This document discusses key challenges in open educational resources (OER). It summarizes challenges in three areas: adoption and use, quality, and sustainability. For adoption and use, it notes challenges like resistance to change, lack of evidence on effectiveness, and confusion over licensing. For quality, it discusses issues like poorly designed content, lack of peer review, and faculty concerns about validity. For sustainability, it outlines problems like commercial influence, dependence on philanthropy, and lack of business models. The document explores these challenges and potential strategies to address them.

1. Learning the Lessons of Openness
Patrick McAndrew, Robert Farrow, Patrina Law and
Gary Elliot-Cirigottis
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

2. OER connects “education for all,” the UN’s millennium goal that
calls for everyone in the world to have a basic education by
2014, with the goal of closing the digital divide
(Smith and Casserly, 2006)

5. Exploring the OER landscape
through projects/organizations and
their physical locations…

7. Navigating by theme…
Tagging…
Creating new connections…
Use the live system – completely
open and free to use…
http://ci.olnet.org

10. olnet.org

11. The Key Challenges of OER

12. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

13. Integrating analytics into curriculum
Open Assessment Resources?
Formative/Summative Feedback?
Assessment Mozilla Badges?
and
OER Rubrics
Authentic Student Needs
Evaluation
Tracking Reuse
Teaching & Learning
Use of OER ‘Delayed gratification’
OER Research
Proof of learning
Policy Change
Ecosystem

14. Commercial digital textbooks
Improving OER visibility
New skills = new training ‘Invisibility’ at the point of use
Tools for textbook production
Tools for finding OER Technologies &
Tools for risk assessment
Infrastructure
Reducing barriers to quality
Tools & Technologies
Repository Protocols
Technology-supported peer review
Encouraging collaboration between stakeholders
Commercial influence over policy

15. Promoting Reform Wellcome Trust
Anti-piracy legislation OER Advocates
OpenTextBooks
Working with commercial publishers
Advocacy
South Africa
National Legislation
K12 Bill
Diversity
&
Indonesia
Reversibility
Policy Brazil
Sustainable Business Models
Developing Curricula
‘On the ground’ support Tools & Technologies
Institutional Collaboration
Incentivising Staff
Institutional Change
OER Policy Registry (CC)
Mainstreaming OER “Publicly funded resources are openly licensed resources”

16. Lack of reliable evidence OLnet OER Evidence Hub
OER Glue
Tracking informal learning
Evidence of Use Encouraging use of CC licences
which afford attribution
& Reuse
Developing metrics for
tracking quality
Use of OER
Reuse of OER
Modular lesson design
promotes reuse
Reluctance to share
Lack of adequate case studies Changing cultural practices
Focus on the user, not the activity

17. Balancing open and
commercial approaches
New tools to make sharing easier
Institutional Change
Investing in openness
Competition for limited funding
Sustainability
Dependence on philanthropy
Broader benefits for
Building the right education
Sustainability
support networks
Tracking informal learning Thinking about the wider ecosystem,
not just the ‘free’ product

18. Confusion over licence options
Range of CC licences
Lack of clarity over exercising rights Greater awareness of
open alternatives
Copyright & Public funding = open access
Making publicly funded Licensing
materials open
Pedagogical value of
unobstructed licences
Copyright & Licensing
Investment in open textbooks
Commercial use of CC-BY
Risk management tools

19. $5 Textbook
Harnessing OER for informal learning Utah Open Textbook
Textbook Rebellion
Student PIRGS
Cheaper textbooks & other
educational materials
Problem of accreditation
Costs/Benefits OER to teach about OER
For Teaching
Sustainability
OER Research
Teaching & Learning Improving access,
widening participation
Cost-effectiveness
School policies which prevent sharing

20. Incentivising staff to
adapt existing practices OER Advocacy Coalition
Building institutional
Influence of commercial support
publishers
Promotion &
Advocacy Finding evidence of
effective OER
Reductive thinking about OER
Dissemination & Awareness
Mobilising the OER community
‘Watered-down’ legislation
Instructional Design

21. Quality issues not unique to OER
Controlling quality
through peer review
OER challenge existing
notions of quality
OER production not meticulous
Faculty resistance Strategies for supporting
to change
Quality collaboration
Developing reliable metrics OERTest
Content Creation
Achieve
Value of unobstructed licences
Too much poor quality OER in
public domain
Poorly designed e-learning
New stakeholder models of review

22. Resistance from Making the benefits tangible
commercial interests
Rethinking the learning experience
Too much faith in transformative
power of OER Accreditation
Culture of New forms of collaboration,
supported by new technologies
Worries about OER quality Adoption
Mentoring and support
Lack of recognition for Content Creation
Teaching & Learning P2Pu
OER scholarship Adoption of OER
Changing student habits
Cultural diversity Effects of OER on motivation &
engagement

23. Lack of evidence about OER
effectiveness OLnet
Exemplars for openness
Open access publishing
Does OER need radically new New ways to network
processes, or can they exist within
existing structures?
Impact of and share
OER Research
New opportunities
for cross-collaboration
Adoption of OER
Dissemination & Awareness
Concerns about validity of open OER Research
research
Research on openness as
catalyst for change

24. Commercial providers borrowing Changing attitudes among
rhetoric of openness academics and publishers
Student textbooks in USA
‘Locked’ content
Open access publishing
Out of date textbooks Access
Impact on legislation
Stifling of reform Access
Teacher Education in
Sub-Saharan Africa
OLnet
Proliferation of poor quality content
obscures high quality content

25. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

26. olnet.org

27. Stages in Open Content
Legal: release of copyright through creative commons
Practical: provide access to content
Technical: develop an environment for open access
Pedagogic: understand the designs that work
Economic: devise a model for sustainable operation
Transformative: change ways of working and learning

28. B2S: Challenges of Preparation
Copyright Technology Access
CC-BY Licence B2S required reuse Discoverability
tracking across different (sited content, pilots)
student cohorts
Matching NC to CC-BY Labspace Accessibility
across funded projects (OpenLearn) (audit and support)
Moodle Usability
(general benefits)

29. B2S: Common Challenges
Quality Sustainability Reuse
Open University Dissemination and Conversion to US
material training context
Quality framework Open environment Editable versions
Learning design Integration with college Cross platform
needs

30. B2S: Research Challenges
Cost/benefit impact Policy
“Free” enables new Changing learners’ Open access courses
solutions paths
Hidden costs in making New collaborations
change across sectors

31. B2S: Emerging Challenges
Advocacy Culture Assessment
Promotion of openness Finding new solutions Light models
Recruiting colleges Willingness to Rewards/Badges
experiment
New areas of work

32. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology