Evidence generated by complex and innovative processes such as OER release is often itself complex, context-specific and difficult to generalise. These kinds of initiative require significant organisational change and may include external partners and stakeholders with very different cultures and practices. Evaluation, in particular is challenging and ranges from evaluating specific OER for fitness of purpose, changes in staff attitudes, impact on learning and teaching and longer term impact on institutional practices and the wider community.
This page offers some resources to support evaluation activities and also points to what people have already learned through evaluation into this area.
UKOER Programme evaluation was supported by the UKOER Evaluation and Synthesis Team. The team, led by Glasgow Caledonian Academy, provided a range of support activities to support individual project evaluation across the three years and developed a Framework to support project evaluation and programme synthesis. Evaluation & synthesis was an iterative, two-way process and included liaison not only with project teams and their evaluators but also with the programme management team, the various support teams, and concurrent OER initiatives.
Engaging projects with the framework was challenging due to short (one year long) project time-frames. The team developed an Evaluation Toolkit which provided various visual ways to connect with the framework and offered routes through the programme themes. The toolkit also provided further resources to support evaluation of both projects and OER development and release.
The Team produced a yearly synthesis report highlighting key lessons and emerging themes:
These fed into a wider review of HEFCE funded OER initiatives (still reporting Jan 2013).