利用开放教育资源推进终身学习

The Advancement of Lifelong Learning through Open Educational Resources in an Open and Flexible (self)Learning Context

2001年,麻省理工学院(MIT)启动了"开放课件"(OCW)计划。这是一项耗时多年、规模浩大的工程。该项目依托互联网,旨在免费提供麻省理工学院全部的电子课程材料。休利特基金会(the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)慷慨解囊资助了目前几乎所有的开放课件计划和项目,已成为开放教育资源运动中的决定性因素。另一个具有决定性的因素就是联合国教科文组织(UNESCO),是它敏锐意识到了开放教育资源的重大意义,尤其是对发展中国家而言,所以成功推动了开放教育资源运动的发展。2006年,由休利特基金会资助的欧洲开放教育资源三大计划掀起了开放教育资源运动的新浪潮。互联网上免费提供专为自主学习设计的优质学习材料,而非大学教师的传统教学材料,体现了开放教育资源的额外附加值。本文阐述了欧洲三大计划及其特征,这些计划都是以开放和灵活的方式推进终身学习,也是达成里斯本战略目标中关于提高劳动力教育水平的必要条件。三大计划的另一个有待探讨的问题是,开放教育资源这一革命性的运动改变了潜在的商业和市场模式,但是开放教育资源的可持续性发展问题却成了人们的关注点。同时,这三个项目的一些具体特征也受到了特别的关注:英国的计划课程规模相对较大,过程中的基础和重点放在技术、非正规协作学习、社区的研究和评价方面;荷兰的计划致力于正规和非正规学习的衔接、国家有关政府额外拨款资助的政策,及相应的效果测量;欧洲远程教育大学协会的计划则针对提升欧洲高等教育普及率、促进多种语言和文化多样性的发展,以及各个国家教育体系在互相承认方面应采取的共同措施。总之,我们正在目睹一个教育范式的转变,这需要我们在谨慎思考的同时,大胆采取相应的行动。

Since MIT launched its Open Course Ware Initiative in 2001, which in a massive project of many years would make all its courseware freely available on the Internet, quite a few initiatives around the world have followed under the umbrella of what now is called Open Educational Resources (OER). The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has funded almost all of these significantly, which has been a decisive factor for the OER movement. Also UNESCO has been instrumental in recognizing the paramount importance of OER, especially for the developing countries, and in successfully promoting the OER approach.Three 2006 initiatives in Europe (one from the UK Open University, one from Open Universiteit Nederland and one from the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities-EADTU), all partly funded by the Hewlett Foundation, introduce a new wave in the OER movement. The extra added value originates from the free offering on the Internet of high quality content in terms of learning materials designed for self-study rather than in terms of teaching materials that generally require substantial support and further elaboration by university teaching staff. The common motives of the three European initiatives will be considered. These are related to the advancement of Lifelong Learning in an open and flexible model, a condition sine qua non for achieving the Lisbon goal of considerably increasing the level of education of the workforce. Another common ingredient will be explored, that is the revolutionary change in the underlying business and marketing model, while options for making the OER approach sustainable will be discussed.Some specific characteristics of the three projects receive special attention: (UK)-the relatively big volume of the course base and the emphasis on technological aspects, non-formal collaborative learning communities, and the research and evaluation efforts, (NL)-the bridging between informal and formal learning, the national policy aspects (related to the additional government funding), and the corresponding effect measurement, (EADTU)-concerted action on widening participation in Higher Education throughout Europe, the multilingual and cultural diversity approach, and the mutual recognition in the various national educational systems.In summary, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in education that requires a combination of cautious consideration and vigorous action