Helping teachers make the most of online learning tools

The Open University has always been about making education more accessible to all learners, and vital to the success of this is making teaching and learning materials that are freely available and easily adaptable.

To make these tools as effective as possible, a team led by Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology at The Open University, has set up a research hub to look at Open Educational Resources (OER) and related Open Education Practices (OEP) and ask the fundamental question: ‘What is the impact of OER and OEP on educational practice?’

Open Educational Resources (OER) have been a part of open education ever since the internet became capable enough to deliver them around 20 years ago. But it has to be said that not enough research has been done to investigate how good such learning materials are, or how they are used in practice. So, we set out to discover what educators and learners really think about OERs. We conducted 21 surveys, gathered almost 7,500 responses and, among many findings, discovered that:

• Many school teachers adapt, rather than simply adopt, OER.
• Some teachers would like their schools or universities to give them time to create, adapt or adopt materials.
• Many teachers feel Open Textbooks enable them to better respond to student needs.
• OER has a positive impact on student attitudes and perceptions of learning.

Putting the research to work

To put the research findings to good use and improve online learning, we’ve set up courses to help teachers improve their practice in the use of open resources, which have been very successful. An independent evaluation of our work has concluded that: “the OER Research Hub has built a solid reputation among a community of OER researchers and practitioners as leader, expert, and role model”.

Our research is now being used to bring these free and adaptable learning resources to institutions across the world, for example, by enabling institutions to back up their proposals for investment in better OER with solid evidence. OpenStax – the world’s largest Open Textbook provider – said, our work had helped institutions make “intelligent investment” and improve problem areas by filling gaps in resources. And Creative Commons – the not-for-profit international network devoted to increasing access to education and expanding the range of free-to-use resources – says the use of our research to develop its ‘School of Open’ has improved learning around the world. Based on our research, the UK Open Textbook project persuaded nine UK higher education institutions to use OER. And as a result of our work, a university in the Netherlands developed its own professional development program for teachers on OER, plus open online courses that are not only used within our own institute but also nationally by at least six universities of applied sciences.

I now coach other faculty members on how important it is to incorporate ICT and OER in teaching and learning, which I feel has enhanced the quality of my own teaching.

A lecturer at Tangaza University College in Kenya

Beyond Europe, we conducted an online workshop of 175 educators from countries that included Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Mozambique and afterwards found that over 90% fully or mostly understood the potential of OER and how to incorporate it into their own practice, and well over half were planning to re-use, create or share OER in their own teaching.

A network of support for teachers

We believe that a strong support network is needed to help teachers make the most of online tools, so our OER Hub co-ordinates the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN). GO-GN teachers say their teaching has been enhanced through membership of the network. “Participating in the GO-GN has helped me to support other staff within my institution,” said a lecturer at Tangaza University College in Kenya. “I now coach other faculty members on how important it is to incorporate ICT and OER in teaching and learning, which I feel has enhanced the quality of my own teaching”.

In all, the Hub has so far had an impact on almost 4,500 practitioners by increasing their awareness of open educational resources and practice and their capacity to use it, enabling them to use OER to develop new teaching strategies.

The outcome of all this? Better experiences for students, and more satisfying careers for teachers. The Open University pioneered distance learning and still leads today, by refining online education, testing and improving it, and sharing that knowledge of best practice across the world.

Written by Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology, The Open University.