short overview of a systematic literature review, SCOPUS based on the use of OERs & OEPs in adult education

1. The Use of Open Educational Resources
by Adult Learning Professionals
- A Systematic Literature Review -
prof. dr.habil. Simona Sava
assoc. prof. Gabriela Grosseck
senior lecturer dr. Laura Malița
European Conference on Educational Research
Geneva, 6-10 September 2021

2. Prof. habil. dr. Simona Sava
Department of Educational Sciences
lidia.sava@e-uvt.ro
Assoc prof. dr. Gabriela Grosseck
Department of Psychology
gabriela.grosseck@e-uvt.ro
Senior lecturer dr. Laura Malita
Department of Communication Sciences
laura.malita@e-uvt.ro

3. Presentation Agenda
conceptual
framework, research
context, and
justification
Conclusions
research question,
research design,
objectives, data
collection
Data analysis &
Findings
(short) Background:
(instead of)
Methodology
(insights)

4. OER (Open Educational Resources) are
teaching, learning, and research resources
that reside in the public domain or have been
released under an intellectual property
license that permits sharing, accessing,
repurposing—including for commercial
purposes—and collaborating with others.
UNESCO (2002, 2019)
https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies/oer
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000215804
comparing the granularity of OER
Big and Little OER (Martin, 2010)

5. David Wiley (2007), Opencontent.org
Image by Hüseyin Oylumlu on Pixabay
open ≠ free
open = free + permission
Revise
Remix
Reuse
Retain
Redistribute
What are the benefits of
using and creating OER
for adult education?

6. Open Educational Practices (OEP)
”... open education is not limited to just open educational resources. It
also draws upon open technologies that facilitate collaborative,
flexible learning and the open sharing of teaching practices that
empower educators to benefit from the best ideas of their colleagues. It
may also grow to include new approaches to assessment, accreditation
and collaborative learning.”
(The Cape Town Open Education Declaration, 2007)
Definitions of OEP and OEP-related concepts have their theoretical
foundations in constructivist, social constructivist and connectivism.
Cronin, C., MacLaren, I. (2018). Conceptualising OEP: A review of theoretical and empirical literature in Open Educational
Practices. Open Praxis, 10(2): 127–143. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.2.825
Huang et al., (UNESCO), 2020
https://iite.unesco.org/publications/guidance-on-open-educational-practi
ces-during-covid-19-pandemic/

7. European initiatives
Pan-European
Research Studies
2013,2015
European Research
program for open
education
European
Framework for the
Digital Competence
of Educators, 2017
Open Education
Europe Portal
"Rethinking
Education:
Investing in
skills for better
socio-economic
outcomes"
EPALE
Digital Europe
EC, 2012
Open Education
Communication,
EC, 2013
2021

9. Issues of OER in relation to open content and open practices
Beetham et al., 2012, p. 3 - Open Practices: a briefing paper
OER4Adults typology, mapping four example initiatives
Falconer et al., 2013, p. 16 - Overview and Analysis of Practices with OER in
AE in Europe

10. Recommendations for the advancement of OEP for adult learning in Europe
Recognise that ‘learning’ takes place everywhere
Extend the range of people and organisations who
produce and use resources
Think of OER more broadly than as content
Promote awareness of open licensing and its
implications
Improve the usability of OER and Plan for sustained change
RECOMM.
Falconer I, Mcgill L, Littlejohn A, Boursinou E, authors; Redecker, C., Castaño Muñoz, J., Punie, Y. (2013, Eds.). Overview and Analysis of Practices with Open Educational
Resources in Adult Education in Europe. JRC Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. doi:10.2791/34193

11. Conceptual framework for adult educators’ use and contribution of OER
● Attitudes (awareness of
OER, sharing, adoption
and use of OER etc.)
● Motivations: technology
and knowledge
● Quality (reusability,
trustworthiness, needs,
peer-review etc.)
● Barriers (institutional,
personal, technical, legal,
curricular and
pedagogical,
socio-cultural and
linguistic, economic)
Sanjaya Mishra, Promoting Use and Contribution of OER, 2019 (p.119)

12. Research plan
Specify
research
question
Develop
review
protocol
Identification
and selection
of relevant
studies
Writing review
report
Validating the
review
Phase 1. Plan review Phase 2. Conduct review Phase 3. Reporting review
Validate
review
protocol
Extraction of
required data
Information
Synthesis

13. Open education and
open practice that
support the integration
of OER in the teaching
and learning processes
of Adult Educators.
Level of
understanding of the
OER phenomenon and
OEP
The challenges ALPs
face while using OER
in the development
of a curriculum and
implementation in
the educational
process.
Methodology: Research question
How OERs/ OEPs are encountered by adult educators for didactic and
professional development purposes?

14. Scopus
(n=378)
ERIC
(n=1139)
Google Scholar (n=2920)
Methodology: Looking for data
("adult educator" OR "adult education professional" OR "adult learning professional" OR trainer*) AND ("Open
Educational Resources" OR "Open Educational Practices" OR MOOC* OR "Massive Open Online Courses)
Ebsco, Proquest
Taylor&Francis, Wiley, Elsevier
(Science Direct), SAGE etc.
NUS
(n=261)
Web of Science
(n=41)

15. Methodology: Mixed methods review
thematic map
keyword analysis
Descriptive analysis
(Scopus Analyzer)
frequencies and
percentages
close reading of
paper abstracts
1
2 3
4
Text mining
(Biblioshiny)
Mapping review
(VosViewer)
Content analysis
Grant et al.(2009) and Gough, Oliver & Thomas (2012)

16. Methodology: Overall research flow diagram
** The year 1998 is the year when David Wiley coined the term open content in 1998. OER was first used at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries.
From: Page MJ, McKenzie JE, Bossuyt PM, Boutron I, Hoffmann TC, Mulrow CD, et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 2021;372:n71. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n71.

17. Methodology: Research Steps
STEP 1
Quantitative
synthesis
STEP 2
Keywords analysis
STEP 3
Text mining (lexical
analysis) and qualitative
content analysis
STEP 4
Qualitative
synthesis

18. STEP 1
Quantitative
synthesis

19. STEP 2
Keywords analysis
MOOC (23), e-learning (16), technology (11), education (10), higher education (10), mobile learning (10), OER (10), online learning (9), blended learning (7), collaborative learning (6), distance
learning (6), learning (6), training (6), active learning (5), collaboration (5), distance education (5), educational technology (5), flipped classroom (5), innovation (5), instructional design (5),
learning analytics (5), technology enhanced learning (5), competencies (4)

20. STEP 2
Keywords analysis

21. STEP 2
Keywords analysis

22. STEP 2
The 5Rs
● Retain
● Reuse
● Revise
● Remix
● Redistribute
+
READ
REACHING
Wiley (2007); Halpem (2020)
https://oer4covid.oeru.org/

23. STEP 3
Thematic map
● centrality
corresponds to the
importance of the
theme in the entire
research field
● density depicts
the degree of the
theme’s
development

24. Methodology: Mapping research directions
Hood & LittleJohn, 2017; Prez-Foguet et al., 2018; Caro et al., 2019; Gravani, 2019; Watson, 2016; Ma, Ning; Xin,
Shuang; Du, Jia-Yuan, 2018; Zeehan F;Alias Ra;Tasir Z, 2020
Open education and open
practice that support the
integration of OER in the
teaching and learning
processes of AE.
Level of understanding
of the OER phenomenon
and OEP
The challenges ALPs face while
using OER in the development of a
curriculum and implementation in
the educational process.
lack of skills, teacher training, building skills and competences at all levels (policy makers to ALPs as learners), quality
of OER; building the knowledge and skills that enable effective embedding of OER – in curriculum design, in learning;
quality of training provisions; evaluation of OER initiatives; barriers.
OER and practices around OER as an object of enquiry; Community building for OER use; communities of practice;
capacity-building activity, professional development; benefits; research into practices around OER; self-regulative
knowledge; socio-cultural knowledge; needs.
types of knowledge supporting adult educators’ engagement with and learning from OER; workplace learning and
reflections; guidelines and pedagogic recommendations; OER content creation, management, dissemination, hosting.
Wang et al., 2013; Hood & LittleJohn, 2017; Nacu et al., 2016; Mabuan et al., 2018; Coughlan T;Perryman La, 2013;
Sharp La, 2018; Goshtasbpour F;Swinnerton B;Morris Np, 2019
Caro et al., 2019; Gravani, 2019; Apriani et al., 2021; Zeehan F;Alias Ra;Tasir Z, 2020; Baydas O;Yilmaz Rm, 2018;
Gitlin Ln; Hodgson N, 2016
STEP 4

25. ● field in continuous expansion
● studies reduced in number on this research topic
● dominates quantitative studies (8)
● reserved in formulating firm conclusions because it is a work in progress
● only used Scopus as the database, although our forays show that there is a
very large amount of gray-unexplored literature either in other databases
(WoS) or repositories (oerhub.net)
● didn’t capture all the reports published by specialized institutions (JRC,
UNESCO, OECD, etc.)
● most studies have the Anglo-Saxon space as an area;
● adult education as heterogeneous field of study - domination of research in
formal settings (universities).
Conclusions ...

26. Thank you for
your attention!
Simona Sava, Gabriela Grosseck and Laura Malita
West University of Timisoara, Romania
Corresponding author:
prof. dr. habil. Simona Sava, lidia.sava@e-uvt.ro