Constructing a Flexible Distance Learning Environment Through a Socio-Technical Perspective

Doğan, Tülay Görü; Eby, Gülsün

doi:10.4018/ijicthd.2014100105

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…OER present certain challenges to educational practice at the literacy and primary education level, which providers need to address. They are not fully self-directed and therefore the requirement of tutors in online or classroom settings cannot be overlooked (Salter, 2011;Doğan & Eby, 2014). Another issue is that there currently are two divergent learning models attempting to co-exist: the OER model, which promotes independent learning, and the traditional education model, where the role of the institution is more explicit, as with MIT's OpenCourseWare.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open Educational Resources: Challenges and Opportunities in Indian Primary Education

Ganapathi

2018

IRRODL

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Education is a fundamental human right, yet one fifth of the world’s population lives with poor literacy. India is home to the largest number of illiterate people, with infrastructural, cultural, and socio-economic factors hindering equitable access to quality education. Due to the rapidly growing technology and Internet usage in the country, open educational resources (OER) are increasingly being used as a vital tool to help transcend barriers to child literacy, also aiding in educational attainment. While an array of scholarly works provides evidence of the potential in OER to influence higher education outcomes in developing nations, academic analysis of their impact on primary level education attainment has been minimal. This paper retrieve lessons from three children’s content providing organizations to understand the opportunities and challenges of OER in primary-level education in developing nations with similar cultural, infrastructural, and socio-economic issues. While the findings of this study suggest that the use of OER allows for greater distribution and scale across different cultural and linguistic settings, particularly in rural and remote regions, they also warn against the adaptation and pedagogical barriers of OER into societies where traditional modes of education are established and trusted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open Educational Resources: Challenges and Opportunities in Indian Primary Education

Ganapathi

2018

IRRODL

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“…According to scholars such as Kortemeyer (2013) setting cannot be denied (Salter, 2011;Doğan & Eby, 2014). Similarly, Kanwar (2013) highlights the results of a key survey on the use of OERs in 13 Asian nations, which indicated that teachers lacked the capacity and time to locate, adapt and re-purpose OER materials that were relevant to them.…”

Section: Pedagogy and Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Primary Education in Developing Nations: A Case Study of India

Ganapathi¹

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This research aims to identify how open educational resources (OERs) can contribute towards primary education, and what role they might play in increasing childhood literacy in particular, which has been identified as a prime component in ensuring educational attainment in primary school. Literature in the area largely addresses OERs and their potential to widen participation in tertiary education with a focus on developed nations, with little discussion about how OERs can be utilized in primary education. This thesis is particularly interested in the role OERs might play in primary education in developing nations where a range of challenges contribute to the low levels of literacy. In nations like India and South Africa, which are the locations of the case study organizations selected for this research, decentralized rural populations, combined with high levels of poverty, child labor and low levels of literacy and awareness cause poor attendance and access to schools. This research suggests that OERs aimed at developing literacy in primary school-aged children can overcome the distribution and access issues that contribute to low attendance and engagement with education in these nations. OERs have the capacity to bypass low levels of educational infrastructure by distributing high quality resources online in low definition formats suitable for downloading and under open licenses on platforms suitable for users to repackage, translate and re-purpose according to their particular need or audience. While there are a range of sustainability challenges for organizations with a social mission to use OERs to increase the equity and access of educational materials, these organizations have found innovative solutions taken from other online successes such as gaming and social media. Making use of volunteers and users in a community of practice to ensure that content is translated, quality is maintained and there is volume on their sites has some risks but also enables the maintenance of an open repository of materials for use, re-use, adaptation and sharing. This thesis contributes to the existing literature by shedding light into understanding these challenges from the experiences and perspectives of three case study organizations that provide OERs for children.

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Constructing a Flexible Distance Learning Environment Through a Socio-Technical Perspective

Cited by 2 publications

References 10 publications

Open Educational Resources: Challenges and Opportunities in Indian Primary Education

Open Educational Resources: Challenges and Opportunities in Indian Primary Education

The Role of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Primary Education in Developing Nations: A Case Study of India

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