The OER Knowledge Cloud

• Developing open practices in teacher education: An example of integrating OER and developing renewable assignments March 28, 2020
  This manuscript offers a reasoning for and example of integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) and open pedagogy within a teacher education course. We highlight a collaborative partnership between library faculty and education faculty and the decision points and processes we used when redesigning this course to provide an example of adopting OER and our considerations […]
• OER mainstreaming in Cameroon: Perceptions and barriers March 28, 2020
  The government of Cameroon has been increasingly pre-occupied with the quality of learning outcomes and the lack of learning resources at all levels of the education system. Research on similar educational systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond indicate that Ministries of Education are exploring the potential of open educational resources (OER) to cut down the […]
• Student perceptions of open pedagogy: An exploratory study March 28, 2020
  With the increasing development and adoption of Open Educational Resources, many researchers and practitioners are interested in more carefully examining pedagogies connected with their use. This study describes the perceptions of 173 students of implementations of various approaches to open pedagogy by nineteen instructors in post-secondary institutions in New Hampshire. Students were asked about their […]
• Do tutors make a difference in online learning? A comparative study in two Open Online Courses March 28, 2020
  Two free fully online courses were offered by Peoples-uni on its Open Online Courses site, both as self-paced courses available any time and as courses run over four weeks with tutor-led discussions. We tested the hypothesis that there are no measurable differences in outcomes between the two delivery methods. Similar numbers attended both versions of […]
• Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies March 28, 2020
  The publication provides guidelines and a systematic approach to develop and implement open educational resources policies in different contexts to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals 4. Using a six-stage approach, the guidelines provide several templates and questions along with theoretical underpinnings and practical examples to help government officials and experts develop policies that […]
• Open education and learning design: Open pedagogy in praxis March 28, 2020
  Beyond providing alternatives to traditional learning resources, there exists a gap in the literature in understanding how openness is impacting teaching and learning in higher education. This paper explores the ways in which educators describe how open education is impacting their pedagogical designs. Using a phenomenological approach with self-identifying open education practitioners, we explore how […]
• Lessons learnt from a professional development MOOC: Engaging culturally and linguistically diverse learners from low- and middle-income countries March 19, 2020
  This article reports on the lessons learnt from the pilot of a professional development massive open online course (MOOC) for a culturally and linguistically diverse student cohort located across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The focus of the MOOC was implementation research related to infectious diseases in LMICs. It was developed by the Special Programme […]
• Open educational resources: Discussion paper March 19, 2020
  This document provides an overview of the main issues related to the use and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) by CAUT members. It also provides suggestions for implementation, a bibliography for further reading, and a resource list to help instructors locate existing OER.
• Efficacy of open textbook adoption on learning performance and course withdrawal rates: A meta-analysis March 10, 2020
  Open textbooks have been developed in response to rising commercial textbook costs and copyright constraints. Numerous stud-ies have been conducted to examine open textbooks with varied findings. The purpose of this study is to meta-analyze the findings of studies of postsecondary students comparing learning performance and course withdrawal rates between open and commer-cial textbooks. Based […]
• 2018-2019 Connect OER report March 10, 2020
  This report offers a snapshot of the state of OER activities at participating institutions as of the end of the 2018-2019 academic year. Our intent is that these insights will help inform SPARC members, open education advocates, and the library community at large about current trends, best practices, and the collective impact being achieved through […]