• Abstracts

    • Abstracts

    Author Guidelines
    Licensing Information
    Foundations
    Open Educational Resources
    Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources
    Copyright and Open Licensing
    The Difference Between an Informational Resource and an Educational Resource
    An informational resource is simply a collection of information. What would need to be added to an informational resource to make it an educational resource? Many people think of a textbook as the quintessential educational resource. To be minimally educational, I think a resource needs practice with feedback.
    Excludability
    Rivalry
    Research
    Open educational resources and college textbook choices
    Textbooks are a vital component in many higher education contexts. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum. This article synthesizes the results of 16 studies that examine either (1) the influence of OER on student learning outcomes in higher education settings or (2) the perceptions of college students and instructors of OER. Results across multiple studies indicate that students generally achieve the same learning outcomes when OER are utilized and simultaneously save significant amounts of money. Studies across a variety of settings indicate that both students and faculty are generally positive regarding OER.
    Thoughts on Continuous Improvement and OER
    Continuous Improvement of Instructional Materials
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    Continuous Improvement Dashboards
    A/B Testing on Open Textbooks
    This study examined the feasibility of employing A/B tests for continuous improvement by focusing on user perceptions of quality of six chapters of a popular open textbook over the course of a year. Results indicated non-significant differences in all cases but also suggest that future work in this area should (a) employ A/B testing at a broader, less-granular (e.g., platform-level) scale to increase sample sizes, (b) explore autonomous approaches to experimentation and improvement, such as bandit algorithms, and (c) rely upon more universally collected dependent variables to reduce sample size limitations emerging from self-reports.
    The Rise Framework
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    The RISE (Resource Inspection, Selection, and Enhancement) Framework is a framework supporting the continuous improvement of open educational resources (OER). The framework is an automated process that identifies learning resources that should be evaluated and either eliminated or improved. This is particularly useful in OER contexts where the copyright permissions of resources allow for remixing, editing, and improving content. The RISE Framework presents a scatterplot with resource usage on the x-axis and grade on the assessments associated with that resource on the y-axis. This scatterplot is broken down into four different quadrants (the mean of each variable being the origin) to find resources that are candidates for improvement. Resources that reside deep within their respective quadrant (farthest from the origin) should be further analyzed for continuous course improvement. We present a case study applying our framework with an Introduction to Business course. Aggregate resource use data was collected from Google Analytics and aggregate assessment data was collected from an online assessment system. Using the RISE Framework, we successfully identified resources, time periods, and modules in the course that should be further evaluated for improvement.
    Open Science in Education Sciences
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    The Open Science movement has gained considerable traction in the last decade. The Open Science movement tries to increase trust in research results and open the access to all elements of a research project to the public. Central to these goals, Open Science has promoted five critical tenets: Open Data, Open Analysis, Open Materials, Preregistration, and Open Access. All Open Science elements can be thought of as extensions to the traditional way of achieving openness in science, which has been scientific publication of research outcomes in journals or books. Open Science in education sciences, however, has the potential to be much more than a safeguard against questionable research. Open Science in education science provides opportunities to (a) increase the transparency and therefore replicability of research and (b) develop and answer research questions about individuals with learning disabilities and learning difficulties that were previously impossible to answer due to complexities in data analysis methods. We will provide overviews of the main tenets of Open Science (i.e., Open Data, Open Analysis, Open Materials, Preregistration, and Open Access), show how they are in line with grant funding agencies’ expectations for rigorous research processes, and present resources on best practices for each of the tenets.
    Future Directions
    What is Open Pedagogy?
    Using OER the same way we used commercial textbooks misses the point. OER are: free to access, free to reuse, free for remixing. How can we extend, revise, and remix our pedagogy based on these additional capabilities? There are many, many potential answers to this question.
    OER-Enabled Pedagogy
    Open Pedagogy: The Importance of Getting it in the Air
    A Look at the Future of Open Educational Resources
    Open Educational Resources (OER) have been traditionally defined as educational contents that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost ac- cess, use, adaptation and redistribution. As the nature of educational content changes with new technology, however, so does the nature of OER. This paper explores the impact of four major types of technology on our understanding of OER: cloud infrastructure, open data, artificial intelligence, and decentralized networks. It is argued that these technologies result in a model of dynamic and adaptive resources that will be created at the point of need and will draw on constantly changing requirements and data sources. They will be created through distributed community-based processes, and they will support a pedagogy based on supporting student experiences rather than content transmission. As a result, the emphasis on content publication and licensing will decrease, while questions of access and interoperability will move to the fore.
    Pragmatism vs. Idealism and the Identity Crisis of OER Advocacy
    Recognizing and Overcoming Obstacles: What It Will Take to Realize the Potential of OER
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    Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship
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    Researchers, educators, policymakers, and other education stakeholders hope and anticipate that openness and open scholarship will generate positive outcomes for education and scholarship. Given the emerging nature of open practices, educators and scholars are finding themselves in a position in which they can shape and/or be shaped by openness. The intention of this paper is (a) to identify the assumptions of the open scholarship movement and (b) to highlight challenges associated with the movement’s aspirations of broadening access to education and knowledge. Through a critique of technology use in education, an understanding of educational technology narratives and their unfulfilled potential, and an appreciation of the negotiated implementation of technology use, we hope that this paper helps spark a conversation for a more critical, equitable, and effective future for education and open scholarship.
    The OER Dilemma
    Cultural Knowledge and OER
    Make Out Like a Bandit
    This simulation is intended to teach you about the multi-armed bandit problem or bandit algorithms. Each button will give you a different random amount of fictional money but costs a fictional $5 to click. How much fictional money can you make?
    Appendices
    Chapter Authors
    Glossary
    Keywords
    Index
    Student Presentations
    A Brief Overview of Open Education
    Open education encompasses many ideas, but this presentation gives a brief overview of some key foundational points. This presentation aims to simply explain (1) what qualifies open educational resources (OER), (2) what impact OER can have in various settings, (3) the state of research in open education, and (4) steps needed to move open education forward.
    What I Know Now About Open Education
    Open education is a great way to help students have access to quality educational materials regardless of other barriers they may experience. Some of the key principle of OER include the 5 R's, understanding copyright and CC licensing, cost, open pedagogy, and assessing quality. There are many pros to shifting to open education, though there are a few cons we should consider as well. Understanding the ins and outs of OER and how it is different from traditional education can help us know how we can best move forward with it!
    Take IP&T 531: A Pitch to Graduate Students
    I created this video as my final project for IP&T 531: Intro to Open Education. Before taking the class, the only thing I heard from peers was that it was "a good class", which didn't tell me much. I couldn't even really grasp on the first day of class what I was about to experience. With this in mind, I wanted to pitch taking this exceptional class to IP&T students and other grad students who would benefit from it.
    Falling 4 OER
    This presentation is a collation of learning from class in partnership with a project I am working on called Aotearoa Kai Journey. This is an informal OER platform that is the infrastructure we hope to support the redesign of the Aotearoa, New Zealand food system. It is a collection of experiential learning, classroom learning, and the gaps I have found in the current Open Education Resources.
    Open Education Q & A
    Observations and Learnings About OER

    As editor of the seminal volume Instructional Technology: Foundations, Robert M. Gagné (1987) collected research to define the then new and expanding field of instructional technology, and to provide indicators of where it may go in the future. He attributed “two sets of events” that brought about the development of the discipline. The first event was the continuing advancements in technology. The second, and to Gagné—“equally essential”—was the growing number of individuals with “a dedication to the promise of human learning, and a vision of how to promote the spread of human knowledge” (p. 1). I’m interested in finding a way that the design and delivery of curriculum can better take into account the lifestyle and circumstances of the individual, especially when national and international instability have caused many of this generation to grow up in a world without structure.

    According to Gagné, these individuals would research, investigate and verify “the features of communications to human learners that optimize learning, and…discover how these features may best be planned and executed with the use of the various communication media and their combinations” (p.7). I feel I’m one of those individuals described by Gagné, who is devoted to the “promise of human learning” and am seeking a “vision of how to promote” exceptional teaching and lifelong learning. I think one of the ways to do this is to use OER as the basic infrastructure of education.

    What is OER?
    Overview of Open Education
    Open education as a practice and theory has been gaining momentum in the education vertical for the last two decades particularly with the rise and dominance of the internet. The definition (centering around the 5Rs), use cases, rules, obstacles, and opportunities are all addressed briefly in this presentation to give the viewer an opportunity to be introduced to the subject broadly and encouraged regarding its future standing.
    Adopting Open Textbooks
    My pitch to the Teacher Education Department in the David O. McKay School of Education here at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
    Community Members Should Create OER
    Ordinary community members should contribute to Open Educational Resources.
    Open textbooks for MSED faculty
    A presentation on open textbooks to help BYU's McKay School of Education faculty revamp their courses with creating content in EdTech Books. Topics presented include descriptions of OER and open textbooks, the drawbacks of open textbooks, and the strengths and solutions of open textbooks.
    Consider OER
    Presentation to online faculty to consider adopting open educational in their online course.
    A Pitch for Open Textbook Adoption
    Here is my presentation about why BYU-Hawaii should consider adopting open textbooks.
    The Case for Open Textbooks in SFL
    This presentation addresses why BYU's School of Family Life Professors should adopt open textbooks. 
    A Call To Action for Instructors
    Lessons Learned
    An overview of the lessons learned during a semester long study of the philosophy and context of open educational resources and projects to create two resources. 
    A Pitch for K-12 Teachers and Their Students to Create O.E.R
    The purpose of this presentation is to provide K-12 teachers with an explanation of open education and to encourage them to create O.E.R. with their students. 
    A Case for OER in SFL 223
    This short presentation prevents three reasons as to why the BYU SFL 223 faculty should consider switching their traditional textbook to an open format. These reasons includes better achieving the mission of BYU, helping increase student wellbeing, and being able to more easily improve students learning now and throughout their lives.
    OER in English Language Teaching
    This is a pitch to the Linguistics Faculty at BYU that teach the TESOL courses. The English Language Center at BYU exists to support the TESOL students by providing a place to practice applying their learning and research. The ELC has implemented OER, but we are still hoping to encourage more faculty to get involved in creating, sharing, and using these resources.
    Introduction to Open Education
    Here is my presentation with answers to some questions frequently asked about Open Educational Resources. 
    What is Open Pedagogy and Why Does it Matter?
    A brief and open letter about OER to my friends in K-12 Education
    Pitch to BYU Online
    A Brief Overview of Open Education
    Open Textbooks in the NDFS department pitch
    Open Education for Aspiring Teachers
    This is a video to spark interest and appeal for Open Education in pre-service teachers. Undergraduate K-12 Education majors as the intended audience. It focuses on the benefits of Open Education in meeting the idealistic values that pre-service teachers exemplify and emphasizes that Open Educaiton is a tool that can be as good as the educative values we bring to it.