Carnegie Mellon University
The OER Effectiveness Cycle

Principal Investigators: Candace Thille and Jim Greeno.

This project seeks to establish a framework for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of Open Educational Resources (OER) in supporting improved teaching and learning in various contexts. Working with OER producers and users from the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC) and other OER projects as participatory researchers, we will move several representative OER through the OER effectiveness cycle as the OER travels to a new context.

We will organize a network of OER producers and adapter/users, who will develop and use evaluation methods, document the evaluation methods, the data analysis and design practices, and the results of the evaluation showing the mechanisms through which the OER supports improved teaching and learning and the conditions and resources that can support effective travel. In at least one case, we will conduct an intensive case study, as an example of organizational learning. In the study we will work with an OER producer and with faculty at an institution that adopts the OER, studying the adopting faculty’s discussions and decisions in which they adapt, amend, and utilize the materials that the OER provide. Goals of this research (both the producer/user network and the case study or studies) include gaining information that can guide the design of resources that can be provided to assist adopters of OER in successfully adapting OER for their local use.

The OER producers/users involved in this project receive fellowships to support their participation.

Outcomes on the specific OER level:
1. Data on the effectiveness of the specific OER in supporting improved teaching and learning.
2. Data on the conditions and resources that can support effective travel of the OER.
3. Capacity building in the areas of evaluation and design for the specific OER producers and users.

On the network level:
1. A framework of progressive refinement for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of OER in supporting improvement in teaching and learning.
2. Contribution to OLnet’s collection of evaluation methods, data analysis tools and design practices.
3. Contribution to OLnet’s evaluation data collection, including an example of a network that provides infrastructure for producers and users of OER to interact and benefit from each others’ experience and learning in adapting OER in local programs and practices.