Open Research course logo (CC-BY 4.0 OER Research Hub)

It’s now been a couple of weeks since we formally ended our four-week Open Research course on P2PU … And what a month it was! We had 139 people sign up to the course, which looked at the theory and practice of open research, how you can be ethical and open, how to disseminate in the open and open reflection. You can view the course materials here.

From the very first discussions about the course last fall with Jane Park at Creative Commons to the team brainstorming the course early in 2014, spending several months co-authoring the course and developing assets, going through School of Open’s community review, getting the course up on the P2PU platform, creating our badge, and running the course itself, it’s been a fascinating and rewarding process. Collaboration was central to building the course and as an earlier blog post shows continuous evaluation and input was essential to make Open Research possible.

As a team we’re still reflecting on the experience of creating and running the course, but would like to thank everyone who contributed, commented, reviewed materials and participated. The range of course participants, from all over the world and with all kinds of backgrounds and interests in open research, who joined us on the Hangouts and commented in the forums or used the course Twitter hashtag (#openresearch) was quite amazing and it was a privilege to work with so many people who were keen to share their ideas and experiences during the course.

We look forward to building on the success of this first iteration of Open Research, while also looking at where we can improve the material and course design. A post-course survey, forum comments and blog posts by participants as well as the team’s reflections will all feed into this review process. In addition, if you did not participate in the course but have suggestions or feedback, we would welcome your thoughts via this Hackpad. A second facilitated version of the course is planned for early 2015 and a stand-alone version will also be made available.

Thanks again to everyone who made the course possible!

The award-winning, Hewlett Foundation-funded OER Research Hub based at The Open University (UK) is pleased to announce its very own School of Open course in collaboration with the Peer 2 Peer University and Creative Commons. It opens for sign-up today at https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2377/open-research/.

Over six months in the making and peer-reviewed by the community, this new School of Open course offers the opportunity to explore the concept and practices of open research with participants from around the world. The course has been designed for any researcher who has an interest in utilizing open techniques and practices in their own research.

Join researchers Bea de los Arcos, Rob Farrow, Beck Pitt, and project manager Natalie Eggleston for this four-week course that explores what open research is and the issues involved around it, including: ethics, dissemination, reflection, and evaluation. The course starts Monday, 15 September 2014 and features its very own “Open Research” badge for course completion and participation.

Sign up for the course here

To sign up, simply click the “Start Course” button on the lower left of the course page once you have signed into or registered for a p2pu.org account. Sign-up will remain open through Friday, 12 September.

About the OER Research Hub

The OER Research Hub is an international open research project examining the impact of open educational resources (OER) on learning and teaching practices. It works collaboratively with initiatives, projects and organisations around the world, disseminating its research and curating evidence for the impact of OER on its Impact Map.

“The research is being carried out by The Open University (UK) in collaboration with School of Open, and is funded by the Hewlett Foundation in order to support future excellence in open education. Your answers will help us build a picture of how people across the world use online resources for learning and teaching. Our research data will help people around the world make more informed decisions about online teaching and learning. The results of this questionnaire will also be used to help improve future School of Open courses.“

The survey is also linked at the end of every stand-alone course so you will be reminded to take it when you complete one of the courses. The survey will remain open through the end of August.