A case study of open educational resource implementation at Notre Dame University- Louaize, Lebanon

Abstract

Considering the recent paradigm shift in education brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, educational institutions have shifted to optimizing the use of technology for distance teaching and learning. This shift has propelled educational institutions worldwide to experiment with innovative teaching and learning methods—a de facto measure employed to ensure educational continuation previously disrupted by pandemic-related closures. Lebanon is not an atypical case; in addition to the pandemic, closures have been inflicted on the education sector by the events of October 17, 2019, and the unprecedented economic meltdown. Against this backcloth, the current chapter reports the findings obtained from a case study conducted at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) in Lebanon on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a depository of open content provision for creating a course amalgamating synchronous and asynchronous teaching, communication, and collaboration via the university’s Learning Management System (LMS). The proposed course involved transforming OER content into interactive SCORM placed on the LMS to widen students’ active learning, engagement, and interactivity, with an eye to having the learners gain 21st-century competencies. The perceived learning experience of 60 students enrolled in Introduction to Computers (CSC201) at NDU is documented below, reflecting on the utility of the proposed course model in enhancing student learning. The study concludes with highlights on the usefulness of this OER-based model in reducing textbook costs and providing students with equal opportunities for access to learning.