Adrian Stagg

OER adoption: a continuum for practice

Whilst Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for broadening participation in Higher Education, reducing course development and study costs, and building open collaborative partnerships to improve teaching and learning practices, they have yet to gain significant mainstream traction. Research surrounding open education has focused on adoption at the institutional level, identifying key enablers and barriers to practice, but the practicalities of engagement with open resources are not often addressed.By reviewing existing literature, and studying prior models used to explain OER (re)use, this paper proposes a continuum of use model. The proposed model seeks to acknowledge the complexity of applied knowledge required to fulsomely engage with open education by examining practitioner behaviours and the necessary supporting mechanisms. This conceptual model aims to be of use to both practitioners and also those responsible for designing professional development in an educational setting. Whilst the proposed model is designed for teaching staff use, some discussion is given as to how it could be applied to student learning using open resources as well.ResumenSi bien los recursos educativos abiertos (REA) presentan nuevas opciones para facilitar el acceso a la educación superior, reducir el coste de los estudiosy del desarrollo de los programas docentes y establecer relaciones de colaboración abierta con el fin de mejorar la práctica de la docencia y del aprendizaje, aún les queda mucho camino por recorrer para ganar mayor difusión y aceptación. Las líneas de investigación en torno a la educación abierta se han centrado en su adopción en la esfera institutional, y han identificado los elementos clave que facilitan y los que obstaculizan la práctica educativa; pero a menudo no se tratan las posibilidades de aplicación práctica que supone aprovechar los recursos abiertos.Tras revisar la literatura disponible sobre la materia y estudiar los modelos existentes que se han usado para explicar la (re)utilización de los REA, el presente artículo propone un continuo como modelo de uso. El modelo propuesto quiere dar a conocer la complejidad de los conocimientos aplicados que se requieren para alcanzar una implicación completa en la educación abierta mediante el análisis de las conductas de los profesionales de la docencia y los mecanismos de apoyo que precisan. Este modelo conceptual pretende ser de utilidad tanto para los profesionales de la docencia, así como para aquellos que se encargan de diseñar el desarrollo profesional en cualquier entorno educativo. Aunque el modelo propuesto se ha concebido para ser utilizado por el personal docente, también plantea cómo podría aplicarse en aquellos procesos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes basados en el uso de los recursos abiertos.

Research skills development through collaborative virtual learning environments

Purpose – Studying at university today is a complex undertaking. Not only have the characteristics of the student cohort changed significantly in recent years, but the exponential growth of technological innovation has also impacted markedly on the study environment. Issues such as student transition and retention are receiving considerable attention, and the quality of learning and teaching has become an important consideration. While support for students from outside the faculty is still seen as useful, it is recognised that contextualised support facilitates deeper learning. This case study aims to focus on a virtual learning environment (VLE) designed through collaboration between the Library, Learning and Teaching Support and the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Southern Queensland.Design/methodology/approach – The implementation of the VLE followed a design‐based research methodology focusing on an iterative approach which responded to student and staff feedback. An analysis of usage...

Academic style with substance: a collaborative screencasting project to support referencing skills

Purpose – This paper seeks to report the initial phase of a cross‐institutional screencasting project designed to provide digital, multimedia support for referencing skills. Use of screencasting software, with strong educational design, has the potential to reach all learners asynchronously, regardless of mode of study, and this paper focuses on the transferability of the principles and skills in this project to other contexts and institutions.Design/methodology/approach – The referencing tutorial makes use of dual coding theory to provide an aligned visual and auditory learning experience and is discussed in reference to the current literature. The foundation of the project was collaboration between the academic libraries and lecturers in the field of academic learning skills. The pedagogical and technical design and challenges are discussed, with a view to incorporating feedback into further iterative development stages.Findings – This paper finds that screencasting has been used to effectively support ...

Expanding Horizons in Open and Distance Learning

This issue of the journal is devoted to a selection of papers to the ODLAA conference held in Melbourne, Australia in Febraury 2017. In order to analyse the content of the presentations at the conference, we have decided to make use of the Leximancer text analysis tool. Leximancer presents visually, a concept map of the text data being analysed and has been used in various other studies (Roberts, 2016; Zawacki-Richter & Naidu, 2016) The titles and abstracts of all the papers that were presented at the conference were collated and analysed and the results of this analysis are discussed in this editorial. Taking into account the overall vision for the conference which was ‘Expanding horizons in Open Distance Learning: Open education, community and innovation’, we will discuss the relevance of each of the articles in this edition to the themes that have been identified in Leximancer (Figure 1). From Figure 2 it can be seen that several key concepts were presented at the conference. At the heart of any ODL institution should be the students and their learning, and this is reflected in the analysis of the abstracts. In Figure 2, similar concepts were grouped together i.e., learner and student, as well as opennes and Open Educational Practices (OEP). As expected, MOOCs made a familiar appearance as well as online learning. Other significant concepts presented at the conference included, the development nature of ODL, course design and staff development. The articles constitute a clear narrative in line with contemporary issues in the area of distance education. The article by Daniel Burgos and one by Laura Marquez-Ramos examine learning, students and teaching. Burgos looks at transgenic learning for Science, Technology and Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) subjects. The article provides a practical view of transgenic learning. It focuses on the limits of the delivery of open and enriched learning content corresponding to university level students. In an environment where advances in the use of technology to enhance teaching has taken a lead role, the article presents ideas that have been tested in the classroom and found to work. Students and staff will find ideas presented here useful. Laura MarquezRamos’s article examines ways in which technology has taken over numerous aspects of our lives. The author provides several examples to illustrate her point. For instance she points at the emergence of services provided by the Uber transportation system and Uber Eats representing a system for ordering food online. Further the article explores Airbnb, an online network addressing homestay for travellers. The author makes the point that while people live their physical lives, they still increasingly connect on multiple dimensions through social networking sites. Modern society faces the challenge of being innovative, creative or entrepreneurial. While one part of the society has gone highly digital, there is another part of the world struggling with the new affordances. This is largely so in the developing countries where direct access to the internet still remains a challenge. Their fate is captured by studies whose focus is on bridging the gap between the digital world and the world trying to catch up with technology. The articles by Mathew Hillier and Richard Musita and colleagues, Betty Obura and Dorine Lugendo, address the challenge of connectivity in distance education. While internet connectivity may remain a challenge in the developing countries, it is also a challenge in some parts of the developed world. In his article, Hillier points to parts of Australia as a case in point. As long as internet connectivity remains an issue, elearning will remain a challenge to all concerned. Richard Musita and colleagues point to ways in which secondary school dropouts from the third world countries