QUALITY ASSURING OER OER Workshop held at OUT, Dar es Salaam 22nd June 2017 Dr Ephraim Mhlanga

Quality Assuring OER Skeptics raise quality issues about using OER Anything free/cheap is of poor quality How do you quality assure your materials?

EU Funded OPAL Research

Approaches Self- managed quality assurance (professional artistry) Using prospective end –users to pilot resources Using students to check OER for clarity, content and for licensing before releasing them Using students to review OER as part of developing information literacy skills

Student Review of Resources    Who? ..is the author? Looking them up I cannot find any information about author I found author has produced some materials on the topic I found author has produced lots of materials on the topic I found author is well known authority in the field What? ..is the relevance of points made? I think this has no relevance to my task or assignment I think this is of little relevance to my task or assignment. I think some of the content relevant to my task or assignment. I think this has all relevant information to my task/assignment. When? …was the OER produced? I found this was published more than 10 years ago I found this is between 5-10 years old I found this is between 2-5 years old I found this is less than 2 years old Why? …has the OER been produced? I found author produced this OER to convince me of theory/opinion with no clear evidence I found author produced this OER to disseminate knowledge to general public I found author produced this OER to disseminate knowledge to the professional community I found author produced this OER to disseminate knowledge to the academic community

Process Search Select Consider Relevance Improve Subject to inst.QA Use

The ‘life cycle’ of OER Find/Get Understand OER Create/ Remix Localise/ Adapt Use and Refine Share/ Redistribute Research Understand OER

JISC OER Info Kit – quality criteria Accuracy Reputation of author/institution Standard of technical production  Accessibility  Fitness for purpose

Intute Resource http://www. vtstutorials. ac. uk/tutorial/education/

But It’s not just about INFORMATION literacy It’s about PEDAGOGIC literacy How does the resource teach? How will the resource fit into the way that you teach in your course? What are the underlying assumptions about how learning takes place? Or possibly another question What challenge to your teaching approach is offered in the resource?

THANK YOU