Whether in elementary, secondary or college classrooms, numerous educators have started utilizing open instructive assets (OER) as a necessary piece of everyday learning. In any case, pretty much as no two understudies are the same, nor are any two instructors.
The test with OER is that despite the fact that the idea of unreservedly available transparently authorized assets has been around since 2002, diverse states, locale, schools and educators have transitioned to utilizing them at various rates–or possibly not in the slightest degree. The edge is wide.
Numerous schools, work by using an educational module that comprises 90% of OER. Using customized figuring out how without limitations, many schools are pioneering in the innovative movement in training. While this and comparative organizations are settled and working successfully, not all schools are progressing at the same pace.
In a perfect world, when a teacher identifies a gap that a new resource could fill, the creation of a new resource could solve the problem. This is part of the core mission, but why are there still gaps? In a recent post by the Centre for Digital Education, it is recognized that many faculty members still don’t know about Open Education or OER. It’s as though these resources are spreading around the globe like an elongated version of the telephone game. So how do we as an educational community translate the message to the masses? The answer is simple–do what we do best: teach.
Professional development (PD) sessions are a solution to help educators all over the globe by meeting them where their current skills and expertise reside, and helping to carry them toward the next generation: 21st-century learning. Not only can well-structured PD help instructors with distinguishing OER from non-OER, but it can also develop their ability to create their own OER and the confidence to do so. We all know that OER allow educators to “remix, revise, reuse, redistribute and retain” content, but knowing how and when to do that unlocks the true potential for OER, in and outside of the classroom.
Professional development sessions can be delivered through many different forms of instruction, ranging from a very general training session, to fully online webinars, to hands-on collaborative efforts. But what is most effective? In an extensive handbook by Learning Forward, research suggests that online sessions are less effective than face-to-face sessions, because educators are limited to working and learning alone instead of being a crucial part of a collaborative effort that promotes each individual to learn from the experiences and ideas of others.
But the ability to scale the delivery of PD and allow for asynchronous access to the information secures a place for online content in OER PD programs. And as much as how, frequency also plays a substantial role in the success of a professional development effort. Multiple on-site workshop sessions, supported by online access to resources and follow-up activities, are the key to successfully developing the professionals responsible for implementing next-generation learning.
