Week 6: Open Educational Resources (OER) and OpenCourseWare (OCW)

Week 6: February 15, 2010

Another week of unchartered waters for me or so I thought. Again, I was not fully aware of the depth and breadth of free / open course ware available. I am afraid I have been a taker and not a giver and very much have taken for granted all the great stuff in cyberland.

Cindi was our moderator / leader this week and did a great job of summarizing very lengthy articles this week. The one that stuck with me is titled:

Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources (OER)

The article discusses the current trend of offering learning resources openly on the Internet has taken many by surprise. This intellectual ‘property’ (course materials) was, at one time, what set one institution apart from another. Now it is being provided to all who want to take part in life- long learning. The OER movement “accelerates the blurring of formal and informal learning, and of educational and broader cultural activities”. It opens the doors for the non-traditional learner. The content may be delivered in a variety of ways but primarily it is provided as PDF files or learning objects which may involve websites, simulations, images, audio, or video. In addition educational institutions should support OER as a way to leverage taxpayer dollars “by allowing free sharing and reuse of resources”.

Sustainability is a challenge. When OER is provided free of charge side effects may occur somewhere in the process. To ensure survival over the long haul OER projects must have clear goals set. The project leaders must include the anticipated size of the group and how it will be structured. They need a picture of the types of resources necessary to share and the user to be shared with. They also need to decide on a funding model that will adequately fund the project.

Quality of OER has become even more important as others are entering this arena. Are the users able to get the resources needed? Are the items of interest being offered to the user? Are the needs of the disable student being met? These and many other questions are considered when working toward improved and useful OER.
http://213.253.134.43/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9607041E.PDF

Lisa, a peer in my class, mentions that there needs to be some serious consideration given to what really are the core subjects that students need to be educated in during the next few decades. Much discussion surrounded what the emphasis should be put on topics like leadership, global communications, internet skills, creativity and other topics rather than earth science, physics, algebra, etc. The general consensus in the forum was that required classes needed to be more flexible in high school and that students had more choices to take more electives.

When it comes to ‘giving back’ for using OER and OCW, I thought that since I didn’t know how to program, I couldn't help which is becoming very clear that this is not the case. As others have pointed out submitting feedback or donating money are quick and easy ways to give back. True, I agree that people should not have to give back, but ethically and morally this should be an understood type of obligation. For folks that use and support OCW and OERs, I would recommend contributions of resources to support these endeavors whether it be through time, feedback or money.

Interesting tidbits from this week:

http://cnx.org/ a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute.

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html MIT Open Course Ware (OCW) Project

http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/ lots of open course ware that is FREE


deb