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The project

From the roots up Exploring the use of Open Educational Resources to widen participation in deprived communities. The project . North and Mid Wales Reaching Wider Partnership project. Brings OER, OpenLearn, to mid and north Wales

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The project

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  1. From the roots upExploring the use of Open Educational Resources to widen participation in deprived communities

  2. The project • North and Mid Wales Reaching Wider Partnership project. • Brings OER, OpenLearn, to mid and north Wales • Building capacity in communities to use the resource to widen access and participation. • Currently in year 2 of a 3 year project.

  3. Main aims of the project • Develop capacity through recruiting and training OpenLearn Champions within communities to help people access OpenLearn and further learning. • Develop virtual ‘communities of practice’ to share learning from the project as it develops. • Research and evaluate the use of OERs and impact on Widening Participation groups.

  4. What are Open Educational Resources? (Schaffert and Geser, 2008)

  5. Who are the Champions? • Community workers • Local adult education tutors • Librarians • Union Learning Reps • Job Centre Plus Advisors • Community and voluntary sector groups All must complete an application form to demonstrate how they promote learning as part of their paid or voluntary role.

  6. The Role of Champions • Be a friendly face in your community and show others how to get started on OpenLearn. • Tell colleagues and students/clients about Open learn. • If you have a teaching role you may find that Open learn has material you can use • Role should complement your current job or volunteer role.

  7. Case study – Local rural Library

  8. Resources and support for Champions • Training – A mixture of instruction, hands-on practice of the OpenLearn content and group discussion around how they will use OpenLearn. • A resource pack includes promotional materials, certificates, OpenLearn and progression guide. • On line forum • Daily tweets with OpenLearn recommendations • Mentor support from project team member

  9. Engagement • 52 people trained as Champions Year 1, we estimate to have 112 Champions by the end of the project 2014 • Difficult to track and monitor the full spread and reach. • Reaching over 600 learners

  10. Barriers to access and the promise of OER (Adapted from Lane and van Dorp, 2011)

  11. Some research questions

  12. Approach • Range of methods • Observation at training sessions • Semi-structured interviews • Project feedback and evaluation data • Other documentary evidence • Case studies developed • Themes and lessons • Focus on mediation and transformation

  13. Aspects of In/Formality (Adapted from Malcolm, Hodkinson and Colley, 2003)

  14. Discussion – Mediating Open Educational Resources

  15. Recommendations

  16. Where will the project go next? • More guidance on courses and content, the development of informal pathways using OpenLearn content. • Links to the new Future Learn, UK MOOCs (massive open online courses) developments.

  17. Contacts/ information • Gayle.Hudson@open.ac.uk (practice based) • John.rose-adams@open.ac.uk and jonathan.hughes@open.ac.uk (research side) • Twitter: #OLRW • Project Blog : http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OpenLearn_in_North_and_Mid_Wales

  18. References • Lane, A. and Van Dorp, K. J. (2011). Open educational resources and widening participation in higher education: innovations and lessons from open universities. In: EDULEARN11, the 3rd annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 04-05 July 2011, Barcelona • Malcolm, J., Hodkinson, P. & Colley, H., 2003. The interrelationships between informal and formal learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15(7/8), pp.313-318. at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13665620310504783 • Schaffert, S., & Geser, G. (2008). Open educational resources and practices. eLearning Papers, 7. athttp://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=11198&doclng=6&vol=7

  19. About Openlearn

  20. What is it? Open Educational Resources (OER) Biggest repository of OER in Europe Over 650 units of free courses and content 11 million users worldwide OER a growing area, eg. Coursera and other platforms

  21. What can learners do? • Over 650 courses - History and the Arts, Science, Maths and Technology, Body and Mind, Society, Education and Languages • Plan and prepare for a course of study by enrolling on one of the free courses • Browse the subject categories to discover articles, watch videos and interact with features and games • Explore new topics to build their personal knowledge or look for reference material for a course they are already studying • Keep track of their learning and print off a record of the courses they have undertaken

  22. Why is this relevant to groups and individuals in the Widening Access community? • OpenLearn is free, informal and flexible and can be accessed from any computer which connects to the internet. • Material from introductory to advanced level is available – something for everyone • Stepping stone to build confidence, ready for work or further study

  23. OU and the BBC • There are constantly changing topics highlighted on Open learn, many linked to the BBC e.g. • ‘Stargazing’ with Brian Cox • Wartime Farm • BBC Story of Wales • Bang Goes theTheory • Coast All with related materials on OpenLearn and additional hard copy resources available.

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