We are very happy to announce issue 11 of our series on Open Educational Resources. Maria Haas did her masterthesis about “Practical usage of OER material in the EFL classroom”.
Abstract:
Little research with regards to Open Educational Resources (OER) usage in secondary education is available. Therefore, a two week long study was conducted in an Austrian middle school with second year learners of English. The study tried to determine how OER material could be used in an offline environment for this particular type of students. For this purpose, preparation time, available material and students’ feedback was evaluated. The findings suggest that there is a lack of available material which, alongside difficultes related to licensing, increased preparation time. Students’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive which imply that if the other challenges encountered can be overcome, OER material can be a useful additon to the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom.