The open educational resources of the OLA project
The European project OLA – Open Learning for All, coordinated internationally by the research group “Social studies on science, education, communication” of IRPPS, was selected by the Erasmus+ National Agency INDIRE as a good practice and considered Best Practice for the use of the participatory action research methodology and for the implementation of scenario-based teaching as a system.
Available to anyone who wants to use them, the OLA project leaves a set of interdisciplinary educational scenarios and a MOOC online course freely usable, developed in collaboration between several European countries.
Il OLA-Include repository offers hundreds of scenarios produced by teachers from the European countries involved in the project, tested in classes, and evaluated. Such scenarios offer to educational staff free educational paths that can be offered in your classes. The contents follow the approach interdisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Humanities, Mathematics) and are built pursuing, among other objectives, the fight against stereotypes in teaching.
Il Massive online open course (MOOC), the result of the coordinated work of research and training bodies in Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Romania, offers a free and modular path on the topic of educational resources. In recent years there has been a proliferation of this type of courses, especially in universities, but they are often not based on a theoretical reflection on the topic.
The course includes 5 macro-contents, divided into different modules. The topics allow you to delve deeper what are OERs (Open Education Resources), how yes they build, they evaluate e they reuse, the principles of open pedagogy and blended education, and the world of licenses in Creative Commons.
The various modules are not only theoretical but have practical purposes. They are made up of various Learning Units, with slides, subtitled videos, bibliography and tests. The material is available in open and reusable formats based on contexts. The contents and methods in which the course is built and delivered follow the principles of the Ola project: particular attention is paid to the inclusiveness of the teaching resources, with technical choices ranging from the weight of the files to the presence of subtitles, for the respect for different needs and different learning styles.
Attention is also paid to the critical analysis of texts and images, the promotion of digital skills not only aimed at technical ability but at the development of the ability to evaluate the reliability of different tools and platforms.
OLA is significantly contributing to the diffusion of the "open" approach in the educational field promoted by UNESCO, in line with the philosophy of open science in the scientific field, with the development of open educational resources ("open educational resources") for improve teaching in a more inclusive sense and to promote an evolution of the concept of digital skills which considers, in addition to purely technological skills, the critical and responsible use of online platforms and sources of information, as a prerequisite for the exercise of an aware citizenship.
