JISC/HE Academy OER Programme: Pilot Phase Synthesis and Evaluation Report

TLDR: The project team developed a Generic framework to capture common issues related to OER release (barriers and enablers), cultural differences across the sector: what norms, roles, rules and reward structures foster effective OER practice in differing institutional and consortia climates, and ‘strand specific’ content related to the context.

Abstract: In June 2009, JISC and the HE Academy awarded funding to Glasgow Caledonian University to examine their jointly funded OER Pilot programme; bringing together and analysing the activity of all the individual projects to gain a greater understanding of the release of Open Educational Resources. The OER Pilot programme enabled the large scale release of OER with a view to the creation of a mass of released materials and sustainability of OER release. The synthesis & evaluation project engaged with participants in the OER Pilot programme throughout to enable early identification of support needs as well as to gather information. The Synthesis & evaluation project therefore ran in parallel with the Pilot Programme. The project team developed a Generic framework to capture common issues related to OER release (barriers and enablers), cultural differences across the sector: what norms, roles, rules and reward structures foster effective OER practice in differing institutional and consortia climates, and ‘strand specific’ content related to the context: individuals, subject communities, institutions. The framework was also used to support project and programme evaluation and this is described in detail in the Project method and approaches section.