Vol. 27 No. 2 (2013)
Research Articles

Open Educational Resources for Professionals: A New Era in the Training and Development of Legislative Counsel

Dale Dewhurst
Athabasca University
Bio
John Mark Keyes
Athabasca University
Bio
Archie Zariski
Athabasca University
Bio

Published 2013-10-24

Keywords

  • online learning,
  • open educational resources,

How to Cite

Dewhurst, D., Keyes, J. M., & Zariski, A. (2013). Open Educational Resources for Professionals: A New Era in the Training and Development of Legislative Counsel. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education Revue Internationale Du E-Learning Et La Formation à Distance, 27(2). Retrieved from https://ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/837

Abstract

This paper discusses a current project to develop open educational resources (OER) for legislative counsel in countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. The project is the latest step in a 20-year old distance education program for those professionals. The paper explores best practices for investment in freely available OERs for use by professionals and students who are involved in open access and online learning environments. The creation and deployment of the OER raised many of the key issues faced by many current organizations, including the tension between openness and quality, and the relationship of OER to accreditation. Findings describe the importance of chunking information appropriately, tackling the separation of core knowledge from local contexts, and managing integrity while operating in the domain of open source materials.

References

  1. ACEMaths. (2013). ACEMaths teacher education project. OER AFrica. Retrieved from: http://www.oerafrica.org/acemaths
  2. Anderson, T. (2009). A rose by any other name: still distance education – A response to D.R. Garrison: Implications of online and blended learning for the conceptual development and practice of distance education. Journal of Distance Education, 23(3), 111-116.
  3. Atkins, D. E., Seely Brown, J., & Hammond, A. L. (2007). A review of the open educational resources (OER) movement: Achievements, challenges, and new opportunities. Retrieved from: http://www.hewlett.org/uploads/files/Hewlett_OER_report.pdf
  4. Bissell, A.H. (2009). Permission granted: open licensing for educational resources. Open Learning, 24(1), 97-106.
  5. Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical: Education, knowledge and action research. Melbourne: Deakin University Press.
  6. Commonwealth of Learning. (2013). Training materials on legislative drafting. Retrieved from: http://dspace.col.org/handle/123456789/504
  7. Connolly, T. (2013). Visualization mapping approaches to developing and understanding OER. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 14(2), 129-155.
  8. Creative Commons. (2013). About the licenses. Creative Commons. Retrieved from: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
  9. Dewhurst, D., Levert, L., & Zariski, A. (2012). Producing Legislative Counsel: Ways and Means. Statute Law Review, 33(3), 339-353. doi:10.1093/slr/hms034
  10. Downes, S. (2007). Models for sustainable open educational resources. Retrieved from: http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=shwart&index=an&req=5764249&lang=en
  11. Friesen, N., & Wihak, C. (2013). From OER to PLAR: Credentialing for open education. Open Praxis, 5(1), 49-58.
  12. Garrison, R. (2009). Implications of online and blended learning for the conceptual development and practice of distance education. Journal of Distance Education, 23(2), 93-94.
  13. Gourley, B., & Lane, A. (2009). Re-invigorating openness at The Open University: The role of open educational resources. Open Learning, 24(1), 57-65.
  14. Guri-Rosenblit, S. (2009). Distance education in the digital age: Common misconceptions and challenging tasks. Journal of Distance Education, 23(2), 105-122.
  15. Guri-Rosenblit, S., & Gros, B. (2011). E-learning: confusing terminology, research gaps and inherent challenges. Journal of Distance Education, 25(1), np.
  16. HEAL. (2013). Health education assets library. Retrieved from: http://library.med.utah.edu/heal/
  17. Ives, C. (2013). Moving to open educational resouces at Athabasca University. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 14(2), 1-13.
  18. Lawler, C. (2008). Action research as a congruent methodology for understanding wikis: the case of Wikiversity. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, May 2008 Special Issue. http://jime.open.ac.uk/2008/06
  19. McAndrew, P., Farrow, R., Law, P., & Elliot-Cirigottis. (2012). Learning the lessons of openness. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, JIME Cambridge OER Special Issue. Retrieved from http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/article/2012-10/
  20. McGreal, R. (2013). Introduction: The need for open educational resources. In McGreal, R., Kinuthia, W., Marshall, S., & McNamara, T. (Eds.), Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice, xv-xxiii. Retrieved from: http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=446
  21. Misra, P.K. (2013). Pedagogical quality enrichment in OER-based courseware: Guiding principles. Open Praxis, 5(2), 123-134.
  22. OER University. (2013). The open educational resource university. WikiEducator. Retrieved from http://wikieducator.org/OER_university/Home
  23. Pegler, C. (2012). Herzberg, hygiene and the motivation to reuse: Towards a three-factor theory to explain motivation to share and use OER. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Available at: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/article/2012-04/html
  24. Priddle, J., Maharg, P., McKellar, P., & Lysaght, D. (2010). Simshare: Open educational resources in simulation learning. UK Centre for Legal Education. Retrieved from http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/projects/past-projects/simshare/
  25. Sapire, I., & Reed, Y. (2011). Collaborative design and use of open educational resources: A case study of a mathematics teacher education project in South Africa. Distance Education, 32(2), 195-211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2011.584847
  26. Schmidt-Jones, C.A. (2012). An open educational resource supports a diversity of inquiry-based learning. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 13(1), 1-16.
  27. SEE. (2013). Stanford engineering everywhere. Stanford University. Retrieved from: http://see.stanford.edu/
  28. TESSA. (2013). Teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa. TESSAfrica. Retrieved from: www.tessafrica.net
  29. UNESCO. (2012). 2012 Paris OER Declaration. World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress. Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/English_Paris_OER_Declaration.pdf
  30. Windle, R.J., Wharrad, H., McCormick, D., Laverty, H., & Taylor, M. (2010). Sharing and reuse in OER: Experiences gained from open reusable learning objects in health. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. Available at: http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/2010-4/pdf
  31. Wolfenden, F. (2008). The TESSA OER experience: Building sustainable models of production and user implementation. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. Available at: http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/2008-3/331
  32. Wolfenden, F., Buckler, A., & Keraro, K. (2012). OER adaptation and reuse across cultural contexts in sub Saharan Africa: Lessons from TESSA (Teacher education in Sub Saharan Africa). Journal of Interactive Media in Education. Available at: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/view/2012-03