Playing catch-up: Investigating public and institutional policies for OER practices in Australia
Published | 2011 |
Type of work | Special theme issue on Open Educational Practices |
Journal | Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning Volume 15, Issue 2, Pages 41-54 |
Publisher | Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand |
Country | Australia, New Zealand, Oceania |
ABSTRACT
This article explores some of the most well-known Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives worldwide and then reports on OER developments in Australia. It also discusses a current research project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), including its design and methods of data collection and analysis. Although the study reported here is ongoing, a survey of the tertiary sector to establish the current ‘state of play’ of OERs in Australia has been completed. The authors examine a preliminary analysis that focuses mostly on OER policies at governmental and institutional levels. The analysis shows that the OER movement remains relatively immature in Australia. Also, according to the survey’s participants, the government and educational institutions need to give much greater consideration to a regulatory framework in which the use of OER and Open Educational Practices (OEP) can be fostered and encouraged. Isolated OER activities exist, but there appears to be a great deal of catching up required if Australia is to have coordinated initiatives to foster innovation and a culture of more OEPs.Keywords | educational policies · OEP · open educational practices; OER · Open Educational Resources · research in OEP |
ISSN | 1179-7673 |
Refereed | Yes |
Rights | This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. |
URL | http://www.jofdl.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/44 |
Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 136 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.
Click a star to be the first to rate this document
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Opening up Down Under: the role of open educational resources in promoting social inclusion in Australia
Bossu, Carina; Bull, David; Brown, Mark
This article discusses the role of open and distance learning to widen participation and promote social inclusion within Australian higher education, as well as the benefits that open educational resources (OER) could ...
Match: Bull, David; Brown, Mark; Bossu, Carina; Open Educational Resources; Australia; Oceania
Do Open Educational Resources represent additional challenges or advantages to the current climate of change in the Australian higher education sector?
Bossu, Carina; Brown, Mark; Bull, David
This paper briefly reports on a number of Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives in Australia, including some government programs and funding, then explores several of the challenges and advantages of adopting OER ...
Match: Bull, David; Brown, Mark; Bossu, Carina; Open Educational Resources; Australia; New Zealand; Oceania
The open education movement in Australia: The need for political leadership
Bossu, Carina; Bull, David; Brown, Mark
This paper starts by exploring some of the most important OER initiatives in Australia, and then describes a centrally funded research project that investigates the state of play of OER in Australia. After that, the ...
Match: Bull, David; Brown, Mark; Bossu, Carina
The potential role of Open Educational Practice policy in transforming Australian higher education
Bossu, Carina; Stagg, Adrian
Open Educational Practices (OEP) have played an important role in assisting educational institutions and governments worldwide to meet their current and future educational targets in widening participation, lowering ...
Match: Bossu, Carina; OEP; Australia; Oceania
Assessing the potential for openness: A framework for examining course-level OER implementation in higher education
Judith, Kate; Bull, David
The implementation of open educational resources (OER) at the course level in higher education poses numerous challenges to education practitioners—ranging from discoverability challenges to the lack of knowledge on ...
Match: Bull, David; Open Educational Resources; Australia; Oceania
Open Education Licensing: A toolkit for achieving openness in the global education market
Wright, Robin; Padgett, Luke; Whitehead, Derek; Bossu, Carina; et al.
The adoption of open education resources (OER) by Australian higher education can enhance innovation, as well as increase access to teaching and learning in the digital environment. But without a clear understanding of ...
Match: Bossu, Carina; Open Educational Resources; Australia; Oceania
A national strategy to promote Open Educational Practices in higher education in Australia
Bossu, Carina; Ward, Linda; Wills, Sandra; Alexander, Shirley; et al.
Currently in Australia, there are no policies and regulations at national levels to promote and encourage the adoption of Open Educational Practices (OEP) across the higher education sector. As an attempt to bridge this ...
Match: Bossu, Carina; Open Educational Resources; Australia; Oceania
Open Educational Practices in Australia: A first-phase national audit of Higher Education
Stagg, Adrian; Nguyen, Linh; Bossu, Carina; Partridge, Helen; et al.
For fifteen years, Australian Higher Education has engaged with the openness agenda primarily through the lens of open-access research. Open educational practice (OEP), by contrast, has not been explicitly supported by ...
Match: Bossu, Carina; Open Educational Resources; Australia; Oceania
Exploring initiatives for open educational practices at an Australian and a Brazilian University
Bossu, Carina; Meier, Marineli
This paper explores some key developments in Open Educational Practices (OEP) in higher education in Australia and in Brazil. More specifically, it focuses on the analysis of two individual universities: the University ...
Match: Bossu, Carina; OEP; Australia
Changing our (dis)course: A distinctive social justice aligned definition of Open Education
Lambert, Sarah
This paper investigates the degree to which recent digital Open Education literature is aligned to social justice principles, starting with the first UNESCO definition of Open Educational Resources (OER). A critical ...
Match: OEP; Open Educational Resources; Australia; Oceania