Practising Open Education

The Practising Open Education project (see project website here), as part of the Cascade Strand of the UK OER Programme aims to build upon the findings and experiences of the pilot ADM-OER Project. Working with six new institutional partners the project seeks to embed effective OER practices and policies within the six participating institutions and release a significant number of art, design and media open educational resources.  The project belives that these aims will be achieved if departments have a good understanding of motivations and barriers from a number of perspectives (student, lecturer, IT service, library, management) and have access to available support.

Aims & Objectives

• To generate department-specific understandings of art, design and media OERs; motivations for, and barriers to, their creation and use.
• To further develop discipline-specific understandings of art, design and media OERs; motivations for, and barriers to, their creation and use.
• To provide targeted support that addresses the specific needs, motivations and barriers at the participating departments.
• To embed effective OER practices and policies within the participating departments.
• To release a significant number of art, design and media resources for access, use and repurpose.

Project Methodology

The project management team will work in close association with the institutional partners using focus groups and ‘Action Plans’ as methodologies to embed policies and practices that support the sustainable release of OERs.
The aim of the focus group will be to investigate each department’s motivations for engaging in open education and the opportunities and barriers that may exist. On the basis of the information collected the project manager will prepare a report that outlines the findings of the discussion and some suggestions for developing appropriate strategies.
The departmental project leader will draw upon this report and work with colleagues to develop the OER Action Plan highlighting actions to address barriers and capitalise on motivations for OER production and use.

Anticipated Outputs & Outcomes

The project is committed to deliver range of outputs, webpages, blogs, newsletters, through which the partners and subject community can engage. These include evaluations of the projects’ processes and findings.

The project will also generate a series of reports, presentations, workshops and journal articles.

Through the process of dialogue with the partners the project seeks to openly release resources deposited in Jorum Open and through institutional portals.

Project Outcomes

• Department-specific understandings of art, design and media OERs; motivations for, and barriers to, their creation and use.
• Discipline-specific understandings of art, design and media OERs; motivations for, and barriers to, their creation and use.
• Strategies to address the specific needs, motivations and barriers at the participating departments with potential for broader application
• Effective OER practices and policies within the participating departments with potential for broader application
• A significant number of art, design and media resources for access, use and repurpose
• A raised profile for OERs across the art, design and media HE sector