Defining Openness: Updating the Concept of "Open" for a Connected World

Patrick McAndrew

Journal of Interactive Media in Education Vol. 2010, No. 1 (2010)

The release of free resources by the education sector has led to reconsideration of how the open approach implied by Open Educational Resources (OER) impacts on the educator and the learner. However this work has tended to consider the replication...

A Model for the Creation of Human-Generated Metadata within Communities

Andrew Brasher; Patrick McAndrew

Learning, Media and Technology Vol. 30, No. 2 (July 2005) pp. 219–240

This paper considers situations for which detailed metadata descriptions of learning resources are necessary, and focuses on human generation of such metadata. It describes a model which facilitates human production of good quality metadata by the...

Automatic Generation of Audio Content for Open Learning Resources

Andrew Brasher; Patrick McAndrew

Journal of Interactive Media in Education Vol. 2009, No. 1 (2009)

This paper describes how digital talking books (DTBs) with embedded functionality for learners can be generated from content structured according to the OU OpenLearn schema. It includes examples showing how a software transformation developed from...

Exploring User Types and What Users Seek in an Open Content Based Educational Resource

Steve Godwin; Patrick McAndrew

World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2008 (Jun 30, 2008) pp. 3711–3718

Abstract: The OpenLearn site is an example of an Open Educational Resource (OER) providing units for free study and for re-use under the Creative Commons license. The primary focus of the site is content but it also offers social tools such as...

Topics: Assessment, Social Studies

Designing for Educational Technology to Enhance the Experience of Learners in Distance Education: How Open Educational Resources, Learning Design and MOOCs Are Influencing Learning

Eileen Scanlon; Patrick McAndrew; Tim O'Shea

Journal of Interactive Media in Education Vol. 2015, No. 1 (2015)

The area of learning has a justifiable claim to be a special case in how it can be enhanced or supported by technology. In areas such as commerce and web design the aim is usually to ensure efficiency and support specific actions such as purchasing...

Facing the Challenge in Evaluating Technology Use in Mobile Environments

Patrick McAndrew; Josie Taylor; Doug Clow

Open Learning Vol. 25, No. 3 (November 2010) pp. 233–249

The process of developing innovative mobile approaches to informal and formal learning is challenging, not least in needing to satisfy stakeholders with diverse interests in the technology, the pedagogy and the overall system. Some approaches to...

A Framework for Work-Based Networked Learning

Patrick McAndrew; Lachlan MacKinnon; Roger Rist

Journal of Interactive Learning Research Vol. 13, No. 1 (2002) pp. 149–166

This article describes the development of a task-based framework for providing learning within the workplace using networked multimedia. A philosophy is adopted for the framework that builds on the recognition that tasks must reflect the social...

Behind the Scenes with OpenLearn: The Challenges of Researching the Provision of Open Educational Resources

Stephen Godwin; Patrick McAndrew; Andreia Santos

Electronic Journal of e-Learning Vol. 6, No. 2 pp. 139–148

Web-enabled technology is now being applied on a large scale. In this paper we look at open access provision of teaching and learning leading to many users with varying patterns and motivations for use. This has provided us with a research challenge ...

Adapting Online Learning Resources for All: Planning for Professionalism in Accessibility

Patrick McAndrew; Robert Farrow; Martyn Cooper

Research in Learning Technology Vol. 20, No. 4 (2012) pp. 345–361

Online resources for education offer opportunities for those with disabilities but also raise challenges on how to best adjust resources to accommodate accessibility. Automated reconfiguration could in principle remove the need for expensive and...

The Feasibility of Capturing Learner Interactions Based on Logs Informed by Eye-Tracking and Remote Observation Studies

Jonathan P. San Diego; Patrick McAndrew

Journal of Interactive Media in Education Vol. 2009, No. 1 (2009)

Two small studies, one an "eye-tracking" study and the other a "remote observation" study, have been conducted to investigate ways to identify two kinds of online learner interactions: users flicking through the web pages in "browsing" action, and...

Learning Design and Service-Oriented Architectures: A Mutual Dependency?

Patrick McAndrew; Martin Weller; Mark Barrett-Baxendale

Journal of Learning Design Vol. 1, No. 3 pp. 51–60

This paper looks at how the concept of reusability has gained currency in e-learning. Initial attention was focused on reuse of content, but recently attention has focused on reusable software tools and reusable activity structures. The former has...

An Open Future for Higher Education

Patrick McAndrew; Eileen Scanlon; Doug Clow

Educause Quarterly Vol. 33, No. 1 (2010)

Education, and in particular higher education, has seen rapid change as learning institutions have had to adapt to the opportunities provided by the Internet to move more of their teaching online and to become more flexible in how they operate. It...

Assessing OER Impact across Organisations and Learners: Experiences from the Bridge to Success Project

Rebecca Pitt; Nassim Ebrahimi; Patrick McAndrew; Tim Coughlan

Journal of Interactive Media in Education Vol. 2013, No. 1 (2013)

Open courses have received a lot of attention in the last two years; however, the question of whether they serve learners has yet to be determined. This paper explores the challenges and potential in assessing the impact of open educational...

Learning Design, Generic Service Descriptions and Universal Acid

Martin Weller; Alex Little; Patrick McAndrew; Will Woods

Educational Technology & Society Vol. 9, No. 1 (2006) pp. 138–145

This paper examines the contention that learning environments which use IMS Learning Designs can be created by plugging in different components, using generic service descriptions to create the interface between the Learning Design (LD) and the...

Impact of OER use on teaching and learning: Data from OER Research Hub (2013–2014)

Robert Farrow; Rebecca Pitt; Beatriz Arcos de los; Leigh‐Anne Perryman; Martin Weller; Patrick McAndrew

British Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 46, No. 5 (Sep 01, 2015) pp. 972–976

The true power of comparative research around the impact and use of open educational resources is only just being realised, largely through the work done by the Hewlett-funded OER Research Hub, based at The Open University (UK). Since late 2012, the ...

Adapting the Curriculum: How K-12 Teachers Perceive the Role of Open Educational Resources

Beatriz de los Arcos; Robert Farrow; Rebecca Pitt; Martin Weller; Patrick McAndrew

Journal of Online Learning Research Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar 31, 2016) pp. 23–40

It has been suggested that open educational resources (OER) can lower cost and lead to greater flexibility, however while there has been significant investment in opening up content there have been few studies looking at how these resources are...

Innovating Pedagogy 2014

Mike Sharples; Anne Adams; Rebecca Ferguson; Mark Gaved; Patrick McAndrew; Bart Rienties; Martin Weller; Denise Whitelock

(2014) pp. 1–37

The third in a series of reports exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but...

The Impact of OER on Teaching and Learning Practice

Martin Weller; Bea de los Arcos; Rob Farrow; Beck Pitt; Patrick McAndrew

Open Praxis Vol. 7, No. 4 (Nov 26, 2015) pp. 351–361

The OER Research Hub has been investigating the impact of OER, using eleven hypotheses, and a mixed methods approach to establish an evidence base. This paper explores the findings relating to teaching and learning. The findings reveal a set of...