It is time to start a broad and differentiated discourse on Open Educational Resources (OER) for the Swiss Higher Education landscape. Participants can acquire practical knowledge and form opinions in order to be able to create action steps and make decisions in different fields.
Focus topics
Proposals for contributions on the following focus topics are welcome:
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[toggle title=”Openness”]
Openness requires the active involvement and participation of many different contributors.
For a future-oriented education a critical-reflective attitude is necessary, which includes social and technological change processes. An Open Educational Practice (OEP) is used as a frame of reference. It integrates the subject areas Open Access, Open Data and Open Science, takes up educational policy as well as sociological perspectives and considers the potentials of OER for the profiling of higher education institutions and the utopia of a global knowledge commons in the field of education. This is a challenge not only for teachers and students, but also for decision-makers in politics and educational organizations.
- What will teaching and learning look like in the future and how can it be shaped in the field of education?
- What does openness mean for universities and their organizational development from the perspective of teaching development and sustainability?
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[toggle title=”Cooperation and creation of synergies”]
OER offer new opportunities for cooperation between higher education institutions. In international cooperations, synergies can be created through OER. The spectrum of knowledge in each individual institution can be widened through knowledge exchange, further development and different perspectives. new possibility to jointly develop teaching materials affects the work of lecturers by changing the work content, the focus and access to knowledge resources as well as changing the role of students as co-producer. New perspectives and approaches on topics are added to current ways of teaching and learning.
- How can OER be used in international cooperation and what purpose do they serve?
- What best practice examples are there that show how synergies can be created through the use of OER?
- How do OER change the way we work when we cooperate?
- To what extent do OER contribute to changing and enriching the focus of our work?
- How will OER change students’ access to the scientific world ? Will it change their perspective?
- How does OER change students’ view of the world?
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[toggle title=”Good Practice”]
Learners, teachers, librarians, trainers, politicians, administrators in educational fields and educational media publishers can make the value of OER visible if they have the appropriate skills. The development of competences can be built in many ways, with inspiring examples of good practice, with an OER clinic, with examples from local and international networks, with examples of OER policies and research results in the context of both higher education and the international discourse on education in general.
- Which open educational materials can be used to build up the skills of learners and teachers in education and further training at universities?
- Which programmes support the secure use of OER licenses?
- How do stakeholders cooperate to promote teaching/learning materials and didactical-settings in existing structures?
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[toggle title=”Transformation of knowledge resources and knowledge spaces in an international context”]
Education is traditionally strongly standardized and state-controlled, but is also increasingly privatized and thus more and more inaccessible to some. In the context of globalization, networking and global challenges, this restrictive approach to education is no longer appropriate. We must therefore ask ourselves how education, teaching and learning and the production of knowledge must be organized under these conditions. UNESCO describes knowledge as a world heritage in the recent report on education: “Rethink Education – Education a Global Public Domain?”
Education as a facilitator and medium of knowledge must therefore be regarded as a global public good. Learning is no longer seen as an individual process but as a collective social pursuit of education. A particular focus should be put on international cooperation in education. In the diversity of knowledge spaces lies an opportunity to transform education and knowledge collaboratively.
- How can learning with OER as a collective aspiration for education be organized?
- How can access to education be organized collaboratively via OER?
- What added value does OER generate for education in international cooperations in education?
- How can OER contribute to the connection, transformation and redesign of knowledge spaces?
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[toggle title=”Didactic perspective”]
The “Educational” element in the term OER is central to the nature of these free resources. It is therefore necessary to ask how OER can be integrated didactically into teaching and learning scenarios and how they can be designed profitably in terms of the profession and professionalism. This can promote a (media-) pedagogical discourse, a discourse on Open Educational Practice (OEP) and equal access to high-quality education.
- How can the use of OER for teaching and learning be promoted in order to stimulate an innovative learning process?
- How can students and teachers in collaborative, local or international settings create OER? How can they identify and edit existing resources and what is the added value?
- To what extent does OER offer options – in the sense of an open exchange – to make a profitable contribution to teaching and quality development?
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[toggle title=”Tools and Platforms”]
Open Educational Resources can be teaching materials, exercise sheets, digital books or complete course settings. A variety of formats and technologies are available for production, deployment and further use. In order to use and change OER, aspects such as openness, sustainability, user-friendliness and the use of metadata must be taken into account.
- How can digital tools and platforms support collaborative production and networking to enable the use and creation of open educational resources?
- Which formats and tools are particularly suitable for the reuse and further development of open educational resources?
- What challenges are we facing in terms of technical deployment and discoverability of content relevant to higher education?
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[toggle title=”Incentive models and financing”]
Whether a mindset develops into Open Education depends on the political will and the self-image of higher education organisations. There are already a number of repositories in place, even for OER. Extensive courses and diverse teaching material are available to be used.
- What national and international incentive models promise a positive development at higher education institutions who use, produce and publish OER? Which models have already failed and why?
- What is the experience in terms of incentives for active participation in the highly autonomous higher education institutions? Which inter- and intraindividual motives can be used and which material and immaterial options for action exist?
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[toggle title=”Dealing with legal aspects”]
The unrestricted distribution and editing of content is a key feature of OER, which is made possible by the publication of the materials under “open” licenses. Nevertheless, there is legal uncertainty both in the use and the mixing of materials for one’s own teaching, as well as in the collaborative production of public teaching/learning content. The question arises as to how teachers and institutions deal with authorship and usage rights.
- How are “open” licenses applied in practice in the context of open educational resources and what has been done to achieve this?
- Which aspects have to be considered from a legal point of view when producing or adapting open teaching/learning content and which support options are helpful?
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Contribution format
[infobox color=”#f4f4f4″ textcolor=”#000000″]Presentation (short format)
Show examples (proven and current) with a wider impact, they should inform and inspire the participants. The presentations are repeated in three consecutive rounds.
25 minutes each, is always run 3 times.
A presentation can be deepened in a session. This combination is expressly desired.
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[infobox color=”#f4f4f4″ textcolor=”#000000″]Session (different duration)
Along the main topics projects and developments are presented and actively elaborated with the participants. The integration of the participants can be freely chosen. A sessions is aimed at beginner and advanced students and can be designed to explore a topic in depth or discuss questions and ideas.
40 or 90 minutes each (monday)
60 minutes each (tuesday)
Run once
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[infobox color=”#f4f4f4″ textcolor=”#000000″]wOERk space
An open workspace where interested people can spontaneously meet to exchange ideas or develop together.
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Deadlines and Submission
The Call for Contributions is closed.
Deadlines:
Submit contribution by August 31, 2018 extended to September 23, 2018
Confirmation of acceptance by 30 October, 2018
We are looking forward to your contributions!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Mrs. Rita Spichtig (Conference, Event and Publication Management (TEP))
E-mail: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Phone: + 41 (0)41 228 71 44