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.

O objeto desta tese é um conjunto de diretrizes para projeto de recursos educacionais digitais, voltados para educação bilíngue de surdos. O público alvo primário deste trabalho, no entanto, não são os estudantes surdos, nem mesmo seus professores. O público alvo são designers: os profissionais que irão usar as diretrizes para projetar (e desenvolver) recursos educacionais para serem usados pelos estudantes surdos (e seus professores). A importância deste trabalho se deve ao fato que a maior parte dos designers não tem conhecimento científico ou empírico sobre o contexto e as necessidades dos estudantes surdos, tampouco reconhecem o bilinguismo como uma necessidade comunicacional e educacional. Utilizou-se um método chamado Mapas de Conceito, de Trochim (1989), que consistiu nas etapas: a) Preparação – coleta de fontes bibliográficas e entrevistas com professores; b) Compilação – onde o conjunto de diretrizes foi consolidado, gerando uma listagem com 185 diretrizes, sendo 75 oriundas de fontes bibliográficas e 110 de entrevistas com professores, as quais após análise, foram reduzidas para 50; c) Estruturação - etapa em que um grupo de 13 professores avaliou e agrupou as diretrizes, o que resultou num conjunto de 33; d) Representação – agrupamento das 33 diretrizes por meio das técnicas exploratórias Escala Multi Dimensional e Análise Hierárquica de Cluster; e)Elaboração do conjunto final. O conjunto de diretrizes sintetiza conhecimentos de diferentes áreas de difícil acesso ao designer. Acredita-se que a disponibilização das diretrizes compiladas nesta pesquisa possa auxiliá-los a produzir recursos educacionais bilíngues. / The purpose of this thesis is to propose a set of guidelines for the design of digital educational resources, aimed at bilingual education of the deaf. The primary target audience for this work, however, are not deaf students, not even their teachers. The target audience are designers: professionals who will use the guidelines to design (and develop) educational resources for use by deaf students (and their teachers). The importance of this work is due to the fact that most designers do not have scientific or empirical knowledge about the context and needs of deaf students, nor do they recognize bilingualism as a communicational and educational need. We used a method called Concept Maps (TROCHIM, 1989), which consisted of the following steps: a) Preparation - collection of bibliographic sources and interviews with teachers; b) Compilation - where the set of guidelines was consolidated, generating a listing with 185 guidelines, of which 75 were from bibliographic sources and 110 from interviews with teachers, which, after analysis, were reduced to 50; c) Structuring - stage in which a group of 13 teachers evaluated and grouped the guidelines, which resulted in a set of 33; d) Representation - grouping of the 33 guidelines through exploratory techniques Multi-Dimensional Scale and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis; e) Preparation of the final set. The set of guidelines synthesizes knowledge of different areas of difficult access to the designer. It is believed that the provision of the guidelines compiled in this research can help them to produce bilingual educational resources.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:22:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedrina Rosa Araujo.pdf: 492932 bytes, checksum: 06ab85ccd689f34df582f7d388fa154a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-07 / This dissertation presents a study about human learning, especially about its new culture, which is used increasingly as a facilitator of technological strategies in online spaces. The aim of this research was limited in the role of educational designer for the learning of students from distance education online courses which was investigated that knowledge these professionals have about learning to develop multimedia educational resources whose intentionality is to help to learning in these spaces. The qualitative research was developed through field study where some interviews were made with selected educational designers as strategy to collect datas. These interviews allowed to emerge from their speeches their conceptions, practices and perceptions about their professional tasks. The studies developed based on the biological and cultural conceptions of learning, conceptions of multimedia learning and cognitive load revealed that these professionals have diverse knowledge about learning, especially in the field of multimedia. However, it was possible to notice that these knowledge are mostly empirical, resulting from their observations and experiences in daily life of their profession which confirmed the premise proposed in this research. As a complex process which involves aspects of diverse natures, the learning is inherent from owner history of mankind, and therefore, it independent on the way that the learning happens, it should always be in focus from all the professionals who involved in the design of educational strategies, among them, the educational designer / A presente dissertação apresenta um estudo sobre a aprendizagem humana, em especial sobre sua nova cultura, que se utiliza cada dia mais de estratégias tecnológicas como facilitadoras em ambientes online. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi delimitado em qual o papel do designer educacional para a aprendizagem dos alunos de cursos a distância online, na qual foi investigado que conhecimentos esses profissionais possuem sobre aprendizagem para elaborar recursos educacionais multimídia que contribuam com a aprendizagem nesses ambientes. A pesquisa qualitativa se desenvolveu por meio de estudo de campo se utilizando de entrevistas como estratégia para coleta de dados com os designers educacionais selecionados. Isso possibilitou que emergisse dos discursos seus conceitos, práticas e percepções sobre seus afazeres profissionais. Os estudos desenvolvidos sob as concepções biológicas e culturais da aprendizagem, as concepções da aprendizagem multimídia e da carga cognitiva revelaram que esses profissionais possuem conhecimentos diversos sobre a aprendizagem, principalmente no campo da multimídia. Entretanto, foi possível constatar que esses conhecimentos são, em sua maioria, de natureza empírica, resultantes de suas observações e experiências adquiridas no dia a dia da profissão, o que confirmou a premissa proposta nesta pesquisa. Como um processo complexo e que envolve aspectos de naturezas diversas, a aprendizagem é inerente à própria história da humanidade e, por isso, independentemente do meio a que se propõe, ela deverá sempre estar no foco de todos os profissionais envolvidos no desenho das estratégias educacionais, entre eles, o designer educacional

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.

The purpose of this study is to review the use of educational resources at National Science and Technology Museum (NSTM) by Kaohsiung junior high school science & technology teachers. Using judgemental sampling, 260 questionnaires were sent out to science & technology teachers who taught at junior high schools in Kaohsiung. A total of 172 completed questionnaires were returned. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson¡¦s correlation. Six insights were gained from this study. First, results show that in reality, the usage rates of the resources available at the NSTM among teachers are quite low. Second, The teachers possess a low level of knowledge and understanding with regard to the resources available at the NSTM. Third, The teachers have a very favorable view of the usage of the resources offered by the NSTM. Fourth, the use of the educational resources at NSTM, the knowledge associated and the attitude towards it vary depending on the teachers' gender, educational background and teaching experience. Fifth, the frequency of usage of the resources, the knowledge and attitude are all positively correlated. Sixth, NSTM¡¦s active involvement in providing more services, expanding its facilities and supporting the logistics of the field trip may increase the teachers¡¦ willingness to use its resources.

Temos aktualumas. Lietuvos Respublikos Švietimo ir mokslo ministerijos dokumentuose apie papildomą ir neformalųjį mokinių švietimą dėmesio centre yra moksleivis. Moksleivis – tai šalies ateitis. Todėl vienas iš pagrindinių Lietuvos demokratinės švietimo politikos principų – suteikti visiems piliečiams lygias teises į mokslą, nepriklausomai nuo gyvenamos vietos, lyties, socialinės kilmės bei įsitikinimų. Labai svarbu užtikrinti kokybišką, prieinamą ne tik formalųjį švietimą, bet ir papildomą. Papildomas ugdymas turi tenkinti moksleivio poreikius ir interesus, turi padėti atsiskleisti asmenybei, pasiruošti savarankiškam gyvenimui, tapti konkurentabiliu. Šių dienų besimokantysis turi ne tik atgaminti žinias, bet ir rasti, formuluoti problemas, vertinti galimus sprendimo būdus, ieškoti alternatyvių požiūrių, kritiškai mąstyti [20]. Tik nuolatinis švietimo proceso tobulinimas, naujų metodų, mokymo priemonių ieškojimas gali patenkinti besimokančiojo poreikius ir užtikrinti kokybišką švietimą. Inovatyvios kompiuterinės technologijos vis plačiau taikomos švietimo procese. Jos gerokai pakeitė tradicinį mokymąsi, kuris dažnai perkeliamas į virtualią erdvę. Sparti IKT plėtra duoda naują impulsą tobulinti tradicinio švietimo metodus ir taikyti juos bendrojo lavinimo bei papildomo ugdymo įstaigose. Švietimo kontekste atsiranda svarbi sąvoka – e. mokymasis, kuris mokymąsi padaro patrauklesniu, prieinamesniu besimokančiajam. E. mokymasis – tai toks mokymosi būdas, kai dalis mokymosi... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The documents about informal and non-formal students education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania documents, focuses attention on the student. This suggests that additional education has to meet the student's needs, helping to reveal the personality, to prepare for independent living. These days, the learner should not only reproduce knowledge, but also to find, formulate problems, evaluate possible solutions, finding alternative approaches to think critically. More and more in the educational process applied innovative computer technologies expanding learning opportunities. E. thanks to learning, which is currently increasingly being used in the education system, the learning process becomes more accessible, more attractive, more individualized. At present, the ever-popular e-learning using the open educational resources (OER). There is no unanimous OER store oriented to the main user - student, which gathers both the country and foreign OER in Lithuania . Tests of different things, learning games, videos, applications, e-books and other OER "scattered" on the Internet. For this problem, there is a need to create OER sharing system for students. During the work the OER model created for students informal learning. The model is implemented on the site OER. There students can put their created, modified OER, links to the other online resources, to view, to download the resources in the site. You can also evaluate and comment on them. Can... [to full text]