Group Admins
Description
Session Description
The OER community has grown considerably over the past 10 years and the impact of OER on educational systems has become a pervasive element of educational policy (Orr et al, 2015), but there has been little research on the transferability of e-resources and open content internationally. In this session we will discuss the question ‘how transferable are e-resources are across global institutions? For over 20 years we have been developing e-resources to support our own curricula and in addition we have openly released over 200 of these high quality interactive digital resources via the Helm Open website (www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen ). We have robust evidence of the reuse of these resources worldwide and of the impact on learning in over 40 countries and with millions of users. We will present these data to provide the audience with a view of which subjects appear to be used in different areas of the world and the user views on learning gains from the e-resources. In the second half of the session we will report on three projects where will drill down to look at the question of transferability in more detail with specific cohorts of students in Europe, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The first project was an EU funded project with partners in Norway and Spain focusing on interactive multimedia e-resources called ‘e-compendiums’ covering physiology and nursing skills were developed for nursing students studying in Norway. 8 e-compendiums were chosen to be translated and adapted for use with UK and Spanish students at universities in these countries. We evaluated the efficacy of the adapted e-compendiums using a questionnaire. We will present some of the data from these international reuse student cohorts (n=47 UK students; n= 280 Spanish students) to provide a perspective on transferability of the e-resources and provide insights about the process of translating the materials from the perspectives of the lecturers involved.
In two doctoral studies, we have explored the transferability of reusable learning objects (RLOs) from the UK, Helm Open repository to students in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Undergraduate nursing students were the participants in the first study where the Think Aloud method was used to explore students’ and lecturers’ views on a set of clinical skills RLOs. Following implementation into the nursing curriculum, the students perspectives (n= 137) on the acceptability, usability and engagement provided interesting insights into the appropriateness of the RLOs for use within the Saudi Arabian HE context using a questionnaire in English and Arabic.
The final study uses Q-Methodology to explore the views of post-graduate nursing students from Oman on the transferability of pharmacology RLOs to support their continued professional development in clinical nursing. Two doctoral students who are conducting these studies will present some preliminary data of their findings and insights.
In summary, we will explore the potential for international sharing of e-resources and open content. The research methods used to explore the acceptance, usability and engagement will also be discussed in the session.
Session content: evaluation and reflection
In this session we will discuss the question ‘how transferable are e-resources are across global institutions? For over 20 years we have been developing e-resources to support our own curricula and in addition we have openly released over 200 of these high quality interactive digital resources via the Helm Open website (www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen ). We have robust evidence of the reuse of these resources worldwide and of the impact on learning in over 40 countries and with millions of users. We will present these data and also report on three projects where will drill down to look at the question of transferability in more detail with specific cohorts of students in Europe, Saudi Arabia and Oman. During this session we explore with the audience some of the mechanisms enabling the sharing of resources across continents. We will discuss who benefits and how? What are the drivers and barriers to sharing content? Should we share content internationally?
In summary, we will explore the potential for international sharing of e-resources and open content. The research methods and tools used to explore the acceptance, usability and engagement will also be discussed in the session.
References
Orr, D., M. Rimini and D. van Damme (2015), Open Educational Resources: A Catalyst for Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264247543-en
Helm Open www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen
Resources for participants
www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen
