OLDaily

Toward a definition of digital object reuse
Ayla Stein Kenfield, et.al., Digital Library Perspectives, 2022/04/11

Let me ask: when I link to and comment on the articles and resources listerd in this newsletter, am I reusing them? We could make the case either way. It's this sort of question the authors of this article (17 page PDF) consider when they ask, "what constitutes 'reuse'?" Their response comes in the form of a 'use-reuse matrix' that "includes new, refined definitions for use and reuse, as well as the levels of engagement, which aims to provide further nuance when defining use and reuse."

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Code Reuse and Formative Assessment in Secondary Education
Niklas J. Nystad, Majid Rohuani, Monica Divitini, IEEE Education Engineering, 2022/04/11

As the authors state, "Code reuse is a widely accepted practice in software engineering." That's why being able to "view source" is so valuable in web browsers, and why people share repositories on widely used sites like GitHub. But in the classroom, it raises issues with respect to testing and assessment. "If the person programming does not understand the code being reused, and for efficient reuse they are not always required to, the reused code may impact the complete program negatively." The same, I would say, applies to reusing OER generally. "Learners at different achievement levels in programming seem to perform different types of code reuse, and different types of code reuse seem to be appropriate for learning programming at different achievement levels."

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Open Content, OER Repositories, Interactive Textbooks, and a Digital Social Platform: The Case of Greece
Elina Megalou, Christos Kaklamanis, END 2018 International Conference on Education and New Developments, 2022/04/11

The website is all Greek to me (translated) but you can read more about this list of open education services in this article (5 page PDF). Here's a useful adaptation: "Linking OERs within textbooks' html proved to be a good, alternative approach for associating digital resources with learning goals of the curriculum, offering in addition a familiar browsing interface for teachers and pupils to navigate through learning resources." The services described include: E-Me, a ;personal learning environment (just updated to version 3); the aforementioned interactive school books; and various panhellenic libraries of learning resources and software. See also this slide presentation in English.

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Open Educational Practices in K-12 Online and Blended Learning Environments
Verena Roberts, Constance Blomgren, Kristina Ishmael, Lee Graham, Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning, 2022/04/11

This is chapter 38 from the enormous Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (2nd ed.). (739 page PDF). It draws the connection between open education and participation. "A participatory culture is an essential contributor to OEP in K-12 learning environments. Participatory cultural skills include: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking and negotiation." Citing the Multiply K-12 OER Project, the authors note that this includes "sharing ideas and resources; relective practice; a connected community; learner generated content; and peer review."

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Open Practices in Teacher Education: An Example of Integrating OER and Developing Renewable Assignments
Jennifer Van Allen, Stacy Katz, Open Praxis, 2022/04/11

This article documents the adaptation and reuse of open educational resources (OER) in a teacher education course. "Teacher  educators  are  well-positioned  to  evolve  future  use  of  open  practices  within  the  K-12  curriculum. As they model the adoption of OER and open practices, teacher educators encourage candidates  to  reimagine  their  agency,  as  they  grow  professionally  and  contribute  meaningfully  to  the  global  teaching  community."

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What About Reuse? A Study on the Use of Open Educational Resources in Dutch Higher Education
Marjon Baas, Robert Schuwer, Open Praxis, 2022/04/11

As this article states, "it is very likely that dark reuse might be more prevalent than official adoption of OER." As Beaven states, most OER practices are "hidden and take place in private spaces". Still, this article provides ample evidence of reuse, including adaptation and modification. "Although it might appear that teachers do not or limited adopt OER... teachers might actually engage more often with OER than the numbers might suggest."

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Quality Assurance of Open Educational Resources
Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Wolfgang Muskens, Victoria I. Marín, Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education, 2022/04/11

Here is the argument in a nutshell. "The low usage rate of OER is often linked to the question of quality," write the authors (19 page PDF). "There is an unmanageable variety of OER materials and repositories, so that teachers are confused when choosing materials." However, there is "no widely used instrument for evaluating OER that has been systematically developed and meets scientific quality criteria." Hence, the authors propose an Instrument for Quality Assurance of OER (IQOER) and also "a quality assurance process agreed with all stakeholders." Ah, but if only there were actually a single definition of quality for all resources. The sort of model depicted in this article (pictured) speaks to a very specific type of resource. But there are many types of resources - books, videos, images, multimedia, games, simulations, more - and many applications and contexts of use. And even more - a lot of the time good enough is way better than nothing at all, which raises the possibility of quality initiatives actually worsening the user expperience.

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