Forms of innovation inspired by open educational resources: a post-project analysis

ABSTRACT

It has been argued that Open Educational Resources (OER) present opportunities for innovation in education. However, there has been a lack of retrospective analysis of the forms of innovation that can emerge through OER, and the processes and challenges these entail. This paper presents a post-project analysis of the diverse uses and impacts of open courses produced through an international OER initiative. A thematic analysis of retrospective interviews and documentation from this case study is reported on, guided by a review of relevant concepts from innovation and OER literature. Through this we identify three archetypal forms through which the OER created opportunities for innovation: Specific Adoption; Preferred Practise and Foundations for Innovation. We identify drivers and inhibitors through which these forms of innovation interacted with each other in this initiative. This elaborates on the notion that a single existing model does not capture the multi-faceted relationships between innovation and OER.

KEYWORDS:

• OER
• innovation
• impact
• qualitative
• open education

Acknowledgements

Bridge to Success was funded by an NGLC grant, a programme led by EDUCAUSE. The Bill and Melinda Gates and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations helped design and fund the initiative. The follow up interviews described in this paper were funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as part of the OER Research Hub. We would like to thank all the participants and project for the time given to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Educause under the Next Generation Learning Challenges: Bridge to Success grant, and by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as part of the OER Research Hub grant.

Notes on contributors

Tim Coughlan

Dr. Tim Coughlan is a lecturer in the Institute of Educational Technology (IET), Learning and Teaching Innovation, The Open University (UK). His research is focused on the design and evaluation of novel ways to support inclusive and open education. This has included projects to understand computer support for creativity, collaborative creation of open courses and inclusive technology-enhanced learning.

Rebecca Pitt

Dr. Rebecca Pitt is a Research Associate in the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) of The Open University (UK). She has worked on a wide range of projects researching the impact of OER and open textbooks on teaching and learning, and was responsible for delivering the School of Open’s Open Research course.

Robert Farrow

Dr. Robert Farrow is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (UK) who has led and contributed to research projects in open education, accessibility, mobile learning and digital scholarship. He has research interests in evidence, decision-making and policy formation; ethics and the role of ideology in educational technology.