Open Education Resource Organization Stakeholders

Striving for Sustaining Values

Curt Madison, PhDDirector of eLearning Program Development

School of ManagementUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks

Open Ed 2009Vancouver, Canada

Three Organization Types

Traditional University creating OERTraditional University importing OERResearch Entity creating OER

By allowing citizens to “see through” its workings and investigate whether or not their leaders and organizations have met their expectations, the government brings the public into its inner circles and empowers citizens to contribute to decision-making

Exporting OEROutreach to community with

transparencyDecrease time-to-degree with

transparencyHigher retention rates with OER successIncreased learning through pre/post-

exposure to OERAutomatic faculty alignment of sequencesIncreased publication by faculty members

Outreach through transparency

Native Ways of KnowingRecovery.govUCosmic

Openness vs Competition

There are real opportunities to distribute quality content...But this makes more sense for established institutions with robust brands such as Oxford or, in the US, MIT, than it might for other less established or high-profile institutions. For those with exceptional reputations, it is not the access to the material that attracts students so much as the signal of being accepted and included in its formal provision.

Openness vs Competition 2

But where the material is more of a direct means to education, there will be greater need to offer a high standard of content and provide it in forms useful to the institution’s own students and to others.

Peter Bradwell. 2009. the edgeless university: why higher education must embrace technology. Demos

Time to Degree

Excess Student Credit Hours

Most students attending the state’s public universities graduate with credit hours in excess of graduation requirements, which increases state higher education costs. The 780,769 excess hours of students graduating with bachelor’s degrees in FY 2004-05 cost the state $62 million. Twenty percent of the students accounted for over one-half (58%) of all credit hours over the minimum graduation requirements.Florida House of

Representatives PCB SPCP 09-02

Days to a Bachelor’s Degree

Higher Retention Rates

Drop out due to:◦Lack of relevance◦Lack of Preparation in Math

Increased Depth of Learning

• Preview OCW prior to enrollment• Review of material in a sequenced course

Automatic Course Alignment

Mitigate natural divergence Promote transparency among faculty

Reputation Builder

“Publish” a course with peer reviewEngage public dialog around nascent

ideas

Desirable OER Import Features

Easily Allow Localization - DeriveAggregate Reading ListsLink Design Choices to Outcomes

Research creating OER

Outreach PR with Structured AccessSatisfy NSF grant requirementsPublic Institution mandate to engage

k-12Disambiguate professional jargon

http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=OPP

National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs

What Doesn’t Work

Selling OER as a franchise revenue stream

Satisfying noblesse oblige

PhilanthropyWhile St. Petersburg College has, in a

limited fashion, made contributions in the realm of open courseware... Fiscal needs and concerns are the driving forces behind many administrative policies and decisions; the economic reality is that our institution cannot easily afford to give freely of its resources without some financial compensation in return.

J. J. Rutledge. UNESCO Forum: Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries Preliminary Report.

St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg, FL

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“Noblesse Oblige”