[Open-education] OER Quality?

Fri Sep 25 14:57:03 UTC 2015

How much should we emphasise quality, when we frame OERs to others?

Asked Rory McGreal about this, during (and after) a CIDER session.
https://landing.athabascau.ca/groups/profile/289790/canadian-initiative-for-distance-education-research-cider/tab/359765/sessions

Missed most of the webinar but it sounded like much emphasis was on the "competition" between commercial textbooks and OERs. Got an issue with this.

Granted, if we all want to shift away from the offerings of commercial publishers, we need to do better than them by producing (selecting, reusing…) textbooks of equal production value. Which is extremely expensive, cumbersome, and time-consuming. To caricature: if the goal is to replace the current structure, we need to have the exact same structure as theirs, only more "open". The OER magic.

Clearly, many people do want textbooks of very high "production value". In some cases, people think specifically about the same type of page layout and use of amazing images as what McGraw-Hill and others have pushed down our learners’ throats. It could because people were burnt by the movement for desktop Linux never achieving the same type of user experience as other operating systems. So we need to do better than the competition to convince people to switch.

But maybe this perceived need comes from a skewed idea about learning? After all, are we so sure that learning happens through textbooks themselves? We could open a whole discussion about the value of textbooks, here, which could be quite useful. The reason for this discussion's usefulness is the dominance of the textbook model, especially here in North America (and especially among English-speakers). As a personal perspective: textbooks can fit a specific purpose but they may be equivalent to "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut" (or "killing a fly with a bazooka").

We need not get caught up in that textbook-based model, though. What about "small" OERs? Or "quick and dirty" ones? UNESCO mentions that:
"OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation."
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-open-educational-resources-oers/

Quite a difference between syllabi and textbooks!

The aforementioned Tony Bates textbook example notwithstanding, much OER can be about the "stuff" we already create in the course of our usual work. Including the material created by learners.

Been particularly fond of a saying from software development, especially fitting in agile programming: "Release Early, Release Often". If you want to create the perfect product, chances are that you will get bogged down in details. A lot of developers end up not releasing their wares because they feel they're "not ready for primetime". Financially responsible, perhaps, but sad nonetheless.

A former student taught me a valuable lesson, there. After completing a very high quality version of the main project for the course (with friends seeing it), this student postponed submitting the final version in order to tweak it further. Weeks after the class ended, had to fail this student because the work had yet to reach me. (We eventually worked it out but it was quite stressful.)

In terms of learning material, there might even be a deeper lesson. As we polish up our work as much as possible, we chip away at some of the learning opportunities. For instance, as we fine-tune course notes too far in advance, we miss the chance to respond to learners' actions. And when we produce an impressive video, implicitly asking learners to do the same, we intimidate many of them.

Not to mention that the "remix" part of Open Content is more likely to be perceived as defacement if it starts with finished material than when it comes from a simple sketch. Or that learners and teachers may collaborate in creating material which only becomes well-edited after many iterations and interactions.

Not to be too one-sided about this. There is a clear case for extremely high quality offerings, accessible at no cost. Like there is a need for museum displays. 

But how about Opening Educational Resources as a "work in progress"?

Thanks.

— Alex

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Alex Enkerli, Learning Technology Advisor
Vitrine technologie-éducation http://www.vteducation.org/en