This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Out in the Open, reaching for the stars: EU-US insights into Open Educational Practices

for language education

Webinar, September 15, 2015

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Prefix questions in text chat with Q

To participate, use the tools provided:

Emoticons and polling tools

Whiteboard tools

The term ‘Open Educational

Practices’ (OEP) is understood in its

wider sense as using Open

Educational Resources (OER) and

working with open learning, open

technologies, open pedagogies and

open research and scholarship

(Beetham, Falconer, McGill and Littlejohn, 2012)

Poll question 1: What is your main role?

(Please use the polling tool to communicate your answer)

a.Teachingb.Researchingc.Administration/Policy makingd.Support services (e.g. library, IT)e.Other (please give detail in text chat)

Poll question 2: How aware are you of OER?

(Please use the polling tool to communicate your answer)

a.Use and create OERb.Regular userc.Occasional userd.Little or no experience of OERe.Other (please give detail in text chat)

Why this project?

LangOER: Enhancing teaching and learning of less used languages through Open Educational Resources (OER) and Practices (OEP)Deals with 3 main questions:•How can less used languages, including Regional and Minority languages, benefit from OEP? •How can OER be shaped to foster linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe? •What policies are favourable to the uptake of quality OER in less used language communities?

Fryske Academy, The Netherlands

Web2learn, GreeceEuropean Schoolnet, Belgium

University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Jan Dlugosz University, PolandMykolas Romeris University,

LithuaniaInternational Council for Open

and Distance Education, Norway

Linnaeus University, SwedenRezekne Higher Education

Institution, LatviaEuropean Commission co-funded project (2014-2016)

6 strands of activities

1. State-of-the-art of OER in less used languages2. International policy maker capacity building3. Teacher training4. Regional and minority languages & OER5. Challenges for language learning6. Mainstream good practice at European policy making level

Why this webinar?

Topics to address:•How are OER understood in the US and in Europe and what kind of OEP emerge for language learning and teaching? •What kind of research has been conducted so far? •What are the similarities and differences between the US and Europe and how should they be tackled?

Joshua Thoms, US

Carl Blyth, US

Katerina Zourou, GR

Teresa MacKinnon, UK

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Insights into the US landscape

Carl Blyth, Ph.DDirector of the Center of Open Educational Resources and

Language Learning (COERLL), US, and Associate Professor of French Linguistics in the Department of French and Italian.

Introduction to COERLL• Center for Open Educational Resources and

Language Learning (COERLL)• One of the 16 National Foreign Language

Resource Centers, Title VI grant from US Department of Education (2010-2014, 2014-2018)

• Located at The University of Texas at Austin• Focused on Open Educational Resources (OER)

for Language Learning

MissionGeneral Mission: to improve the nation’s “foreign language capacity.” •LCTLs (e.g., Portuguese, Czech, K’iche’, Mandarin)•Applied Linguistic Research•Materials Development•Assessment Instruments•Professional Development Events •K-12 and Higher Education Specific Mission: to produce and disseminate Open Educational Resources (OERs) (e.g., online language courses, reference grammars, assessment tools, corpora, etc.).

SpinTX: Video Archive for Heritage Spanish

eComma: Online Space for Social Reading

FLLITE: From OER to OEP

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Insights into the US landscape II

Dr. Joshua Thoms

Assistant Professor, Utah State University.

Research Project #1

An OER/OEP Survey: How Open is Foreign Language Education in the United States?

Sponsored by the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) The University of Texas at Austin

Project Director: Dr. Joshua ThomsUtah State University

Reason(s)/Rationale for Research Project #1

To date, no wide-scale study has been carried out in the United States (US) regarding (a) how FL and ESL educators perceive and make use of open educational resources (OER) in their classrooms, and (b) the nature of and reasons for the rise in open educational language practices (OEP) in the US.

Connexions, Merlot, and OER Commons showing two to three times as many entries for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics categories as compared to the arts, humanities, and social sciences (Thoms & Thoms, 2014).

FL OER/OEP issues represented far less at open education conferences (e.g., upcoming Open Education 2015 in Vancouver, BC, past Open Education Global conferences) when compared to other fields.

Survey Details Survey created in Spring 2015 and distributed early Summer

2015 Survey partially based on 2014 survey Opening the

curriculum: Open educational resources in U.S. Higher Education

Targeted survey respondent populations:

FL and ESL educators at the K-16 levels (e.g., primary, middle and high school teachers, instructors/lecturers/professors at community colleges and at public and private four-year colleges and universities)

A wide range of FLs represented Diverse group of educators (various educational backgrounds, teaching experience,

etc.) Number of respondents: 1,972

Sample questions posed in survey What are the reasons why FL and ESL educators are using

OER/developing OEP in their classes? What are the barriers to widespread adoption of FL and ESL

OER/OEP? What are the areas of content and training that might result

in more FL and ESL educators using OER and/or adopting OEP in their courses?

What are the primary differences between traditional, publisher-produced FL and ESL materials/content when compared to FL and ESL OER?

If you have incorporated OER in your FL or ESL course(s), how it has changed your teaching practice?

*Preliminary* Results (i.e., trends) Educational context of respondents

*Preliminary* Results (i.e. trends) Awareness of OER

*Preliminary* Results (i.e. trends) Reasons why OER resources are used in FL and ESL classes 1. Addresses aspect of my course not found elsewhere 2. More current than publisher-produced materials 3. Easy to find/locate

*Preliminary* Results (i.e., trends) OER vs. traditional publisher-produced content

*Preliminary* Results (i.e., trends) OER vs. traditional publisher-produced content

*Preliminary* Results (i.e., trends) Deterrents to using OER in FL and ESL classes 1. No comprehensive catalog of resources 2. Too hard to find what I need 3. Not knowing if I have permission to use or change

Research Project #2

Assessing the OER Needs of FL and ESL Educators in the US: High Schools,

Community Colleges, and Four-Year Colleges

Focal group interviews to better understand and specify what FL and ESL educators need regarding OER (i.e., materials and technological tools).

Tentative time frame for data collection: Fall 2016

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission. This publication is the sole responsibility of the author and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

The European landscape: short overview of research on OEP in language education

Katerina Zourou, LangOER project manager

“European” landscape: how homogeneous?

• 28 EU countries, each having own national (+regional) policies on OER: dependence on national priorities in education/ on political choices regarding public investment

• No central policy (EU) that mandates open policies in education and/or other fields

• At EU level: the Communication “Opening Up Education” (2013): recommendation that proposes actions at EU and national levels

• Within member states: regions in Europe, with discrepancies in terms of OER adoption differs dramatically, see:

Bradley, L., & Vigmo, S. (2014). Open Educational Resources (OER) in less used languages: a state of the art report. http://langoer.eun.org/resources

Study available for free in EN, EL, PL, LV, LT, NL, SE & Frisian.

“European” landscape: how homogeneous?Subtitle

• Fred Mulder (2013): OER expansion in 2001-2010 through some large scale projects run by national policies or small groups of pioneers.

Example: Wikiwijs: a ground-breaking iniative in the Netherlands (funded by NL MoE in 2009) enhancing OER uptake in formal education. Funding reduced in 2014 due to new policy priorities.

=> Today’s imperative: sustainability to mainstream the OER approach.

Several challenges still…

Persistent confusion

Alek Tarkowski at webinar "Moving towards Open Educational Practices“, April 21, 2015https://eu42.spreed.com/c/740774990/spreed/100/recorder?recording=1#ok

Several challenges still…

Engaging in OER creation/re-use and its implications on professional identities: fear of criticism/ fear of not being acknowledged

“Many colleagues still feel an enormous amount of pressure or sensitivity in relation to critique of their teaching or teaching materials - anyone who is truly invested in their teaching cannot help but be emotionally invested. A low rating on a teaching material may devastate the contributor, and it may not even be their fault (e.g. a resource intended for an upper primary class cannot be expected to work well in a tertiary environment, etc.). This sort of system does not encourage sharing but serves to make people nervous about doing so” (Zourou, in press).

=> See also Pulker (2013); Whyte et al. (2014).

A “European” research on OEP in language education?

• No common European research agenda: – Research teams often follow national and institutional timing and priorities on

OER. UK being a pioneer (also: 2 language ROER, LORO and Humbox)• Increasing number of cross-national and cross-institutional synergies (e.g.

ITiLT, LangOER, ExplOERer projects).• Most common research topics include

– OER for less used languages (Borthwick & Dickens, 2013; Tiedau, 2013; Bradley & Vigmo, forthcoming),

– crowdsourcing and social networking practices (Lane & al., 2013; Beaven & al., 2013; Tarasowa et al., 2014; Zourou, in press),

– the use of OER-based language corpora (Fitzerald, 2013)– OEP from a teaching perspective (Calvi et al., 2013; Beaven, 2015; Borthwick &

Gallahger-Brett, 2014).

Some research trends

• “How to embrace openness” (Comas-Quinn & Borthwick, 2015) => approaches to sharing and reusing open content

• OER remix from a design perspective (Colpaert, 2015- MOOCs as OER mashups-; Murray 2015)

• Collective learning and communities of practice (online and offline) around OEP, including badging (Kurek, forthcoming; ExplOErer project)

http://www.exploerer.gu.se/

Moving To Open Learning Ecologies: not a brand new idea!Ehlers, U.-D., Caine, A. (2011) : From Open Educational Resources To Open Educational Practices. In A. Szucs and M. Paulsen, Proceedings of EDEN Annual Conference, 316-323.

Expert videos

Series of interviews with:Linda BradleyKate BorthwickCarl S. BlythCristobal Cobo Anna Comas-QuinnEd Dixon Alannah FitzgeraldGosia KurekTeresa MacKinnon Fred RileyShona WhyteAnna Skowron Sylvi Vigmo

What are the challenges and the benefits of OER/OEP for language learning? http://langoer.eun.org/videos

Recorded webinars

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Min

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lang

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Webinar, (Sept. 2014):OER for less used languages in an increasingly digital everyday cultureOpen translation and the power of the crowd OER: potential enabler and lifelinehttps://connect.sunet.se/p502lhe6m8f/Webinar (April, 2015):How can OER enrich your teaching practice?With Robert Schuwer, Ebba Ossiannilsson, Maarten Zeinstrahttp://blogs.eun.org/langoer/2015/06/19/webinar-series-how-can-oer-enrich-your-teaching-practice/

• Calvi, A., Motzo, A., & Silipo, S. (2013). Designing OERs to Teach Italian Pronunciation in an Open Educational Environment: A Case Study. In A. Beaven, A. Comas-Quinn, & B. Sawhill (Eds) (Ed.), Case Studies of Openness in the Language Classroom (Vol. 4, pp. 70–82).

• Beaven, T., Comas-Quinn, A., & Arcos, B. de los. (2013). The Open Translation MOOC: creating online communities to transcend linguistic barriers. JIME, 1–14. Retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/37583/• Beaven, T. (2015). OER (re)use and language teachers’ tacit professional knowledge: Three vignettes. In K. Borthwick, E. Corradini, & A. Dickens (Eds), 10 years of the LLAS elearning symposium: Case studies in

good practice (pp. 77-88). • Borthwick K., Dickens A. (2013), The Community Café: creating and sharing open educational resources with community-based language teachers, Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, v.9, n.1, 73-83.• Borthwick, K., Gallahger-Brett, A. (2014). ‘Inspiration, ideas, encouragement’: teacher development and improved use of technology in language teaching through open educational practice. Computer Assisted

Language Learning, 27(2), 163-183.• Beetham, H., Falconer, I., McGill, L. and Littlejohn, A. Open practices: briefing paper. JISC, 2012 https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/51668352/OpenPracticesBriefing • Bradley, L., Vigmo, S. Forthcoming. Sharing of Open Educational Resources - Language teachers’ activities in an online repository. In Zourou, K., & Vigmo, S. (Eds.) “Social dynamics in Open Educational

Language Practice”, special issue of Learning, culture and social interaction journal.• Comas-Quinn, Anna and Borthwick, Kate (2015). Sharing: Open Educational Resources for Language Teachers. In: Hampel, Regine and Stickler, Ursula eds. Developing Online Language Teaching: Research-

based Pedagogies and Reflective Practices. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 96–112. • Cobo, C. (2013). Exploration of Open Educational Resources in Non-English Speaking Communities. IRRODL, 14 (2), June 2013.• Colpaert, J. (2014).Conclusion. Reflections on Present and Future: towards an Ontological Approach to LMOOCs. In Martín-Monje, E. & Bárcena, E. (Eds) Language MOOCs: Providing Learning, Transcending

Boundaries. De Gruyter Open, pp. 161–172 http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/455678 • Ehlers, U.-D., Caine, A. (2011) : From Open Educational Resources To Open Educational Practices. In A. Szucs and M. Paulsen, Proceedings of EDEN Annual Conference 2011.316-323.

http://toc.proceedings.com/12713webtoc.pdf • Fitzgerald, A. (2013). TOETOE International: FLAX Weaving with Oxford Open Educational Resources. Case Study with the University of Oxford. The Higher Education Academy.

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/detail/oer/OER_int_006_Ox%282%29 • Kurek, G. forthcoming. Addressing cultural diversity in preparing teachers for open education. In Zourou, K., & Vigmo, S. (Eds.) “Social dynamics in Open Educational Language Practice”, special issue of

Learning, culture and social interaction journal.• Lane, A., Comas-quinn, A., & Carter, J. (2013). The potential of openness for engaging communities. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1–3.• Mulder, F. 2013. The LOGIC of National Policies and Strategies for Open Educational Resources. IRRODL,14 (2). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1008095.pdf • Murray, L. (2015). MOOCs for Language Acquisition (LMOOCs): design and quality issues. EUROCALL 2015 presentation.• Pulker, H. (2013). Further investigation into the reuse of OERs for language teaching. In Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), 20 Years of EUROCALL: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future. Proceedings of the

2013 EUROCALL Conference, Évora, Portugal (pp. 226-230).• Tarasowa, D., Auer, S., Khalili, A., & Unbehauen, J. (2014). Crowd-sourcing (semantically) Structured Multilingual Educational Content (CoSMEC). Open Praxis, 6(2), 159–170. Retrieved from

http://openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/117 • Tiedau, U. (2013). Open Educational Practices in a Lesser-Taught Language Community. Journal of E-Learning and Knowledge Society, 9(January 2013), 47–57. Retrieved from http://je-lks.org/ojs/index.php/Je-

LKS_EN/article/view/801• Whyte, S., et al. (2014). Open educational resources for CALL teacher education: the iTILT interactive whiteboard project. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27 (2), 122-148.• Zourou, K. in press. Identity and engagement in networked Open Educational Practice. International Journal of Applied Linguistics.

References

Questions

LangOER- forthcoming activitiesSubtitle

•Seminar “Open Learning in Minority Languages”, taking place on the 7th and 8th of October in Leeuwarden (The Netherlands). http://blogs.eun.org/langoer/2015/09/04/seminar-open-learning-in-minority-languages-chances-and-perspectives/ •Special issue “Social dynamics in Open Educational Language Practice”, Learning, culture and social interaction journal. Expected in 2016

http://langoer.eun.org/

#langOER

LangOER

OER and languages

OER and languages

LangOER Teachers

Interested to join a forthcoming EU-US cooperation on OER/OEP for language education?

Get in touch through this form: http://tiny.cc/OEP