This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Community and identity in Open Educational Practice (OEP):

insights from an expert surveyKaterina Zourou, Giiulia Torresin

Web2Learn, Greece

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Starting points

• From OER to OEP=>• Shift from (access to) content to engagement with OER• Practices still not well documented• Limited knowledge of sharing practices; (very) few insights into OER re-use

and adaptation processes (e.g. versioning)• Social networks: opportunities for user engagement, participatory learning

and social interaction- can they help overcome the limitations above?Questions:• How does engagement in OEP affect understandings of community and

identity?• What is the role of social networks in respect to user engagement? Beetham et al, 2012; Ehlers, 2011; Littlejohn et al., 2014

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Methodology

Open ended survey administered to 18 OER experts; data collection between June and August 2014. Part of WP6 (OER challenges for language learning) of LangOERContent analysis as an interpretative approach to understanding subjective realities•Topics covered by survey:

– Impact of OER (re-)use on learning pedagogies– OER seen from the perspective of social connectivity– Social networks and their role in OER adoption “identity” and “community” not figuring among topics. They were

recurrently mentioned in expert replies, thus research focus shift to understand the significance of these frequently used terms.

Mostyn, 1985; Mayring, 20003

Networking as enabler of OER re-use•“[We should enable access] to learning communities and individuals online via social networking sites, including open-source platforms and tools, and flexible openly licensed authentic educational content for re-purposing as learning resources” (E11, q5)Involvement of a range of actors (teachers AND learners); engagement in OEP (OER adaptation); active learning (socioconstructivist approach)

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Results- Networked communities in OEP

Results- Networked communities in OEP (2)

“Whether they are students or teachers, users need to create a community of practice to show each other how to adapt and use OER. Since OER are all about learning by doing, it only makes sense that there be a social network where OER users can talk to each other about their OER practices” (E18, q6).Wenger’s Community of Practice (CoP) in its technical (networking space) and social (engagement, collaboration) dimensions.

Wenger, 1998.

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• “In the future, I see OER serving as triggers for greater interaction in multiple learning communities: teacher communities and student communities. In other words, social networks (or what I am calling communities of practice) are the places where learning takes place. Students and teachers must show each other how to scaffold interaction with flexible OER” (E18, q12).

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Results- Networked communities in OEP (3)

Engagement in a community (networks alone aren’t enough)•it is very important [to] build a community around the resources. (E10, q6)

•I know [two well-known repositories of OER for language learning] but both have technical limitations and barriers: [there is] no social sharing, no community feel, still rather dominated by institutional presence” (E10, q6)

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Results- Networked communities in OEP (4)

Results- digital identities

“I am not in favour of [making OER available publicly], as I think there is too much potential for users to become disengaged. Many colleagues still feel an enormous amount of pressure or sensitivity in relation to critique of their teaching or teaching materials - anyone who is truly invested in their teaching cannot help but be emotionally invested. (…) The two concerns I think people have about sharing educational resources are 1) fear of criticism and 2) fear of not being acknowledged (E13, q8).

Impact on professional identities of users engaged in OEP- is public display of one’s OEP incompatible with academic identity?(cf. Perryman & Coughlan, 2013; Hughes & McKenna 2012).

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Results- digital identities

“A lot of sharing and reusing is happening within certain groups of interest. In a way, all the subscribers to given content (e.g. the followers of a particular website/service) form a group of interest or, in other words, a community of inquiry. (…) Personally I'm a member of a few special interest Facebook groups based on the idea of sharing” (E4, q7).

two types of communities where sharing occurs: within bounded communities (tight links), and open networks (more dispersed groups of (often unknown) users).What are the enablers for the transition between bounded and open communities?

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Conclusion

•Results indicate (Littlejohn & al. 2014) that open networks serve to flatten the former hierarchical relationship within a Higher Education institution, a shift that is in line with open approaches to knowledge building. *Does the erosion of community boundaries undermine the potential for change?

Littlejohn, A., Falconer, I., Mcgill, L., & Beetham, H. (2014).

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Conclusion

• “When one moves beyond the familiar camaraderie of the group to the open network, effective management of one’s identity becomes critically important” (Dron & Anderson, 2014: 158-159).

• Social networks facilitate connections and interactions around OER. Yet some users find public sharing and engagement threatening.

=> Aspect of user online activity to be taken into consideration in enabling technologies for OER uptake (e.g. ROER)?

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Outputs - expert videos and research paper

A. Expert videos available on YouTubehttp://langoer.eun.org/videos

A paper: Zourou, K. 2016, in press. Identity and engagement in networked Open Educational Practice. International Journal of Applied Linguistics

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Staying in touchhttp://langoer.eun.org/

#langOER

LangOER

OER and languages

OER and languages

LangOER teachers’ group (in preparation)

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ReferencesBeetham, H., Falconer, I., McGill, L. and Littlejohn, A. Open practices: briefing paper. JISC, 2012 https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/51668352/OpenPracticesBriefing Ehlers, U. (2011). From open educational resources to open educational practices. ELearning Papers, 23:1–8. http://www.elearningeuropa.info/sites/default/files/media25186.pdf Littlejohn, A., Falconer, I., Mcgill, L., & Beetham, H. (2014b). Open Networks and Bounded Communities: Tensions Inherent in Releasing Open Educational Resources. In A. Littlejohn, C. Pegler (Eds), Reusing Open Resources. New York: Routledge (pp. 57–69).Perryman, L.-A., & Coughlan, T. (2013). The realities of “reaching out”: enacting the public-facing open scholar role with existing online communities. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1–14. Retrieved from http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/viewArticle/2013-21/html Hughes, J., & McKenna, C. (2012). The impact of developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) on novice OER developers. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 14, 1–11. Retrieved from http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/viewArticle/2012-14/html

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Annex: Questionnaire OEP in a language learning/teaching context: focus on interaction

Appropriateness of OER for language learning. •1. OER for language learning: what is your first reaction? •2. Do you believe that OER are appropriate in a language learning context? What kind of justification can we provide for or against? •3. What do you think of the argument that OER are not very suitable for language teaching/learning due to importance of issues (such as granularity, contextualization, learning needs) in a language learning/teaching context? Affordances of OER for language interaction •4. Do you see possibilities of OER (re-)use in contexts other than tutored situations (face-to-face, online or hybrid)? •5. How can OER afford interaction, with either native speakers or peers? •Role of social networking in fostering OER (re)use in a language learning context•6. In a language learning context, how do you see the role of social networks in conjunction with OER? •7. Are social networks, with their user-driven capacity and ease of reaching peers and native speakers, a suitable means for OER uptake and expansion? If so, what kind of examples/practices do we have? If not, why not in your opinion? •8. How do you see game-based mechanics (badges, recommendations systems, etc.) as a means for OER uptake? Please justify your reply .

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Annex: Questionnaire OEP in a language learning/teaching context: focus on interaction (p. 2) •9. Do you know of any educational practices using OER in a language learning context that utilize social networks and/or game mechanics? •10. Do you know of any OER repositories whose social networking and/or game mechanics foster language interaction? •11. What kind of improvements (pedagogical, technological, organizational) do you think would foster the interactional dimension of OER? •12. In your opinion, can social networks and OER be complementary, where the former act as socialization/ language interaction spaces and OER as content? Future of OER with regard to social connectivity•13. What direction should OER for language learning take in the future? •14. Do you believe that OER should converge with digitally enhanced social trends such as crowdsourcing and socially-developed and maintained resources as a trigger to more user engagement with OER? If so, how exactly? If not, why not? •15. Do you believe that OER in a language learning context will be marginalized possibly due to the lack of conditions for interaction for self-directed learners, with learners moving to more interactive solutions (web 2.0 language learning communities -such as LiveMocha, Busuu, Babbel- or MOOCs)? •16. How do you see the future of OER for languages in conjunction with the for-profit language learning sector (e.g. publishing houses, private e-content providers)? •17. Is there anything you would like to add that has not been brought up in the survey?

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