thanks for viewing this presentation on the use of open educational resources in support of continuing professional development this work was presented at the oer 11 conference in manchester in may 2011 and this video provides a summary of the talk the talk was entitled the importance of OERs in delivering a flexible CPD degree framework and form part of the learning from work project sponsored by the higher education academy and JYSK my name is Steven Gomez and I gave this talk on behalf of my co-authors listed here before looking at the oer we plan to produce it's worth spending a little time exploring the context within which we intend to use our oers the main use for our oers is for CPD particularly within the framework we've developed for crediting CPD learning CPD is an activity offered by many universities as part of knowledge transfer it's a way for universities to apply the new knowledge they generate through research and scholarship and by transferring this new knowledge they help grow the nation's knowledge economy through engaging with employers and helping to develop a graduate workforce quite often CPD is offered as bite-sized freestanding short courses that may or may not be part of other degree programs where it's not part of a degree program the course is not usually give an academic credit in these cases assessment of learning may be absent or given a light touch for some employers and employees this is not an issue as they simply want to learn without being assessed in a world where the nature and demands of work are constantly shifting where new knowledge is inexorably increasing and where competition is increasingly becoming global industry needs to be continually developing as the knowledge capital of any organization resides in its staff CPD formed a vital way in which employees can upskill or update their knowledge to develop themselves for career enhancement CPD short courses provide a more accessible way of learning for non-traditional learners such as part-time students and those that need more flexibility in how they study because of work or family commitments part time distance and flexible learners need access to a variety of approaches to teaching as they cannot attend formal lectures in the same way as traditional full-time students the way non-traditional learners need to study often challenges the way that universities are organized to teach distance blended weekend courses evening lectures and intensive study courses are all challenging for academic staff who are more used to giving lectures in a traditional content delivery style between nine and five a major driver for industry to seek out CPD opportunities and especially accredited CPD is to professionalize their workforce and industry increasingly racing industry using academic credit to legitimize as it were their employees training status without doubt CPD's increasingly looked upon as a business opportunity for universities and there's a way of diversifying income streams delivering CPD presents numerous challenges to universities CPD is very much an activity that sure Dan does occur at the faculty level but there is a strong case for centralized University database of CPD activities and a single point of contact for external Inquirer's often employers outside the university system have little understanding of the functional structure of the university and their inquiry can be lost in the system as is passed from one person to another a university-wide catalog of CPD provision which inquiries can browse online would help people instantly know if a course has been offered and whom they should direct any questions or queries to the challenge for any University however is how to compile and maintain such a catalog in a rapidly changing operating environment accreditation is a term that sometimes causes confusion in relation to CPD professional bodies are often thought of as a crediting CBD courses to their professional standards and requirements here the term accreditation is being used more narrowly in relation to academic credit that contributes towards university recognized courses by this second definition relatively few CPD courses are accredited non-accredited short courses suit the needs of many employers and employees who just want to focus on the learning aspects of any course however there is an increasing interest in accredited courses because employers as mentioned earlier are looking to professionalize their careers through University recognized courses a challenge for the university is how to provide accredited courses that meet the needs of industry but may not contribute to existing university programs link to the previous point the fact that CBD short courses largely are non-accredited means that they may not come under the same quality assurance scrutiny as accredited courses and the search the academic quality of the course cannot be verified where this is the case the challenge to universities is how to assure the academic content of CBD provision that falls outside the normal quality assurance of degree programs CPD short courses are ideal for people who don't want to commit to a whole degree program of study and just want to learn a single topic however if an employer wanted a course accredited it would need to become a module and have a home within a program if the course were highly specialized it may not sit within an existing program a challenge then is to produce a structure or framework that would accommodate these apparently disparate CPD courses the provision of distance and blended learning materials is increasingly being demanded by students this is very much the case of traditional students who want the flexibility to learn in ways other than through formal lectures alone though full-time students don't want to lose lectures blended materials can greatly supplement their learning experience distance learning materials are also valuable for non-traditional part time or distance learners who cannot attend lectures at a set time on a set date every week alongside full-time students the challenge for universities then is to produce distance learning resources to support CPD in some cases employers pay a premium for CPD courses and having high-quality distance learning materials would be a reasonable expectation if universities want to increase SCPD and part-time provision they need structures in place to promote the development of high quality online materials for distance learners this obviously requires investment and at a time when funding of higher education is a major issue universities may not be able to afford this investment the courses that universities have to offer are not always the ones that employers need or want the business world is faster moving than the academic world which has lindt procedures to approve new courses a challenge to universities then is how best to respond to employ a demand for bespoke learning materials rapidly perhaps one of the greatest challenges is the promotion and acceptance of work based learning as a valid form of learning there's still a mindset in some people that formal learning in universities is the only way to ensure academic quality work based learning is one of the most powerful ways of learning as it incorporates learned interaction relevance and context all of which reinforce the learning process the challenge then is how to make work based learning and accreditation of work-related activities more mainstream in higher education and integrated more fully with in degree programs at the university of plymouth we have addressed many of the issues surrounding CPD and have developed a CPD framework which allows the aggregation of accredited CPD short courses into a bachelor's or master's degree here short courses are converted into accredited modules and attached as it were to the cpt framework time in this presentation does not permit me to go into detail about the CBD framework and this diagram for brevity only shows the master's level program the program is highly flexible and learners can step on and off the program as their work and life commitments dictate at the postgraduate certificate stage learners can undertake work based learning modules that help them evidence and reflect upon the learning they have derived from their own work experience or practice this accounts for 30 credits and when combined with 30 credits of loading on modules related to their work speciality learners can gain a PG cert in professional development learners can then continue to PG diploma stage by undertaking 30 credits in research methods and a further 30 credits of specialized modules and then full masters can be gained if the learner undertakes and passes a research project or dissertation which is focused on their workplace and their practice unlike the majority of other degree programs which are disciplined focused our CPD program takes a context of the learners workplace as the focus of the curriculum the learning from work project has focused its efforts on producing OERs around five main topic areas these are work based learning research methods leadership coaching and mentoring and management these areas were chosen as they are integral to the cpt framework and came top in a market research survey or 500 employers and employees as areas they wish to study for CPD lecturers from across the university have been engaged on the project to produce a total of three hundred and sixty credits to support both the bachelor's and master's degrees the ouya's will be used by university staff to deliver modules on the framework but the higher education academy and just funding will allow us to make the learning materials available to colleagues across the higher education sector so they can use and repurpose the materials for their own context the use of 0 yards for CPD addresses numerous of the challenges mentioned earlier for the learner OERs allow distance and on-demand learning and this is particularly valuable for non-traditional learners unable to attend university for formal lectures for the university OERs showcase our academic provision and by making them available freely and widely they encourage the growth of lifelong learners and support their learning developments for the higher education sector academics from across universities can contribute to the learning materials and by sharing them freely and widely the quality of the learning materials can improve significantly and may well encourage the formation of community of practice for sharing experience and expertise for industry OERs can be used on demand to address the immediate needs of employees and support the growth of knowledge capital within the industry hopefully also to give employers an edge in an increasingly global competitive markets if you would like further information about the projects then please contact us through the project website wwtp d.o.e our net thank you for listening and please get in touch