[Oer-community] Recentering our discussion

Patrick McAndrew p.mcandrew at open.ac.uk
Wed Oct 13 08:11:48 MDT 2010


One item that Susan lists is "Educational Policy and OER". I think that this
is an area in which the openness of OER can have a big impact. The
willingness of those involved in education to work together and develop
innovative ideas is often restricted by the boundaries of agreement,
legislation and aligning goals. Operating openly can break through some of
those. Sharing results to an agreed international method (e.g. Creative
Commons) means bilateral agreements are not needed, removing direct charging
from resources simplifies systems, and each providing what they have done
for themselves on the basis it can be changed for others means that
localisation can be carried out by those who care about it. At the smaller
scale several collaborations around our OER projects (OpenLearn and OLnet)
follow these principles. And on those occasions when more formal
arrangements are needed we get reminded about the barriers they represent!

I also agree with the comment made below by Jacobs that getting OCW/OER into
use is the critical step. However we do need to see the official released
resources from educational institutions as only part of the picture: people
are using the free resources of the internet as a resource that helps them
in a learning process though they may not see it as learning in itself. A
colleague found a view of "self-improvement" rather than education helped
open up the view of others involved in providing free resources. So we are
finding that there is use of free and OER content as indicated by access and
also by seeing the ways communities can build around content. The challenge
is how to blend the informal world with the formal both as a provider and as
a user. There is almost certainly a greater opportunity in becoming a
sophisticated (re)user of OER than in being a producer as the focus on new
content has to fade.

Best wishes,
Patrick.
Associate Director (L&T) Institute of Educational Technology, Open
University
co-Director Open Learning network http://olnet.org


On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 8:26 AM, Jacobs Nkem <n.jacobs at afribank.com> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I think OCW is one of the most commendable innovations of our time. It is
> simplifying learning and could crash the cost of education to next to
> nothing if properly applied.
>
> However, the pace of deployment is abysmally low. Those who need it are not
> getting access to it because they are not aware of it's existence and how to
> use it. Professors, researchers and other members of the enlightened
> academic communities use OCW because they know how it works and how it could
> be deployed to achieve great ends. So, when this same community talks about
> OCW and its application and benefits in their isolated communities it is
> like preaching to the converted.
>
> What I would rather see is a situation where most universities and research
> institutes deploy OCW platforms to deliver at least 30% of their
> professional courses. I believe this will reduce the cost of part time
> education worldwide and enhance the spread of knowledge. Also governments
> should be enlightened to integrate OCW into their educational policies for
> easy acceptability and deployment.
>
> To make OCW development and use sustainable, I suggest universities come
> together in groups to build and manage platforms. By so doing the burden
> would be bearable as both cost and expertise required would not need to be
> provided by any one institution.
>
> I fully support two of the models proposed:  1).  Non-Work-for-Hire
> Publisher Models - the private sector [publishers] create [and sell] OERs
> [textbooks],  but retain ownership of the work. 2) Work for Hire Models -
>  the public sector (i.e.., governments, colleges and universities) produces
> OERs directly [and authors create the work on a work-for-hire basis. So, the
> entity that pays their salaries owns the work and has the right to
> distribute it. Both have the tendency to inculcate transparency and
> accountability in the OER content management process while ensuring
> availability.
>
> I salute all organisations and individuals that are making efforts to
> popularise OCW.
>
> Regards
>
> Jacobs Nkem Nnamdi
>
> Product Manager
> Afribank Nigeria Plc
> _______________________________________
> From: oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca [
> oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca] On Behalf Of Susan D'Antoni [
> susandantoni at gmail.com]
> Sent: 13 October 2010 03:57
> To: oer-community at athabascau.ca
> Subject: [Oer-community] Recentering our discussion
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> We have had an exchange on the OER Foundation that is important, but
> it has taken us away from the topic of this discussion.
>
> We are rapidly coming to the end of our discussion with Mary Lou and
> her colleagues on the OpenCourseWare Consortium meeting.
>
> I would like to suggest that we conclude the discussion by returning
> our focus to the original framework for the discussion, and making any
> last comments on the discussions related to the four areas put forward
> that were the organizing principle of the conference:
>
> Building OCW,
>
> Using OCW as a Platform,
>
> Sustaining OCW,
>
> Educational Policy and OCW.
>
> Mary Lou will summarize before she finishes her time with us, but it
> would be very interesting to have some last comments from you on what
> have been the main issues or concerns raised in the consideration of
> the confenernce themes.
>
> Best,
>
> Susan
>
> --
> Susan D'Antoni
>
> Advisor to the President
> Athabasca University
> Canada
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