3/16/2016

Applying OER
Concepts in Course
Design
Dr. Ishan Abeywardena
Adviser on Open Educational Resources at COL
iabeywardena@col.org | https://www.col.org/content/dr-ishan-abeywardena

Workshop on OER for Course Development

https://iabeywardena.moodlecloud.com

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session you should be
able to:
Evaluate and choose suitable OER for
the curriculum;
Apply OER principles during the
design of the course content.
Mainreference:
Abeywardena, I.S. (2013). Development of OER-Based Undergraduate Technology Course Material: TCC242/05
Web Database Application Delivered Using ODL at Wawasan Open University. In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.),
Open Educational Resources: An Asian Perspective. Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia (ISBN 978-1894975-61-2), 173-184.
http://dspace.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/23/pub_PS_OER_Asia_web.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y#page=193

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The Need for OER in Course

Design

Move away from proprietary course material

used under license
Abandon the model which bundled costly
textbooks with the course material
Develop all the course material in-house from
scratch as self-contained or stand-alone
Reduce course development times
Better utilize resources (course team)

Choosing the Right OER

Availability of required material as OER

Availability of official technical
manuals/reference books which can be
used to cross-check the integrity of the
OER material
Composition of the OER which included
theory and practical exercises
Expertise available in the course team
with respect to the subject matter

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Design Methodology
1. Formation of course team
2. Identification of Relevant
OER
3. Adaptation of the OER
4. Quality Assurance

Typical Course Team

Course Team (CT)

Course Team Leader (CTL)
Course Writer(s) (CW)
Academic Member (AM)
Instructional Designer(s) (ID)
Editor
External Course Assessor / Reviewers (ECA)
Graphics Designer(s) (GD)
Representative from Learning and Library Services (LLS)
Representative from Information Technology Services
(ITS)

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Formation of the Course

Team

the CTL, CW, AM, ID and ECA need to be

subject matter experts in the topic concerned;

the composition of the course team needs to be

perfect in terms of the expertise as well as team
dynamics;

the team members need to have a general

acceptance of the concept of OER and a
thorough understanding of how to use it within
the Creative Commons license framework.

Searching and
Locating OER

a certain number of
reputable and peerreviewed OER repositories
should be identified and
shortlisted after discussion
among the course team

Identify required materials

(e.g. integration, C++ programming)

Draft search queries

(e.g. undergraduate mathematics)

Locate repository
(e.g. word of mouth, some link
somewhere, popular repositories)

Run multiple queries

each of the repositories

need to be manually
trawled using their native
search mechanisms to
locate the relevant OER

Read each resource to identify

suitability
(openness, access, relevance)

Identify suitable resources

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Adaptation of OER
Integration Model
Adaptation
of OER by
CW

QA

Process

Second
draft of unit
x

First draft
of unit x

Pedagogical
input by ID

Quality Assurance
Vetting of the second draft of study unit x

CTL / AM

Cross-checking the OER material with the official technical

manuals
Amend second draft of study unit x
Produce third draft

Vetting of the third draft of study unit x

ECA

CT

CTL

CT

Produce ECA report on the suitability of unit x and

amendments needed

Discuss how best the comments by the ECA can be incorporated into study
unit x

Amend third draft of study unit x

Produce fourth draft of study unit x

Vetting of fourth draft of study unit x

Acceptance of the draft
Forward to Editor for production

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TIPS Framework

TIPS complete document: http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/562

TIPS quick guide: http://cemca.org.in/ckfinder/userfiles/files/TIPS-Shorter_12August2013.pdf

Cost Factors

CWs time saved with respect to writing the

course material is spent ensuring the integrity
of the OER content

Additional content needs to be developed by the

CW to bridge the gaps in the disparate OER
material

Standard institutional QA process needs to be

followed to ensure that the course material is at
an acceptable standard

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How to Save Costs

The true cost savings for an institution
would be visible only when more and
more OER based course materials are
developed and shared freely amongst
peer institutions through a
Partnerships and Exchanges model
(Downes, 2007) reducing the need for
re-development of common modules
Downes,S.(2007).ModelsforSustainableOpenEducationalResources.InterdisciplinaryJournalofKnowledgeandLearningObjects ,3.

Licensing
2015 Institution Name. Except where otherwise noted, this work is
licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to
Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View,
California, 94041, USA.
This course material was published to support the learning of students
registered with Institution Name. Institution Name does not grant any
degree, certification or credits based solely on your completion of this
course material.

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Strategic Implementation of
OER re-use

Abeywardena, I.S. (2012). A report on the Re-use and Adaptation of Open Educational Resources (OER): An Exploration of Technologies
Available. Commonwealth of Learning. Available at http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=411

Recap
By now you should be able to:
Evaluate and choose suitable OER for the
curriculum;
Apply OER principles during the design of
the course content.