Activity Seven: Open education

Activity Seven: Open Education

Define OER and OEP in your context

The definition of Open Education Resources (OER) is best described as a free research resource that can be used for the purposes of learning and teaching. This information is available in the public domain and accessible for anyone who uses the Internet. This information has been released under an intellectual property license that allows it to be used freely (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, cited in Jelley, 2013). Ruth Jelley describes OER as "full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software and any other tools, materials or techniques use to support access to knowledge" (2013,p.1).

Otago Polytechnic is working towards the goal of implementing more OER as part of moving forward towards a more sustainable future. "OER is the means by which education at all levels can be more accessible, more affordable and more efficient. Using OER approaches, institutions can lower cost and save time required to produce high quality courses with untapped potential to diversify curriculum offerings especially for low enrolment courses in a cost-effective way. OER is about sharing and collaboration and to this end we have much untapped potential" (Phil Ker, Otago Polytechnic, 2012). "Without sharing, there is no education" (David Wiley, 2013).

Whilst researching this topic further I was very impressed by the Departments that have made their information available to the wider community. Veterinary Nursing appears to have just the one resource available in Wiki books; Anatomy and Physiology by Ruth Lawson. I found it to be a very useful teaching and learning document, well written and easy to follow, but prior to my current research I was not aware that it was there. We need to use these resources as part of the sharing of knowledge and find ways to encourage more use of OER.

Currently our students are given information in a blended learning approach offering on-line delivery and also classroom interaction. Perhaps we could incorporate more information on OER so that the students learn to investigate further rather than take the first article that comes up when they ask a question on a search engine such as Google.

Throughout New Zealand there are a large number of Veterinary Nursing Schools. They all have the same aim of supplying the veterinary industry with work ready, qualified, capable nurses. Perhaps if the tertiary providers in New Zealand worked together there may be a greater chance of the qualifications being recognised at a level similar to the United Kingdom and the United States of America, both of which are recognised as top providers of veterinary nurses.

Reflect on what OER and OEP means for your teaching and how you can introduce these concepts into your practice to enhance sustainability.

The Teaching and Learning Strategic Framework for Otago Polytechnic states the following:

"1. Our graduates are developed to be capable, work ready, future-focused, sustainable practitioners.

2. Our programs are designed to be attractive to learners, accessible, future focused, efficient and sustainable" (Otago Polytechnic Strategic Framework: Strategic Objectives, 2013).

Encouraging our students to become "capable, work ready, future-focused sustainable practitioners" is to empower them with a thirst for knowledge. Part of being sustainable is not only about caring for our planet but also caring for ourselves- achieving a work life balance.

Moving towards a more open form of education allows for more flexibility for learners and teachers alike. The ability to study and write assessments at anytime of the day or night has not changed. What has changed is the ability to tap into huge resources at the touch of a button or two. Does this help us work smarter or is the amount of information out there overwhelming? Is there a risk of over working because of the ability to use the Internet 24/7?

It can be difficult to narrow down material to a workable level. The danger is that in our efforts to inspire passion into our lifelong learners that we bombard them with too much information (Lockwood, 2005, p.1). I know in my own teaching practice I am at times guilty of this.

The challenge is to find the balance that best suits everyone. My intention this year is to pull back a little and rather than giving the students all information and expecting them to remember it, I will encourage them to research and reflect on the topic. "Having free access to a wealth of information and content online is now expected: being digitally literate today means being able to use appropriate tools to find useful, high quality information in an efficient manner, as ‘Web Kids’ do", (Czerski, 2012, cited in Panto and Comas-Quinn ,2013).

This is quite a change from how I was taught. We were given information and told to learn it. Now we turn to Wikipedia rather than the trip to the library, although we can even access libraries on-line now. The School of Veterinary Nursing considered making You Tube videos about various nursing tasks and making them available to their students; perhaps we could go one step further and open them up as an open educational resource.

Otago Polytechnic was the first tertiary institution in the world to adopt a default Creative Commons policy Wikipedia (2012). Creative Commons is a concept whereby the publishing of original works on the Internet by the author provides a free license to share and reuse. To open up any of our educational materials and make them available to an open forum we need to be willing to have our work available for peer contribution. This will allow and encourage the 4 Rs, Reuse, Redistribution, Revision and Remix, (Wiley, 2009, cited in Panto Comos-Quinn, 2013).

References:

Jelley, R. (2013). Open Education Practices: A User Guide for Organization/OER Literature Review. Retrieved from

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_Education_Practises: 

 

Lockwood, F. (2005). Estimating student workload, readability and implications for student learning and progression. Australia: ODLAA

Otago Polytechnic (2013). Teaching and Learning Strategic Framework: Strategic Objectives. Retrieved from

http://www.op.ac.nz/assets/PDFs/2013-Strategic-Goals/2013-OP-Learning-Teaching-Strategic-Framework-FINAL.pdf

 

Panto E., Comas-Quinn A. (2013). The Challenge of Open Education.

Wiley, D (2006) Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand. Retrieved from

http://creativecommons.org.nz/

WikiEducator (2011) Otago Polytechnic OER Implementation Plan. Retrieved from

http://wikieducator.org/Otago_Polytechnic/Implementation_plan

 

Activity six: Sustainable Flexible learning

Activity Six: Module Four

Sustainable Flexible Learning

The need for community care and sustainability has been promoted in recent years. We should all be aware of the need to protect and keep what resources we have on this planet. There are two contrasting ways of approaching sustainability; one is to throw caution to the wind and say, "What difference can one person make?" or second, make positive decisions and changes in our lives to become more personally sustainable. It is everyone’s responsibility to make small changes to enable bigger ones to follow. Future generations need a safe and nurturing place to grow up in.

The article by David Orr (1991) suggested that a goal of educating was to get as much information into students as possible. He talked about a number of educational myths then went on to offer ideas to change these. "The goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but of one’s person" I like to think we have moved on from his original comments and we now offer a more diverse education for today’s students. Flexible learning is a great example of this. We are encouraged, as students, to research and push boundaries, investigate and reflect on our findings and also increase our knowledge and personal development.

As a teacher it is my role to not only lead by example but to also encourage my students to think about sustainability across all areas of Veterinary Nursing. A number of our medical practices are not particularly sustainable, but important for providing optimal animal health. For example, as nurses we need to use a new syringe for each animal and a new needle to inject with. Also some of the substances we use when cleaning kill viruses and bacteria but are not eco friendly and may even be toxic. We are required to balance the need of the patient with the need to be sustainable and still remain aware of our impact on the environment. It is hugely important that we encourage our students to ask questions and investigate alternatives to current products that are more sustainable but still as effective.

The School of Veterinary Nursing takes sustainability very seriously and is committed to making changes by embedding practices that make positive differences to our staff and students. Students are encouraged to think of ways to make changes in their personal and working lives. This can range from turning off lights when leaving a room to reusing everyday items to make cat and dog toys rather than buying readymade ones. A weekly blog is written by a staff member http://futurefocusvet.blogspot.co.nz/and a "Tip of the week" is included for staff and students to read.

This year the School of Veterinary Nursing plans to incorporate the topic of sustainability at Block Courses at the beginning of the first semester. This may take the form of students working in groups to discuss what their understanding of sustainability is. By introducing the topic early in the year we will immediately encourage the students on a learning journey that will help towards a more sustainable future for all. At the start of semester two a short review is planned to see what has been learnt and what sources the students found to be the most helpful. The full time class will also be included in this with lectures scheduled throughout the year. The veterinary nursing staff have also been asked to add a section on sustainability to course notes and have questions relating to this in assessments. One example of this is in the paper: Demonstrating Knowledge and Skills for Providing Veterinary Reception Services (US 5195). The students are asked to consider some sustainable practices that could be put in place in the reception area and to give three examples of ways they can make changes in their veterinary clinic. Last year, a large number of our veterinary nursing students not only offered great ideas, they put these ideas into practice. This follows along the lines of providing real experiences in real situations. It allowed the students the opportunity to reflect on their actions and they were able to see the differences they themselves can make.

References:

Ministry of Education. Education for Sustainability, Effective pedagogy in education for sustainability. Retrieved from:

http://efs.tki.org.nz/EfS-in-the-curriculum/Effective-pedagogy

The Learning Revolution (1991) What Is Education For? David Orr 1991.

Retrieved from:

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic27/orr/