engleski

OERs and democratization of digital education in crisis situation

Digital education (DE), together with Open Educational Resources (OERs) has a potential to decrease disparities in access to learning during crisis situations and enable a more effective response to emerging challenges. It offers great support and provides substantial framework for online and distant teaching and learning, both during crisis situations and in general. One such crisis situation, the COVID-19 pandemic, created one of the biggest disruptions in education worldwide. Both students and teaching/training staff had to adapt very fast to the upcoming changes. Though DE and adoption of education technology are not the result of the current crisis, they gained a significant attention during COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic altered the educational landscape in ways that challenged the existing higher education institutions' (HEIs’) infrastructure, programme curricula, teaching and learning process and administration. Some of the outcomes of this disruption were the increase in the use of digital tools, online resources and open educational resources, and modification of both didactics and methodology which were now more oriented towards open education. We could say that this pandemic created an opportunity for higher education institutions to incorporate and make greater use of DE, OERs and open education in general. Yet, although some practices were upscaled and many new arose during COVID-19 pandemic, the question is whether they should all become standardised, i.e. become a standard practice even outside the crisis situation scenarios. The question of standardization of emerged models, systems and practices is important in the context of establishing appropriate policies, strategies and practices for their implementation that will, in return, maximize their transformative potential. In order to determine the dynamics and changing character of education in crisis situation and its support of innovative educational practices, we conducted a questionnaire-based exploratory research aimed at heads and directors of Library and Information Sciences (LIS) schools and departments who could provide us with an insight into their institutional practices and policies. The research was done as part of the Erasmus+ project Digital Education for Crisis Situations: Times when there is no alternative (DECriS). Our goal was to identify state-of-the-play of the use of DE and OERs at European HEI in the field of library and information sciences (LIS) during COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we wanted to determine which DE tools, practices and strategies did HEI in the filed of LIS adopt and how did they organize DE in the context of the current crisis of COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying challenges and critical success factors referring to the adoption of DE and OERs contributes to their further optimization which can have a positive impact of the future digital transformation of higher education and facilitate its sustainability. Survey results provided insight into current practices and policies regarding DE and OERs during COVID-19 pandemic. They indicate possible differences in perception, attitudes and practices between HEIs regarding the adoption and use of DE and OERs during the pandemic and thus enable a comparative approach to the problem. They also help define rules and procedures needed for successful implementation of DE and OERs during crisis situations and beyond.

COVID-19 pandemic, crisis situations, digital education, higher education institutions, open educational resources (OERs)

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