The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement was started roughly ten years old (Wiley & Gurell, 2009). Since that time thousands of resources have been produced. Though these resources have been used both for classroom development and for the autodidact, the development of OER was not without problems. Incompatibility between Creative Commons licenses has made revising and remixing two resources difficult, if not impossible (Linksvayer, 2006). Tools to help educators find appropriate educational resources have been necessary but are still nascent. Educators' perceived quality issues have also hampered adoption (Wiley & Gurell, 2009). The result is that resources were only being minimally reused (Wiley, 2009). One possible reason observed for the limited reuse was the barrier of technology. Some resources were easier to view, revise and remix from a technical perspective than others. Hilton, Wiley, Stein, and Johnson (2010) created the ALMS analysis framework to assess the technical openness of an OER. Although the ALMS framework allowed for an assessment of OER, no pilot instrument was reported in the Hilton et al. (2010) article. The framework has not been tested because there is no known rubric with which measurement can occur. Consequently, Hilton et al.'s framework needed to be further developed and tested against a range of open educational resources. This dissertation examined the ALMS analysis, which was previously only a concept, in order to create a concrete framework with sufficient detail and documentation for comparisons to be made among OERs. The rubric was further refined through a Delphi study consisting of experts in the field of OER (n=5). A sample of OERs (n=27) rated by a small group (4) was conducted to determine inter-rater reliability. Intra-class correlation indicated moderate agreement (ICC(2,1) =.655, df=376, 95% CI [.609, .699]). Findings suggested that the degree of technical difficulty in reusing OERs can be measured in somewhat reliable manner. These findings may be insightful in developing policies and practices regarding OER development.

Research on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) often notes the potential benefits for users to revise, reuse, and remix OER to localize it for specific learners. However, a gap in the literature exists in terms of research that explores how this localization occurs in practice. This is a significant gap given the current flow of OER from higher-income countries in the Global North to lower-income countries in the Global South (King et al., 2018). This study explores how OER from one area of the world is localized when it is used in a different cultural context. As part of a larger ed-tech project in Ghana, I piloted a human rights manual that I helped develop and interviewed six facilitators of that course to see how they tailored the course to their students in Ghana. The goal was to understand their experience, their decisions, and their challenges and to explore the practice of localization and the challenges and affordances related to that practice. Findings indicated complex encounters with decontextualized content and a variety of localization practices. Participants expressed feelings of ill-fit and cultural tensions in navigating between the human rights content in the OER manual and local cultural practices. They also experienced challenges with technology due to low bandwidth and hardware problems, as well as language problems given Ghana's history of colonial rule. Native speakers of Twi are less proficient reading Twi than their national language, English. As facilitators worked to overcome these challenges, they were most likely to informally localize content in intuitive ways during the class based on students' needs. Informal, in-the-moment practices included translating content into Twi, persisting through technological challenges, using local stories and pictures, localizing through discussion, and teaching responsively. While none of the participants were initially aware of OER and its unique permissions, as they became aware of OER, discussion around localization included these themes: 1. the burdensome process of localization 2. need for support 3. need for flexible formatting to allow editing 4. technological barriers 5. the practice of remaking the lessons into tailored slide presentations. These findings have implications for designers of OER and their awareness of real mismatches and otherness created by decontextualized content. There are also suggestions for ways to apply findings and design intentionally with space for localization. More research on the practice of OER localization would refine our understanding of how OER is localized and what barriers and affordances exist to this practice.

Developmental education is a vital component to the transition from secondary to post-secondary education and has been the subject of much discussion related to current challenges faced in the changing academic environment. Through examination of three successful movements in higher education, the service-learning, Open Educational Resources (OER) and sustainability movements, attributes of effective reform will be discussed and analyzed. Levers for transformative change in post-secondary education will be discussed and applied to developmental education in an attempt to resituate developmental education and provide proactive suggestions for reform. / text

Based on the idea of broadening access to learning opportunities for all by means of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement has gained ground during the first years of the 21st Century while capturing the imagination of educators, university leaders, policy-makers and opinion leaders all over the globe. Drawing on socio-technical theories and adopting a case study research design, which involved the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, this thesis addresses the manifold tensions and paradoxes that may emerge out of the interplay between a highly predefined model of OER provision and the everyday realities and institutional contexts of different higher education settings. In particular, it focuses on the process of implementation by Spanish universities of OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiatives, a widely adopted model of OER provision that was originally devised at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By examining the enactment of technology as a situated phenomenon, this study sheds light on the roles that OCW initiatives play in relation to the strategic orientation of universities and how the actual involvement of scholars in the creation of this type of materials is often curbed by some entrenched institutional arrangements and prevailing academic cultures. The findings of this thesis have theoretical as well as practical implications, which suggest that the replication of models of OER provision outside the specific settings in which they were originally devised is a rather problematic endeavour. More generally, it supports the idea that the implementation of ICTs must be always accompanied by social structures that are mindful and respectful of local specificities and institutional arrangements. Another key conclusion is that, if universities are genuinely committed to broadening access to higher education opportunities and supporting participation in life-long learning by means of ICTs, it is crucial to understand the ways and extent to which OER initiatives can actually contribute to achieving such goals.

This study has investigated the take-up, at a range of South African tertiary institutions, of Open Educational Resources (OER) designed for mathematics teacher education. Although numerous studies (e.g. Darling-Hammond, 2006; Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy, 1999; Loughran, 2006) have identified criteria for the development of quality materials for teacher education, and have investigated ways in which these have been and should be used, little attention has been paid to the implications of these findings for the use of OER in teacher education. In 2006 the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE) initiated the ACEMaths project to pilot a collaborative materials design and adaptation process in response to a Department of Education call for large scale teacher upgrading programmes leading to an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) in priority areas. Nine South African tertiary institutions formed the collaborative group for the development of Mathematics teacher education materials. Six of these institutions committed to using the pilot materials in their teacher education programmes in 2007. Methodologically, the research is a case study of cases (Adler & Reed, 2002), in which the varying uses of the materials in these six institutional sites constituted the individual cases. At each site data were gathered from session observations, questionnaires and interviews. Artefacts, such as examples of customised materials, were also collected. Cross case analysis revealed that institutions used the ACEMaths materials in both similar and different ways and in a range of programmes. Findings from this analysis and their implications for both initial inter-institutional designing and subsequent intra-institutional re-designing and re-use of OER are discussed.

Os Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REA) são materiais com finalidade educacional, principalmente em meio digital, publicados sob termos de propriedade intelectual que autorizam seu uso, modificação, revisão e compartilhamento sem restrições. Esses recursos, idealizados com o objetivo de democratizar o acesso à educação, a despeito de sua gratuidade, de estarem disponíveis em meio digital e de geralmente elaborados por universidades renomadas, têm sido menos utilizados do que o esperado em localidades-alvo: países em desenvolvimento, onde as desigualdades de acesso a oportunidades educacionais de qualidade são maiores. Com base na teoria de difusão de inovação e no conceito de abismo de inovação, foi levantada a hipótese de que os atributos da proposta de valor dos REA não correspondem às preferências de usuários em países em desenvolvimento. A técnica de Conjoint Analysis foi empregada para avaliar as preferências de usuários em potencial (adultos com acesso à internet e redes sociais, que podem decidir individualmente sobre o uso dos REA) sobre os atributos de um tipo de REA (cursos online, cuja observabilidade é maior do que os REA como componentes modulares utilizados na educação formal), cujos atributos foram selecionados a partir de uma revisão conceitual da literatura, elaborada de forma sistemática. Os resultados mostraram que a importância relativa dos dois atributos da proposta de valor dos REA mais utilizados como argumento de diferenciação (licença de propriedade e reputação da instituição) não se mostrou significante na avaliação da utilidade total percebida nas propostas de cursos online gratuitos. Em contrapartida, os atributos que são mais difíceis de adicionar aos REA (certificação, suporte e idioma) são os mais importantes para os respondentes. / Open Educational Resources (OER) are education-driven materials, mainly in digital formats, released under intellectual property licenses that allow their use, modification, revision and sharing with no restrictions. These resources were developed to democratize access to education. However, despite their free status, their digital availability and the reputation of the universities that release them, their use have been lower than expected in target locations: developing countries, where remain the greatest inequalities in access to quality educational opportunities. Based on the diffusion of innovation theory and on the concept of innovation chasm, we\'ve raised the hypothesis that the attributes of the value proposition of OER are not compatible to users\' preferences in developing countries. The Conjoint Analysis technique was used to evaluate the preferences of potential users (adults with internet access and access to social networks websites, who can decide on the use of OER by themselves) on the attributes of a type of OER (online courses, whose observability is higher than the OER as modular components used in formal education), whose attributes were selected based on a conceptual review of the literature, conducted in a systematic approach. The results showed that there was no evidence that the relative importance of the two main attributes of the OER\'s value proposition, most used as an argument for differentiation (intellectual property license and institutional reputation) is significant in the evaluation of the total utility perceived in the proposals of free online courses. In contrast, attributes that are harder to add to OER (certification, support, and language) are the most important attributes for respondents.

Over the years, the rapid advance of the computer and communication technologies has significantly changed the way in which the society communicates and conducts business. Similarly, changes have occurred in the way in which educational resources are designed, developed and made available to learners. Following this trend, the development and adoption of Open Educational Resources (OERs) has been gaining more supporters across the world, as a means to expand access to knowledge and improve education. Indeed, the free and open distribution of educational resources helps disseminate knowledge, facilitates access to information and promotes the democratisation of access to education, benefiting society as a whole. While OERs can bring benefits to, and impact on education, there are still challenges to their widespread production and adoption. One of the challenges faced by developers (including educators and practitioners) of OERs is to produce quality and relevant learning materials, capable of being reused and adapted in different contexts and learning situations. Also, there is a need for mechanisms that provide higher productivity of the development process and quality of the resulting OERs. This work aims to investigate the development of OERs and establish flexible approaches to effectively support the design and creation of these resources. In this context, an agile method for the development and sharing of OERs, named AM-OER, was established. It is grounded on practices of Software Engineering and on practices of Learning Design. Such practices are embedded in the development of OERs aiming at improving quality and facilitating reuse and adaptation. The ultimate aim of AM-OER is to support the development of quality OERs, able to motivate and guide learners in the process of knowledge construction. Preliminary empirical assessments were conducted to validate AM-OER through its application in the design and creation of courses in the free and open source software development and software testing domain. The results obtained so far have shown that the method is feasible and effective for the design and creation of OERs. / Ao longo dos anos, o rápido avanço nas tecnologias computacionais e de comunicação vem alterando de forma significativa o modo com que a sociedade se comunica e conduz seus negócios. De forma análoga, mudanças vêm ocorrendo na maneira com que os recursos educacionais são projetados, desenvolvidos e disponibilizados aos aprendizes. Seguindo essa tendência, o desenvolvimento e a adoção de Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REAs) vêm ganhando cada vez mais adeptos em todo o mundo, como uma forma de ampliar o acesso ao conhecimento e melhorar a educação. De fato, a distribuição livre e aberta de recursos educacionais contribui para a disseminação de conhecimento e facilita o acesso à informação, além de promover a democratização do acesso à educação, beneficiando a sociedade como um todo. Embora REAs possam trazer benefícios e impacto sobre a educação, ainda existem muitos desafios para sua ampla produção e adoção. Um dos desafios enfrentados pelos desenvolvedores (incluindo educadores e praticantes) de REAs é produzir materiais de aprendizagem de qualidade, capazes de serem reusados e adaptados a diferentes contextos e situações de aprendizagem. Evidencia-se também a necessidade de mecanismos que propiciem o aumento da produtividade do processo de desenvolvimento e da qualidade dos REAs elaborados. Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar o desenvolvimento de REAs e estabelecer abordagens flexíveis para apoiar efetivamente o projeto e a criação desses recursos. Nesse contexto, um método ágil para o desenvolvimento e disponibilização de REAs, AM-OER, foi estabelecido. O método é fundamentado em práticas da Engenharia de Software e práticas de projeto de aprendizagem (Learning Design), incorporadas no desenvolvimento de REAs no intuito de melhorar a sua qualidade e facilitar o reúso e adaptação. O objetivo final do método é apoiar o desenvolvimento de REAs de qualidade, capazes de motivar e guiar os aprendizes no processo de construção de conhecimento. Avaliações empíricas preliminares foram conduzidas para validar o AM-OER por meio de sua aplicação no projeto e criação de cursos nos domínios de desenvolvimento de software livre e teste de software. Os resultados obtidos até o momento demonstram que o método é viável e eficaz no projeto e criação de REAs.

Esta dissertação descreve uma intervenção desescolarizada efetivada dentro da escola. Desescolarizada no sentido de que há na intervenção um desprendimento das coisas tipicamente escolares como currículo, regras temporais e recompensas. Para Ivan Illich, autor do qual as ideias apresentadas no livro Desescolarização da Sociedade (1973) serviram como principal referencial teórico para este trabalho, os já exaustivamente discutidos problemas escolares são, na verdade, características intrínsecas dessa instituição. Ademais a escola seria um ritual de entrada para o mundo do consumo e um mecanismo que colabora com a reprodução das diferenças sociais. Uma alternativa à instituição escolar para o papel de mediador no processo de aprendizagem, seria a de fomentar o nascimento das “Teias de Aprendizagem” – redes autônomas de trocas de habilidades. A atmosfera propícia para o surgimento da nossa teia se constituiu no Colégio La Salle Carmo em Caxias do Sul, em dois semestres de 2014 e 2015. A plataforma escolhida para o nascimento dessa rede foi ancorada nos Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REA). Tais recursos favorecem o ciclo pesquisacriação- documentação-compartilhamento que, em nosso entendimento, é fundamental para desenvolver a autonomia dos alunos e para a abertura do conhecimento. Apresentamos aos alunos de ensino médio daquela escola a possiblidade de participarem de encontros semanais para que eles desenvolvessem seus projetos voltados, a princípio, para a mostra científica da escola. Nos encontros, os participantes tiveram disponíveis modelos de habilidades e ferramentas (como o Arduíno) para, de maneira autônoma, guiar seu aprendizado de acordo com o temática escolhida para seus projetos. Dividida em três momentos – (1) propiciar a formação da teia, (2) tornar os recursos disponíveis, (3) desenvolvimento de projetos, (4) documentação e compartilhamento – a intervenção desescolarizada mostrouse uma sugestão eficaz para um projeto extra curricular. / This dissertation describes a deschooling intervention performed inside a school. The descooling was applied in a way that during the intervention there was a detachment from the typical school things, such as, curriculum, time rules and rewards. To Ivan Illich, author whose book “Deschooling society” presented ideas that served as the main theoretical reference for this paper, the exhaustively debated school problems are, actually, intrinsic characteristics of this institution. Moreover, the school would serve as an entrance ritual to a world of consumption and a mechanism that colaborates with the reproduction of the social differences. An alternative to the school institution, to perform the mediating role in the learning process, would be to stimulate the birth of “The Learning Webs” – an independent network of habilty exchanges. A favourable atmosphere to the advent of our web appeared at the La Salle Carmo School in Caxias do Sul, in two semesters in 2014 and 2015. The plataform chosen to the birth of our network was based on the Open Educational Resources (OER). Such resourses favors a cycle of research-creation-documentation-sharing that, in our understanding, is vital to develop the students’ autonomy and to unlock knowledge. We presented to the middle school students from that school the possibility to attend weekly gatherings so that they could develop their projects concerning, at first, the school’s scientific fair. In those gatherings, the participants had at their disposal hability models and tools (such as Arduino) so that, in an independent way, they could guide their own learning according to the theme chosen for their projects. It was divided in three moments - (1) To enable the web formation, (2) to provide the avaliable resources, (3) Project development, (4) documentation and sharing – the deschooling intervention showed to be an effective suggestion for an extracurricular project.

The purpose of this study was to analyze factors that may contribute to student perceptions of courses using Open Educational Resources (OER). Specifically, the 6 independent variables tested were the course discipline, age, gender, course delivery mode, enrollment status, and number of credit hours taken. The dependent variables were measured as mean scores of 6 OER perception dimensions: motivation to learn, quality of learning experience, value of OER, cognitive learning, affective learning, and course quality. A 27-item online survey was administered to gather data from students enrolled in a course that used OER in the fall semester, 2014. There was a 23% response rate with 80 completed surveys. Independent-samples t tests were used to determine if significant differences existed between 5 of the 6 independent variables (the number of credit hours taken was tested using a different method) and each OER perception dimension mean. A Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine whether there were significant relationships among the 6 dependent OER perception dimension means and the number of credit hours taken. The level of significance used was < .05. The findings of the independent-samples t tests revealed that there were no significant differences between the independent variables and the 6 OER perception dimension means. The motivation to learn perception mean was highest at 3.97 on a 5-point Likert-type scale; the value of OER had the lowest perception dimension mean of 3.37. The Pearson product-moment correlation determined that there was a significant weak negative relationship between the number of credit hours taken and the level of perceived cognitive learning dimension. All other correlations were found to have no significant relationships. It can be concluded from the findings of the study that students are highly motivated to learn. From the perception rating of 3.37 for the value of OER, it can be concluded that student perceptions of the value of OER are slightly positive. It can also be concluded that as the number of credit hours in which a student is enrolled increases they have a lower perception of their level of cognitive learning.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the adoption of Open Educational Resources had a significant effect on student learning outcomes in seven courses taught at seven post-secondary institutions. The use of open educational resources (OER) is increasing in the United States. Initiatives focusing on expanding the use of OER as a replacement for traditional textbooks at the post-secondary level include OpenStax, Project Kaleidoscope, Open Course Library, and others. While researchers have begun to explore OER, few have sought to evaluate the quality of OER as a function of student academic success. In this dissertation, I examined measures of student success in seven courses at seven different early-adopters of Project Kaleidoscope where faculty members chose to adopt OER to replace traditional textbooks. The sample for this study consisted of students using open textbooks in courses at seven Project Kaleidoscope post-secondary institutions, as well as a control group of students at those same institutions who used traditional textbooks in sections of the same courses. I used an ex-post-facto quasi-experimental design, in which I compared students using OER to students using traditional textbooks in comparable courses. In order to control for the threat of selection bias, I used propensity score matching (PSM) to match treatment and control groups on a set of demographic variables. After creating matched treatment and control groups, I used multiple regression and logistic regression to examine whether textbook selection predicts a measurable difference in student achievement after accounting for relevant covariates. I found that students using open textbooks earned, on average, lower grades than students who used traditional textbooks, after controlling for student-level and course-level covariates. Further analysis revealed that this negative differential was isolated to students in business and psychology classes. I also found that students who used open textbooks enrolled in more credits than students using traditional textbooks, controlling for relevant covariates. Because of the finding of a variation in textbook effect from course to course, future studies may seek to understand the effects of particular OER adoption instances rather than the global effect of OER adoption.