HIGHER EDUCATION:
The Success and
Challenges in Open Education Resources (OER)
Heather R. Pena
Abstract
Open Education Resources (OER) in higher education
is reaching new platforms around the world.
In this paper I would like to explore the success and challenges that
higher education face when adopting an OER platform. This paper will allow the reader to look
outside the walls of a centralized learning environment and gain a broader
perspective on free information, knowledge and education used around the world.
Introduction
Open
Education Resources (OER) is a major technological learning tool that is used
globally around the world. OER is best
known as an open movement and the general foundation is simple: that information should be disseminated and
freely accessible in order to benefit not just the traditional learner but also
the non-traditional and self learner.
This sense of openness toward knowledge should not entail any
limitations or restrictions. Infact,
OECD (2007) defines the OER movement as digitized materials offered freely and
openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching,
learning, and research.
Many
leading institutions in higher education adopted the OER platform and face many
challenges in this modern day world including: the rapid growth of technology,
globalism, licensing, economic, social and the constant competition among
leading higher institutions in order to provide free access to educational
resources. The success and challenges of
the OER platform has paved the way for new methods of teaching and learning
outside the confinements of traditional learning.
Successful OER
Models
The OER movement
is revamping the traditional models of education in order to support
collaboration though a community of educators and learners. Successful models could be an important
stepping stone for institutions to refer to.
Wiley (2006)
analyzes three successful models of the OER movement in higher education: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(M.I.T.) model, the Utah State University (
The
Lastly, the Rice
Model relies heavily on volunteers to enable a successful OER initiative. Volunteers contribute courseware globally not
just through a centralized approach.
This model is extremely unique among higher education initiatives
related to OER. Collaboration on a
larger scale involving community participation can be a great benefit for many
institutions. Funding is less likely to
play a powerful role in the Rice Model, unlike the M.I.T. model and the
These three
models offer a variety of examples that can assist any institution in adopting
the OER movement. From corporate and
private funding to centralized and decentralized systems of collaboration it is
possible to move toward the OER initiative and be successful.
Why Free
Education?
Why would
institutions in higher education want to share their content for free? Why upload an entire semester of a Computer
Science on the M.I.T. website equipped with a syllabus, reading materials and
even a streaming video of the actual class?
What are the drivers behind this movement? Surely, these institutions would not profit from
giving away education that was imprisoned behind the ivy-league laced walls for
years. Or would they?
One surprising
point why higher education would initiate an OER program is that if
universities do not support the open sharing of research results and
educational materials, traditional academic values will be increasingly
marginalized by the market forces (OECD, 2007). Really what this entails is to avoid the risk
of software monopoly. For higher
education to be able to compete, they must participate in open education
resources in their environment.
Another reason
why higher education would want to share their content for free is the overall
philosophy behind openness. Openness
is to share, reuse and create content in an environment that allows the quality
of education to improve and maintain.
The more content is free the more likely collaboration from diverse
groups exists. Rather than keep the
content in a centralized location it is more important to decentralize in order
to improve the overall quality of education.
Yet, one of the
most obvious reasons why higher education would participate in an OER movement
is simply for the publicity. For
instance, a prospective student is college shopping online for the best
education. The prospective student can
have free access to courses and have the ability to first hand evaluate the
quality of education. This is a huge
benefit for higher education in regard to adopting an OER platform. Higher education institutions are no longer a
stagnant website waiting for the prospective student to come to them, yet these
institutions are communicating and selling their school through these free
courses available through the OER initiative.
Sure, they can
sell their school to the prospective student, but also current students also
benefit. For example, the current
student can compare classes and increase their knowledge on any given
subject. How about alumni of the
institution? Alumni from the class of
1998 can keep current on new technology and maintain their level of education.
These institutions are also providing a good deed service for their
prospective, current, and alumni students.
These are a few
of the many reasons why institutions in higher education want to share their content
for free. It is these drivers behind the
OER movement that create a successful venture.
However, what are the barriers behind each of these drivers that need to
be considered before adopting an OER platform?
Technological
and Economic Shifts
First let us
explore further the technological and economic benefits behind the OER movement
in higher education. Presently, we
experience high speed broadband that will support any OER format provided
online at a quality speed. As technology
expands to new heights so does the availability to download and review
educational resources. It has become easier now more than ever to step outside
our environment and with the click of the mouse have the ability explore a
class topic of our choice at a cutting edge institution. These new learning
tools are an incredible achievement toward the advancement in technology.
As technology
continues to rapidly change, so does the accessibility to courseware. We now enter an economic and social barrier
to people who are not able to afford or keep up with the latest
technology. These are the groups, in my
opinion that would greatly benefit from the OER movement. These lack of resources deny the freedom of
education to all individuals. On one
hand, the OERs mission is to provide free knowledge without limitations, yet
on the other hand, these limitations are vivid when only a select group can
access these courses. It is not only a
problem in the United States but also globally.
The lack of resources are not the
only element attributed to software and hardware issues, but also the
technological skills needed to utilize these OER formats. Consequently, this is
not only a technical barrier but also an economic barrier. There are
significant barriers that exist in developing countries that affect the mission
of open education resources. For one,
how can a self-learner in another country that also speaks a different language
use these resources when there are no available tools to aid the learner? It is evident that developing countries face both
technical and economic issues.
On another note we also have a
self-educator and/or faculty member who has the resources to share their
knowledge on a platform but does not have any idea how to share, reuse, create
and post their content to the internet.
These are concerns that need to be addressed. Technology based programs need to be more of
a priority during these transitions that meet both the technical and economic
criteria. Fortunately, the Open
Participatory Learning Infrastructure (OPLI) has created adequate training to
meet these concerns.
The Open Participatory
Infrastructure was proposed by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation which
consists of meeting the needs of technical infrastructure and social
norms. According to Atkins (2007) the
OPLI mission is to enable a learning environment that:
permits
distributed participatory learning;
provides
incentives for participation (provision of open resources, creating specific
learning
environments and evaluation) at all levels; and
encourages
cross-boundary and cross cultural learning.
An OPLI platform should include
at least three types of activities:
creating
and providing infrastructure;
meaningful
and transformative use of the infrastructure; and
discovery
and transfer of the fruits of relevant research into future generations of the
infrastructure.
It is important to build this
infrastructure in order to support an environment that successfully thrives on
the needs of the creator and user. If
these needs are not established early on in the OER project, the institution
will never be able to meet their goals and will ultimately fail during the
migration of an OER platform. Once this infrastructure is established, it will
become a driving force for many educators to share content.
Incentives
These technical and economic
constraints also create concerns regarding budget and costs for sustaining an
OER project in higher education. Scarce
funding for open education resources is a problem. Lack of funding and participation in this
program could defeat the mission altogether.
It is urgent for higher education to mandate an incentive program for their
faculty.
The lack of incentive
participation for faculty members is a social barrier. The greatest concern for these institutions
is the lack of dedication spent toward the development of OER due to time
commitment. The faculty is the most
important ingredient to foster in higher education environments. Without faculty recognition, there will be
little interest for faculty to volunteer their time and resources to
contributing to the OER movement.
An incentive program in higher
education to support OER is an achievable goal.
For one, higher education can create and mandate an incentive program
for faculty members. Faculty members are
required to meet goals every few years in order to keep in tune with their
instruction and career endeavors with the institution. A policy set forth with these incentives that
provide support and encouragement should not be seen as a burden to faculty yet
should be viewed as an integral part of the institution.
Creative Commons
Copyright laws are a troublesome
spot for higher education. Copyright
serves by protecting the creators work and also grants them monopoly
rights. The internet has made it
possible for content to be spread throughout the web at little or no cost and
this has caused much disruption in copyright laws. Copyright laws have darkened the spirit for
educators in academia to adapt causing friction in OER platforms. Fortunately, due to the digital revolution a
solution for copyright laws exists: Open
licenses.
One of the most popular open
licenses is the Creative Commons license.
According to (OECD, 2007) Creative Commons released copyright licenses
for public use in December 2002. These
machine-readable licenses are solely implemented for creative material such as
websites, blogs, music and most importantly educational materials. Creative Commons licensing created a new way
of protecting copyright laws by also allowing the copyright owner to choose
from a number of licensing options.
These options not only protect the integrity of the work but also
generate new ways of sharing and collaboration while protecting and abiding by
copyright laws.
Existing copyright laws is one of
the most prominent barriers in the OER movement and technology. This open access in higher education is a
great way for faculty to publish their scholarly work online without
restrictions. Increased awareness of
copyright issues needs to be outlined and discussed in higher education. Copyright issues are taken very seriously in
higher education environments and these institutions should pay close attention
and inform their faculty or the new copyright policies.
Conclusion
Open Education Resources is a
major technological tool that has taken higher education to a new level. A level that will need to be discussed and
addressed before a successful OER platform can exist in any institution. Technological, user, economic, social and
copyright/license support are key strategies that higher education should focus
on to have a positive outcome on the OER movement. The diverse models discussed in this paper
are resources that institutions can analyze, test and adopt. The OER movement will continue to revamp
traditional models of education and support participation though a global
community of educators and learners.
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