relationships amongst teacher’s attitudes, motivations, perceptions of quality and barriers to use OER

Research Design

The research project is designed as an exploratory study covering both quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the problem. The conceptual framework and the subjects of the study are depicted in the two diagrams below:

Figure 1 : Conceptual Framework

Figure 2: Subjects of the research study

 

Research Tools

Activity Theory

Activity Theory adapted to present research on OER

Activity Theory

Interview Schedule

Workshop Agenda

Workshop Reports

Related Resources

Publications

Blogs

Literature Review Writing

By Meenu Sharma

We often struggle to write a good review of literature whenever we come across new research areas. The prime interrogation starts with how to begin, what to write, and later it raises apprehension such as it’s becoming difficult to assemble ideas together.

I reflected on what could be a good review; I have read enough papers based on the guidance on writing a literature review. These papers clearly stated that if a literature review is good, then there won’t be much room left for doubt on either point.

Previously, my approach to write a literature review was nothing more than a collection of summaries of paper related to one’s topic. Over a period of time, exclusively in last few months, I realized that a meaningful literature review is much more than this. It is not merely extracting the phrase from gathered related papers.

Now I understood it, more in terms of using ideas to substantiate the specific process to the given subject matter leading to contribute something novel. Not only this, the meaning of quality of review also changed for me. I understood it more in terms of extensiveness and deepness which has more clarity, consistency, thoroughness and which follow the effective meta-analysis and synthesis.

This writing process made me aware of what is going in the field, I got the wider insight about my own work -- how does it fits with what has already been done, the significance of my work and how it will lead to new knowledge. Now my perspective for writing review has changed completely. Recently I have begun to think more about the art of writing literature rather than doing review.

In my view, reviewer evolves during review progression and reaches that point, where s/he realized that it’s now between my texts and my mind. It became pleasing, when I myself got engaged with such a flow during review, where one piece of a theme was building up by another. There only, I perhaps could have placed myself within text and time. It also reminded me lines of French Philosopher, Jacques Derrida that “there is nothing outside the text”.

Quality of Open Educational Resources

By Meenu Sharma (Research Associate) (04/09/2014)

As a researcher in Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project, I have been exploring ‘Open Educational Resources’ and unfolding it to others. I have been receiving questions related to its quality. At beginning, I myself was not well aware of this area. But, after reviewing several papers in this area, I am able to respond on quality of OER that I have understood so forth.

Certainly, it is argued that quality of any learning material depends on learning outcomes. These outcomes are assessed in terms of its usage and achievement of learners. But it has been difficult to assess and define precisely what ‘Quality’ means in the framework of OER.

Initially, OER was assessed on the basis of its assigned creative common license. But, it has been realized that assigning an “open license” on any educational material can’t be the criteria of ‘quality’. Thus, consequently quality of OER is being judged further more than “open licenses”.

On the basis of review analysis, I understood that “accessibility”, “adaptability” and “availability” are the foremost criteria of OER quality. Moreover, “sharing” which gives possibility to understand varied ideas of different educators is found another strongest criterion that reflect to preeminence of OER.

A good quality of OER is also arbitrated in terms of its “relevance”, if it provides up-to-date and accurate information. Similarly, if an OER has “reusability” implication which could provide meaningful usage to needy and has “extensibility” which could enlarge opportunities for additional learning are considered other significant characteristics of OER.

If learners can’t afford the cost of the resources then quality concern doesn’t even matter at times. Therefore, “Cost-effectiveness” found another admirable quality measure of OER. It is also appraised if it could easily “reach” to large distances for many different users.

While quality as a concept is very much in the eye of the beholder, there are measures that can help understand a common meaning of quality. I think, most significant is that OER has to be ‘clear’, ‘accurate’ and ‘concise’ which could illustrate their concepts in to meaningful ways and diverse learners can take advantages of them. Moreover, it is required to convey its subject matter to all learners to whom it is targeted. After all, quality of any educational resources depends on what an instructor intends to communicate to his/her learners and also intended them to learn.

Policy for Open Educational Resources

By Asha Kanwar and Sanjaya Mishra

Is the cost of your textbooks prohibitive? Are you dependent on your local college library to access those few copies of the recommended textbooks? If you are thinking that the answer to these questions is yes in any developing country, you need to refresh your information on what is happening to students in the developed world. Some students have to borrow or take loans to buy basic textbooks for their graduate studies. The cost of textbooks is a real problem. It is estimated that students spend between $ 650 - $ 1000 per year to buy textbooks in the United States. The cost of educational books and supplies in the US increased over 812% since 1978 (see Carpe Diem Blog). Interestingly, this increase is more than the cost of medical services and the average Consumer Price Index.

In the developing world, for example in India, at the school level, the state takes the responsibility of producing and distributing textbooks to the learners. While this has been a good practice, there are problems in the supply chain, and textbooks do not reach the learners on time. Also, the state funded printed textbooks are supplied at subsidized costs. Students in some elite schools can afford to pay the actual cost of the book, while in others it is difficult to even pay for the subsidized cost. In the market there are many other textbooks and digital learning resources available, which parents buy for their children to provide them additional learning resources. So, the ecosystem of the school textbook in India has multiple options for the learners. While the public funded textbooks are yet to be available in open licenses, the National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) launched in 2013 for the school sector has agreed to release all its contents in CC-BY-SA license.

Realising the problem of textbooks many universities have now started to join the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement and promote the development and use of open textbooks (see Open Michigan and BC OpenEd). In India, the call for use of OER was given in 2007 by the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) in its recommendation to the Government of India. With the success of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) for engineering and basic science courses, in 2009, the Govt of India started the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) to develop the country as a knowledge super power. Since its inception, the mission has been active in the development of digital learning resources through a variety of projects (see Spotlight in the EduComm Asia, Vol 17, 3) for both graduate and post graduate levels in a number of disciplines (see for example epg pathshala). The NMEICT has now approved an open license policy to make all the content developed under the project as OER under CC-BY-SA license. This is a major boost for the OER movement, and shows the commitment of the Government of India to share knowledge resources in the commons, and propel further reuse, remix and growth of knowledge. It is expected that the content developed will be available in such a way to facilitate localization and adaptation to local requirements all over the country and elsewhere. This policy announcement is also in line with the COL-UNESCO OER Paris Declaration that calls upon all governments to release educational and research materials developed with public funds as OER. We congratulate the Government of India for making its resources available as OER, and call upon other governments to join this growing trend for the good of all.

Sharing Behavior: Teacher’s Attitude for Open Educational Resources

By Meenu Sharma (Research Associate)

"Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others."

(Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (1763-1842); Writer, Politician)

This above quote seems very much appropriate when we talk about Open Education Resources (OER). The four “R” i.e. Reuse, Redistribute, Revise, and Remix are the principal components of open education and is the essence of OER. The philosophy behind OER is that knowledge is unique to each individual and comes from direct personal exploration of each person. Of late, we are slowly realizing that learning is not only about knowing facts but is also about knowing how to share and transfer so that others can take benefit of it.

Indeed, open education has emerged as one of the most pioneering teaching-learning practices. Consequently, for transmission of knowledge, a teacher in open education system needs to enlarge the scope of possibilities that learners can explore. In this context, the place of teachers, their attitude towards and their role in structuring open education environment is crucial to make their leaners active participants. Teachers are also expected to share their knowledge with learners. But the question arises here, are all teachers sharing their work? What are the key motivating characteristics which help them to share their resources and what are the different constructs in sharing behavior?

To answers these questions, I reviewed some researches to explore possible determinants of sharing behavior. I understand that OER is largely based on an individual’s desire to borrow and share resources. By itself, sharing is an appreciated human nature. It is considered as knowledge-sharing behavior and an effective method to help teachers with professional development.

It is also emphasized that teachers may have motives other than commercial rewards to share learning materials. One possible reward for sharing OER could be the prestige a teacher acquires or the recognition one gets for the shared work. Self-efficacy is another sharing behavior. When teachers consider themselves to be sufficiently skilled in developing OER and believe that their contributions will provide an added value, they are more inclined to share (Cabrera et al. 2006; Lee et al. 2006). In addition, reputation, altruism and reciprocity were identified which may motivate teachers to share. Reputation refers to the standing of a teacher amongst his/her peers. It is believed that teachers may have a way to show their competencies to other colleagues, thus improving their reputation. Wang and Noe (2010) mentioned that “impression management” may be an important reason why an individual chooses to share knowledge. Similarly, altruism implies that teachers see OER sharing itself as being pleasant. Teachers who share OER for altruistic reasons usually have a good feeling about sharing itself and do not need any external rewards to accomplish an act. Reciprocity entails that teachers share OER because they believe others will do so as well. In a sense they believe that their colleagues will somehow reciprocate in exchanging teaching and learning materials developed by them. Teachers’ attitude towards sharing is a fascinating area of research. While teaching per se is about transmitting the knowledge or cultivating knowledge, when it comes to recorded knowledge in the form of text-books, journal article, and other types of materials, not all teachers are equally motivated to share. We know little about this phenomenon….

References

  • Cabrera, E.F. and Cabrera, A. (2005). “Fostering Knowledge Sharing Through People Management Practices.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 16, pp.720−735.
  • Hars, A and Ou, S. (2002). “Working for Free? Motivations for Participating in Open-Source Projects” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 6, No. 3, Communities in the Digital Economy (Spring, 2002), pp. 25-39. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/27751021
  • Wang, S. and Noe, R. (2010). “Knowledge Sharing: A Review and Directions for Future Research.” Human Resource Management Review 20, pp.115−131.

Video Gallery

Presentations

Questionnaire

Questionnaire for Teachers’ Attitudes, Motivations and conceptions of Quality and Barriers to Open Educational Resources in India

News

Research Workshops held on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) at Machilipatnam and Bhubaneswar

New Delhi: 12/03/2015: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) organized two research workshops on ‘Open Educational Resources for Development’ at Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Bhubaneswar (Odisha) from 2-5 March 2015 and 7-10 March 2015 respectively as part of its research project entitled “Teachers’ Attitudes, Motivations and conceptions of Quality and Barriers to Open Educational Resources in India” supported by IDRC, Canada.  The workshops were organized in collaboration with Krishna University at Machilipatnam and Centurion University of Technology and Management at Bhubaneswar. 

At Krishna University, the inaugural session was presided over by Prof. V. Venkaiah, Vice Chancellor. He urged the teachers to adopt OERs in their teaching learning. Prof. V. S. Prasad, former Director of NAAC, Bangalore and former Pro Vice Chancellor of IGNOU was the Chief Guest who  highlighted the opportunities and challenges of OERs in his keynote speech. The workshop was attended by thirty faculty members.

The workshop at Centurion University of Technology and Management, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha was presided over by Prof. Chandrabhanu Pattanayak, Director, Institute of Knowledge Societies. Prof. Mukti Kanta Mishra, President of Centurion University of Technology and Management addressed in his keynote speech, the core issues regarding sharing knowledge, producing thought leaders and action leaders, and rendering service to the society which is quantifiable, sustainable and replicable. He further opined that the teachers should be more competent in order to make use of OER in their teaching-learning context. There were thirty-three faculty members as participants in this workshop.

In both workshops, Dr. Ramesh Sharma, Director, CEMCA, explained the objectives of these research workshops in his opening remarks. Dr. Sanjaya Mishra, Education Specialist (eLearning), Commonwealth of Learning, Canada, provided an overview of the four days programme,   explained the methodology adopted for the research workshop and the way different sessions were going to be organized. Led by Dr. Sanjaya Mishra and Dr. Ramesh Sharma, the workshops introduced to the participants various concepts associated with OER. Some of the topics covered introduction to OERs, demonstration of OER projects and searching, Copyrights and open licensing.

While the workshops were held for three days, the last day was used for interviews of selected participants to gather data for the research project. Both these workshops assisted the university teachers to understand the history and development of OER, enabled them to relate the need of OER in their work environment, and facilitated appreciation of the importance of open license in educational materials.

Workshops on Open Educational Resources for Development

New Delhi: 24/09/2014: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) will be hosting two workshops on “Open Educational Resources for Development” within the framework of a research project supported by the IDRC, Canada. As a part of the Research on Open Education Resources 4 Development (ROER4D) in the Global South, CEMCA is hosting a project for investigating into the attitudes, motivations, barriers and perception of quality of OER amongst teachers in Indian higher education institutions. The first workshop will take place at Hotel Golkonda, Hyderabad from 7-10 October, 2014. Thirty university teachers have been identified by Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANNU) to participate during workshop. Similarly, the second workshop will take place at Hotel Nakshtra, Guwahati from 15-18 October 2014. Around 30 university teachers have been identified by Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University to participate in the second workshop.

The four day workshop will be held for university teachers with the objectives to assist them to understand history and development of OER and enable them to relate the need of OER in their work environment. It will also aim to facilitate appreciation of the importance of open license in educational materials. While the workshops shall be held for three days, the last day would be used for interviews of selected participants for research based on their informed consent.

This four day workshop will also help the research team to collect the data for ROER4D research project. While the participants will be asked for complete a survey, only selected teachers will be interviewed for the purpose of research.

Open Call for Expressions of Interest to conduct studies on the Impact of Open Educational Resources on Education and Training in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

New Delhi, 3/04/2014: PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT

Open Call for Expressions of Interest to conduct studies on the Impact of Open Educational Resources on Education and Training in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

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