#OEB14 - Open Educational Resources 2.0

Alan Tait
From Distance Learning to Open Education

- ICT is now normal - we don't talk about distance learning, but 'technology enhanced learning'
- students learn as much outside the classroom as inside
- I wonder if OERs are really delivering on their promise
    - there's a huge number of resources
    - I wonder whether MOOCs are proving more useful than OERs
    - 'Who stole our cheese' dog-whistle
    - painful for the image of open universities
- I took a MOOC from the University of East Anglia
    - it was really good, where did they learn to do that?
- FutureLearn
    - a pedagogically-designed platform from the very beginning
    - designed from the outset for social learning, mobile learning
    - 750K learners in the first few months
- MOOCs are showing there is a huge demand for learning in the world
- The adage that MOOCs have poor pedagogy isn't true any more
- We need a new taxonomy of MOOCs
- Open education is fighting a battle of a different sort:
    - open education is anti-commoditization of learning
    - can the marketisation of education be reversed?
    - distance and e-learning will not remain separate


Oivind Hoines - Norway
Norweigan Digital Learning Arena

- large scale working model for Open Educational Resources
- objectives:
    - free and open digital learning resources for all
    - teachers and pupils contributing to their own learning resources
- we have the most traffic in Norway for digital learning resources
    - costs - 55 Euros per student - 1.5 Euros per student per subject
- 2-layered approach
    - editorial staff and private companies to produce learning resources
    - people contribute their own creations and remixes
- mechanism that allows publishers to acquire and resell material back to us
- preconditions for the paradigm shift:
    - legislation - accountability
    - economy - we had financial backing
    - technology - wifi everywhere, students have laptops
    - inspiration - conferences like these
- factors for a sustainable model
    - public commitment to long-term backing
    - involvement of the teachers
    - open licensing, metadata and open formats
    - don't reinvent - use what is already working


Comments

- the field is less developed in Germany - how much is state institute, and how much is NGOs funded by the state - response - NDLA is owned by the counties

- values behind open education to create an open society - a number of OERs are not creating the open society - they are still in silos, still in the academic self-referential world
- thinking of MOOCs - do we just want students producing OERs, or do we want them co-creating knowledge - we should look at MOOCs as a space to transform society, not just higher ed
- I wonder also about educational institutions giving grades - Einstein - grading made scientific enquiry distasteful - how can we keep these as being the metrics for the system


Paul Bacsich
POERup - Policies for OER Uptake
Mapping OERs, MOOCs, Open Learning, etc

- inventory of 501 OER initiatives, 200 more in in the queue
- 33 country reports, 8 case studies
- we are working in the context of UK, US activities, flexible learning barriers, etc
- picture of the map tool
    - mapping is easy with Google Map Engine and Semantic MediaWiki
    - set up database, find addresses, map it
- (OER includes MOOCs, in my definition, sorry UNESCO, the world is changing)
- (SD - very odd mapping eg, nothing in Utah)
- what about open access? - see OpenDOAR mapping open access
- Reflections:
    - don't trust maps that much, but they're useful as a guide
    - have pins had their day and should we use shading?
- EU - Opening Up Education - a hierarchy
    0. open access - general use and research
    1. OER (UNESCO/COL)
    2. Freely available / wrong license
    3. Free to closed communities
    4. Freemium
    5. Lower-cost eg $3000 degree
    6. Commercial cost - eg. UK MSc Online
- back to the Iron Triangle
- life does not stop if we have to pay 10 Euros a month for some services
    - eg., for their music, spotify; or netflix
    - but some people can't pay it
    - ir suddenly makes the economic models much more tractable
Thoughts
    - UKeU died, people moved on
    - focus on audiences vs markets
    - be honest with mainstream students, who benefits, and why
    - start reducing the system and life-cycle costs - an end to gtrand gestures
        - tilt the balance slightly

Larry Cooperman
UC Irvine, OCW Consortium
Open Education 2.0

- 2000-2001 - we had this view of the university - certification - etc
- then came the internet - faculty came up with the answer: open courseware
- at this time the internet was primarily a publication and distribution network
- I view an overall trend (Martin Trow) - transition from elite to mass
    - eventually would reach a state of universal higher education (50%)
        - this has already been reached in a few countries
    - higher education is the gateway, from a family perspective
    - also, a question of competition for increasingly scarce professional jobs
        - we are seeing the beginning of trends against social mobility
    - finally, it's a question of an educated citizenry taking on global problems
- Colombia - vast increase in enrollment, but...
    - decrease in graduation rates
    - attainment remains steady or rising very slightly
    - leads to the question: what targets do we have for open education
- A new iron triangle? Access - Cost - Success
    - we have more and more access, but it doesn't translate to success
    - vs. eg. CUNY project - they had 23% completion rate
        - so they set up blocks of time; analyzed issues of costs; added counseling to support study habits and organizational methods
    - student success costs money - but every $4K spent on students saved $250K in society (Henry Levin study)
    - MOOCs have forced a new conversation
        - not that xMMOcs etc have solved any problems
        - it's about those lecture halls - lecturing is ineffective, but it's the dominant mode - eg. meta-analysis of biology lectures - if they were a clinical trial, they would have been stopped
        - in moving the MOOC model forward
            - universities have sole professors - why not ask large communities how to do it
            - we have to get better at analytics
            - weak peer learning capabilities
            - open licensing will play a dramatic role
   
Comments

- have you explored the possibility of translating (Norwegian) content? Response: no. We have to produce in two languages.

- given a $4K expenditure results in a $250K benefit to society, is there any justification for tuition fees?

Responses (Alan) - in UK, education has been repackaged as 'entirely for personal benefit' and must be paid for entirely by the student - this is a completely untenable situation

(Larry) - what if we said the same situation should exist for primary education? It cuts across the notion that we should have universal education. In California, we began to charge fees, the master plan was abandoned. What did we develop from that? These world-class institutions. Silicon Valley was a product of the educational system. Ed should be enhanced by policies of free access.

- moved from classroom teaching to exclusively online - the internet provides an opportunity for providing resources - but missing is the human connection - I miss seeing my students face to face - what about the human element?

Responses (Paul) - in virtual schools ongoing, there is very little shared - look at longstanding virtual schools - they take great care with how they construct learning experience - they are criticized by MOOkie types for being too prescriptive - people won't open up their minds - you should go and see them