OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 2014

Monday 14:00-15:30 (3), Marlborough Suite

Type: Lightning talk

Theme: Building and linking communities of open practice

Authors

Alastair Clark, NIACE and ALT, and Stirring Learning, [email protected]

Abstract

Introduction

In Summer 2012 the Skills Funding Agency launched a programme to support Innovative Community Learning. The Community learning Innovation Fund was managed by the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education and a condition of funding was that all learning materials produced would be made available for others to use.

Methods

The materials created were collected into an online 'Project in a Box' with a description of how they had been used were made available for others to use. Funding rules required that the copyright of all materials would be vested in the Crown and was to be shared under and Open Government Licence rather than Creative Commons. In reality the creation of materials to share was a relatively small part of the task undertaken but an analysis of the outputs will give an indication of how well the concept of Open Education was understood and will point to some important lessons learned for funders, trainers and practitioners .

Result

The results of the funding project are available online. The products vary greatly in format and re-usability The lightning talk will offer an analysis of the effectiveness of this method of licensing and presentation to peers. It will also consider lessons learned.

Discussion

Our discussion will focus on reaction from the floor but we anticipate that the following questions could be addressed:
• Was this a bold move which was effective in sharing resources created?
• Did the requirement for content sharing raise commitment of participants to Open Education?
• Was a Open Government Licence an appropriate tool with which to ensure sharing?