Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Hello everyone! Welcome to week 10 and the final topic – Sharing Resources and Open Practices in Distributed & Open Learning.
Last week, you collaboratively worked together in your groups to complete a project which consider how to provided equitable and accessible learning opportunities for ALL students in online learning contexts. I will be reviewing the projects this week.
At this point in time – it is essential that you choose your FINAL project topic. Next week, I will be sending out a list to ask you your topics.
Roberts, 2020
Weekly Activities:
This week, we will be learning about multiple pedagogical approaches, strategies, resources and possibilities to expand the learning opportunities for ALL learners. You are asked to review some digital resources which focus on Open Educational Resources.
What are Open Educational resources? Open Educational Resources (OERs) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. (UNESCO, 2018, p. 2)
When we consider open educational practices and open learning, OER are often used to as the resources to support the open learning experiences.
What are Open Educational Practices? They are, “collaborative practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of OER (Open Educational Resources), as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies, and social networks for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners” (Cronin, 2017, p. 18).
Weekly Readings and Digital Resources:
These are your weekly course readings/ digital resources which consider OER and OEP:
Use the tutorial at the following link to learn about open educational resources (OER) https://www.oerafrica.org/book/tutorial-objectives
Review:
- OERCommons: https://www.oercommons.org/
- BCCampus: https://bccampus.ca/topics-of-practice/open-education/
- BC Open Textbooks: https://open.bccampus.ca/browse-our-collection/find-open-textbooks/
- eCampusOntario – EXTEND
- https://extend.ecampusontario.ca/
Optional Webinar: Thursday, November 12, 2020 (9-10 am PST):
This week, you will have the opportunity to learn about the potential of OER and OEP with a global expert on open learning – Dr. David Porter. Dr. Porter currently works as the Senior Advisor: Higher Education with the Commonwealth of Learning. His previous role as the CEO of eCampus Ontario helped to amplify the potential of open learning across Ontario – and Canada.
This FINAL optional webinar will be in Thursday, November 12, 2020 from 9-10 am PST. This will give our students in China the opportunity to make a webinar for this course. The webinar will be recorded, but if you can come, please do.
Weekly Blog Post:
As you review the resources and consider the potential of OER and OEP, please consider the following questions for your weekly blog post:
What are the resource that resonated with you the most? Do you feel that open learning is a “Mindset” or is “values based”? How would this point of view influence an instructor when considering OER or OEP? What did you already know, what do you know now based on the course readings and activities, what do you hope to learn? What is one topic you might consider to expand upon for your final project? What are the similarities and differences between online (distributed) learning and open learning?
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns…
Dr. Roberts 🙂