What is OER?

“In its simplest form, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) describes any educational resources (including curriculum maps, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcasts, and any other materials that have been designed for use in teaching and learning) that are openly available for use by educators and students, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees” (Butcher, 2011, p. 5).

What is OERu?

“The OER university aims to provide free learning to all students worldwide using OER learning materials with pathways to gain credible qualifications from recognised education institutions” (OER university, 2011).

The Need for OERu

“According to UNESCO (2009), there were almost 153 million post-secondary students worldwide in 2007,.... The demand for higher education is predicted to expand ... to over 262 million students by 2025....

This level of demand exceeds the capacity of the existing system to deliver and it is not economically viable to continue to build new universities. The magnitude of unsatisfied demand for post-secondary provision provides a solid economic imperative for an OER for assessment and credit for students project”(Macintosh, McGreal, & Taylor, 2011, p. 7).

Traditional Model

EducationOur assessment

Our Students

Our Content Our Support

(Adapted from McGreal, 2011)

Traditional Model

EducationOur assessment

Our Students

Our Content Our Support

OERu Model

EducationOur assessment

ANY Students

ANY Content ANY Support(Adapted from McGreal, 2011)

A “Parallel Universe” of Learning

(Macintosh, McGreal, & Taylor, 2011, p. 11)

A Pathway for OER Learners

(Macintosh, McGreal, & Taylor, 2011, p. 5)

An Example of OER in Action

Allan… had a Math exam coming up in two weeks. But… feared he would not be able to work through the stack of problems he had in time for the exam. The best solution was to get someone more prepared take him through them but all the people he approached declined. Frustrated, he turned to Google and that’s when he came across khanacademy.org

(Mpubani, 2011).

Learning from the Internet

Poster child for OER Learning?

The MIT Challenge:— 4 Years of Learning in 12 Months“Over the next 12 months, I’m going to learn the entire 4-year MIT curriculum for computer science, without taking any classes.”

http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/mit-challenge/

Scott H Young

Criticism of OER & OERu

Quality of materials

Over-emphasis on assessment: “Teaching to the test”?

Push back from faculty/institutions

Push back from publishers

Opposition of faculty/institutions

The University of California last week tentatively agreed to a deal with UC-AFT that included a new provision barring the system and its campuses from creating online courses or programs that would result in “a change to a term or condition of employment” of any lecturer without first dealing with the union (Kolowich, 2011).

US Legislative Threat to OER?

The Promise:“The concept is simple: Community colleges that compete for federal money to serve students online will be obliged to make those materials—videos, text, assessments, curricula, diagnostic tools, and more—available to everyone in the world, free, under a Creative Commons license. The materials will become, to use the common term, open educational resources, or OER's” (Carey, 2011).

US Legislative Threat to OER?

The Threat:“Sec 124: None of the funds made available by this Act for the Department of Labor may be used to develop new courses, modules, learning materials, or projects in carrying out education or career job training grant programs unless the Secretary of Labor certifies, after a comprehensive market-based analysis, that such courses, modules, learning materials, or projects are not otherwise available for purchase or licensing in the marketplace or under development for students who require them to participate in such education or career job training grant programs” (H.R. 3070: Department of Education Appropriations Act, 2012, 2011).

ReferencesButcher, N. (2011). A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER). (A.

Kanwar & S. Uvalić-Trumbić, Eds.). Vancouver, BC: Commonwealth of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.col.org/PublicationDocuments/ Basic-Guide-To-OER.pdf

Carey, K. (2011, May 15). The Quiet Revolution in Open Learning. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/ article/The-Quiet-Revolution-in-Open/127545/

H.R. 3070: Department of Education Appropriations Act, 2012. (2011). In GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation). Retrieved from http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-3070

Kolowich, S. (2011, October 11). The Lecturers’ Filibuster. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://www.insidehighered.com/ news/2011/10/11/university_of_california_lecturers_union_says_it_can_block_online_programs

Macintosh, W., McGreal, R., & Taylor, J. (2011). Open Education Resources (OER) for assessment and credit for students project: Towards a logic model and plan for action. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/ 2149/3039

McGreal, R. (2011, October 25). Assessment and Accredidation of OER Learners: An Update. Collaborate recording presented at the Change.MOOC.ca. Retrieved from https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid= 2011-10-25.1131.M.3A0EAE843895F0175E240FB3B50AA6.vcr&sid= 2008104

Mpubani, R. (2011, October 31). Learning from the internet. Daily Monitor/Monitor Online. Retrieved October 31, 2011, from http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/Education/-/688336/1264484/-/f3d3ng/-/

OER university. (2011, September 11).WikiEducator. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://wikieducator.org/OER_university/Home

Young, S. H. (2011, September 27). MIT Challenge. Scott H Young. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/mit-challenge