This paper shares analytical insights on the position, challenges and potential for promoting Open Educational Resources (OER) in African Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) institutions. The researchers sought to use a participatory research approach as described by Krishnaswamy (2004), in convening a sequence of two workshops at the Open…

Substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercially-produced textbooks results in demonstrable cost savings for students in most higher education institutions. Yet OER are still not widely used, and progress toward large-scale adoption in most colleges and universities has been slow. This article reviews the literature informing…

Awarding badges to recognise achievement is not a new development. Digital badging now offers new ways to recognise learning and motivate learners, providing evidence of skills and achievements in a variety of formal and informal settings. Badged open courses (BOCs) were piloted in various forms by the Open University (OU) in 2013 to provide a…

This study aimed to investigate and classify faculty members' instructional priorities for adopting OER. In-depth interview data were collected from 10 faculty members from different regions and analyzed with NVivo 10. The original supposition was that the well-established instructional priorities, effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal would…

The success of a distance education program can be evaluated according to student satisfaction, aside from comprehensive examinations, projects and presentations. The purpose of this research study is to determine both the relationship between e-course satisfaction and online learning readiness by ascertaining student levels, and the effect of the…

In a 2009 "Computers and Composition" article, I examined how the terms multimedia and multimodal were used in academic and industry situations. This webtext extends that argument to investigate the ways in which a variety of other terms, including digital media and new media, are defined by scholars in the fields of computers and composition and…

The IMPOER project (implementation of open educational resources, OER) aimed to implement OER in a nursing programme at Dalarna University, Sweden. The university and its nursing programme have long engaged in e-learning, and the nursing programme has recently been awarded the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities E-xcellence…

Although a number of claims have been made describing massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a disruptive innovation in education, these claims have not yet been proven through research. Instead, MOOCs should perhaps be considered as an integrative model for higher education systems, but to do so will require recognition of credentials. Initial…

Scholars are increasingly being asked to share teaching materials, publish in open access journals, network in social media, and reuse open educational resources (OER). The theoretical benefits of Open Educational Practices (OEP) have become understood in the academic community but thus far, the use of OER has not been rapidly adopted. We aim to…

This research investigates the current awareness of, and participation in, the open content movement at one UK institution for higher education. The open content movement and the open educational resources can be seen as potential methods for reducing time and cost of technology-enhanced learning developments; however, its sustainability and, to…

Digital storytelling constitutes a pedagogical tool for teachers to work on different linguistic skills while generating students' interest and attention. This study analyses the usefulness of including digital storytelling within a didactic sequence in order to work on linguistic routines such as greetings and leave-takings in English as a…

The open educational resource (OER) movement has the potential to have a truly transformative effect on higher education, but in order to do so it must move into the mainstream and facilitate widespread participation in the sharing or creating of resources and in their reuse. To help in this process, experience can be gained from projects and…

Designing Problem-Driven Instruction with Online Social Media has the capacity to transform an educator's teaching style by presenting innovative ways to empower problem-based instruction with online social media. Knowing that not all instructors are comfortable in this area, this book provides clear, systematic design approaches for instructors…

Members of the NAEYC Technology and Young Children Interest Forum look at technology use in a classroom at a university demonstration preschool/kindergarten. This example illustrates the integration of a variety of current and emerging technologies into a project-based curriculum.

The ability to self-reflect is widely recognized as a desirable learner attribute that can induce deep learning. Advances in computer-mediated communication technologies have led to intense interest in higher education in exploring the potential of digital tools, particularly digital video, for fostering self-reflection. While there are reports…