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Pervasive Threats to Validity in the OER Adoption Research; or, Three Questions to Ask When You Read OER Adoption Research

Iterating Toward Openness

As I’ve been (re-)reading OER adoption research through a more critical lens I’m seeing a recurring pattern of significant threats to validity in the designs of studies purporting to measure the impact of OER adoption on student outcomes. Many research studies fail to address the way instructors end up using OER.

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Actually, the UNESCO Recommendation Makes Most OER Impossible

Iterating Toward Openness

In this first bite-sized installment I’m going to address the major flaw in the OER definition provided as part of the recent UNESCO OER Recommendation. Without permission to make a copy, it is quite impossible to exercise the permissions to adapt, re-use, and redistribute. Definition and Scope reads: 1.

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Some Very Bad News about the UNESCO OER Recommendation

Iterating Toward Openness

I recently wrote a brief essay about the wonderful new UNESCO OER Recommendation. For those of you who don’t want to read the full analysis below, here’s the key takeaway: Imagine what would happen if making copies of OER was illegal. Under the definition of OER now adopted unanimously by UNESCO member states, it can be.

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Maha, the Path to OER-Enabled Pedagogy, and Technological Determinism

Iterating Toward Openness

Among other things, the post discusses her role in my decision to abandon the phrase “open pedagogy” and adopt the phrase “OER-enabled pedagogy.” So when people tell the story of how the term “OER-enabled pedagogy” came to be they should absolutely include Maha in it.

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Using open educational resources to empower differentiated instruction

Hapara

Open educational resources, also known as OER, provide a great way to supplement curriculum to differentiate instruction and better meet each learner’s needs in your classroom. This use case is the perfect example of when OER can come to the rescue. So what does that mean? What is differentiation? Addressing reading levels.

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OER-Enabled Pedagogy

Iterating Toward Openness

At the Hewlett OER Meeting last week over a dozen people spent another hour talking about the issue during the unconference time. Some definitions are centered on OER. Some are exercises in the permutations of these. You may find the idea of OER-enabled pedagogy utterly uninteresting. Countless tweets.

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OER Had Its Breakthrough in 2017. Next Year, It Will Become an Essential Teaching Tool

Edsurge

Open educational resources (OER) have long been touted as “the next big thing” in higher education, but the drawn-out hype has led many educators and administrators to wonder if it would ever live up to its expectations. Those days are over: 2017 was OER’s breakthrough year. That happened in 2017. Ohio University is doing the same.

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