# OpenEd: Notes from reading week 2, Giving Knowledge for Free


I just finished reading through the three required readings for the last
three weeks. Since I was moving from Norway to Toronto, and starting all
my courses and my TAing here, I have not been able to keep up, and had
to do a major *skippertak* (from
[mummimamma](http://mummimamma.livejournal.com/tag/rants): *“Norwegian
has a word for this, skippertak, the skipper’s haul, which means doing
something concentrated in very short period of time […]”*), and this
weekend I read all three readings and am writing the reflection blog
post. I took quite a few notes, mainly from the first reading, and I
thought I’d post them here. They were taken for my own benefit, so they
don’t necessarily make much sense to you, but since I already wrote it
down I might as well put it up.

 

 

[Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational
Resources](http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/get-it.asp?REF=9607041E.PDF&TYPE=browse "http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/get-it.asp?REF=9607041E.PDF&TYPE=browse")
(OECD, 147 pages)

**OER - challenge and possibility for universities**

blurring separation between formal and informal education

for all - especially non-traditional groups of students, lifelong
learning

why?

-   altruistic - knowledge wants to be free
-   public institutions anyway
-   improves quality
-   advertisement
-   new cost recovery model?
-   innovation + archival

role of teacher changing? teacher can expect students will compare
curriculum with others available online. teachers role as supplier of
reading list diminishes. accelerate change in traditional teaching,
evolution of more independent learners. increase in non-formal and
informal learning -\> increase demand for assesment and recognition of
competencies gained outside formal system

user-producer vs co-producer model (collaborative)

cost-recovery models:

-   replacement (cost savings)
-   endowment (external actor)
-   segmentation (value added - like chinesepod)
-   conversion (convert customer to paying - diff w/segmentation? like
  advertising?)
-   voluntary support/membership

plethora of digital learning - methodological diversity -
individualization of the learning process

4 challenges to higher ed:

-   globalization\
   *greater cooperation, greater competition*
-   demography
-   new approaches to governance
-   technology

OER makes teaching content and processes within individual institutions
visible

term: learning object

OER or open learning resources, education too much in formal settings?

why should you be sharing? push and pull factors. incentives and
threats.

MERLOT only 14% of material has been reviewed - workflow has to be
rethought, quality assurance is not something done for learners, but
something learners do for themselves

**how to get faculty to use open textbooks?**

-   jawbone - tell them and they will come…
-   stick - for developing nations?
-   carrot… for example, material fee of 100\$ for a course, either use
  to buy textbooks or goes to a fund. apply for funding to adapt
  materials - released freely. or give it back to students. incentive
  for faculty. also buy up Open Uni UK - 75000\$ per university.

problem with finding resources - the cost of attaching meta data is
higher the smaller the learning object.

how to ascertain quality? peer-review, difficult and costly.
institutional brand. bottom-up ratings etc, because quality is not an
inherent part of the learning content, but contextual.

many learning resources locked up inside LMSes… SCORM?

from e-courses to e-learning, student centered instead of
school/course/test centered… creating online learning communities
(aren’t we a great example)

ethical quandary of using outside commercial providers locking down data
etc. data preservation and archiving.

i want to read more about assessment! but says - established higher ed
organizations may well turn into assessment organizations and do less
teaching