In today’s digitally driven era marked by widespread remote communication, individuals grapple with diverse challenges when undertaking speaking tasks from a distance. Despite extensive research on communication dynamics in virtual contexts, the specific hurdles associated with remote speaking tasks remain understudied. This research addresses this gap by qualitatively exploring the complexities of such challenges and proposing practical strategies for effective communication in virtual environments. Employing a qualitative research approach, a survey with open-ended questions was administered to 19 students in the English Education program, and NVivo 12 was used for analysis. The findings highlight technical and non-technical challenges in remote speaking tasks, emphasizing the critical role of digital proficiency and a stable technical infrastructure. The study underscores the need to address personal and social aspects, suggesting solutions that encompass a precise and adaptive approach, including ensuring a reliable Internet connection, strategic use of digital resources, enhancement of technical skills, and a holistic strategy to tackle both technical and non-technical challenges. This research implies that educators should prioritize developing students’ digital proficiency and adopt a comprehensive approach that tackles both technical and psychological challenges, aiming to boost confidence and interpersonal skills in virtual learning environments.

This paper examines the pervasive discourse of disruption in OER literature by recounting a facilitated conversation hosted at the 2023 Open Education Global conference held in Edmonton, Alberta. This dialogue used Bacchi’s “what is the problem represented to be” (WPR) approach to structure the conversation in four movements. The first movement problematized the concept of OER by discussing the educational challenges OER supposedly addresses, such as the high cost of textbooks. The second movement considered the genealogy, historical development, and philosophical underpinnings of OER. The third movement accounted for the disruptors within the OER movement, exploring what OER have disrupted and discussing if disruption is even a legitimate goal of OER. The fourth and final movement pivoted to examine resistors and forms of resistance to OER, including the protection of intellectual property rights, copyright concerns, and Marcuse’s idea of repressive tolerance. This single conversation generated a small but important piece of social intelligence within a much larger dialogue about open education, open pedagogy, and OER during a time of flux (characterized by intense politicization, the relentless progression of educational technology, the intensification of marketization, and the growing popularity of all-inclusive textbooks). This social intelligence can be used to guide the next transition phase for OER development. While the conversation does not offer tidy solutions or even clear recommendations, it does suggest that the next wave of OER practitioners would always do well to focus on the goals OER can achieve, not what they hope to disrupt.

During the last decade, a growing interest in open educational resources (OER) has developed among educational researchers worldwide. This trend involves the examination of possible effects over diverse learning domains such as the development of literacy and digital skills in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. To address this matter, a systematic literature review was conducted using PRISMA processes on 62 research articles published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals indexed in two major academic databases (Scielo and Scopus). Data collected during this literature review showed certain conditions that must be met to ensure a successful learning setup when OER are involved. Moreover, qualitative analysis revealed that certain attributes of openness are often more influential than others in the development of adequate literacy skills for the artificial intelligence era; also, there is an overall positive perception, from students and teachers alike, about the introduction of the attributes of openness and open materials into learning practices.

Teacher training and a commitment to innovation in teaching are determining factors in the success of technology adoption processes. This article presents a study on the opportunities produced through the collaboration of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education and the ProFuturo program, which arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaboration resulted in the improvement of digital competency among teachers and pupils and in transference to educational practise. It also strengthened the existing limited capabilities for developing mass training programs for teachers in the country. The research was conducted through an online survey, with a cross-sectional, quantitative, and non-experimental focus from two data sources. A total of 3,565 teachers answered the digital survey for teachers trained using the Open Model in Ecuador between 2020 and 2022. On the other hand, 7,257 teachers answered the ProFuturo Self-Assessment of Digital Skills of Teachers (https://competencyassessment.profuturo.education/?lang=en). The results show an improvement in the competency of teachers following their participation in the program and confirm that they considered digital transformation in the classroom to be of great utility. Teacher training remains a cornerstone of high-quality education and research as this contribution proves a positive impact on learning experiences, where there was a significant transference, driven by an improvement in digital skills applied to the teaching process.

Open educational resources (OER) have been praised for revolutionizing education. However, practitioners and instructors battle keeping OER updated and measuring their impact on students’ performance. Few studies have analyzed the improvement of OER over time in relation to achievement. This longitudinal study uses learning analytics through the open-source Resource Inspection, Selection, and Enhancement (RISE) analysis framework to assess the impact of continuous improvement cycles on students’ outcomes. Panel data (i.e., performance and use) from 190 learning objectives of OER of an introductory sociology course were analyzed using a hierarchical linear model. Results show that more visits to an OER do not improve student achievement, but continuous improvement cycles of targeted OER do. Iterative implementation of the RISE analysis for resource improvement in combination with practitioners’ expertise is key for students’ learning. Given that the RISE classification accounted for 65% of the growth of students’ performance, suggesting a moderate to large effect, we speculate that the RISE analysis could be generalized to other contexts and result in greater student gain. Institutions and practitioners can improve the OER’s impact by introducing learning analytics as a decision-making tool for instructional designers. Yet, user-friendly implementation of learning analytics in a “click-and-go” application is necessary for generalizability and escalation of continuous improvement cycles of OER and tangible improvement of learning outcomes. Finally, in this article, we identify the need for efficient applications of learning analytics that focus more on “learning” and less on analytics.

Institutional constituents hope to see improved efficiency and support for users across campus from the use of AI tools in communications applications.

Table of Contents Farhad Saba, Ph. D. (c) All rights reserved ERTI’s Exceptional Team ERTI unit managers, radio and television producers, graphic artists and set designers, educational technologists, educational evaluators, researchers and the many broadcast engineers and technicians who made ERTI possible were creative, energetic, enthusiastic and forward-looking young women and men. They embodied the […]

Educational Broadcasting in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s (1) INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND RESLUTS AND CONSEQUENCES REFERENCES KEYWORDS Educational Broadcasting in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s (2) ERTI’S EXCEPTIONAL TEAM HIGH-LEVEL SUPPORT OF NIRT LEADERSHIP FOR ERTI

Table of Contents FARHAD SABA, Ph. D. (C) All rights reserved INTRODUCTION THE 1960s and the 1970s were exciting, effervescent, and consequential times for Iran. After decades of disenchantment because of overt foreign intervention and domestic turmoil there was relative calm in political conditions. This period of tranquility promised a new beginning for the country. […]