The Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) is a government-funded educational institution that provides study opportunities to adults and out-of-school youth. NAMCOL has adopted the Notesmaster platform as a learning portal for its secondary education programme. This study aims to share the NAMCOL experience, in using Notesmaster as a…

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) have gained more prominence in education of late; however, the question of their theoretically sound implementation remains relatively understudied. The current article addresses this gap through the explanation of how a MUVE platform Second Life was used in an undergraduate course for pre-service teachers.…

The factors affecting the adoption of open educational resources (OER) in higher education have become a research topic of great interest as OER continue to be widely used in universities, affecting the quality of teaching and learning. The reasons for OER adoption are diverse, across both individual educators and cultural environments. This study…

Will open education replace traditional higher education, or augment it? Digital innovation in the higher education sector is fuelling speculation about the transformation of higher education and the future role of universities. Much of the speculation makes questionable implicit assumptions about current and future business models in the higher…

Curriculum based on open educational resources (OER) -- materials that are free for educators and students to use, customize, and share -- represent a small portion of all K-12 recent adoptions, at slightly over 5%. OER are concentrated in Mathematics, where 14% of adoption decisions were OER (compared to 4% for English Language Arts, 2% for…

Open Education (OE), a generic term for a collection of practices that seek to broaden the access to education through digital means, has gained increasing traction and popularity over the last years and from various corners, both globally and in European circles. Rather than taking the technologies OE makes use of at face value, this article…

This study examines the practice of adaptation and translation (localisation) of Open Educational Resources (OER). It employs a sociocultural perspective to focus on the experiences of practitioners (localisers) who undertook the localisation of a suite of 125 OER created as part of a teacher professional development programme in India. This…

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Skills is a web-based assessment system published by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The test publishers purport that MAP Skills provides information about essential K-8 building blocks in Language Usage, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Vocabulary to quickly assess student progress toward…

The purpose of this study was to examine how faculty in the department of Curriculum and Instruction at one university perceived the usefulness of a website which contained ELL (English language learner) teaching resources (e.g., videos, lesson plans, handouts) created by graduate students. The website was created as part of a graduate level…

There is an increasing focus within Higher Education on the wider student experience. Student engagement and a well-developed community are associated with greater levels of retention, student satisfaction and success. Whilst creating opportunities for students to engage with each other and staff may be easier in a face-to-face environment, the…

Institutions in many jurisdictions are in the process of implementing Open Educational Resources (OER). This short paper is based on a report commissioned by Contact North/Contact Nord as part of their Pockets of Innovation series to better understand the impact of OER implementations at diverse institutions. The investigation looks into 13…

The use of computers as a pedagogical resource is currently on the rise. In the case of immunology, students present difficulties in visualizing molecular phenomena. Thus the use of animations and simulations available on the internet might facilitate the learning of complex immunological concepts. In this context, it is important to map and…

Dramatic change in learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the significance of virtual learning and led to more interactive learning environments. Quick adoption of online and social interactive learning in many universities around the world raised challenges and emphasized the importance of investigating different learning…

The report analyses major and recent national policies and initiatives aiming to support the enhancement of learning and teaching in 30 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). In a context where learning and teaching has gained increased attention in the EHEA and the Bologna Process, and at the same time higher education…

To guide designers developing open education resources for adults preparing for a high school equivalency exam, we developed six authentic personas that represented adults without high school diplomas. Our goal was to assist open education resources designers to develop empathy toward their learners and place themselves in their learners' shoes.…