#312 Poster

Monday 16 April 15:00 - 17:15 Bar/Conservatory

Using Online Synchronous Interviews to Explore the Workflows, Barriers and Benefits for OER Practitioners

Julian Prior, University of Bath, UK

Conference Theme: Innovation

Summary: A visual overview of research using online interviews to explore the workflows, barriers and benefits to the creation of OER.

Abstract: Much of the literature on openness in education to date has concentrated on licensing and access issues rather than on the concrete workflows that instructional designers, learning technologists, academic authors and others have used when creating and/or releasing OER. Workflow models are the tools, technologies, processes and practices that individuals and teams working with OER engage with.
In this poster presentation I will give an overview of my small-scale research into the workflows of OER practitioners focusing in particular on the barriers they face to releasing open content as well as the range of benefits they perceive to gain by working with OER. In August 2011 I carried out ten semi-structured interviews with academics, learning technologists and librarians involved in UK-OER projects. The interviews were carried out online, in real-time, using web conferencing software. According to O'Connor et. al. using web conferencing tools as a method for virtual data collection is both "novel and innovative" (2008: 271). The advantages of synchronous, online interviews are that they are relatively low cost, can overcome the problem of geographical distances and can replicate most of the conditions of a face-to-face interview. With OER practitioners geographically dispersed across institutions and borders, there is great potential in using online, synchronous interviews for gathering data relating to the creation of open content. The downside is that there can be technical problems with video and audio and there are difficulties in building rapport due to the placement of video and the restricted view of participants.
My study found that individuals and teams used a variety of OER workflows ranging from formal and structured models to more informal, ad hoc models. This corresponds to Weller's (2009) notion of 'big' and 'little' OER. Participants identified a number of barriers to releasing open content including a lack of institutional awareness and support, and issues relating to intellectual property rights. On the other hand they recognised a wide range of benefits associated with OER work such as learning new skills, professional and scholarly development opportunities, and membership of a community of practice built around an ethos of sharing.

References:
O'Connor, H., Madge, C., Shaw, R., and Wellens, J. (2008). Internet-based Interviewing. In Fielding, N. G., Lee, R. M., and Blank, G. (Eds.) e Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage. pp. 271-289.
Weller, M. (2009) Big OER and Little OER. http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/ no_good_reason/2009/12/the-politics-of-oer.html Accessed November, 2010.