1

Dénes Zarka instructional designer

OERs - The Perspective of the Designer

Introducing EDEN The most comprehensive European association of its kind Registered in the UK in 1991 Platform for professional co-operation and information

exchange www.eden-online.org Open for all levels and sectors of education and training Open for institutions, individuals and networks Informal and formal recognition of excellence

2/14

3

Who am I?• Electrical Engineer, 51 • Graduated in ’89 as Electrical engineer• From ’92: Instructional designer (UK-trained)• Till ’98: at Budapest Training Technology Center• From ’98: BME Learing Innovation Center• Field:

Course development content development, educational research, training of designers and tutors (TEL)

• Live in Europe – Hungary – Budapest• Speak Hungarian, English, and French (still some

russian from a dark era)

4

Hungary

5

I will speak about• Open things (access, content, course…)• Is it really new?• Sharing and media-convergence• Differences in settings (Australia – EU)• Why would I design open content?• Why would YOU design open content?• So, how does it turn to be sustainable?

6

The past meanings of “Open“• 1970-1990: Open Learning → Open Access Learning;• Access: breaking down barriers in time, pace and

place; • Access to courses: Fee reduction, no more entry

requirements, eliminating strict evaluation methodologies;

• Open Learning was: Individual, Paper-broadcast-video-audio-CBT based;

• The service and the content was NOT open (free)!

7

Recent meanings of “Open“• Open Learning nowadays: Open Content Learning• Open Educational Resources (OERs) mean:

– Open access: of content, e.g.: articles– Open source: educational tools, e.g.: Moodle– Open practices: open architectures of learning:

individualised learning pathways – Open courses: Open online courses (MOOCs) mostly access

is free only. • Different definitions in a recently published material

8

More about OERsRelated project currently running in EU:

OpenProf: Open Professional Collaboration for Innovation

Three training materials:– OER and sustainibility models: click for the link – ICT tools to develop and adapt OER: click for the link– Innovative curriculum designing for work-based

learning: click for the link

9

Is it really new?We have always talked about:

– Special design– Special tools– Special approach– Special media– Special role of teachers/tutors

We still speak about “new” approaches.In the last 20 years I experienced some changes

that dramatically changed Open Learning.

10

Things that affected my designer lifeSharing and networking:

– E-mailing, home computers did not mean methodological change– Web, portal techniques (LMS), web 2.0 and sharing – From individual learner to learner communities, co-operation and

collaboration broke out from the minor experience position to mainstream activity, that we designers can build on.

Media access and convergence:– Publishing industry tools and products– Film industry tools and products– Telecom industry tools and products

Are all on our toolbox, and we can use them all in OERs.

11

Possible cultural differencesAustralia EU

Language English German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, many small languages

Business model Market and Business oriented, tuition fee, relatively free, low regulation level

Mostly free higher education, strongly regulated, smaller free market (corporate ED)

Scale of operation Unique big. Market + Global outreach

Segmented small markets, limited outreach

12

Why would I design open content?• I would not!• I am making a living from designing. (As tailors from tailoring,

and teachers from teaching).• It is time consuming! I still count 40 hours of preparation on 1 hour

learning time.• But I design most of the time Open courses for learners:

– Public finance for the course – free for the beneficiary – But the designer is financed!

• I always follow the financer’s requirements.• Social science is more on the open side, technical science is more

on the restricted side • Public financing is on open side, business financing on restricted

side.

13

ICT for Education:http://moodle.liedm.net/course/view.php?

id=15

14

Why would YOU design open content?• Because you are a teacher and:

– Your income is based on other indicators (classes, learner outcomes, success rate, etc.);

– You want to save time and energy for colleagues;– The free re-use of your content adds to your reputation;– When it is a content made by your learner or group of

learners, in case they agree and you can build your “local” repository of UGC (user generated content);

– When you think the open attitude adds something important to the learning community.

15

So how does it become sustainable?• With massive financing on behalf of: the

University, or public funding;• With substantial input on behalf of the authors;• With a good choice of content (ideal for re-use,

edit, remix);• With a good answer to emerging needs;• With a good choice of an industry standard

format.

16

Check the EDEN website or OpenProf website

for more information:

www.eden-online.org

http://www.openprof.eu