A readiness gap for Opening Up education by OER and MOOCs at the University?

Abstract

Developments in Information and Communication Technologies are not always paralleled by an equivalent number of transformations in higher education institutions. Indeed it seems that Open Educational Resources have missed the objective of transformation in spite of the potential of Open Learning to transform education. This paper reports on a part of some qualitative research carried out at the University of Parma, a case study involving teachers from UniPR Co-Lab Research Centre who share the values of being alert to innovation and aware of the importance of Technology Enhanced Learning in the academic pedagogical landscape; it examines whether educators are ready and willing to adopt open approaches in both a pedagogical and technological perspective and whether they have the necessary competences to do so. The aim was to explore the perceptions of University teachers who might become involved in the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and the organization of MOOCs.