Open Education 2015

Many OER folks may recognize well that the limited number of OER collections in local language hinders OER from realizing their potential. Although tons of English OER reside in the web space, international OER adoption seldom happens due to many barriers, such as cultural and language differences, funding issues, institutional decision making process, and more. As Japan is no exception to this, we couldn't have been fully utilizing OER for their primary objective - enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.

However, recent government-funded project that started in Hokkaido area of Japan (the biggest prefecture in Japan) has paved the way for the effective localization of OER. Academic Commons for Education (ACE), the project launched in Hokkaido University, develops OER for Japanese students to learn information literacy. These OER are designed by revising existing OER from OLI (Open Learning Initiative) at Carnegie Mellon University. Instructional designers, video producers, and a professor work together to translate and revise contents so that they fit Japanese context. Created OER are ""redistributed"" to seven different universities in Hokkaido area as a credit-bearing course by distance learning using videoconferencing, allowing students at the edge of the prefecture to study with us. It is "openness" of OER that enables us to localize resources based on various aspects not only translation but also technical and cultural needs.

In this talk, we will discuss the details of the adoption process, including translation, cultural consideration, and effective instructional means for OER, as well as the background of open education in Japan and ACE project. We will also address student feedback and challenges for the localization of OER.