Better universities with free content: the future of open educational resources Jan Hylén

Trends in the university sector Growing competition –knowledge and learning resources are often considered as key intellectual property Still institutions and individuals are sharing their digital learning resources over the Internet openly and for free OECD study asked: –why this is happening? –who is involved? –what are the implications of this?

A new culture of openness in universities? Open Source Software, Open Access, Open Educational Resources Free availability over the Internet As few restrictions as possible on the use of the resource: –No technical barriers (disclosed source code) –No price barriers (no subscriptions, license fees) –As few legal barriers as possible (open licenses)

What is Open Educational Resources? Digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research Examples: –PDF files with lecture notes or tests –Advanced simulations for physics or chemistry –Videos of lectures –Images, mp3 files …

Mapping the OER movement It is a global movement Growing number of initiatives, resources and users – but not possible to give accurate numbers Started as a grass roots movement but now growing institutional involvement All kinds of institutions are involved: big/small; campus based/distance teaching; private/public

What about the quality of the resources? Traditional academic processes combined with web technology The concept of quality is different – more context and related, less product related More emphasize on the process than the end product – prosumers

Why give away for free? Motives for individuals 1.Altruistic reasons – in line with academic values 2.Non-monetary gain – publicity, reputation, to show pedagogical skills 3.Commercial reasons – a way to enhance the commercialized version of the content, reaching the market more quickly

Motives for institutions – interplay between altruistic and economic incentives 1.Altruistic reasons 2.Leverage on taxpayers money by allowing free sharing and reuse between institutions 3.What you give, you receive back improved 4.Good PR and show-window attracting new students 5.Growing competition – new business models are needed

User Generated Content – the same logic Citizen Journalism –OhmyNews, Reporter.co.za, AgoraVox, Global Voices User Generated TV –CurrentTV, Buntes Fernsehen, Bite TV, ZeD Publishing –IgoUgo (Travel guide), Magazines, Wikipedia

Better universities with OER – why? Good supplement to textbooks –Less costly for students Stimulates students and teachers to become prosumers, not only users – more active learners Stimulates internal cooperation Makes it possible to reward pedagogical skills Opens up for quality control –Makes the actual teaching visible

The report is available for free on: Thank you for your attention! Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution, Non- commercial, Share Alike