The impact of developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) on novice OER developers

We focus on the experiences and attitudes of a small group of academics, new to the concept of OER, who developed open resources for the first time as part of a UK funded project, CPD4HE. This work was located within an on-going national OER programme, which has stimulated development of resources and research into related issues such as motivators and barriers, usage and impact.

Analysis of texts generated during the development process revealed that the novice OER developers engaged particularly with licensing and IPR issues, the nature of their audience and some technical challenges, as well as with the practicalities of project participation. The texts also illustrate collaborative and community-building aspects of OER development; teacher-developers supported one another with encouragement and feedback on resources, and participants established links with sector-wide networks in Open Education.

Post-project 'professional conversations' between four of the academics suggest that the OER experience has raised awareness of open practices and that educational values, academic identity, authorship and approaches to IPR were key elements in a description of their experiences and their attitudes towards open education. Findings provide tentative support for suggestions in the literature about the transformative potential of creating open educational resources.

Keywords: OER, Open Education, innovation, collaboration, academic practice, impact, academic values, academic identity, workplace writing, teaching