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Conference paper2014

Peer review of OER is not comprehensive- power and passion call for other solutions

Algers, Anne; Ljung, Magnus

Abstract

The aim of this article is to support the discussion on the role of OER for sustainable development by (i) highlighting the need for a critical debate on issues related to quality of OER and (ii) emphasizing that both accuracy and legitimacy is essential for quality. Higher education has a societal responsibility to formally educate students and to be involved in informal learning of members of society. OER are used as a hybrid of learning artefacts and methodology in this process, but quality assurance systems may influence trust and therefore the scale of OER adoption. Quality of research and traditional resources used in higher education are assessed by the use of peer review, but this process has been criticised for neither being standardised and objective, nor reliable for detecting fraud. Furthermore it is questioned because it is time consuming and expensive, and has been accused for stealing ideas, and for blocking and slowing down the publication of scientific results of competitors. Peer review is sometimes used in the quality assurance of OER, but has been criticised since OER are constantly changing and centralised control systems are lacking. Furthermore, OER can with reference to the wisdom of the crowd be argued to be of higher quality than resources developed by single individuals, since it is a collegial activity similar to the creative exchange in research when researchers are building upon each other’s work and discuss their findings with fellow researchers in order to get a shared understanding. Different types of index are sometimes used in peer review based on tools which measure different dimensions. Such tools tend to be instrumental and some academics are considering other and more inclusive approaches such as ratings and recommendation. The balance between accuracy and legitimacy in OER practices deserves further research, especially when dealing with contested subject areas. Thus, the question is not only if the OER is accurate, in the sense without errors or demonstrating scientific reliable results, but if it shares with you the value-laden presuppositions about what is important. Food quality and animal welfare are aspects of sustainability which are of high interest not only to scientists and students but also to citizens and consumers. Individuals need to be assisted to become more aware of the complexities surrounding ethical decision making and more conscious of their own ethical Research Approaches and Perceptions in ODL 89 orientation in the contested areas of food quality and animal welfare, in order to make informed consumer choices, influence the food production methods and levels of animal welfare and articulate their stance in sustainable development. Consequently, food quality and animal welfare have legitimacy because of ethical concerns in the society. To access the adequacy of those scientific conceptions the research community must therefore be in dialogue with society and address the current ethical concerns. This article presents empirical research highlighting the interplay between accuracy, meaning if the content is current knowledge without errors, and legitimacy, meaning if the content is relevant to the learner and based on the value system of the learner or the general accepted value system in a certain context. It highlights the power structures and question if higher education has the authority to be the main assessor of OER in the future, and if peer review is the only and preferred methodology for quality assessment. It asks the question if the wisdom of the crowd and its demand for knowledge is building the legitimacy of OER and how that corresponds to the quality assessment of OER, and therefore how this might contribute to a sustainable development of society. The fourth generation activity theory is about expansive learning, and builds on the idea that there are inner contradictions within the learners’ activity system and that knowledge creation transcends the context given, and is therefore found to be a useful framework for analysing the peer review process. Since openness is both the objectives and the instruments in OER a peer review assessment of the artefact cannot be comprehensive but requires a complex mix of quality instruments enabling users to be involved in the quality process. As previously suggested the interaction between (i) the network of users of OER and (ii) the network in publishing industry and formal education may form the future solution for the quality of OER and for sustainable development.

Published in


ISBN: 978-615-5511-00-4
Publisher: The European Distance and E-Learning Network

Conference

Eighth EDEN Research Workshop - Challenges for Research into Open & Distance Learning