OERs: a European Policy Perspective

Abstract

Research in academic terms has a pattern (Blaxter, Hughes, & Tight, 2010) of background, study, analysis, review and reporting. This pattern has served the research community well over a long period but may isolate research results from those that need them. Practitioners and policy makers can then appear to act without reference to research. The tendency to make policy while lacking evidence has been deplored by some in the community (Goldacre & Farley, 2009), with a call for greater use of trials and periods of reflection. However, the reality is that there is a growing desire to move quickly and to adapt to change within timeframes that cannot wait for slower processes to take place, leading to pressure for rapid research processes rather than considered reflection. In parallel, the ability to control research into learner and educator experience in education is reduced as access to open and free resources grows and spreads. Carefully planned and staged studies therefore become increasingly unrealistic and so there is a need to move to more agile processes.