Barriers and Motivators for Using Open educational resources in German Schools

Institut für Informatik und Wirtschaftsinformatik (ICB)

Barriers and Motivators for Using OER in German Schools

Ulf-Daniel Ehlers Thomas Richter


Open(ing) Educational Practices

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamk/587941395/



Ulf-Daniel Ehlers & Thomas Richter, Barriers and Motivators for Using Open Educational Resources in German Schools, Open Ed 2010, Nov. 2nd

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The BIG Shift!

The current focus in OER Initiatives is mainly on building more access to digital content

Too little consideration is given to how this will support educational practices, promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning.

‘Open Educational Practices (OEP) constitute the range of practices around the creation, use and management of open educational resources with the intent to improve quality and innovate education. ‘


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n  60 case Studies

n  Can be obtained here…

n  Screenshot from Cloudworks


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Explorative Study: Successes and Failures of German teachers by using OER

n  Research Questions o  How do teachers in German schools use OER? o  What are motivators and barriers o  What can we do to support them?

n  Research Scenario o  Informal expert group discussions in private atmosphere o  4 groups, each representing one school/school type:

-  3 teachers, Grundschule (basic school) – 3 teachers -  5 teachers, Hauptschule (“secondary modern school”) -  4 teachers, Gymnasium (“high school”) -  4 teachers, Berufsschule (“professionals’ school”)

o  Discussions took between 1,5 (Berufsschule) and 3 hours (Grundschule)


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Explorative Study: Moderation questions

n  OER General o  What in your view are Open Educational Resources?

n  Educational scenario in school o  What is your (school type) educational scenario like?

n  Experiences with OER & preferences o  Have you already used publicly available learning materials from the

Internet within your own courses (scenario)? o  In which way is material from the Internet useful for your preparation

of classes? o  What kind of materials do you preferably use?

n  Access o  How (concretely) do you search for, decide the use of, and adapt OER?

Where did you experience problems? n  Management of OER / policies

o  Do your school administrations or the federal government support the use of OER? Are there related policies within your institution?

n  Production of OER / User Generated Content


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Explorative Study: Outcomes

n  Have you ever used OER contents? o  All but one teacher have used “OER” contents / Moodle as LMS available

-  Particularly for explaining recent events, e.g., 9/11, Iraq war, Tsunami -  Most, primarily use pictures & movies for illustration (no “full courses”) -  Benefits: research for & access to information much easier through Internet

o  Difference between Open and publicly accessible Educational Resources unclear

n  How do you search and decide for certain OER? o  All: German school-repository (“Schulen ans Netz”), additionally Google search o  English language and Internet for some teachers challenging o  Teachers often worry: Is the information correct / adequate or fake? Is it secure?

-  How to decide? -  For building trust, they need a “quality seal” and a description on the

scenario specific OER are designed for -  Is the material secure? Fear to bring “digital vermine” into the schools

n  User Generated Content o  Own generated content often uploaded to repository of “Schulen ans Netz” o  Almost (exception, Gymnasium) no use of licenses: “If it is available, it is free” o  Learner Generated Content (IT classes) if, just uploaded to Internet by learners

themselves


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Explorative Study: Outcomes

n  Use & Adaptation of OER o  Use rarely as e-Learning but printed, since computer classes are exception o  Consensus: “If adaptation apart of translation is needed, OER in most cases are

useless.” -  In lack of known target-group, uncertainty on adaptation needs

o  Most information “just” in English language – for younger classes, translation is necessary (challenge).

o  In case of pictures (Information Graphics) language is a problem, when stored in unchangeable format, e.g., pdf, jpg, … Powerpoint would be much more helpful

n  Management of OER, support / policies o  No policies but no money available à OER are needed but use is not recognized o  Many contents (books) are preselected in curricula, OER mainly to spice up and

discuss / present recent incidences o  No further support from school management available o  No direct support from government apart of the initiatives “Schulen ans Netz” &

“Lehrer Online” o  In case of the Berufsschule “very difficult” because of “professional common

sense” -  Particularly for “Berufsschule” difficult, because of regional “preferences” on

methods and procedures: I something is available, it mostly doesn’t fit the requirements


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Conclusions

n  Using Expert group-discussions for explorative study led to fruitful results o  Experts learned from each others and felt free also to talk about challenges o  Topics were raised within discussions that else might not have been discussed

n  For the OER movement o  OER are welcome and needed in the context of German schools o  Teachers use and produce OER and would like to contribute more

-  Need for technical support (e.g., public and easy to access sharing-servers in the Internet

-  Need for mechanisms that help building trust and ensure correctness of information

-  Need for assistance within adaptation processes -  Availability/Accessibility is no problem – decision processes because of

missing structures is a problem

n  Legal background o  Clarification on policy level regarding the difference between “public availability”

and “openness” urgently is needed

n  Practical issue o  If providing pictures (presentation slides) as OER, use changeable formats


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We thank you for your attention!

Are there any remaining questions?

Contact: Thomas Richter [email protected]
