Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success

The OpenLearn platform was launched in 2006 with the aim of delivering excerpts of the Open University’s (UK) (OU) curriculum as open educational resources (OER). Now reaching over 8.5m learners a year, the platform delivers free courses, educational interactives, videos and articles across a broad...

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Autor principal:	Patrina Law
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Commonwealth of Learning 2019
Materias:	open educational resources higher education policy retention moocs distance learning online learning Theory and practice of education LB5-3640
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/92f5aef6c0e546bc9da7bd8261a7c427
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:92f5aef6c0e546bc9da7bd8261a7c4272021-12-02T23:24:12ZCase Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success2311-1550https://doaj.org/article/92f5aef6c0e546bc9da7bd8261a7c4272019-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/365https://doaj.org/toc/2311-1550The OpenLearn platform was launched in 2006 with the aim of delivering excerpts of the Open University’s (UK) (OU) curriculum as open educational resources (OER). Now reaching over 8.5m learners a year, the platform delivers free courses, educational interactives, videos and articles across a broad range of subjects reflecting what is delivered formally to students and through topical, engaging content. The OU is the UK’s largest university for undergraduate education with around 170,000 enrolled students primarily engaged in online, distance education. Whilst previous studies on OpenLearn had revealed the demographics of learners using the platform (Law et al., 2013; Perryman et al., 2013; Law & Jelfs, 2016), platform-derived analytics showed that a high proportion of OU students were also using OpenLearn, despite it not performing any formally directed role in the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. This paper discusses research undertaken with OU students in 2017 to examine their experience and motivations for using OpenLearn and the potential impact on their learning. Surveys were issued to 10,000 students with the resulting data informing university strategy around the function of OER as a means to motivate, prepare and retain students. Data showed that students are using OpenLearn for module choice, as a taster of OU study before signing up, for study preparedness, time-management planning, confidence-building, assessment support and professional development. In addition, OU students who use OpenLearn are more likely to be retained and to progress to their next course. This paper will also discusses recommendations and actions taken from this research that were realised in 2018 and early results from this, ostensibly the impact of a project to integrate OER into the student induction process. The data revealed in this paper will be of interest to the wider academic community, HE policy-makers, those involved in delivering non-accredited learning and the impact of OER.Patrina LawCommonwealth of Learningarticleopen educational resourceshigher educationpolicyretentionmoocsdistance learningonline learningTheory and practice of educationLB5-3640ENJournal of Learning for Development, Vol 6, Iss 3, Pp 262-272 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	open educational resources higher education policy retention moocs distance learning online learning Theory and practice of education LB5-3640
spellingShingle	open educational resources higher education policy retention moocs distance learning online learning Theory and practice of education LB5-3640 Patrina Law Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success
description	The OpenLearn platform was launched in 2006 with the aim of delivering excerpts of the Open University’s (UK) (OU) curriculum as open educational resources (OER). Now reaching over 8.5m learners a year, the platform delivers free courses, educational interactives, videos and articles across a broad range of subjects reflecting what is delivered formally to students and through topical, engaging content. The OU is the UK’s largest university for undergraduate education with around 170,000 enrolled students primarily engaged in online, distance education. Whilst previous studies on OpenLearn had revealed the demographics of learners using the platform (Law et al., 2013; Perryman et al., 2013; Law & Jelfs, 2016), platform-derived analytics showed that a high proportion of OU students were also using OpenLearn, despite it not performing any formally directed role in the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. This paper discusses research undertaken with OU students in 2017 to examine their experience and motivations for using OpenLearn and the potential impact on their learning. Surveys were issued to 10,000 students with the resulting data informing university strategy around the function of OER as a means to motivate, prepare and retain students. Data showed that students are using OpenLearn for module choice, as a taster of OU study before signing up, for study preparedness, time-management planning, confidence-building, assessment support and professional development. In addition, OU students who use OpenLearn are more likely to be retained and to progress to their next course. This paper will also discusses recommendations and actions taken from this research that were realised in 2018 and early results from this, ostensibly the impact of a project to integrate OER into the student induction process. The data revealed in this paper will be of interest to the wider academic community, HE policy-makers, those involved in delivering non-accredited learning and the impact of OER.
format	article
author	Patrina Law
author_facet	Patrina Law
author_sort	Patrina Law
title	Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success
title_short	Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success
title_full	Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success
title_fullStr	Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success
title_full_unstemmed	Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success
title_sort	case studies: how directing formal students to institutionally-delivered oer supports their success
publisher	Commonwealth of Learning
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/92f5aef6c0e546bc9da7bd8261a7c427
work_keys_str_mv	AT patrinalaw casestudieshowdirectingformalstudentstoinstitutionallydeliveredoersupportstheirsuccess
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Case Studies: How Directing Formal Students to Institutionally-Delivered OER Supports their Success

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