Since it takes forever for this “Special Issue on Open Educational Resources” in the Journal E-Learning and Digital Media to be published, here are the abstract and preprint of a recent article:
What’s Educational about Open Educational Resources? Different Theoretical Lenses for Conceptualizing Learning with OER
Stefanie Panke, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA), panke@sog.unc.edu
Tina Seufert, Ulm University, Ulm (Germany), tina.seufert@uni-ulm.deAbstract: In the last decade, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained an undeniable momentum. However, it is an easy trap to confuse download and registration rates with actual learning and interest in the adoption and re-use of open educational resources. If we focus solely on access, we cannot differentiate between processes of mere information foraging and deep sense making activities. The paper provides an overview of the OER movement, stressing emerging concerns surrounding the educational efficacy of OER and highlighting learning theories which aid our understanding of this growing domain. We discuss building-blocks for a theoretical framework that allows us to conceptualize the learner’s part in open educational practices, also characterizing challenges of open learning and traits of successful open learners.
