Students’ Digital Competence Development in the Production of Open Educational Resources in Education for Sustainable Development
Marni Manegre
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe content of the work is correct in all sections, except in the results section, which is very brief. It is proposed to greatly expand the results obtained after the implementation of 11 OEP in HESD, to know if the objective of training students to co-produce OER on Sustainable Development (SD) is achieved.
Author Response
Dear respected Reviewer, please find my response in the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe study investigates the role of Open Education, Open Educational Practices (OEP), and Open Educational Resources (OER) in enhancing global sustainability information sharing. It focuses on their use in Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD). The goal is to empower students to co-produce OER on Sustainable Development (SD), employing the principle of constructive alignment. The research involved a two-group pre-test and post-test analysis of 409 students from various disciplines. It found a significant increase in digital competence in students who produced OER on SD compared to those not involved in OER content development. The study also discusses practical implications for designing OEP in HESD and strategies to support students in OER production.
Dear Author,
Thank you for your submission. The studied topic is interesting and more studies are needed in this field.
Generally, the manuscript is well written showcasing several strengths, including its innovative approach in a relatively unexplored field, a well-founded theoretical framework based on constructive alignment, and a methodologically sound two-group pretest-posttest design. It benefits from an interdisciplinary participant pool, enhancing the richness and applicability of its findings.
The study also offers practical insights for OEP design in higher education. However, improvements are suggested in areas such as better controlling variables that might influence the results, such as the prior digital competence of participants. Additionally, expanding sample diversity, providing more detailed qualitative analyses, evaluating long-term impacts, and conducting comparative studies of different OER production models.
Thank you
Author Response
Dear respected Reviewer, please find my response in the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsOverall, this is a good article. The background information is well written, it is easy to follow, the correct statistical tool was chosen and the write up was done correctly, which includes the effect size. There are a few minor issues.
1) In the abstract, you have pre-test and post-test with hyphens, but in the body of the article, it is pretest and posttest. As per APA7, there are no hyphens in these words.
2) In section 2.3, you discuss 5 areas of the DigComp Framework. This is again discussed, but with further detail in section 3.3. The text in these sections (not just the 5 areas, but surrounding text) seem repetitive.
3) Watch the numbering in Section 4. The subsections start with a 3 and not a 4.
4) There are no hypothesis statements. The research questions are not easy to find.
5) I'm not sure whether this is a requirement of the journal, but as per APA7, figure labels now go above the figure.
6) maybe I missed this, but I didn't see a mention of the type of software chosen to complete the analysis.
Please see my comments and the highlighted text on the attachment.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear respected Reviewer, please find my response in the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe study explores the role of Open Educational Practices (OEP) in Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD), focusing on student involvement in producing Open Educational Resources (OER) on sustainable development topics. It examines the impact of OER production on students' digital competence through a pre-test and post-test analysis of 409 students. The findings reveal a significant increase in digital competence among students involved in OER production compared to their peers. The study highlights the benefits of integrating OER production in HESD and its implications for digital competence development.
Major comments:
Section 6, 'Results', requires enhanced explanation and interpretation. The current presentation of results does not sufficiently convey the observations made from the study. It is crucial to clearly articulate what was observed and analyzed, providing a detailed interpretation of the data to elucidate the study's findings more effectively.
In addressing the implementation of similar initiatives in HE institutions lacking HOOU resources and OER expertise, the suggestion is to involve educators and students in creating a journal distributed freely within the community. Each student group could contribute simplified articles on topics selected by educators, in collaboration with faculties specializing in journalism and mass communication. While this approach may not address digital literacy, it aligns with experiential learning principles within HESD.
Author Response
Dear respected Reviewer, please find my response in the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe updated content of the text "Students' digital Competence Development in the Production of Open Educational Resources in Education for Sustainable Development" is correct. The contents of the debates and results sections have been further explored, clarifying the existing content.
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThank you for the updates.
