SCOP 2007 ‘Open Educational Resources as an Instrument for achieving Education for All’ Towards European-wide Quality and Benchmarking of Open Educational Resources Kees-Jan van Dorp & George Ubachs European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU)

Agenda Part – One: Consortium of New Generation OER Consortium introduction Consortium stages Consortium progress Consortium outlook Part – Two: Proliferating Quality and Benchmarking The problem at hand Some results Tool support needed E-xcellence

Consortium introduction Consortium philosophy A new generation open educational resources Stimulate, extend, and expand the use of OER in Europe Provide lifelong learning with a new gateway to university education Widen the participation in higher education in line with the Lisbon agenda Brand lifelong open and flexible learning throughout Europe Share and build on scientific and expert knowledge of OER

Consortium introduction Consortium “tangibles” Members providing a broad offer of open courses Universities increasingly into mode of informal learning Interconnectivity between formal and informal learning (bridging two modes of learning) Transfer of courses between member institutions (translation and localisation) Overarching portal pointing to national OER portals Best practice and progress support for the partners (variety of attitude, commitment, and growth path) Policy-making: institutionally, nationally, and European Informal Utilise open resources Enter formal programme N N Y N Y N Y Y Off-campus learning Academic appetite Learning privileges Consortium extends “Open” invitation to learn

Consortium introduction European Association of Distance Teaching Universities The Open University (English) Open Universiteit Nederland (Dutch) FernUniversität in Hagen (German) Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance (French) Network per l'Universita Ovunque (Italian) Universidade Aberta (Portuguese) Moscow State University of Economics, S and I (Russian) Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spanish) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spanish/Catalan) Anadolu university (Turkish) Task force Core group Actors University (high-end) Local TF Research expert Governance structure

Consortium stages 1. Conception phase 2. Embryonic phase 3. Infant phase 4. Maturation phase 5. Adult phase Fragile entity Robust entity learning and experiencing Where do WE stand? (have we matured yet) risks

Consortium stages Potential factors influencing Consortium maturing Organisation-related Characteristics of organisations’ strategies, structure and funding methods Changing organisational needs and perceptions Current ICT infrastructure context Maturity of new technologies available Commitment and support within different echelons Staffing, experts and project experience Content-related Content-related Availability, size and complexity (rework) Technical and definitional issues (exchange strategies) Intellectual property rights (third party rights) Availability of pacing and learning schedules (learner support) Content “shelf-life” and annual releases (renewal) Quality assurance systems Process-related Project costs and funding Planning and time-span Governance structure Project management Project team expertise Project staffing stability

Operations Consortium progress Core group meetings -‘Core Group Meeting’ (June 30, 2006) at The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes -‘Core Group Meeting’ (August 25, 2006) at FernUniversität Hagen, Germany -‘Core Group Meeting’ (November 9, 2006) at European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) -‘Core Group Meeting’ (December 20, 2006) at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium ‘Core Group Meeting’ (February 2, 2007) at at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium Task Force meetings ‘Task force’ Meeting (February 22, 2006) at EHSAL, Brussels ‘Task force’ Meeting (September 13, 2006) at EHSAL, Brussels ‘Task force’ Meeting (January 15, 2007) at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium ‘Task force’ Meeting (May 14, 2007) at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium EC Consultations DG Information Society and Media, eContentPlus Workprogramme 2006, Consultation meeting, Luxembourg, 6 April 2005 Preparatory stakeholder meeting Directorate General Education and Culture (DGEAC) preceding the meeting to the Cabinet of Mr. Ján FIGEL', Brussels, 3 March 2006 Stakeholder meeting EADTU and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to the Cabinet of Mr. Ján FIGEL', Brussels, 14 March 2006 DG Information Society and Media, eContentPlus Workprogramme 2008 Meeting of education stakeholders, Luxembourg, 27 April 2007 Stakeholder meeting EADTU to Principle Administrator DG Information Society and Media on eContentPlus Workprogramme, Luxembourg, 3 April 2007 Stakeholder meeting EADTU to the Cabinet of Mr. Ján FIGEL', Brussels, 23 May 2007 Strategy & policy Politics

Consortium progress Achievements: awareness, commitment, embedding Building a consortium model Ways of working, sharing, partnering Individual partners, collective strength Addressing benefits of OER Initial framework for adoption The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been a true process catalyst for mobilising individual partners and to provide for dissemination, sparring and support Achievements: wide-spread dissemination Press, Blogs, etc: foregrounding members Forums, conferences, national and European Frontrunner dissemination by EADTU members Propagating OER in Conferences: Achievements: satellite initiatives and spin-offs Institutes touching ground with ‘local’ OER Task Forces Increased look-out for funding opportunities Installation and appointment of OER professionals (EADTU, ICDE, UNESCO, etc.) Inflow in national bodies & international consortia High-end consultations with Commission’s Cabinet ODL into OCW Consortium recognition Online Educa Berlin 2006 (UK OU, UOC, EADTU) EU e-Learning Conference Helsinki 2006 (UK OU, Miskolc NHRDC, OUNL, EADTU) EADTU Annual Conference Tallinn 2006 (UK OU, FernUni, UNED, e-Collegium, NHRDC, UniNettuno, UOC, EADTU) Open Education Conference Utah 2006 (UK OU,OUNL, EADTU) EduMedia Conference Salzburg 2007 (EADTU, OUNL) SCOP Conference Heerlen 2007 (EADTU, OUUK, OUNL)

“planning to create at least 10 multilingual courses 10 multilingual courses” Consortium progress Member commitment….now taking off

Consortium outlook Agreement on project Master plan Consolidation of critical course mass Diversification of funding sources Assuring availability & stability of staff Robust entity learning and experiencing “Consortium building” Here do WE stand ProjectRoll-out

Consortium outlook

Proliferating Quality and Benchmarking The problem at hand Autonomous, self-study courses? Many OERS, much variation: what is myCourse, what is myQuality, where is myPedagogy? In search of: Bioinformatics “some sort of an introduction” (actually searching: Bioinformatics, a quick reference for dummies, pedagogically-rich, visual learning elements, a fast forward course) How do I select? My Search and Learning time to be devoted, is limited Many results, but unfortunately disappointing: OER Blogs, Lecture notes (classroom based), Hyperlinks (not working), Literature references (buy textbook)…..But no coherent course! Finally, I found one coherent course! But no Quality Metadata Coherent course, self-study what is fit for myPurpose where is myPedagogy searching for myQuality

Some results of my humble exercise Bioinformatics “some sort of an introduction”

Tool support needed

E-xcellence

QA in HE and is receiving a lot of attention at institutional, national and European level Still missing: QA specific to e-learning Criteria based on ease of access New forms of interaction (students and staff) Flexibility, personalisation and other pedagogical aspects that are more relevant to e- learning They express the added value of e-learning to HE Especially, with the leap towards new generation OER E-xcellence

E-xcellence in e-learning is: Complementary to other national quality assurance systems related more to content, staff and infrastructure Optimising the learning process and offering assurance to stakeholders that e-learning provision is of high quality E-xcellence has established: A framework of quality criteria for the development, operation and evaluation of e-learning programmes An appropriate set of performance indicators, parameters and guidelines by which the quality of e-learning programmes can be measured by assessment A definition of threshold and excellence level E-xcellence

Set of (33) European benchmarks They cover institutional, pedagogical, technical, ethical and management aspects of e- learning organised into the three main categories of : Management(institutional and programme levels) Products(curriculum, course design and delivery) Services(student and staff support) An important aspect of E-xcellence is that it offers a European-wide set of benchmarks, independent of particular institutional or national systems, and with guidance to educational improvement E-xcellence

Cutting-edge developments European OER Consortium European Quality Consortium European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) the Open University (OUUK) Open Universiteit Nederland (OUNL) University of Oulu (OULU) Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance (CNED) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) Estonian Information Technology Foundation (EITSA) National Council for Distance Education (APERTUS) Network per l'Universita Ovunque (NETTUNO) European University Association (EUA) The eLearning Industry Group (eLIG) Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO) Join in E-xcellence

SCOP 2007 ‘Open Educational Resources as an Instrument for achieving Education for All’ Towards European-wide Quality and Benchmarking of Open Educational Resources Kees-Jan van Dorp & George Ubachs Thank you !