The institutional impact of OpenLearn

Professor Andy LaneDirector, OpenLearn

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Why make our content open?

• A growing momentum behind open content worldwide

• Open content consistent with the University’s commitment to social justice and widening participation in Higher Education

• Can be a way of building markets and reputation

• Can be a test bed for new e-learning developments and offers an opportunity to research and evaluate them

• We can learn more about the University’s business model

• It can be a way of drawing in materials from other organisations

• It can provide the basis for world-wide collaborations over the development and dissemination of supported open learning

Some initial major concerns

• Giving away the ‘family silver’ – what about the market value of content?

• Inappropriate use of the content – what will others do with it?

• Threatening student recruitment – why will they pay for what they can get free?

• Problems of implementing licensing agreements for courses and programmes – will we lose revenue?

• Long-term sustainability – who pays for making content open?

The OpenLearn stages

• A feasibility report agreed by VC’s Executive, Academic Board and Council mid 2005 to undertake a pilot project

• Hewlett granted $200k to help cover $700k scoping work in late 2005 for a two year pilot (stage 1)

• $8.9m grant from William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for two year pilot costing $11m in total, 2006-8 (stage 2)

– Formation of a programme team to achieve pilot goals and participation in the open content global networks

– Joined OpenCourseware Consortium

• Continue with OpenLearn ($1.2m) but embed policy and practices into existing systems and processes and seek more funding, 2008-9 (stage 3)

Major aims of stage 2

• Enhanced learning experiences for users of open content (self study content plus open learning environment);

• Greater involvement in higher education by under-represented groups and empowerment for various support networks that work with them;

• Enhanced knowledge and understanding of open content delivery, how it can be effective, and the contribution it can make to further development of e-learning;

• Enhanced understanding of sustainable and scaleable models of open content delivery.

What have we done so far?

FOR

LEARNERS

FOR

EDUCATORS

Major features of OpenLearn

• Study units consisting of multiple media assets:– Text assets as XML or PDF– Audiovisual assets as MP3 files– Images as jpg files– Flash animations

• An Open Learning Environment using OSS (Moodle +)– Forums – Learning Journals– Learning Clubs– Rating and Tagging– Video conferencing (FM)– Knowledge maps (Compendium)– FlashVlogs– Activity records

Quality management

• LearningSpace:– Original material externally peer reviewed– Pre-publication internal peer review– 5 star user ratings – User reviews

• LabSpace– Badging of Units as

• Current OU OER, • Archived OU OER, • User generated contribution, • Project generated contribution

– 5 star user ratings – User reviews – Post publication external peer review?– Institutional Lenses like Connexions?

Who are the users?

• Individual self learners (over 3.7 million browsing visitors and 80,000 registered users) around the world (220 countries)

• Individual and groups of educators around the world

• Lifelong learning groups in the UK wanting informal study

• Educational and other organisations for collaboration and staff development

And what happens to the content?

• Accessed and used the online by browsers and registered users

• Added to online by registered users

• Referred to from another VLE or website

• Taken away and used elsewhere

The open content takeaway

User behaviour with content

• Over 2000 FM video conferences booked• Over 4,000 Compendium downloads, over 400 knowledge map

downloads and over 40 uploads• Over 6000 forum postings• Over 2000 learning journal entries• 10,000 units printed per week• 10,000 downloads per week• Growing number of Learning Clubs (new)• Some translations into Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese• In situ editing of units by educators• Collaboration zone for groups to add their own content• Content now also found on or via YouTube, NetVibes, Flickr,

MySpace as we and others spread it around

Supporting widening participation

• Introducing black and ethnic minority students to learning

• Providing learning to prisoners at 15 prisons

• Developing thinking skills for Openings students

• Partnerships with Unionlearn and NIACE

National and regional partnerships

There are partnership activities in all OU regions e.g.

• Sussex Lifelong Learning Project• University of the Third Age• Western Vocational Lifelong

Learning Network• OpenLearn micro sites for Wales

and Scotland

International partnerships

There are a number of international activities we are linked to:

• Working with OCW Consortium, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities

• Informal partnerships with Commonwealth of Learning, UNISUL in Brazil

• TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa)

• Research led ventures

Business and community engagement

• OpenLearn is featured on and links through to OU’s Continuing Professional Development website

• Supporting OU R&D work with professional bodies

• Helping transform Plymouth City Council Children’s Services into a Learning Organisation

• Changing relationships with publishers.

Information, advice and guidance

• Integrated into advice given in new Study with the OU website and prospectuses

• Already approx. 50% of Student Registration and Enquiry Service (SRS) staff refer students to OpenLearn

• Educational and careers advisers in the Regional/National Centres recommend OpenLearn for prospective and continuing students

Marketing

• Lead generation – 4,500+ prospectus enquiries over 12 months

• Decision support for students

• Conversion tool – 9,000+ registrations to date

• Loyalty mechanism – repeat visitors and business

• Marketing 2.0: Personal, relevant, free, valued, open

• Viral content supporting low-cost/no-cost marketing strategy

• Social media marketing

Reputation

Subject of over 30 international traditional press articles and 700 blog posts

Presented extensively internationally

OU recognised as leading player in OER movement worldwide alongside MIT, Carnegie Mellon etc

OU content widely cited in other VLEs e.g. Leeds College of Art and Design, University of Delhi, OpenEcoSystem, NativeEnglishOnline

Actively promoted to large organisations, opening doors to relationships with Sky, Microsoft etc

OpenLearn has been recognised by IP experts to be pushing boundaries

10 award short listings – innovation and public service

Strengthening research bids

• EduShare. Asia-Link Programme, the European Commission.

• The Project on Open Content for Knowledge Exposition and Teaching (POCKET), JISC.

• Staff improvement in distance education for Caribbean, African and Pacific universities (SideCap). ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Higher Education (EDULINK).

• ATELIER-D - Achieving Transformation, Enhanced Learning, and Innovation through Educational Resources in Design, JISC.

• iCOPER: Interoperable Content for Performance in a Competency-driven Society, eContentplus.

• ASPECT: Adopting Standards and Specifications for Educational Content, eContentplus.

Conclusions

• OERs attract people/organizations because they can do something with them

• Many people/organizations want more than just the content - a relationship with other users or the University

• OERs are being assessed against the OU’s own mission and strategic priorities for tangible and intangible benefits

• OpenLearn has been run as an action research project with constant developments and continuous evaluation

• Educators need strong commitment and continued support over long periods to rework or create new resources

• Being involved in networks has been essential

• OER work needs to align with both day to day and longer term activities

• Need to look for new business models … advertising, value added services, disaggregated services?