Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources

This 153-page report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) is on aspects of E-learning in higher education and follows two reports on E-learning: The Partnership Challenge (OECD, 2001) and E-learning in Tertiary Education – Where do we Stand? (OECD, 2005).

From the foreword:


"Higher educational institutions have been using the Internet and other digital
technologies to develop and distribute education for several years. Yet, until
recently, much of the learning materials were locked up behind passwords
within proprietary systems, unreachable for outsiders. The open educational
resource (OER) movement aims to break down such barriers and to
encourage and enable freely sharing content..."

The report offers an overview of the rapidly changing phenomenon of OER and the challenges it poses for higher education. It examines reasons for individuals and institutions to share resources for free, and looks at copyright issues, sustainability, and business models as well as policy implications.
Specifically, key questions addressed are:

• "How to develop sustainable costs/benefit models for OER initiatives?
• What are the intellectual property right issues linked to OER?
• What are the incentives and barriers for universities to convert their material to OER?
• How to improve access and usefulness for the users of OER?"

According to this document, anecdotal evidence shows an expanding global OER environment with the benefits to individual learners of international, institutional, and peer-to-peer collaboration accompanied by transparency, quality control, and competition, as well as possible taxpayer funding of knowledge production and education. If, as may increasingly be the case, the public simply expects OER as a service of institutions of higher education, there may be a need, as stated here, for institutional absorption of associated costs. Despite costs, rather than resist engagement in OER, the report observes that universities and colleges may decide to join the OER movement because of the risk involved in doing nothing when developments are so rapid that increasingly students are expecting a broader institutional involvement in open access to knowledge sources.

On an international level, copyright legislation "harmonisation" and agreement on standards are in need of resolution by international bodies. Research to develop a body of knowledge on production and use of OER is a recommendation, with the observation that the funding source could be a part of the budget of each grant receiver of OER project funding. International online discussion forums can raise awareness and leverage expertise and experience in furthering a collaborative direction setting. Alliances across continents to extend searchable resource repositories could be an immediate benefit of extended collaboration.

National level challenges stem from academic differences by country as well as differing academic governance structures and education funding structures. OER presents an opportunity nationally in each country to extend learning beyond the traditional university structure and age frame. It can open new funding partnerships such as public-private partnerships and extend research collaboration and funding multinationally as well. There is an opportunity to initiate national level policies and guidelines for a favourable open access educational climate, including liberalisation of licensing for reuse for educational purposes, formatting for greater accessibility, and encouraging extensive use of open source software applications. Action on some of these policy issues may be taken at the regional, state, and institutional level.

On an individual and institutional level, from the perspective of individual researchers and educators, publishing teaching materials openly offers a number of possible positive
effects and numerous challenges, although restrictions imposed by copyright law and the lack in many institutions of a reward system that fosters the development and use of OER remain important inhibitors. Institutions may have to provide faculty incentives and training on digital resource production and copyright law as well as on the importance of compatibility through the use of open standards and open source software. Institutional preparation for changes in the pedagogical role of faculty and in the competitive aspects of openly published curricula could demand a "well-reasoned information technology strategy,"
since OER can be "expected to affect curriculum, pedagogy and assessment."