The Many Good Reasons for Open Educational Resources

The Many Good Reasons for Open Educational

Resources: Why Universities should

adopt Open Policies

Frederik Truyen, OER-HE stakeholder workshop, March 2011

Open Education

• ...is the simple and powerful idea that the

world’s knowledge is a public good and that

technology in general and the Worldwide Web in

particular provide an extraordinary opportunity

for everyone to share, use, and reuse

knowledge."

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

OCW

• "The Open Courseware concept is based on the

philosophical view of knowledge as a collective

social product and so it is also desirable to make

it a social property."

V. S. Prasad, Vice-Chancellor - Dr. B. R.

Ambedkar Open University, India

OER Initiatives1. open courseware and content;

2. open software tools (e.g. learning management

systems);

3. open material for e-learning capacity building of

faculty staff;

4. repositories of learning objects; and

5. free educational courses.Hylén, J. (2005). Open educational resources: Opportunities and challenges.

OECD-CERI. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/49/35733548.doc

see also: Downes, Stephen (2007). "Models for Sustainable Open Educational

Resources" in: Interdisciplinary Journal of Knwoledge and Learning Objects, Vol.

3, p. 29-44.

OER definition• "OER are teaching, learning, and research

resources that reside in the public domain or

have been released under an intellectual

property license that permits their free use or

re-purposing by others. Open educational

resources include full courses, course

materials, modules, textbooks, streaming

videos, tests, software, and any other tools,

materials, or techniques used to support access

to knowledge."

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

OER definition OECD

• "digitised materials offered freely and openly

for educators, students, and self-learners to use

and reuse for teaching, learning, and research.

OER includes learning content, software tools to

develop, use, and distribute content, and

implementation resources such as open

licences."

OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and UNESCO

Criticism

• Beware of paternalistic agenda

• Contents need to be interculturally adjusted

• Economic model unclear

• Static vision on knowledge and learning contents !

Knowledge economy

• Learning economy• Bengt-Åke Lundvall

• Creative economy• Charles Landry, John Howkins, Richard Florida

• Open knowledge economy• Yochai Benkler

Peters, M. A. (2010). Three Forms of the Knowledge Economy: Learning, Creativity and Openness. British Journal of Educational Studies, 58(1), 67-88.

Reframing Resources• Open Educational Resources

go beyond Learning materials and involve the stakeholder communities and key actors involved in the relevant knowledge domains

• The ultimate Open Educational Resource

is part of the social network that warrants the supply chain, validates the knowledge claims, and makes it sustainable and fosters its growth

Course

• a summary of a field• structure and an outline• references and links• teaching & learning activities• intensity, depth• assessment• authority

as a defining feature

for the structure and purpose of OER, in providing:

OER

Teaching Communit

y

Industry

Local Stakeholders

andactors

ScientificCommunity

Journals

Organisations

ConferencesExercises

Blogs & wiki's

Course notes

Books

ExpertsProducts

Exploitation

Archives

Libraries

Professionals

Users

StakeholdersPublishers

Assessment

Good reasons for OER

• Widening Participation & LifeLong Learning

• Internationalization

• Profiling & Mainstreaming

• Reaching out to stakeholders

• Quality control / Cost control

• Learning in the Digital Age

• Interdisciplinary research

Widening Participation

• LifeLong Learning

• Accessibility

• Reaching out to professional communities

Internationalization

• Enhanced visibility and findability

• Possibility to engage students at a distance

• International collaboration and sharing of workload

Profiling

• For the institution

• For the individual teacher

Mainstreaming

• In a regional context

• feeding the web

Stakeholder communities

• Regional expertise networks and knowledge anchor points

• Fostering participation

Quality Control

• Public scrutiny

• Originality

• Benchmarking

Cost control

• Re-use economics

• Filling the gaps

• Reducing authoring cost

Learning in the Digital Age

• Personal Learning Environment

• Flexible learning

• Remediation of knowledge gaps

• Community translations

Interdisciplinary Research

• Increased exposure of insights to other domains

• Sharing of concepts and methods

• Tracking trends

The role of the university

• A Regional duty with an international scope

• Relevant, well-structured reference materials for the broader community

• Embedded in an international framework

Partners OER-HE

Thank you!