Open Education Resources (OERs)

An ODL future that has already happend?

learning for development

Commonwealth of Learning

Slide 2

COL is:

an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government

to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.

COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training.

80%

Sir John Daniel, 2007

For my generation the great innovation was the course team. For the next I suspect that it will be Open Educational Resources.

The future that has already happened

Peter DruckerFather of modern management HBR

In human affairs political, social, economic, and business it is pointless to try to predict the future, let alone attempt to look ahead 75 years. But it is possible and fruitful to identify major events that have already happened, irrevocably, and that therefore will have predictable effects in the next decade or two. It is possible, in other words, to identify and prepare for the future that has already happened.

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Open learning not just a method

80%

CA WedemeyerLearner autonomy versus Independent study

DE Methods

Learner freedom

Perhaps no tenet of education is more widely held or expressed than that education must be centred in the individual Wedemeyer & Childs 1961Open learning

Is an educational philosophy of widening learner choices in things like when and where to study, preferences for media used in delivery, widening entry and exit points if study, etc, Slide 4

OERs and upside-down thinking

Open questions

Do OERs mean that distance education providers should make their study guides freely available for anyone to use modify and adapt?Can free textbooks play a role in widening access to education?Slide 5

What about the future of distance education and institutional models for ODL delivery?

Slide 6

A historical perspective of ODL

80%

Agrarian society

Industrial society

Knowledge society

Face-to-face pedagogy

Single-mode DE pedagogy

A new pedagogy?Slide 7

S-curve analysis & discontinuity

80%

A

B

Strategy innovation

Slide 8

The mega-university S-curve

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Development costs of DE resources

Instructional design, multimedia design, editing etc.

Cost categories

Academic authoring time

80%

20%

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Development costs of OERs

Authoring and design costs shared among participating institutions

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What are the most important technological innovations in the history of education?

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The blackboard

80%

The inventor or introducer of the blackboard deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not among the greatest benefactors of mankind

Josiah Bumstead 1841

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The motion picture

80%

The motion picture is the
most revolutionary instrument introduced into education since the printing press

Hoban 1940

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Television

It now seems clear, however, that television offers the greatest opportunity for the advancement of education since the introduction of printing by moveable type

Stoddard 1957

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Computers

The impact of computers on society, and hence on education, has been compared to that of moveable type and the printing press since Gutenberg

Caffrey and Mossman 1967

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How well are we doing, given all this technological innovation in education?

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Kids who won't be going to school

80%

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Productivity and price in higher education

80%

20%

Source: Justin Tilton and Jim Farmer, Learning Environment 2015Slide 19

Can technology make a difference?

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COL's WikiEducator

We're turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks. We hope you can help us.

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Standing on the shoulders of giants

Imagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.And we need your help

Jimmy Wales

microsoft.comWikipedia.orgSlide 22

Strategic vision for free content

will have a free version of the entire education curriculum available for learners and educators to use, distribute and modify for local needs and priorities.

By 2015, the free content movement :

does not replace closed curricula - it is an alternative

there are motivated resource producers who work in both closed and open curriculum projects

quality is equally important for closed and free content

80%

Observations

Slide 23

What are the core freedoms?

Slide 24

Is sharing knowledge something new?

When:

parent intervenes when bringing up their children

teacher teaches in the classroom

researchers consult with their peers

We share knowledge freely

When we give knowledge away, we still have it for ourselves to use!

Slide 25

Core freedoms

Richard StallmanFree Software Foundation

Freedom 0 - Use

The freedom to run a program, for any purpose

Freedom 1 Help yourself

The freedom to study how a program works, and adapt it to your needs. (Access to the source code is a precondition for this.)

Freedom 2 Help your neighbour

The freedom to redistribute copies

Freedom 3 Help your community

The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public

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What about copyright and licenses for OERs?

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The creative commons licenses

CopyrightAll rights reserved

Public Domain

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Licenses

Attribution

You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.

No derivative works

You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Noncommercial

You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

Share alike

If you build upon this work, you may only distribute the resulting work under a license identical to this one.

Flexible license from all rights reserved to some rights reserved.

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What is WikiEducator's strategicplan and how is it used?

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Phases of our strategic plan

Establishing foundations(May 2006 - Dec 2007)

Scaling up free content development(Jan 2008 - Dec 2008)

Sustainable implementation(Jan 2009 - )

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How is WikiEducator used?

Planningplanning of education projects linked with the development of free content.Developing Free contentdevelopment of free content on Wikieducator Howtos work on building open education resources (OERs) on how to create OERsFunding proposals networking on funding proposals developed as free content

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Established on 1 May 2006 How is WikiEducator doing?

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Daily users62 users per dayFirst quarter179 users per daySecond quarter437 users per dayThird quarter810 users per dayFourth quarterCurrently4 327 users per daySlide 34

WikiEducator growth

Wikeducator's growth trend

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Can you give us examples of WikiEducator initiatives?

Slide 36

VUSSCVirtual University forSmall States of the Commonwealth

OER Network

27 Commonwealth countries

Collaborating online using WikiEducator

Building capacity through regional boot camps (Mauritius, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago)

Conceived in 2000 and approved in 2003 by Commonwealth Education Ministers

Slide 37

CCNC a real course for real students

CommonwealthComputer Navigator's Certificate

International collaboration

Africa (UWC)

Asia (IGNOU)

Caribbean (UWIDEC)

Pacific (OPNZ)

North America (PSU)

Free computer and software training skills for developing countriesSlide 38

FLOSS4Edu

The FLOSS4Edu project aims to address:

The absence of Free content in African Schools;

The lack of skills and knowledge to use FLOSS technologies; and

to improve access to FLOSS resources given the high cost of bandwidth and shortage of FLOSS distribution channels.

Regional FLOSS4Edu Chapters

East Africa, West Africa

India

Francophone Chapter?

Pacific chapter planned for August

Slide 39

Learning4Conent & scalabilityFree training for teachersin return for one OER lesson

A workshop in each of the 53 states of the Commonwealth

+ 4000 trained teachers

+ 4000 OER lessons

Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I may not remember, involve me, and I'll understand Native American proverb

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WikiEducator's invitation

We're turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks. We hope Southern Africa can help us.

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Unique site visits

M 061641

J 061547

J 062581

A 064134

S 064976

O 067399

N 066046

D 0616136

J 0738615

F 0761294

M 0791980

A 07126986

M 07172175

J 07279000

Column 1

USA & W Europe2

Central & E. Europe12

Central Asia22

Arab States45

E. Asia & Pacific49

S. & W. Asia61

SS Africa76

Column 1

Subject matter experts80

Design professionals20

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Subject matter experts5

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5

5

5

5

5

5

5

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Design professionals2

2

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2