Presentation by Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams for the Open University, 19 July 2018

1. Open research ambitions, successes and
recommendations: The ROER4D story
Masters in Online and Distance Learning (H819)
Guest presenter:
Associate Professor Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
University of Cape Town
19 July 2018
https://www.slideshare.net/ROER4D

2. Overview
• Part 1: The ROER4D project
• Part 2: Open research ambitions
• Part 3: Open research successes
• Part 4: Open research challenges
• Part 5: Open research recommendations

3. THE ROER4D PROJECT
Part 1

4. Key challenges facing education in developing
countries
Growing numbers of students in
the education sector
Education institutions, funders and
students under financial pressure
Limited and/or variable quality
teaching and learning resources
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APCoE_students_at_AICTE_Regional_Office_in_Mumbai.jpg
Employability of graduates

5. OER for developing countries/emerging economies/
low income countries/Global South
Claims made about the potential of
Open Educational Resources (OER) to
address key challenges in developing
countries to:
• increase access to higher education
• contain or reduce costs
• enhance quality, currency &
relevance
BUT, most of the research on OER
adoption and impact has been
undertaken in the “Global North”

6. ROER4D following in the footsteps
of OER Asia
Prof Raj Dhanarajan from the OER
Asia project, was requested by the
International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada
to assemble a group to plan an
OER research project in South
America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and
South and South East Asia

7. ROER4D Objectives
1. Build an empirical knowledge base on the use and impact of
OER in education
2. Develop the capacity of OER researchers
3. Build a network of OER scholars
4. Curate and communicate research to inform education policy
and practice

8. Funding: International Development Research Centre,
Open Society Foundation & UK’s Department
for International Development
• 3 year project (27 Aug 2013 - 27
Aug 2016 with an extension to Dec
2017)
• CAD 2.4 million
• 3 Regions
– South America
– Sub-Saharan Africa
– South East Asia
• 18 projects in 7 clusters
IDRC
OSF DFID

9. Overview of the ROER4D projects
7 Project Clusters
ROER4D
Network hub
OER
Desktop
overview
Survey of OER adoption
by academics & students
Academics’ adoption
of OER
Teacher educators’
adoption of OER
OER adoption in one
country
OER impact
studies
Baseline educational
expenditure

10. ROER4D Map of research

11. ROER4D website
http://roer4d.org/

12. Thoughts or questions?

13. OPEN RESEARCH AMBITIONS
Part 2

14. Open Research
ROER4D intentions to share
Concepts &
Conceptual
Framework/s
Methods
Instrument
questions
Open Data
Analysis tools
Findings
Proposal
Literature
Review
Research
process
OER Asia
New
Project

15. Contract
• If you intend to share research documents
and data openly ensure that this is in the
research contract or research proposal.

16. Communication Plan
Walji (2018: 10)

17. Hodgkinson-Williams (2014, Slide 13)

18. Thoughts or questions?

19. OPEN RESEARCH SUCCESSES
Part 3

20. Research capacity building

21. Research capacity building
Hodgkinson-Williams (2014, Slide 16)

22. Knowledge building: Edited volume
16-chapter edited
volume available:
• Online (open access)
from ROER4D website
• Print copy in South
Africa – African Minds
• Print copy
internationally –
Amazon

23. Knowledge building:
Translated chapters

24. Knowledge building:
Project Activity Toolkit
Meta-synthesis conceptual & analytical
frameworks
ROER4D (2018a: 5)

25. Knowledge building:
Project Activity Toolkit
Meta-synthesis conceptual & analytical
frameworks
ROER4D (2018a: 10)

26. Knowledge building:
Project Activity Toolkit
Meta-synthesis methodology
ROER4D (2018b: 1)

27. Knowledge building:
Project Activity Toolkit
• Shared bibliography across all projects

28. Thoughts or questions?

29. Curation: Open data

30. Curation: Open data

31. Curation: Open data

32. Communication: SlideShare

33. Communication: Twitter

34. Communication: Blogs

35. Thoughts or questions?

36. OPEN RESEARCH CHALLENGES
Part 4

37. Wording in consent forms: Potential
barrier to open research
• “I am aware that an archive of the raw data
collected during the study will be retained
for two years in a locked cabinet in the
investigator¹s office to which only the principal
researcher associated with this project will
have access.”
• “All data collected will be kept confidentially
and used only for research purposes. … This
data will be reported only in aggregate form.”

38. De-identifying data: Potentially time-
consuming process
Willmers & King (2018:15)

39. OPEN RESEARCH
RECOMMENDATIONS
Part 5

40. Open research recommendations
Have a vision even you don’t have all
the details, so start as you intend to
finish

41. Open research recommendations
Ensure that funder contracts include
open licensing

42. Open research recommendations
Ensure that consent forms allow for
re-use of open data

43. Open research recommendations
Learn how to de-identify data and
save in commonly used formats

44. Open research recommendations
Think about where your open
documents and data will be curated

45. Open research recommendations
Imagine which audience would really
want to read, copy, adapt your
documents and re-use your data

46. Open research recommendations
Think about how to communicate
your research to this audience

47. Thoughts or questions?

48. References
• Hodgkinson-Williams, C. (2014). Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) in
the Global South: Learning to research OER openly. Presentation at OpenEd 2014 Conference, 19-21
November 2014. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/ROER4D/research-on-
open-educational-resources-for-development-roer4d-in-the-global-south-learning-to-research-oer-
openly
• Hodgkinson-Williams, C. & Arinto, P. B. (2017). Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South. Cape
Town & Ottawa: African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open
Educational Resources. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1005330 Retrieved from:
http://www.africanminds.co.za/dd-product/adoption-and-impact-of-oer-in-the-global-south/
• ROER4D (Research on Open Educational Resources for Development). (2018a). ROER4D open research
toolkit: Meta-synthesis conceptual and analytical frameworks. Cape Town: Research on Open
Educational Resources for Development. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1217423
• ROER4D (Research on Open Educational Resources for Development). (2018b). ROER4D open research
toolkit: Meta-synthesis methodology. Cape Town: Research on Open Educational Resources for
Development. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1217420
• ROER4D (Research on Open Educational Resources for Development). (2018). ROER4D open research
toolkit: Bibliography. Cape Town: Research on Open Educational Resources for Development. Retrieved
from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1217231
• Walji, S. (2018). ROER4D project activity toolkit: Communications. Cape Town: Research on Open
Educational Resources for Development. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1221329
• Willmers, M. & King, T. (2018). ROER4D project activity toolkit: Curation and dissemination. Cape Town:
Research on Open Educational Resources for Development. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1221327

49. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
Website: www.roer4d.org
Contact author:
cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za
Follow us: http://twitter.com/roer4D
Presentations: www.slideshare.com/roer4D
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