LiDA 103- Dimensions of Openness: Open Educational Practices (OEP)

This is my Blogpost on the Outputs – Openness learning reflection of the LiDA103 Course. 

What is OEP
Open educational practice (OEP) is the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) for teaching and learning in order to innovate the learning process (Andrade et al., 2011).

Definition OEP
Following definitions presents various aspects of OEP:

• Jones, 2004 defined OEPs as practices which support the (re)use and production of OER through institutional policies, promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path. OEP address the whole OER governance community: policy makers, managers/ administrators of organisations, educational professionals and learners.

I like this definition since it includes OER development, promoting learning and involvement of stakeholders.

• Wiley & Hilton, 2018 considered OEP as an OER enabled pedagogy and defined it as a ‘set of teaching and learning practices that are only possible or practical in the context of the 5R (retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute) permissions that are characteristic of OER.

I like this definition since it reminds us on the 5R context of OERs.

From OER to OEP

“In OEP, OERs are more and more used within educational scenarios, learner generated content is produced and shared. Learning is becoming an open process in which institutional boundaries, boundaries through pre-defined curricula and biographical learning sequences are extended” (Conole & Ehlers, U.D. 2010).

The next phase in OER development will see a shift from a focus on resources to a focus on OEP. These comprise a combination of open resources use and open learning architectures that could transform learning into 21st century learning environments in which universities, adult learners, and citizens are provided with opportunities to shape their lifelong learning pathways in an autonomous and self-guided way (Ehlers, 2011).

List of key OE Practices:

Open educational practice encompasses flowing: (Beetham et al., 2012).

• “Production, management, use and reuse of open educational resources.
• Developing and applying open/public pedagogies in teaching practice.
• Open learning and gaining access to open learning opportunities.
• Practising open scholarship to encompass open access publication, open science and open research.
• Open sharing of teaching ideas and know-how.
• Using open technologies (web-based platforms, applications and services) in an educational context”.

Three important Implications of OEP for Education:

I have extracted following three items from Beetham et al., 2012.

• “OEP can expand the opportunity of accessing high-quality educational contents for learners.
• OEP can effect a practice-centered approach that consists of five enablers namely OER, open teaching, open collaboration, open assessment, and enabling technology.
• With OPE, learners can attribute open licences to their prepared open learning materials so other learners can reuse them as OER”.

My Learning Reflection:

1. Description: I chose to study on Open Educational Practices (OEP). I was very keen to learn about Open Educational Resources (OERs) and in this course I came across OEP. I wanted to extend my understating beyond OER by studying this topic. Apart from the links to literature and the OER knowledge cloud repository, I was able to collect few more important references. Five out of 6 references are having creative commons licences that gave me freedom to extract with attribution.
2. Evaluation: I think it was very good I chose to study about OEP since it is a continuation of OER development. This has helped in my professional development also.
3. Analysis: I learned that OEP is considered as OER enabled pedagogy and it spans from use of OER and sharing in educational context. I have been developing few OERs in the past while learning about it and now I am ready to explore further on its application.
4. Conclusion: Since OER and OEP are recently introduced topics I think they both help learners, teachers and other stakeholders in further applying in improving teaching and sharing at institutional level.
5. Plan: I hope to develop more OERs in the subject I am teaching at the university and begin to incorporate these in to lectures so that students are aware of the usage and licence criteria. I also would advise the institution on the possibility of applying OEP across the campus.

References:

Andrade, A., Ehlers, U.-D., Caine, A., Carneiro, R., Conole, G., Holmberg, C., Kairamo, A., Koskinen, T., Kretschmer, T., Moe-Pryce, N., Mundin, P., Nozes, J., Policarpo, V., Reinhardt, R., Richter, T., Silva, G., & Varoglu, Z. (2011). OEP Guide: Guidelines for Open Educational Practices in Organizations. Quality, 1–8. BY-NC-SA http://oerworkshop.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/44605120/OPAL-OEP-guidelines.pdf

Beetham, H., Falconer, I., Mcgill, L., & Littlejohn, A. (2012). Open Practices: a briefing paper. Jisc,  February
https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/51668352/OpenPracticesBriefing BY-NC

Conole, G.C., Ehlers, U.D. (2010): Open Educational Practices: Unleashing the power of OER. Paper presented to UNESCO Workshop on OER in Namibia 2010. Windhoek

Ehlers, U.-D. (2011). Extending the Territory: From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 15(2), 1–10. BY-NC-ND http://journals.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/64

Jones, J. P. (2004). Shifting focus. Positively Aware : The Monthly Journal of the Test Positive Aware Network, 15(6), 26. BY-NC-SA

Wiley, D., & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4), 133–147.  CC-BY   https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601