Living Learning Materials

The digiLLM project is all about inclusive digital learning materials. What makes a material inclusive? How can we evaluate inclusivity in learning materials? How can we help learners access materials? In the project we explore the concept of “Living Learning Materials”. It stands for the active engagement with our learning resources. When we reflect on the materials we use for teaching and learning, we can provide more inclusive learning experiences.

For this, we refer to the idea of Open Educational Resources. Learn more about Living Learning Materials and Open Educational Resources here.

The digiLLM project is all about inclusive digital learning materials. What makes a material inclusive? How can we evaluate inclusivity in learning materials? How can we help learners access materials? In the project we explore the concept of “Living Learning Materials”. It stands for the active engagement with our learning resources. When we reflect on the materials we use for teaching and learning, we can provide more inclusive learning experiences.

Both teachers and learners need a space to
jointly discuss the quality and inclusivity of learning materials,
the ways they work with and adapt learning materials for their learning contexts
share opinions on what materials should look like to support different learners

In the digiLLM project, we believe more exchange about open digital materials and the ways to make them work for inclusive education is needed. The digiLLM project encourages you to critically evaluate and discuss learning materials so you can adapt them to your needs – they need to live so they can support your learning. Living Learning Materials…

Currently, we are establishing an interactive portal for the digiLLM community. The overall idea is to invite teachers, educators and learners (in short: you!) to evaluate digital learning materials and assess whether you consider teaching materials to be inclusion-sensitive or not. The foundation for that is the Framework for Reflection on Living Learning Materials (FRoLLM) we are currently working on.

You are invited to be a part of the exchange around inclusion-sensitive learning materials. We want to learn about your opinions throughout the duration of the project and beyond! The rating function of the digiLLM portal is a place where we can steadily discuss inclusion-sensitivity. Rating can be given by a simple “star-rating” (0-5 stars) or a more extended commentary. You choose!
We share a broad understanding of inclusion, taking all differences between people into consideration and aiming to dismantle barriers to education. Given the wide diversity of learners and their educational needs, we acknowledge that there is no “perfect inclusive” material. That is why we choose to talk about “inclusion-sensitive” materials.
Teaching and learning materials of any kind (books, work sheets, websites, videos…) are a central part of every educational interaction. That is why they also shape the inclusivity or exclusivity of a teaching and learning setting. Also, classrooms are growing more and more diverse. That is why teachers need to learn how to use and/or adapt digital materials in order to react to their students’ needs.
Learners – be it in school or at university –, at the same time, need to learn and decide what materials they can work well with.
The digiLLM project wants to involve you in the process of finding out what good inclusion-sensitive materials look like and how to work with them in order to support inclusive teaching and learning in European education. For this, we are currently setting up an interactive digital portal for you to be a part of and share your perspective on digital educational material and OER

To define OER, point the often-cited UNESCO definition may be a good starting point:

Open Educational Resources are "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaption and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions
The open licenses allow users to adapt and modify materials. This way, they can be adapted to any learner’s educational needs. For example, the difficulty of a task or a design can be adapted. Additional help and guidance can be provided by the teacher, if a student needs it. A cultural context can be modified, so learners feel more adequately addressed.

This is how adapting materials to a learner’s needs is promising for creating inclusive teaching and learning settings.

In this regard, OER can be a helpful tool to support inclusive education. The UNESCO acknowledges this by stating: “Open Educational Resources (OER) support quality education that is equitable, inclusive, open and participatory.”

Reference: 2nd World OER Congress: Ljubljana OER Action Plan - UNESCO Digital Library
In the digiLLM project, we acknowledge the importance of materials for educational settings. We are generally interested in inclusive digital teaching and learning materials. From our point of view, OER provide great potentials for the support of inclusive education. But what does it take to make an OER inclusion-sensitive? What does it take to realize OERs’ potential to support inclusive education?

Inclusion is a complex issue, especially from an international perspective. It is talked about differently in different countries, cultural contexts and educational systems.

Teaching and learning materials are also highly contextual. If a material is “good” or “bad” depends on the learner, the teacher and the overall context (cultural, educational…). The OER movement has created great starting points for inclusive digital materials by offering freely accessible materials and allowing adaptation and remixing materials through open licenses. There is a wide variety of resources and OER repositories available (link to repository collection). OER communities engage in the further popularization of Open Educational Resources and corresponding Open Educational Practices.

The interactive digiLLM portal is currently under construction. Sign up for the newsletter to be informed about its launch (coming 2023).
OER provide users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)

Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)

Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)

Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)

Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)”

Reference:

Wiley, D. (2019). Defining the 'Open' in Open Content and Open Educational Resources.

In R. Kimmons (Ed.), EdTech in the Wild. EdTech Books. Link

We collected an extensive list of academic research and respositories for digital materials. These can be your starting point for further research and finding educational materials in your language. In this section, we present some resources compiled during our research.
There is a literature collection of academic texts that provide insights as to how the topic of inclusive OER and digital learning material is being talked about in the partner countries. Consult the list below to learn more about the current state of research!
Also, there is an extensive list of repositories and resources for digital learning material. Consult the list below if you want to learn where to find digital learning materials and OER.
We asked what you think about inclusive digital learning materials. In order to understand the topic of inclusive learning materials, their potentials and challenges, we talked to those who use them on a daily basis: teachers and learners, researchers and providers of Open Educational Resources. In this section, we compile insights from our interview partners in all four partner countries.

In the list below, we present insights from our interview partners we discussed the topics with. Feel free to learn more about what your colleagues/co-learners and researchers in our partner countries have to say about inclusive digital learning material.
Learn more about criteria for inclusive (digital) learning materials in the section about our FRoLLM. This reflective tools helps you to evaluate what a material needs to be like in order to be inclusion-sensitive - from your very personal perspective.