Good intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials

Lou McGillSarah CurrierCharles Duncan Peter Douglas

Open educational repositories: share, improve, reuseThursday 26th March 2009

Resource producer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/royalty-free-images/139142408/

Primary consumer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/2432117840/

Resource

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhillary/829573216/

Resource Supplier

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saar_cmd/509088837/

Resource consumer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericmmartin/3222306911/

Resource sharing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanwick/2283058460/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/131012552/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laura_a/530116949/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/antonioacuna/394608502/

Resource exchange

Repurposed resource

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffcarlson/418350700/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imipolexg/266653753/

Context of use/re-purposing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilgamesh/6712077/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klara/21294855/

Learning materials

'sharing' implies intent – letting others use something of value that you have created or own (invested in)

could share openly or with specific groups 'exchange' – parties offer/share some

resource for mutual benefit re-use/re-purposing imply sharing but this

may not always be a conscious intent

Intent

Whilst sharing and exchange are processes (either conscious or not) it is the intent behind the various initiatives, activities and services that are important...

is sharing learning resources really feasible – why has it been so hard to do?

The problem

Millions (£) spent on creating learning content over more than a decade

Interoperability has advanced enormously over the same period

Barriers related to IPR have been identified and largely overcome (for example Creative Commons)

Yet there is no single compelling business case for sharing resources

Conflicting views?

“there is little tradition or articulated desire for sharing learning materials in the sector in the ways made possible by these technologies” TrustDR report, 2007

70% of respondents to a 2006 survey re-purposed resources created by others CD-LOR Personal Resource Management

Strategies Review

Improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials

June – December 2008

Funded by

Objective

Research Study

Desk research and interviews Symposium on Implementing

National Learning Resources Repositories

Collating and analysing business models

Development of business cases for a variety of business models

Early thoughts

Sharing is not just about using formal repositories

Learning resources interpreted broadly Business terminology not particularly

relevant to learning & teaching practitioners

We do need to understand the 'business' in terms of knowing our market and 'consumers'

Business models and cases

Service

– Various infrastructures that exist to support sharing

Business model

– a mechanism to illustrate various aspects of an existing service

Business case

– an articulation of the benefits of such a model

The paths we take

Business models that exist now reflect the history of our work to encourage sharing of learning resources...

Report offers an account of this history...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elfike/118283141/

In-depth Case Studies

OpenLearn, UK, Open University Jorum, UK, National Repository NDLR, Ireland, National Repository COLEG, Scotland, FE National Repository IRISS Learning Exchange, Scotland, Social

Work IVIMEDS, International, Medicine SURF WBL, UK, Cross-institutional CELLS, Scotland, Cross-institutional, Life

Sciences EdShare, Southampton, UK, single

institution

Open Sharing Models Studied

OpenLearn, UK JorumOpen, UK MIT OCW, US NZ OER, New Zealand Merlot, International OER Commons, International Connexions, Rice University US Knowledge Hub, Mexico BC Campus, Canada

Historical Models Studied

SeSDL, National, Scotland, Subject: IT Staff Development

HLSI, Regional, England IVINURS, International, Subject:

Nursing JORUM+, National, UK Stòr Cùram, National, Scotland,

Subject: Social Work

Business model template

A template was developed to enable the articulation of a wide range of existing business models for sharing learning resources.

– to identify common elements and key decision points

– to highlight key points of connection between factors, decision making points, opportunities and stresses/restrictions.

Business model template

Finance models

Service models

Supplier/consumer models

Issues affecting models

Business Models

Subject-based sharing– Communities of practice; shared

curriculum Open sharing

– No barriers; open access; open licences Institutional sharing Informal sharing Media-focussed sharing

Lifecycle

Early experiments– Recognition of problems: IPR, culture,

practice

– Technology: interoperability, metadata Growing and changing

– Landscape has changed significantly

– Funding: sustainability, adaptability Maturing

– Strong business cases

Business cases a mechanism to help people decide which business

model/s to adopt as appropriate a process where they would automatically generate a

context specific business case to support funding requests

encourages an approach which starts with the needs (required benefits) not a preferred model

no one model fits all and often a combination of models may be appropriate depending on the context

Helps to prioritise benefits and recognise that by making some business model choices certain benefits are more difficult to achieve

to support a dialogue within institutions by identifying what benefits the institution and wider community already enjoy from existing sharing activities.

Benefit levels

Benefit for the global community (13) Benefit for the national community (13) Benefit for the educational institution

(15) Benefit for individual teachers, tutors

and learning support staff (8) Benefit for individual learners, students

(11)

Impact of business cases

Significant impact Some impact Possible with right conditions No impact

General benefits to global community Open CoP Subject-based Institutional National Informal

Supporting subject-discipline communities to share

Encourages innovation and experimentation

Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries

Supports re-use and re-purposing

Supports community input to metadata through tagging, notes, reviews

Supports effective retrieval through professionally created metadata

Ensures trust through appropriate licensing

Business cases - Global

Case Subject Open

Supporting subject-based communities to share

Encourages innovation and experimentation

Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries

Supporting re-use and re-purposing

Supporting continued development of standards and interoperability

Supporting continued development of tools for sharing and exchange

Supporting sharing and reuse of individual assets

Helps develop critical mass of materials in particular subject areas

Supporting ease of access through search engines such as Google

Business cases - NationalCase Subject Open

Cost efficiencies Decrease in duplication Supports cross-institutional sharing Provides access to non-educational bodies such as employers,professional bodies, trade unions, etc

Supports a broad vision of sharing across the country

Promotes the concept of lifelong learning

Supports shared curricula

Supports discovery of most used/highest quality resources Supports the notion that educational institutions should leverage taxpayers’ money by allowing free sharing and reuse of resources

Mitigates the cost of keeping resources closed

Mitigates the risk of doing nothing in a rapidly changing environment

Supports sustained long-term sharing

Business cases - Institutional

Case Subject Open

Increased transparency and quality of learning materials

Encourages high quality learning and teaching resources

Supports modular course development

Maintaining and building institution’s reputation - globally

Attracting new staff and students to institutions – recruitment tool forstudents and prospective employers

Shares expertise efficiently within institutions

Supports the altruistic notion that sharing knowledge is in line withacademic traditions and a good thing to do

Likely to encourage review of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

Enhancing connections with external stakeholders by making resourcesvisible

Business cases - Teachers

Case Subject Open

Increased personal recognition

Supports sharing of knowledge and teaching practice

Encourages improvement in teaching practice

Supports immediate one-off instances of sharing

Supports attribution

Encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration and sharing

Supports CPD and offers evidence of this

Business cases - Learners

Case Subject Open

Easy and free access to learning material for learners

Increased access options for students enrolled on courses (particularlyremote students)

Easily accessed through student-owned technologies

Increased access for non-traditional learners (widening participation)

Likely to encourage self-regulated and independent learning

Likely to increase demand for flexible learning opportunities

Likely to increase demand for assessment and recognition of competenciesgained outside formal learning settings

Likely to encourage peer support, mentorship and ambassadorial programmes

National sharing scenario

• Reflects government ideals of widening participation, encouraging effective utilisation of publicly funded collections of resources, promoting cross institutional collaboration, encouraging re-use and re-purposing and supporting lifelong learning

• Obviously a national approach would be required to facilitate these benefits but combining this with an open approach (on a national scale) could add many benefits, particularly if this meant open to learners as well as those supporting learning and teaching. A CoP approach could support sustainability, and a subject-based approach would also support the development of a critical mass in different subject areas. A possible model to support this scenario would be an open national repository with access by students, possibly opened wider than the UK with subject based community support mechanisms to encourage sharing of practice, deposit of materials and re-use/re-purposing.

Conclusions

Report referred to in recent JISC OER call Develop toolkit for institutions building

business cases Consider “intent” – know your objectives Recognise that these may change

through the lifecycle of any repository Adapt, modify, sustain

Good intentions

The vision of a world where teachers in HE, FE and WBL/CPD would share and re-purpose their learning materials, using the Web as a medium, with the support of interoperability standards, and repository platforms utilising those standards has been with us for many years.

Despite our best efforts and good intentions we've not always moved forward as fast as we would have liked. And now we find that after all that work and, sometimes painful, experience our world has changed.

The evidence suggests that the landscape of policy, technology, and learning and teaching practice may have changed sufficiently for us to realise the vision.

Good intentions report and business cases available at

http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/265/