Is UniPR ready for Open Education and… MOOP?
Abstract
Open
education ,
fostered
by
developments
in
ICT
over
the
last
three
decades,
is
recognized
to
be
a
potentially
transforming
factor ,
but
has
not
led
to
the
expected
deep
revolution
in
teaching
practices
in
many
Universities .
In
spite
of
Open
Educational
Resources
(OER)
being
available
online,
and
of
the
Massive
Open
Online
Courses
phenomenon
currently
receiving
a
great
deal
of
attention ,
not
much
evidence
is
available,
in
academic
inst itutions
in
Italy,
of
invest igation
into
the
perceptions
of
those ,
the
teachers,
who
could
transform
opportunities
into
practice .
The
purpose
of
this
study
was
to
explore
teachers’
perceptions
about
their
readiness,
in
a
pedagogical
and
technological
perspective,
to
open
up
education
by
OER,
adopting
Open
Educational
Practices
and
teaching
in
MOOCs,
in
a
view
to
enhancing
students’
learning ,
and
abou t
them
having
the
necessary
competences.
The
research
consists
in
a
qualitative
case
study
conducted
at
the
Research
Cent re
UniPR
Co-‐Lab
of
the
University
of
Parma;
data
were
collected
through
semi-‐structured
interviews
and
documents
analysis ,
and
constant
comparative
analysis
was
employed.
Four
main
categories
matching
the
research
objectives
were
identified
and
discussed:
open
approach
—
rather
than
open
content
for
learning
enhancement;
readiness
gap
to
open
up
education
in
a
pedagogical
and
technological
perspective;
teacher’ s
strategy
and
perceived
role
in
relation
to learning
enhancement
by
open
approaches;
perceived
challenges
and
opportunities
to
foster
open
approaches.
The
research
shows
that
open
practices
by
OER
and
MOOCs
are
not
realized:
in
spite
of
teachers
showing
a
potentially
open
approach
to
learning,
knowledge
and
competence
gaps
are
perceived
under
the
technological
and
most
of
all
the
pedagogica l
points
of
view,
together
with
specific
needs
for
strategies
and
for
a
re-‐designed
support.
The
study
offers
methodological
implications
and
recommendations
for an
integrated
way
to
face
the
readiness
gap
and
raises
new
questions
as
a
starting
point
for
further
research.
Description
Joint Master Degree in Digital Library Learning (DILL)