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The Value of Open and Open as a Value
Adoption of sharing and reuse of open materials
in Dutch HE
Robert Schuwer & Ben Janssen
Agenda
• Motivation
• Methodology
• Findings
• Conclusions & recommendations
Motivation
• National strategic Agenda HO2525 “Value of knowledge”
• Action plan taskforce Ministry of Education
• Survey Fall 2015: no widespread adoption of OER
• No clear picture of state-of-the-art in Dutch HE
CC-BY Hester Jelgerhuis
Methodology
Research question
What will lead to or is needed for widespread adoption of
sharing and reusing open learning materials and online
courses by academic and teaching staff (teachers) in
publicly funded Higher Education institutions in the
Netherlands?
Terminology and assumptions
• Widespread adoption: adoption by early majority (Rogers)
• Open sharing and reuse: sharing and reusing open learning
materials and online courses
• Open sharing and reuse is seen as an innovation in Dutch HE
(OECD, 2014)
• Teachers are decisive change agents in the process of
adoption (autonomous) (Sloep & Jochems, 2007)
Teacher
Management
Support
Motives
Ambition
Barrier
Experience
TeacherMinistry Institution
Accelerator
Institution
Department/team
Policy
Boundarycondition
Teacher
TeacherTeacher
TeacherTeacher
Methodology
• Approach: Theory of diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2002) (Rogers, 2003)
• Semi-structured interview– In total 55, each 30-60 minutes– Recorded, transcripted, coded
• Teachers, management, support staff– Some experience with “open sharing and reuse”– Mixture of subject fields
• Connected to interviewee’s idea of “open”
HE institutions
Model
• Open license• In OER repository
or on MOOC-site• For the world
• Copyright clearing
• Metadating
(Issack, 2011)
Code treeCode
Ambition Role of the teacher
Policy
Role open online education Notion of open
Motives Share, reuse
Behaviour Share, reuse
Accelerators Stimulate sharing, stimulate reuse
Barriers Cultural, infrastructural, legal, QA, organisation, professionalisation
Support
Boundary conditions Policy, financial, infrastructural, legal, knowledge aboutopen, vision on quality, organisation
Influences Top down, bottom up, outside in
Findings
CC-BY Hester Jelgerhuis
Findings, quantitative
Findings, quantitative
Findings, qualitative
Motives
• Institutional gains: marketing, reaching new target
groups, financial (expensive resources)
• Educational gains: blended learning, efficiency, handling
diversity, improving quality
• Personal gains: recognition, idealistic, counterbalancing
commercial publishers
Some quotes
Whatever materials staff has prepared, fact is that these materials have a life cycle of just one year. (...) The speed of progress is so fast that we in fact discourage the development of materials by our staff.
Take the basics of mathematics for example, why should we develop materials on this matter ourselves?
I myself have developed an increasing hate against this copyrights’ terror (...). I also think (...) that if an edition of a book is ten years old, by definition the book should be made available by open access, period.
For the sake of our children and the planet, it is necessary that all those people cooperate and solve problems in cooperation
There are many examples of teachers who really want to help others with their knowledge. In return, they often receive input for their research. I sometimes call these people knowledge communists.
Sharing
• There exists a great variety of practices of sharing and reuse of learning materials:– Informally (between 2 teachers, across institutions)
– With and without open license
– A variety of channels (Youtube, Slideshare, Facebook, Dropbox)
– In teams, within a faculty, within institution, between institutions, for theworld
• Receiving feedback on shared materials is a crucial factor in achieving a structural behavior of sharing by teachers
• MOOC as a format for sharing is more attractive
Some quotes
One has to be very careful, especially if one also stores materials. So to protect myself, if I use things of which I have doubts, I will not even try to use our own portal, because it could bring my institution into trouble.
My impression is that, at least with teachers with whom I speak, all of them are very willing to share
Reuse
• Most mentioned: video and slides
• Awareness on copyrights (open license) not always
present
Reuse has bigger advantages when you give a basic course, while a course in the Master's phase or a more advanced course you modify the materials in line with the associated research.
Barriers
• Most mentioned: lack of time, copyrights
• IT-skills and aversion to IT
• Not aware of opportunities of open learning materials
• Too little support available
• Uncertainty about quality and what is allowed
Some quotes
Because of all the effort invested into creating resources, I also would be very nervous about letting them out on the street and never hear anything about them.
The not invented here syndrome is heavily present here (...). And this attitude holds for nearly everything, except for the publishers. I really can’t figure out why publishers are seen as right.
One of the things I really notice, is the unfamiliarity of teachers with anything regarding copyright. (..). And they have no idea what they are doing. So when we want to open it using Creative Commons, we are in trouble.
Being an excellent researcher and being less in teaching is accepted much more than vice versa
An LMS like Blackboard impedes sharing of learning materials.
Support
• Legal
• IT
• Educational
• Necessary precondition
• Often unknown if support is available
Some quotes
Every now and you have a “yes-but” type of person in your team, who says: yes, it is nice but have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? This is not always a pleasure, but I think it ultimately helps to improve the quality.
What I find important is convenience; so automatic metadata, automatic recommendations based on the learning materials you are just creating, have contact with colleagues, et cetera.
Conclusions & recommendations
CC-BY Hester Jelgerhuis
Conclusions (1)
• Autonomy of teacher is recognized by both management and teacher
• Teachers are insufficiently familiar with presence or content of policies
of their management with regard to sharing and reuse of learning
materials;
• Support and “what’s in it for me” are necessary preconditions for
adoption
Conclusions (2)
• Publishing MOOCs is experienced as an accelerator for
the adoption of open sharing of materials and courses
within an institution
• Acceptance of open sharing and reuse at institutional
level, expressing itself in a policy that is translated into
concrete activities and guidelines, affects widespread
adoption by teachers in a positive way
Recommendations (1)
1. Make the added value of open sharing and reuse of
learning materials clear to teachers;
2. Ensure that this change towards open sharing and reuse
is accompanied by structural support, in terms of time
(money), a supporting infrastructure, IT-related services,
legal and educational support, and safe spaces for
experiments;
Recommendations (2)
3. Formulate policies on open sharing and reuse of
learning materials, both at the level of institution and
departments, in order to enable the activities mentioned
under recommendations 1 and 2;
4. Link these policies on open sharing and reuse to other
themes on educational innovation or to themes like
internationalization.
Colofon
References
Issack, S.M. (2011). OERs in Context--Case Study of Innovation and Sustainability of Educational Practices at the University of Mauritius.
European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning.
OECD (2014). Measuring Innovation in Education: A New Perspective, Educational research and Innovation, OECD Publishing. Series.
Rogers, E.M. (2002). Diffusion of preventive innovations. Addictive Behaviors, 27, 989–993.
Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. 5th. Edition, Free Press, New York
Sloep, P. B., & Jochems, W. (2007). De e-lerende burger. In J. de Haan & J. Steyaert (red.), Jaarboek ICT en samenleving 2007; Eindelijk digitaal
(171-187). Amsterdam: Boom
Pictures
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