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Something for everyone? The different approaches of academic disciplines to Open Educational Resources and the impact on widening participation
ARTICLE

, Support Centre for Open Resources in Education (SCORE), The Open University ; , Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET), The Open University

Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning Volume 15, Number 2, ISSN 1179-7665 e-ISSN 1179-7665 Publisher: Distance Education Association of New Zealand

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Abstract

This article explores the relationship between academic disciplines’ representation in the United Kingdom Open University’s (OU) OpenLearn open educational resources (OER) repository and in the OU’s fee-paying curriculum. Becher’s (1989) typology was used to subdivide the OpenLearn and OU fee-paying curriculum content into four disciplinary categories: Hard Pure (e.g., Science), Hard Applied (e.g., Technology), Soft Pure (e.g., Arts) and Soft Applied (e.g., Education). It was found that while Hard Pure and Hard Applied disciplines enjoy an increased share of the OER curriculum, Soft Applied disciplines are under-represented as OER. Possible reasons for this disparity are proposed and Becher’s typology is adapted to be more appropriate to 21st-century higher education.

Citation

Coughlan, T. & Perryman, L.A. (2011). Something for everyone? The different approaches of academic disciplines to Open Educational Resources and the impact on widening participation. Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning, 15(2), 11-27. Distance Education Association of New Zealand. Retrieved August 11, 2024 from .

This record was imported from the Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning on June 27, 2014. [Original Record]

The Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning is a publication of New Zealand Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (DEANZ).

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