Kin Sun Yuen

An Overview of Open Education Resources for Higher Education

Since adopted in early 2000’s, open education resources (OER) have evolved as a major source of learning materials for higher education. In general, there are four categories of OER, namely, open textbooks, open courseware, open online courses, and open-source software and tools to support teaching and learning. This paper attempts to characterize these four categories of OER with representative examples, and elaborates various commonly adopted open licensing options for OER.

Designing Open Textbooks for Effective Teaching and Learning

Printed textbooks are often criticized for only ‘transmitting’ knowledge to readers in a linear fashion whereas in e-textbooks, interactivity can be built in; so learners are ‘connected’ with other resources. There are e-tools for learners to communicate with the teacher and their peers, and they can also support individualization in the learning process. Here we will need appropriate design elements in language usage, conceptual organization, spatial arrangement and levels of interactions. Electronic textbook content in various file formats (e.g. web, PDF, e-Pub, audio) can be used in different devices to suit learners’ reading preferences. Open textbooks on the other hand, allow teachers to reuse, revise and remix the content. Linking to a repository of learning assessment items, an open textbook can also provide effective assessment of learning outcomes, an important requirement in Hong Kong schools. The paper first describes how an open textbook system for Hong Kong comes to fruition. It will then discuss in detail the pedagogical, quality assurance and technological considerations in the development of the open textbooks.

Overcoming Copyright Hurdles in the Development of Learning Materials in the Digital Era

Developing teaching or course materials poses many challenges, and copyright is one of them. This paper provides teachers and developers of learning materials with an overview of what they should know about copyright, and provides suggestions on ways to overcome copyright hurdles. Of importance is an understanding of the clauses on fair use and fair dealing under copyright law, as these legally permit reproduction of copyrighted material for certain purposes and circumstances without the need to apply for permission.

Open Educational Resources in Hong Kong

This paper attempts to review the status and development challenges of open educational resources (OER) in Hong Kong. It highlights that Hong Kong is provisioned with pervasive information technology facilities and broadband connectivity. Its education sector is advanced and well equipped with a robust technology infrastructure. Together with the population’s ICT skills and educational institutions investments to promote the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning, these make Hong Kong an excellent breeding ground for OER. However, through examples of major types of online resources, this paper argues that the development of OER has been sluggish in the vibrant city. Also by reporting results of a survey conducted with people from a cross-section of the major tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, it highlights that educators’ attitudes towards reuse and sharing of open content and material tend to be conservative. Based on these observations, this paper highlights a number of major challenges in the development and adaptation of OER in the city.

Open Access Textbooks: Opportunities and Challenges

Different from traditional textbooks, open access textbooks are by nature open education resources that are free to use and can be delivered in electronic or printed form. Not only that the development of open access textbooks is cost-effective, the continuous revisions and updates can be made efficiently. Open access textbooks also allow easy adaptation to cater for the students’ learning differences. However, for the successful adoption of open access textbooks, a number of challenges need to be overcome, such as on soliciting contributors of textbook contents, assuring the quality of textbooks, and establishing a culture of sharing education resources. This paper investigates these opportunities and challenges, and proposes a solution for the implementation and sustainable development of open access textbooks in Hong Kong. Some overseas successful projects are referenced and discussed. It is believed that open access textbooks would effectively resolve the pressing issues of high price and frequent revisions of textbooks, while offering many pedagogical advantages.

Engaging Learners Through Emerging Technologies

This paper attempts to offer a brief review of literature on the construct of student engagement. It summarizes key aspects of how student engagement has been interpreted and researched. It explains how the construct has been anatomised into components of academic, behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. By delineating the relationship between engagement and learning outcomes as well as environmental and student factors in play, it outlines the versatility and value of the construct. It also highlights the niche role of information and communication technology in facilitating and enhancing student engagement.

eVolution from Conventional Textbooks to Open Textbooks: A Way Out for Hong

This paper attempts to first briefly review the difficulties concerning textbooks that Hong Kong faces. Summarising issues into five problems — high and increasing prices, inflexibility in revision, weight, bundling with teachers’ materials, and costly marketing means, it outlines measures the government has been taking to tackle them and concludes that there has been little success in solving the problems. By explaining that Hong Kong is not the only place confronted with this worldwide bugbear, it highlights that, to be free from the constraints of conventional textbooks, we may capitalise on information and communication technology to take us to a new paradigm and that open textbooks are a promising solution to the aforementioned burdens and constraints.

Formative Evaluation of Hong Kong’s First Open Textbooks

Twelve open textbooks for the local school curriculum – the first set ever developed in Hong Kong – were completed in 2015. During the development process, formative feedback was gathered from primary and secondary school teachers and students who tried out some of the draft versions of the units in the textbooks developed for the project. The evaluation was carried out with the aim of improving the open textbooks being produced. This paper reports the results of the formative evaluation which involved two questionnaires, one for the teachers and the other for the students.

Adopting and adapting open textbooks: school teachers' readiness and expectations

This paper describes a study on an open textbook project, which aims to establish a sustainable system for providing quality open textbooks for adoption and adaptation at minimal cost. A survey was conducted, covering 167 teachers in local primary and secondary schools, to determine how ready the school teachers are for using open textbooks and the kind of support they require. The results show that a majority of the participating teachers have limited familiarity or experience with open textbooks. It is common for the teachers to adopt and adapt resources on the internet for teaching, showing that open textbooks will meet their needs. However, their limited computer skills in image, video and web page editing may present difficulties for them in revising the resources. On the basis of these findings, the challenges and future support for teachers in using open textbooks are discussed.