Group Admins
Description
The true power of comparative research around the impact and use of open educational resources is only just being realised, largely through the work done by the Hewlett-funded OER Research Hub. Since late 2012 the project has used a combination of surveys, interviews and focus groups to gather data about the use of OER by educators, formal learners and informal learners across the globe. This presentation will focus on the overall picture emerging from the project’s research to date, exploring key questions around OER use and attitudes. Areas that will be covered include: ‘Who is using OER and in what ways?’; ‘What impact is OER having on teaching?’; ‘How do students enrolled in education programmes use OER?’; ‘What do we know about use of OER by informal learners?’; ‘Are OER saving money?’; ‘Are OER improving access to education?’.
These findings are likely to be of interest to a wide range of OER stakeholders. Audience members are encouraged to share their reactions to the data and reflect on how it compares with their own experiences. OER Research Hub research instruments are available on an open license (CC-BY) so they can be reused and repurposed, and we encourage others to share results back to the overall data set to leverage the power of openness.
