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Explores the idea that the openness approach has broken through to mainstream practice, but that the battle around the direction open education will take is just beginning.
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The Battle for Open
Martin Weller
Sign the CC-BY license!
So, I’m writing this
book…
Central theme
Openness has won…
But now the real direction of openness is up for grabs
This talk
The roots of open edWhy is openness successful4 areas of open ed
– How openness has won– What the tensions are now
The battle for narrativeConclusions
Why “a battle”?
1. There are real areas of conflict
2. There is real value to be won
3. The victor writes history – a battle for narrative
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clydeorama/5099069820/
Roots of (modern) open ed
• Open universities – open access, entry. Focus on methods, removing barriers, not free
• Free software – 4 freedom (purpose, change, redistribute, distribute modified). Emphasis on control
• Open source – “given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow”. Emphasis on efficiency
• Web 2.0 – culture of sharing, open practice
Open education is…
(Avoids definition)Set of coalescing principles:• Freedom to reuse• Open access• Free cost• Easy use• Digital, networked content• Social, community based approaches• Ethical arguments for openness• Openness as efficient model
(for more, see)David Wiley: iSummit '08 Keynote Address http://vimeo.com/1796014
A history of Openness From Peter, S., & Deimann, M. (2013). On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction. Open Praxis, 5(1), 7-14.
Open access
[Source: University of Southampton, ROARMAP, http://roarmap.eprints.org/ Published under a CC-BY license]
Major breakthroughs
• “Free online access to scholarly works”• Major policies in many countries• Gold route & Green route• More than 50% have published OA• OA Impact advantage
Growth of OA
Laakso M, Welling P, Bukvova H, Nyman L, Björk B-C, et al. (2011) The Development of Open Access Journal Publishing from 1993 to 2009. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20961. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020961
The battle• Gold route – Matthew
effect, can be more expensive
• No incentive to innovate• Elsevier ‘take down’ on
Academia.edu• Predatory OA journals• Changes relationship• Hybrid models
OERs
Major breakthroughs
• OpenCourseware since 2001 (LOs earlier)
• Repositories in major languages and areas
• OCWC 260 institutions• Open Textbooks
Some findingsSaylor: Increased
enthusiasm for study (59%). Increased
interest in subject (58%), Gaining
confidence (50%)
Over 30% of students reported studying their subject via OER before
joining their course
60% CCCOER identified reduced cost of
materials as a driver of student retention
OpenStax downloads 120K times, leading to
an estimated $3 million savings for students
(Green 2013)
Feldstein et al. (2013) 47% of students
purchased the paper textbooks, 93% of
students reading the free online textbook
OER Research Hub
Oerresearchhub.org Chaos.open.ac.uk
Battle
• Is there enough impact?• OCL survey• Pearson OpenClass• Overtaken by MOOCs?
• In general, an open success story?
MOOCs
Image – David Kernohan
Awareness
Figure 5.1: Google Trends plot of relative interest in MOOCs (red) and OERs (blue).
(but still not that important)
Uptake
• Udacity, Iversity, Coursera, Open2Study, FutureLearn, EdX
• Large registrations (Coursera 17m enrolments)
• On Newsnight, in NYT, etc• “If education was grunge,
MOOCs were its Nirvana” (George Siemens)
The battle
• Not really open• Commercially driven adoption of open• Openness is the first casualty• Contracts with unis• Support for learners• Centralised platform & data• Sustainability
Open scholarship
By Gideon Burton http://www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3157622458/in/set-72157612021421472/
Open practice
• Online identity is now becoming the norm• Recognised by institution• Complements existing practice• Part of research projects• Area of innovation• Open research, open data
Battle
• Promotion still not sure about it
• Disciplinary tension• Pressure to have online
identity• Exposure to risk• The quantified self• Not without cost
The Silicon Valley narrative
• a technological fix is both possible and in existence;
• external forces will change, or disrupt, an existing sector;
• wholesale revolution is required• the solution is provided by commerce.
Education is broken
The education space is massive,
very broken” (Tauber 2013)
Education is broken. Face it. It is so broken at so many ends, it
requires a little bit of Silicon Valley magic
Thrun
The models of higher education that marched triumphantly across
the globe in the second half of the 20th century are broken
(Avalanche report)
The education space is massive,
very broken” (Shirky)
Education is broken.
Someone should do something degreed.com
A disruption obsession
disruption is a necessary and
overdue chapter in our public schools.
(Christensen)
elements of the traditional university are threatened by the coming avalanche. In
Clayton Christensen’s terms, universities are ripe for disruption (Avalanche report)
OERs have not noticeably disrupted
the traditional business model of higher education .
(Korteyemer)
The MOOC media perfect storm
Education is broken!
Education is ripe for disruption!
MOOCs are technological
solution!
Outsiders with new ideas!
• Avoid “open Stalinism”• Don’t replace one mono-culture with
another• The most interesting thing about
openness is that it allows innovation
Beware• Openwashing• Free = open• Temporary openness• Venture capital
bearing open gifts• Silicon valley
sexiness
Conclusions• Openness is not just a peripheral interest• It has entered mainstream academic practice• Much of the future direction of HE relates to
openness
• So…
Ownership over the direction of openness is relevant to all those in HE
Some links:
• Battle for open article: http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/view/2013-15
• Relevant Blog bits: http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/battle/
• Publisher: ubiquitypress.com• Oerresearchhub.org• Impact map: chaos.open.ac.uk