Cloud Classroom Boost Online Learning and Educational Resources Sharing

Author(s):  
YaXing Yuan
2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Geith ◽  
Karen Vignare

One of the key concepts in the right to education is access: access to the means to fully develop as human beings as well as access to the means to gain skills, knowledge and credentials. This is an important perspective through which to examine the solutions to access enabled by Open Educational Resources (OER) and online learning. The authors compare and contrast OER and online learning and their potential for addressing human rights “to” and “in” education. The authors examine OER and online learning growth and financial sustainability and discuss potential scenarios to address the global education gap.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Shironica Karunanayaka ◽  
Chandana Fernando ◽  
Vajira de Silva

The concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) is a major breakthrough in education, which promotes sharing, adaptation and contextualisation of course content. Promotion of using OER can be very cost effective, since development of new course content would be both expensive and time consuming. However, awareness raising and capacity building of teachers and learners is crucial, in order to exploit the full potential of OER.The Faculty of Education at the Open University of Sri Lanka, initiated a research project to create an Online Learning Environment (OLE) on OER for science education, witha view to raise awareness, develop competencies and enhance adapting, adoption and creation of OER by teachers. This is developed in Moodle Learning Management System, as a supplementary material for science teachers enrolled in a distance mode professional development programme. The research team, together with a group of science teachers and teacher educators, who are their students, is engaged in this action research conducted in several stages: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. This paper discusses the first three stages, concerning the following objectives: to identify sources of OER for science education, to make key design decisions of the OLE, and to design and develop the OLE on OER for science education.The analysis of need, learner, task and context, resulted in making decisions on information, instruction, interaction and interface design. Some initial design decisions are: Structuring of information on finding, using and creating OER related to teaching science, while making it relevant and meaningful for teachers; Use of exploratory instructional strategies enabling teachers to select OER; Incorporate frequent interactions encouraging teachers to adopt, adapt, create and share OER; and Use of different media elements to make the visual layout motivating. A prototype will be pilot tested with science teachers with a view to revise and improve the OLE on OER. Allowing student teachers/teacher educators to work collaboratively with their instructors, as a team, enable both parties to face challenges together, in this novel experience of designing and developing an OLE on OER.


2020 ◽  
pp. 084653712095390
Author(s):  
Yuhao Wu ◽  
Christina Theoret ◽  
Brent Edward Burbridge

Objectives: Exposure to radiology in undergraduate medical education is often restricted by other curriculum demands. Designing an effective radiology elective for medical students who choose to supplement their education can be challenging as it is often a passive observership-style elective. In this study, we examined the impact of incorporating an online learning platform and electronic book into radiology electives to stimulate active learning. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 23 students who pursued a 2-week diagnostic radiology elective at our institution. Their radiology knowledge prior to the elective was assessed using 2 pretests. Students had opportunities to work with radiologists to review clinical imaging, attend academic rounds, and learn from the online learning resources. Their knowledge after the elective was assessed by readministering the 2 tests as “posttests.” Students also ranked their perception of the elective experience and educational resources on a Likert scale from 1 to 5. Results: There were statistically significant increases of 13.4% ( P < .0001) in mean test 1 scores and 6.8% in mean test 2 scores ( P = .001). Students also had favorable perceptions of the radiology elective experience and rated the electronic book (median score: 5 of 5) and online learning platform (4.5 of 5) as valuable educational resources. Conclusion: The implementation of an electronic book and online learning platform improved knowledge in radiology and resulted in positive student perceptions of the elective experience. This supports the use of online resources to facilitate independent self-learning for future radiology electives.


2018 ◽  
Vol 325 ◽  
pp. 227-234
Author(s):  
Tatiana Chiriac

The purpose of this study is to analyze the phenomenon of openness in higher education and its trends and technologies of expanding educational opportunities in the digital information society of Moldovan universities. The main concepts of openness in education are associated with the practice of online learning and constructivist approaches, technical optimization of delivering information, continuous professional development and globalization of higher education. Since skilled knowledge becomes the main value of the market, then higher education perspective as a tool of knowledge reproduction is transformed into the basic space of openness and accommodation to innovative use of educational resources. The key issues related to openness in order to impact higher education target the development of Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as implication of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), relatively new online learning trend. There are institutional practices of the adoption and use of open education technologies in some international universities and organizations, which could be extended as well to create an open learning system in the Republic of Moldova, focusing on national practices of education. Openness of Moldovan HEIs is a strategic choice for the future in a rapidly changing educational market that should proliferate.


in education ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
George Siemens ◽  
Kathleen Matheos

A power shift is occurring in higher education, driven by two trends: (a) the increased freedom of learners to access, create, and re-create content; and (b) the opportunity for learners to interact with each other outside of a mediating agent. Information access and dialogue, previously under control of the educator, can now be readily fulfilled by learners. When the essential mandate of universities is buffeted by global, social/political, technological, and educational change pressures, questions about the future of universities become prominent. The integrated university faces numerous challenges, including a decoupling of research and teaching functions. Do we still need physical classrooms? Are courses effective when information is fluid across disciplines and subject to continual changes? What value does a university provide society when educational resources and processes are open and transparent?Keywords: higher education; freedom of learners; open access; online learning


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Pallitt

This is a collection of Open educational resources (OERs) designed to support the Online Learning Programme at Rhodes University. <div><br></div><div>Open educational resources (<b>OER</b>) are freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes.<br></div>


Author(s):  
Chia-Wen Tsai ◽  
Pei-Di Shen

More and more educational institutions are using educational technologies and online learning materials to help students achieve satisfactory learning effects. However, not all teachers are able to prepare and design digital learning materials for students. This research attempted to empirically demonstrate the effects of applying open educational resources (OERs) and a cloud classroom developed by Ming Chuan University, which comprises access to related software and online learning materials, to enhance students’ computer skills and also improve their scores on certification examinations. The researchers conducted an experiment that included 114 undergraduates from two class sections – the first section received OERs in a cloud classroom in addition to their traditional classroom instruction (OER group, n=61), and the other learned in the traditional classroom without OERs (non-OER group, n=53). The results show that students who received OERs had significantly higher grades than those without in the PowerPoint module; however, the difference is not statistically significant in the Excel module. The authors further discuss the implications and unexpected results in this paper.


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