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COER Director

Professor Olaf Zawacki-Richter

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COER Coordinator

Berrin Cefa

+49 (0) 441 798 4983 

 

Announcements

COER Members in the TOP 2% scientists list again!

Congratulations to COER Members!

A huge congratulations to COER members, who were named in the recent Stanford University 2022 list of the top 2% of scientists globally.

Dr. Melissa Bond, Professor Aras BozkurtProfessor Paul PrinslooProfessor George Veletsianos, and Professor Olaf Zawacki-Richter were named in the recent Stanford University 2023 list. 

The database includes not just traditional metrics like citation counts and h-index, but also introduces the co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations according to different authorship positions, and a composite indicator known as the c-score. This broad spectrum of metrics aims to give a more balanced and fair representation of a scientist's impact.It also includes:

  • Classification of scientists into 22 fields and 174 sub-fields, following the Science-Metrix classification.
  • Field- and subfield-specific percentiles for scientists with at least 5 papers.
  • Career data updated to the end of 2022, with recent year data for 2022.
  • Selection criteria based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score or a top 2% percentile rank in their sub-field.

This database, currently in its sixth version, is based on data from Scopus as of October 1, 2023, and reflects citations up to the end of 2022. It aims to focus on impact rather than productivity, incorporating detailed information on co-authorship and author positions.

For more detailed information and the whole list please visit the source: https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6

 

1Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2023). October 2023 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators" (Version 6) [Data set]. Elsevier Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.6

 

COER Members in the TOP 2% scientists list

Congratulations to COER Members!

A huge congratulations to COER members, who were named in the recent Stanford University 2022 list of the top 2% of scientists globally.

Dr. Melissa Bond, Professor Aras BozkurtProfessor Paul PrinslooProfessor George Veletsianos, and Professor Olaf Zawacki-Richter were named in the recent Stanford University 2022 list, which is „a publicly available database of top-cited scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator (c-score)” (Ioannidis, 2022).

For detailed information and the whole list please visit the source: https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/5 

Ioannidis, John P.A. (2022), “September 2022 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators"”, Mendeley Data, V5, doi: 10.17632/btchxktzyw.5

 

COER Director delivers a keynote at PCF10

 

COER Director, Prof. Dr. habil. Olaf Zawacki-Richter delivered his keynote speech on „The Contribution of Open, Distance, and Digital Education to Lifelong Learning” at PCF10, Calgary, Canada on the 15th of September 2022. In the time of embracing open, distance and digital learning globally due to the pandemic, Prof. Zawacki-Richter addressed all key actors from ministers of education to researchers in his keynote and highlighted the risk of neglecting the long-established pedagogical and ethical foundations of the ODDE. More information on his speech can be found in the PCF10 newsletter.

Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF) takes place every three years and hosted by Commonwealth of Learning (COL). PCF10 in 2022 was co-hosted by COL and Athabasca University.

Featured Publication

Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education – Available Open Access

Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter (Editor-in-Chief), Dr. Insung Jung (Editor-in-Chief)

2022

This is a living reference work. More than 80 chapters on ODDE around the world will be available. 

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The Fred Mulder Award 2021 for Best Paper goes to COER Members!

Fantastic news has arrived before 2021 comes to an end! Aras Bozkurt and Olaf Zawacki-Richter won the 2021 Fred Mulder Awards for Best Open Education Research Paper.  The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) launched Fred Mulder Awards in 2017 to honor the best open practice and research in open education. Given annually, the awards are presented after the independent selection process of an award committee and the GO-GN team. 

 

 

New Project on Artificial Intelligence Applications in Higher Education

COER has launched its new project "Prospects for the Future of Learning: Artificial Intelligence Applications in Higher Education". The project funded by The Volkswagen Foundation and the state of Lower Saxony will take place for four years (2021-2024 inclusive) at the University of Oldenburg, Germany with fellow collaborators from China, Japan, the USA, Spain, and Turkey.

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COER Members have four articles in the Top 10 Open Access Articles of 2019

In absolutely fantastic news to begin the new year, COER members have been recognised in the annual National Institute for Digital Learning Top 10 Open Access Articles list. Four of the ten articles were co-written by COER members, with information quoted from the NIDL website here:

No 5 – Spilker, M., Prinsen, F., & Kalz, M. (2019): Valuing technology-enhanced academic conferences for continuing professional development. A systematic literature. Professional Development in Education. Available from www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19415257.2019.1629614

"This article explores a very interesting topic by offering a systematic search for and analysis of the state of the art concerning research (1993–2018) on technology-enhanced conferences for academics’ professional development. It provides good reading, particularly given the high number of conferences in the field and that attending such events is an accepted form of “academic citizenship” and often taken for granted as valuable professional development. The paper builds on Jacobs and McFarlane’s (2005) view that ‘little attention has been paid either to developing a theoretically informed understanding of conference practice as knowledge building, or to assessing the extent to which conferences are successful’. We partly selected this paper as last year it provided uesful food for thought and evidence-based research for our decisions in designing the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning."

No 6 – Zawacki-Richter, O., Marin, V., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2019). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators? International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16:39, 2-27. Available from doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0

"This article offers precisely what the title suggests and was hard to overlook given the current level of hope and hype surrounding the potential of AI in higher education. Notably, the results show that ‘most of the disciplines involved in AIEd papers come from Computer Science and STEM, and that quantitative methods were the most frequently used in empirical studies’. It follows that the paper concludes by reflecting on the lack of critical reflection of challenges and risks of AIEd, the weak connection to theoretical pedagogical perspectives, and the need for further exploration of ethical and educational approaches. A seminal read for educators, computer scienists and those making predictions about the futiure impact of AI on higher education."

No 8 – Pozzi, F., Manganello, F., Passarelli, M., Persico, D., Brasher, A., Holmes, W., Whitelock, D., & Sangrà, A. (2019). Ranking meets distance education: Defining relevant criteria and indicators for online universities. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(5), 42-63. Available from www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/4391/5232

"This article explores a notable gap in current university ranking systems and so-called league tables. In the absence of global rankings for online providers—for better and worse–it offers a participatory approach based on a Delphi study to define a set of criteria and indicators suitable to reflect the specific nature of online distance education. The intention is to help evaluate and rank online higher education institutions more appropriately than in current practice. The paper was selected as we anticipate there will be further developments in this area in the next year or so as the provision of online education increassingly transcends national borders."

No 9 – Bond, M., Zawacki-Richter, O., & Nichols, M. (2019). Revisiting five decades of educational technology research: A content and authorship analysis of the British Journal of Educational Technology. British Journal of Educational Technology. 50 (1), 12-63. Available from onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjet.12730

"This review article appearing in a traditionally closed journal celebrating its 50 years of publication is hard to overlook as it reflects on five decades of educational technology research. What makes the analysis more interesting and arguably useful is a comparison to a previous meta-analysis of articles appearing in Computers & Education. Common themes identified over the past 50 years include the evolution of teaching and learning in distance education, the emergence of instructional design, misunderstanding between practitioners and learning designers, issues of pre and in-service teacher education and technology uptake by educators and students, including the confidence to do so, the technology skills of educators and students, as well as a lack of institutional support to provide space and time for training and integration to occur."

Featured Publication

Systematic Reviews in Educational Research - Available free open access!

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Featured Publication

Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators?

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Featured Publication

Facilitating Student Engagement Through Educational Technology: Towards a Conceptual Framework

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Featured Publication

Exploring OER Awareness and Engagement of Academics from a Global South Perspective – a Case Study from Ghana

2019

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Scientific Communication between Spanish and English Educational Technology Journals. A Citation Analysis of eight Journals.

2019

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Featured Publication

Learning ecologies through a lens: Ontological, methodological and applicative issues. A systematic review of the literature

Dr. Albert Sangrá, Juliana Elisa Raffaghelli & Montse Guitert‐Catasús

2019

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Featured Publication

Revisiting five decades of educational technology research: A content and authorship analysis of the British Journal of Educational Technology

Melissa Bond, Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Mark Nichols

2018

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Featured Publication

Digital transformation in German higher education: student and teacher perceptions and usage of digital media

Melissa Bond, Victoria Marin, Carina Dolch, Svenja Bedenlier & Olaf Zawacki-Richter

2018

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MOOC open on Open Education Resources and Practices by The Open University of Sri Lanka

The Open University of Sri Lanka is offering the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP), available for practitioners/professionals from any field of study.

Registration is now open, until 19 October, 2018, at http://www.ou.ac.lk/apps/mooc/

Free OER Now Available: Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas

Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas is now available as a free eBook download through Springer.

Read more and download...

Free OER Now Available: Experiences in Self-Determined Learning

Experiences in Self-Determined Learning is now available as a free PDF file through the Center of Open Education Research (COER).

Read more and download...

MoU signing between the University of Oldenburg and the University of South Africa

On Thursday, 19th July 2018, the University of South Africa's Vice President Prof. Gugu Moche signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Oldenburg, to enable COER to offer professional development to the staff of Unisa. 

Vale Colin Latchem (1933-2018)

It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of COER member, valued colleague and treasured friend, Professor Colin Latchem. He was a preeminent Australian researcher, writer, consultant and teacher within the field of open and distance learning, and we had been eagerly looking forward to his keynote address at the Inaugural COER Symposium on October 1st this year. Prof. Dr. Som Naidu will present the address at the Symposium in honour of Colin's memory.

Rest in Peace.

Featured Publication

Two Decades of Research Into the Internationalization of Higher Education: Major Themes in the Journal of Studies in International Education (1997-2016)

Svenja Bedenlier, Yasar Kondakci and Olaf Zawacki-Richter

2018

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Featured Publication

Exploring four decades of research in Computers & Education

Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Colin Latchem

2018

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Distance Education - Call for Special Issue on Learning Analytics

Distance Education

Special Issue on Learning Analytics: Its Scope and Potential in Open, Flexible and Distance Learning

Jingjing Zhang, Beijing Normal University, China

, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Spain

, University of South Australia, South Australia

The aim of the special issue is to foster scientific debate among educationists, data and learning scientists, statisticians, computer scientists, teachers, practitioners and others to understand how learning analytics can lead to an understanding of learning and teaching process while (re)invigorating the quality of online and distance education. In this special issue, we invite state-of-art research studies that show how new theoretical models and innovative approaches have been employed to understand learning and teaching through the use of large-scale or granular datasets. Given the potential of learning analytics to provide new insights into contemporary education challenges, there are numerous topics that may be addressed such as: Improvements in understanding the learners, their learning process and outcomes, and the learning environment or assessment, feedback and sense-making of data visualisations. The specific context for these studies should centre on open, flexible and distance learning.

Important Dates

  • One-page proposal due: 30 July, 2018
    • All proposals to be sent to
    • All queries and questions to
  • Completion of first review round: 30 August, 2018
  • Full manuscripts due: 15 January, 2019
  • Final decision notifcation: 30 March, 2019
  • Camera ready: 15 July, 2019
  • Publication of special issue: AUGUST, 2019

For more information about the special issue, please download this document.

Featured Publication

Social network analysis of international student mobility: uncovering the rise of regional hubs

Yasar Kondakci, Svenja Bedenlier and Olaf Zawacki-Richter

2018 

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Featured Publication

Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda

Edited by Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Terry Anderson

2014

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