This document discusses the arguments for being open with educational content and resources. It outlines 8 reasons to be open: 1) Education is sharing, 2) Buy one, get one (political argument about public funding of research), 3) The paradox of free (financial argument that free resources don't hurt sales), 4) The $5 textbook (financial sustainability of low-cost open textbooks), 5) Facilitate the unexpected (openness enables new ideas), 6) Continuous improvement (openness allows improving resources over time), 7) Content is infrastructure (open content fuels innovation), 8) Do the right thing (openness fulfills our moral responsibility). The document provides examples and evidence supporting each argument.

1. Why Be Open?
David Wiley
Instructional Psychology & Technology
Brigham Young University

2. Download These Slides
http://slideshare.net/opencontent/

6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gls-conference/4687537285/

7. If the Book Didn’t Change Schools
Can the computer?
Can the internet?
Can “open”?

8. Why Be Open?
1. Education is Sharing
(the technical argument)
2. Buy One, Get One
(the political argument)
3. The Paradox of Free
(the financial argument, part 1)

9. Why Be Open?
4. The $5 Textbook
(the financial argument, part 2)
5. Facilitate the Unexpected
(the serendipity argument)
6. Continuous Improvement
(the quality argument)

10. Why Be Open?
7. Content is Infrastructure
(the innovation argument)
8. Do the Right Thing
(the moral argument)

11. 1. Education Is Sharing
the technical argument

12. Teachers Share With Students
Knowledge and skills
Feedback and criticism
Encouragement

13. Students Share With Teachers
Questions
Assignments
Tests

14. If There Is No Sharing
There is no education

15. Successful Educators
Share most compeltely
with the most students

16. Knowledge is Magical
Can be given without being given away

17. Physical Expressions Are Not
To give a book you must give it away

18. Expressions Are Different
To give a book you must give it away

19. When Expressions Are Digital
They also become magical

22. An Indescribable Advance
The first time in human history

23. Both Knowledge and Expressions
Can be given without giving away

24. Unprecedented Capacity
We can share as never before

25. Unprecedented Capacity
We can educate as never before

26. What Does “Share” Mean?
Online it means copy and distribute

27. Cost of “Copy”
For one 250 page book:
• Copy by hand - $1,000
• Copy by print on demand - $4.50
• Copy by computer - $0.00084

28. Cost of “Distribute”
For one 250 page book:
• Distribute by mail - $5.20
• Distribute by internet - $0.00072

29. Copy and Distribute are “Free”
This changes everything

30. Educational Sharing
Also means adapting or editing

31. Sense-making, Meaning-making
Connecting to prior knowledge
Relating to past experience
(In an appropriate language)

32. Digital Makes Editing “Free”
Editing a printed book or magazine
is difficult and expensive

33. Free Copy, Distribute, Edit
We can share as never before

34. Free Copy, Distribute, Edit
We can educate as never before

35. Except We Can’t
© forbids copying, distributing, and editing

36. © Cancels the Possibilities
Of digital media and the internet

37. Internet Copyright
Enables Forbids
What to do?

39. Use copyright to enforce sharing

40. The 4Rs
Reuse – copy verbatim
Redistribute – share with others
Revise – adapt and edit
Remix – combine with others

42. Over 400 Million Items
Using CC licenses at end of 2010

43. The “Open” in OER
Free permission to do the 4Rs

44. Internet OER
Enables Allows
Sharing and educating at
unprecedented scale

45. 2. Buy One, Get One
the political argument

47. “Buy One, Get One”
Pizza in Ohio

48. Who Pays for Research?
Understanding relative contributions

49. Public Investment in Research
$105,385 to $119,913 per article
(U.S. NIH-funded research)

50. Publisher Investment in Research
$2750 per article, including
administrative and all other costs

51. Does This Make Sense?
Publishers make 2% of the investment,
then take © and charge you for access

52. Public (Who Paid) Has No Access
I thought I bought a pizza?!?

53. If You Buy One, You Should Get One
All taxpayer-funded educational
resources should be OER

54. U. S. Department of Labor
$2 Billion for curriculum for
high-demand two year programs

55. 3. The Paradox of Free
the financial argument

56. Do OER Hurt Sales?
Won’t people stop paying for the
course materials or books if they’re free?

57. Publications
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (in press). Free E-Books and Print Sales.
Journal of Electronic Publishing.
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (in press). Open access textbooks and financial
sustainability: A case study on flat world knowledge. International Review of
Research in Open and Distance Learning.
• Johansen, J. & Wiley, D. (2011). A sustainable model for opencourseware
development. Educational Technology Research & Development.
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). A sustainable future for open textbooks? The Flat
World Knowledge story. First Monday, 15(8).
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). Free: Why authors are giving books away on the
Internet. Tech Trends, 54(2).
• Hilton, J., Wiley, D. (2010). The short-term influence of free digital versions of
books on print sales. Journal of Electronic Publishing, 13(1)
http://davidwiley.org/

58. Findings
• Over 2% of people who access open
online courses become paying
customers
• Downloads of free online books
correlate strongly with sales of print
books
• A for-profit business can be financially
successful using CC licenses on its
textbooks

59. 4. The $5 Textbook
the financial argument, part 2
(aka your fellow travelers)

61. Postsecondary Students
Pay $35 instead of $150 per book
300,000 students have saved $39M+

62. Postsecondary Students
Pay $35 instead of $150 per book
300,000 students have saved $39M+

63. Project Kaleidoscope (NGLC)
Preliminary research results

64. “How would you rate the quality
of the texts used for this course?”
Answer Response %
WORSE than… 4 3%
About the SAME AS… 67 56%
BETTER than… 49 41%

65. “How do you feel about the online
format of the texts used…?”
Answer Response %
I like it MORE than … 65 52%
I have no preference 38 31%
I like it LESS than… 21 17%

66. “Imagine a future course you are
required to take. If two different
sections were offered…”
Answer Response %
I would enroll in the section with 17 13%
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHED TEXTS
I would enroll in the section with 93 74%
TEXTS LIKE THOSE OFFERED IN
THIS COURSE
I would have no preference 16 13%

68. High School Science Classes
Teachers adapted CK12 books
for print or digital use

69. http://opencontent.org/calculator

70. High Schools
Pay $5 instead of $80 per book

71. 1200 Students in 2010-2011
2700 students in 2011-2012

72. Impact on Learning?
No difference – yet

73. Pedagogy and OER
Highlighting, annotating, taking notes

74. Impact on Learning?
With PD we will
move the outcomes needle

76. Statewide Secondary in 2012
Over 275,000 students

77. Back of the Envelope
Cost of Traditional Books Over Cycle $61,875,000
Cost of Open Books Over Cycle $28,875,000
Potential Savings Over Entire Cycle $33,000,000
Potential Savings Per Year $4,714,286

78. 5. Facilitate the Unexpected
Some examples… on a budget

86. Character Classes
• Bard - Master of the lore, history, and
politics of the field, know what's “out there”
• Artisan - Has materials production skills in all
the necessary Web 1.0 and 2.0 tools like
HTML, video sharing, podcasting
• Monk Master of copyright and licensing
arcana and defender of the university brand
• Merchant Deals with short- and long-term
sustainability issues

88. http://openeducation.us/

89. 6. Continuous Improvement
the quality argument

90. Learning Analytics
Can tell us who and what needs help

91. It’s Useless
Knowing what needs fixed,
when you don’t have permission to fix it

92. Openness
Gives us permission to make
changes and improvements

93. It’s Useless
Having permission to fix things,
when you don’t know where to start

94. Openness + Analytics
Tells you what to fix and allows you to fix it!
Enables Continuous Quality Improvement

95. 7. Content is Infrastructure
the innovation argument

96. What is Infrastructure?
Electric grid, telecom, roads, airports,
water, sewer, etc.

97. What is Infrastructure?
“The physical components of interrelated
systems providing commodities and services
essential to enable, sustain, or enhance”
societies or enterprises.

98. To Speed Innovation
Increase quality and decrease cost
of infrastructure

99. Content is Critical
An important part of every educational
institution’s infrastructure

100. To Speed Education Innovation
Increase quality and decrease cost
of content infrastructure

102. University of the People

104. OER University

105. Mozilla Badge Lab

106. 8. Do the Right Thing
the moral argument

108. Consider Our Responsibility
What kind of ethical or moral
responsibility do we have?
Who are you accountable to?

109. Our Potential Is Limitless
The good we can do is constrained
only by our creativity and commitment

110. Why Be Open?
To be helpful

111. Thank You
david.wiley@byu.edu
http://davidwiley.org/