1.
The Battle for Open
Martin Weller
Sign the CC-
BY license!

2.
So, I‟m
writing this
book…

3.
Central theme
Openness has won…
But now the real
direction of openness is
up for grabs

4.
This talk
The roots of open ed
Why is openness successful
4 areas of open ed
– How openness has won
– What the tensions are now
The battle for narrative
Conclusions

5.
Why “a battle”?
1. There are real
areas of
conflict
2. There is real
value to be
won
3. The victor
writes history
– a battle for
narrative
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clydeorama/5099069820/

6.
Roots of (modern) open ed
• Open universities – open access, entry.
Focus on methods, removing barriers, not
free
• Free software – 4 freedom (purpose, change,
redistribute, distribute modified). Emphasis
on control
• Open source – “given enough eyeballs all
bugs are shallow”. Emphasis on efficiency
• Web 2.0 – culture of sharing, open practice

7.
Open education is…
(Avoids definition)
Set of coalescing principles:
• Freedom to reuse
• Open access
• Free cost
• Easy use
• Digital, networked content
• Social, community based approaches
• Ethical arguments for openness
• Openness as efficient model

8.
(for more, see)
David Wiley: iSummit
'08 Keynote Address
http://vimeo.com/17960
14
A history of Openness
From Peter, S., &
Deimann, M. (2013).
On the role of
openness in education:
A historical
reconstruction. Open
Praxis, 5(1), 7-14.

9.
Open access
[Source: University of Southampton, ROARMAP, http://roarmap.eprints.org/ Published under a
CC-BY license]

10.
Major breakthroughs
• “Free online access to scholarly works”
• Major policies in many countries
• Gold route & Green route
• More than 50% have published OA
• OA Impact advantage

11.
Growth of OA
Laakso M, Welling P, Bukvova H, Nyman L, Björk B-C, et al. (2011) The Development of
Open Access Journal Publishing from 1993 to 2009. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20961.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020961

12.
The battle
• Gold route – Matthew
effect, can be more
expensive
• No incentive to innovate
• Elsevier „take down‟ on
Academia.edu
• Predatory OA journals
• Changes relationship
• Hybrid models

13.
OERs

14.
Major breakthroughs
• OpenCourseware since 2001
(LOs earlier)
• Repositories in major
languages and areas
• OCWC 260 institutions
• Open Textbooks

15.
Some findings
Saylor: Increased
enthusiasm for study
(59%). Increased
interest in subject
(58%), Gaining
confidence (50%)
Over 30% of students
reported studying their
subject via OER before
joining their course
60% CCCOER identified
reduced cost of
materials as a driver of
student retention
OpenStax downloads
120K times, leading to
an estimated $3 million
savings for students
(Green 2013)
Feldstein et al. (2013)
47% of students
purchased the paper
textbooks, 93% of
students reading the
free online textbook

16.
OER Research Hub
Oerresearchhub.org Chaos.open.ac.uk

17.
Battle
• Is there enough impact?
• OCL survey
• Pearson OpenClass
• Overtaken by MOOCs?
• In general, an open success story?

18.
MOOCs
Image – David
Kernohan

19.
Awareness
Figure 5.1: Google Trends plot of relative interest in MOOCs (red) and OERs (blue).

20.
(but still not that important)

21.
Uptake
• Udacity, Iversity, Coursera,
Open2Study, FutureLearn,
EdX
• Large registrations
(Coursera 17m enrolments)
• On Newsnight, in NYT, etc
• “If education was grunge,
MOOCs were its Nirvana”
(George Siemens)

22.
The battle
• Not really open
• Commercially driven adoption of open
• Openness is the first casualty
• Contracts with unis
• Support for learners
• Centralised platform & data
• Sustainability

23.
Open scholarship
By Gideon Burton http://www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3157622458/in/set-72157612021421472/

24.
Open practice
• Online identity is now becoming the norm
• Recognised by institution
• Complements existing practice
• Part of research projects
• Area of innovation
• Open research, open data

25.
Battle
• Promotion still not sure
about it
• Disciplinary tension
• Pressure to have online
identity
• Exposure to risk
• The quantified self
• Not without cost

26.
The Silicon Valley narrative
• a technological fix is both possible and in
existence;
• external forces will change, or disrupt, an
existing sector;
• wholesale revolution is required
• the solution is provided by commerce.

27.
Education is broken
The education
space is massive,
very broken”
(Tauber 2013)
Education is broken. Face it. It
is so broken at so many ends, it
requires a little bit of Silicon
Valley magic
Thrun
The models of higher education
that marched triumphantly across
the globe in the second half of
the 20th century are broken
(Avalanche report)
The education
space is massive,
very broken”
(Shirky)
Education is
broken.
Someone should
do something
degreed.com

28.
A disruption obsession
disruption is a
necessary and
overdue chapter in
our public schools.
(Christensen)
elements of the traditional university are
threatened by the coming avalanche. In
Clayton Christensen’s terms, universities are
ripe for disruption
(Avalanche report)
OERs have not
noticeably disrupted
the traditional
business model of
higher education .
(Korteyemer)

29.
The MOOC media perfect storm
Education is broken!
Education is ripe for
disruption!
MOOCs are
technological
solution!
Outsiders with new
ideas!

30.
• Avoid “open Stalinism”
• Don‟t replace one mono-culture with
another
• The most interesting thing about
openness is that it allows innovation

31.
Beware
• Openwashing
• Free = open
• Temporary openness
• Venture capital
bearing open gifts
• Silicon valley
sexiness

32.
Conclusions
• Openness is not just a peripheral interest
• It has entered mainstream academic practice
• Much of the future direction of HE relates to
openness
• So…

33.
Ownership over the direction of openness is
relevant to all those in HE

34.
Some links:
• Battle for open article:
http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/view/201
3-15
• Relevant Blog bits:
http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good
_reason/battle/
• Publisher: ubiquitypress.com
• Oerresearchhub.org
• Impact map: chaos.open.ac.uk