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Ethical reviews of research plans function as a cornerstone of good research practice in order that no harm should come to participants. Ethical concerns have taken on a new salience in a digital world where data can be generated at scale. Big data research has grown rapidly, raising increased ethical concerns. Several intersecting areas of big data research exist within educational research, such as learning analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In the current study, an investigation was made of peer-reviewed papers on MOOC teaching and learning to determine if they explicitly refer to (a) ethical considerations in their studies, and (b) obtaining formal ethical approval for their research. This investigation was accomplished through a review of MOOC-related, English-language papers available in Scopus database, over the course of a year. The review produced a total of 1,249 articles, of which, 826 articles related to empirical studies involving human participants where full text of the articles could be obtained. The string “ethic” was searched for within these articles, and resulting articles analyzed, which found that a small fraction, 42 articles (5.08%), mention ethics in relation to the study presented in the article, and only 13 articles (1.57%) explicitly mention obtaining formal ethical approval for the research. The findings show a lack of transparency in reporting on and/or engagement with ethical considerations in MOOC teaching and learning research. These findings indicate the need for further stakeholder engagement and sectoral dialogue in relation to ethics education and training for researchers; consideration of ethics in big data studies in education; and norms/policies in academic publishing for authors to report how ethical issues have been considered

The aim of this report is to explore how stronger relationships between higher education and business can address barriers to mainstream adoption and development of innovative and sustainable models and policies for Open Educational Practices (OEP). In this report, we explore how educational institutions and business interests can work together to better leverage the potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the service of OEPs. The report provides an overview of existing literature and research in the field of OER and presents a series of business models and approaches to supporting the development of OER, as well as their policies and practices. The issue of sustainability and longevity of OER materials, content and communities is discussed and three case studies are presented to illustrate different business models for supporting capability development, knowledge exchange and Communities of Practice.

This case study describes the experiences of the #Openteach project team in developing a flexible and evidence-based approach to support professional learning for those who teach online. The project targeted online educators in particular. The rationale for this was Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is recognised as crucial to the upskilling of educators to enhance the student learning experience. However, teaching online requires different pedagogical approaches and staff require specific CPD opportunities relating to online learning in order to teach effectively in that context. The #Openteach project sought to address this gap by creating a flexible, online, open access course about teaching online that was grounded in evidence-based practice. The project had a number of phases, which included a needs analysis of online students and educators about effective online teaching, the publication of a literature review entitled Teaching Online is Different, and a pilot evaluation report. The #Openteach open course ran in March 2020 and focused on five key aspects of teaching online: social presence; facilitating discussion; collaboration online; live online teaching; and supporting online students. Following the first run, an evaluation study was conducted to explore and understand participants' learning experiences of the course. Our findings indicate that professional learning about online teaching should be situated online, and the experience of being an online student is invaluable for online educators as it facilitates empathy with students learning in online contexts. Time management and workload are major challenges for educators, therefore professional learning should allow for flexible engagement. Building confidence and reducing the fear of online teaching is an important aspect of professional learning related to online education. Developing understanding and knowledge of online pedagogy is an important element of professional learning about teaching online. Finally, confidence and competence with the tools and technologies for teaching online are important threshold digital competencies for online educators. The #Openteach project has had a significant impact on the professional learning of educators at a number of levels: at a local university level, at a national level; and at an international level.

In summary, this paper challenges the sector to go beyond altruism and endorses the view that “...policy will be the lever by which open practice can become sustainable and mainstream” (Weller, 2014, p.201). The ENCORE+ project seeks to give “voice” to more stakeholders to support the development of OER institutional strategies in both academia and business contexts in order to promote their mainstreaming and a strong European OER ecosystem.

his paper reports on the activities of a team in Dublin City University (DCU), composed of academic staff and library staff, who engaged in a collaborative project, Go Open, in 2020 and 2021 that encourages members of the DCU community to engage in open educational practices. The academic staff team members, from DCU’s Open Education Unit, have experience in providing online, flexible, open education/access programmes that include many examples of open educational practice, while the library staff have experience in advocating for engagement in open educational practice and open scholarship/science. The project goals were: to produce user-friendly resources that would give an introduction to open education generally and more specifically key types of open educational practice; to provide concrete examples of open educational practice to contextualise the educational problems for which such practices can provide a solution; and provide links to other sources of information on open education such as key websites and thought leaders so that those whose interest in open education is sparked by the resources are facilitated in taking their next step. These project goals align with the first action area of the UNESCO OER recommendation, that of building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER. The Go Open project developed both a guide, ‘Go Open: A beginners guide to open education’, and a LibGuide (https://dcu.libguides.com/GoOpen), both of which were launched at an event in April 2021 as part of the team’s ongoing project output dissemination and advocacy for open education practice. In the two weeks after the launch event the guide had 387 views and 178 downloads, while the libguide had 781 views. The Go Open Project was funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and DCU’s Teaching Enhancement Unit through the SATLE 19 fund.

In this book we aim to share the knowledge, resources and research generated by the #Openteach project. The aim of the project was to create an evidence-based and open professional learning approach to support educators to teach online. Teaching online is different, in this book we explore this difference with the aim of supporting educators to develop their online teaching practice and knowledge of online pedagogy. The Covid-19 Pandemic has been a game changer for online education, impacting 1.5 billion students worldwide and thrusting the majority of schooling and higher education online (Bozkurt and et al. 2020). Additionally, the pandemic has thrust most higher education staff into teaching online, the majority without previous experience of this mode of education (Bozkart et. al., 2020; Farrell, 2020) However, teaching online requires different pedagogical approaches to traditional lecturing, therefore institutions need to support educators transitioning into online teaching to ensure quality (Gurley, 2019). Effective online teaching supports student engagement and success, this is key as online students are more vulnerable to attrition (Coker, 2018; Woodley & Simpson 2014). This book aims to address this need for professional learning opportunities for educators to upskill in the area of online teaching practice and pedagogy. The intended audience for the book is any educator interested in learning more about effective practice for teaching online and online pedagogy.

In this short guide, we aim to give you a beginners guide to the area of open education, so that you can engage with open education practices in your teaching, research and support activities and to Go Open!

The aim of this evaluation report is to evaluate the pilot run of the #Openteach course in order to explore, understand and evaluate its impact on the professional learning experiences of the participants and to inform the iterative design process.

A unique characteristic of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has swept over the entire globe more or less at the same time. Millions of students and teachers have experienced a push to online learning in an attempt to slow down the spreading of the virus. Education technology providers seem to have benefitted from this sudden turn of events: the Internet is suddenly filled with providers offering their services and products as a solution to the situation (Teräs, Suoranta, Teräs & Curcher, forthcoming). The global trends of digitalization and datafication of education seem to have taken a leap forward, as the critical voices are being smothered by the necessity of the situation. Education technology now looks like a saviour of the entire education sector. However, the situation is far more complex, and the impact of the push to online is vastly different in different contexts. In this reflective piece, academics from five countries; Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Ireland, and Finland share their experience with the “pivot online” as the situation is still ongoing. The reflections reveal a complex set of challenges, consisting on one hand of questions of access, digital divide and equity, and on the other hand on pedagogy, academic practice and policy. In all five countries, the situation is likely to have a lasting impact on higher education. While we welcome this unique opportunity to develop educational policy and practice, we worry that the urgency of the situation may lead to hasty, techno-deterministic “panic mode” solutions (see also Teräs, Suoranta, Teräs & Curcher, forthcoming). This article is an attempt to look at the “pivot online” and the digitalization of education from a more critical and contextual perspective than the grand narrative of the prevailing “ed-tech speak” that has taken a boost from the COVID-19 situation.

How the ABC Learning Design Framework was used to design the #OpenTeach Professional Development course for Open Online Educators

This mixed-methods study reports on a continuing professional development intervention (CPD), called #OpenTeach, designed to upskill part-team online teachers. CPD is recognised as crucial to the upskilling of educators to enhance the student learning experience. However, an important gap exists in the provision of CPD for part-time and online teachers who rarely have the opportunity to avail of campus-based resources (Beaton & Gilbert, 2013). To address this gap we need to better harness the potential of more flexible models of online education. Geographically dispersed online teachers require opportunities to engage with new learning designs, new digital competencies and new ways of embedding digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment. Accordingly, the #OpenTeach intervention addresses this challenge through a highly targeted CPD programme for part-time online teachers. The core of the initiative involves the development a short open online course on online teaching best practice. This course will develop the digital and pedagogical competencies of the 90 DCU Connected online teachers locally and will be open to online educators globally. The #OpenTeach: Professional Development for Open Online Educators project is funded by the Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

This work arises from the #Openteach: Professional Development for Open Online Educators project, which is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The #Openteach project team are based in the Open Education Unit (OEU) at Dublin City University (DCU). Formally known as the National Distance Education Centre and subsequently Oscail, the OEU is a provider of online, off-campus programmes through the DCU Connected platform. Throughout the years the mode of delivery moved gradually from that of a traditional distance education provider to incorporate more elements of online learning. A significant step in this process came in 2011, with the introduction of synchronous live online tutorials and the electronic delivery of modules in a virtual learning environment (Delaney & Farren, 2016; Farrell & Seery, 2019). Following an open and online learning philosophy, the OEU aims to afford educational opportunities to students who have not managed to access more traditional entry routes into higher education. The main aim of the #Openteach project is to produce, and evaluate, evidence-based open professional development for part-time online educators. In an earlier phase of the project a synthesis of the relevant literature was completed in order to identify online educator roles and the associated competencies for effective online teaching. Concurrently, we conducted a needs analysis of the target population, online students and their online educators based in the OEU. This report contains the outcomes of this needs analysis and will be used, along with the literature synthesis, to guide the development of the professional development resources and course to be implemented in later stages of the project.

Teaching online is different. In this report we attempt to explain why. This report arises from the #Openteach: Professional Development for Open Online Educators project, which is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. In this project we plan to uncover and promote the keys to effective online teaching practice, while recognising that effective teaching is an art, craft and science. We aim to harness this knowledge to support the professional learning of online educators. Ultimately we want to support online students to learn online by helping and inspiring their educators. This report was developed to help lay a foundation for the project through a critical analysis of relevant literature.

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the transition experiences of refugees studying through open and online higher education. Online, open education programmes have considerable potential to provide flexible access to education for refugees, who are not well represented within higher education. As part of a wider University of Sanctuary initiative, interview data from six Ireland-based refugees was analysed using a data-led, qualitative methodological framework grounded in discursive psychology. Findings indicate that participants’ transition narratives are typical in many ways as they form student identities while managing their existing identities and begin to feel, or not, that they belong. Participants constructed a stark divide between two duelling identities, between their identity as a refugee and their new identity as an online learner. Identification with the university was emphasised in contrast to disidentification with the ‘asylum world’. These findings indicate that a strategically connected approach to supporting refugees transition into higher education can impact positively on these students.

Dublin City University (DCU) was granted the status of “University of Sanctuary” in December 2016. Fifteen scholarships were granted to refugees and asylum seekers; one provided by each of the five DCU faculties and the remaining ten provided by DCU’s online education platform, DCU Connected. This paper will report on the journey undertaken by a team within DCU’s National Institute for Digital Learning as they put in place the framework needed to support these scholars and the related research study which explores the nature of the transition experiences of University of Sanctuary Scholars to online distance learning. A longitudinal qualitative study is designed to seek a greater understanding of these learners’ experiences in the early stages of the study lifecycle, and of how their transition into higher education can be facilitated to enhance student success. The data collection technique is semi-structured online interviews conducted annually, and the first round of interviews has recently been conducted. The data-led analytical approach for this study is Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis. The next phase of the research project involves the analysis of the first phase of interview data and the generation of preliminary findings.

This practice report discusses the development of the Head Start Online MOOC. This initiative targeted flexible learners, defined as adults engaged in part-time or online distance learning, during the initial stages of the study life-cycle. Drawing on the literature, the experiences of major international Online and Distance Learning (ODL) providers, and a set of overarching design principles, the MOOC (Massive open online course) was developed with a suite of digital readiness tools at its heart. These tools were combined with other supporting materials in order to deliver a comprehensive pre-entry socialisation course. A small pilot of Head Start Online ran over five weeks with 150 people enrolled and 50 going on to receive a certificate of completion. The feedback received, albeit limited by the numbers of respondents, indicates that a course that strategically uses digital readiness tools can have a positive impact on new and prospective flexible learners.

This paper describes an ongoing initiative to enhance learner digital literacies by fostering historical thinking using digitized primary sources. Engaging with primary sources is central to the development of authentic critical historical thinking. In the past thirty years, millions of primary sources have been digitized by libraries and archives and has created a wealth of rich content for historians and history students. However the sheer scale of sources material, websites and questions about source quality make it a challenging research environment for learners. Based on current tutor and student feedback, additional support material that could increase access to these valuable open educational resources would be well received. The initiative is creating a set of learning materials which will support the use of online primary sources and enhance the learner experience. These learning materials will support flexible/off-campus learners and their development of research skills in the six BA in Humanities (Open Education) history modules. The learning materials are comprised of:  An interactive guide to online primary sources  An accompanying social bookmarking web page- Diigo  An online tutorial to practise finding, evaluating and using online primary sources

Oscail, Distance Education, Dublin City University is at the forefront, like many other distance education providers, in its commitment to adopting new technologies to improve the teaching and learning experience of their students (Cakir and Basak, 2004). Social interaction has been found to contribute positively to knowledge construction, higher order learning (Vygotsky, 1975 ed), achievement (Hrastinski, 2009) and successful completion (Rosenberg 2001, Salmon 2000). Advances in technology have facilitated an enhanced teaching and learning experience for distance education together with the opportunity for social interaction, an aspect often missing from traditional distance education. Following an evaluation of several web conferencing tools, Dublin City University opted to adopt Wimba Classroom to provide live, virtual tutorials. In 2010/2011, Wimba was piloted in the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree programme and the outcomes of this project were reported at the 2011 EADTU conference. Following the positive outcome of the pilot project, synchronous online tutorials were introduced to all Oscail programmes in 2011/2012. The use of Wimba was extended to include webinars, student presentations and student feedback sessions and to provide students with the opportunity to engage in social interaction and knowledge construction. This paper will reflect on the subsequent student and tutor experience of teaching and learning within Wimba. It will evaluate if the findings of the pilot project translated to the larger provision of online tutorials.

This paper reports on a pilot project that investigated the potential for providing synchronous web-based tutorial support for distance education students, and the evaluation of that pilot project. A key challenge for distance education providers is the provision of quality academic support to all students regardless of location. The proven, positive link between attendance at tutorials and academic achievement highlights this aspect of academic support as crucial to distance education student success. In response to student difficulties in attending tutorials and diminishing numbers of tutorial centres, it has become increasingly important to investigate alternative methods of providing tutorial support to distance education students. Following an evaluation of a number of web-based conferencing software, Dublin City University opted to use Wimba Classroom in providing live, virtual classrooms to students. The pilot project involved the adaption of the existing, synchronous, face-to-face tutorial support system, provided to distance education students on the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSc in IT) degree programme from Oscail – DCU Distance Education, such that students attended live, virtual classrooms instead. A particular focus of this paper is the “Enterprise and Emerging Technologies” module of the BSc in IT programme which was specifically redesigned and rewritten for this pilot project. The most successful feature of this software was the archived versions of the live tutorials with 83% of students accessing the archives. The results of this project will have a significant impact on the future delivery of tutorial support, course delivery and assessment in Oscail – DCU Distance Education.