Good Intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials

Good Intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials Lou McGill Sarah Currier Charles Duncan Peter Douglas Open educational repositories: share, improve, reuse Thursday 26th March 2009

Resource producer http://www.flickr.com/photos/royalty-free-images/139142408/

Primary consumer http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/2432117840/

Resource http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhillary/829573216/

Resource Supplier http://www.flickr.com/photos/saar_cmd/509088837/

Resource consumer http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericmmartin/3222306911/

Resource sharing http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanwick/2283058460/

Resource exchange http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/131012552/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/laura_a/530116949/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/antonioacuna/394608502/

Repurposed resource http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffcarlson/418350700/

Context of use/re-purposing http://www.flickr.com/photos/imipolexg/266653753/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilgamesh/6712077/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/klara/21294855/

Learning materials

'sharing' implies intent – letting others use something of value that you have created or own (invested in)

could share openly or with specific groups

'exchange' – parties offer/share some resource for mutual benefit

re-use/re-purposing imply sharing but this may not always be a conscious intent

Intent

Whilst sharing and exchange are processes (either conscious or not) it is the intent behind the various initiatives, activities and services that are important...

is sharing learning resources really feasible – why has it been so hard to do?

The problem

Millions (£) spent on creating learning content over more than a decade

Interoperability has advanced enormously over the same period

Barriers related to IPR have been identified and largely overcome (for example Creative Commons)

Yet there is no single compelling business case for sharing resources

Conflicting views?

“ there is little tradition or articulated desire for sharing learning materials in the sector in the ways made possible by these technologies ” TrustDR report, 2007

70% of respondents to a 2006 survey re-purposed resources created by others CD-LOR Personal Resource Management Strategies Review

Improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials

June – December 2008

Funded by

Objective

Research Study

Desk research and interviews

Symposium on Implementing National Learning Resources Repositories

Collating and analysing business models

Development of business cases for a variety of business models

Early thoughts

Sharing is not just about using formal repositories

Learning resources interpreted broadly

Business terminology not particularly relevant to learning & teaching practitioners

We do need to understand the 'business' in terms of knowing our market and 'consumers'

Business models and cases

Service

Various infrastructures that exist to support sharing

Business model

a mechanism to illustrate various aspects of an existing service

Business case

an articulation of the benefits of such a model

The paths we take

Business models that exist now reflect the history of our work to encourage sharing of learning resources...

Report offers an account of this history...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elfike/118283141/

In-depth Case Studies

OpenLearn, UK, Open University

Jorum, UK, National Repository

NDLR, Ireland, National Repository

COLEG, Scotland, FE National Repository

IRISS Learning Exchange, Scotland, Social Work

IVIMEDS, International, Medicine

SURF WBL, UK, Cross-institutional

CELLS, Scotland, Cross-institutional, Life Sciences

EdShare, Southampton, UK, single institution

Open Sharing Models Studied

OpenLearn, UK

JorumOpen, UK

MIT OCW, US

NZ OER, New Zealand

Merlot, International

OER Commons, International

Connexions, Rice University US

Knowledge Hub, Mexico

BC Campus, Canada

Historical Models Studied

SeSDL, National, Scotland

HLSI, Regional, England

IVINURS, International , Nursing

JORUM+, National, UK

Stòr Cùram , National, Scotland, Social Work

Business model template

A template was developed to enable the articulation of a wide range of existing business models for sharing learning resources.

to identify common elements and key decision points

to highlight key points of connection between factors, decision making points, opportunities and stresses/restrictions.

Business model template

Finance models

Service models

Supplier/consumer models

Issues affecting models

Business Models

Subject-based sharing

Communities of practice; shared curriculum

Open Sharing

No barriers; open access; open licences

Institutional sharing

Informal sharing

Media-focussed sharing

Lifecycle

Early experiments

Recognition of problems: IPR, culture, practice

Technology: interoperability, metadata

Growing and changing

Landscape has changed significantly

Funding: sustainability, adaptability

Maturing

Strong business cases

Business cases

a mechanism to help people decide which business model/s to adopt as appropriate

a process where they would automatically generate a context specific business case to support funding requests

encourages an approach which starts with the needs (required benefits) not a preferred model

no one model fits all and often a combination of models may be appropriate depending on the context

Helps to prioritise benefits and recognise that by making some business model choices certain benefits are more difficult to achieve

to support a dialogue within institutions by identifying what benefits the institution and wider community already enjoy from existing sharing activities.

Benefit levels

Benefit for the global community (13)

Benefit for the national community (13)

Benefit for the educational institution (15)

Benefit for individual teachers, tutors and learning support staff (8)

Benefit for individual learners, students (11)

Impact of business cases

Significant impact

Some impact

Possible with right conditions

No impact

General benefits to global community Open CoP Subject-based Institutional National Informal Supporting subject-discipline communities to share Encourages innovation and experimentation Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries Supports re-use and re-purposing Supports community input to metadata through tagging, notes, reviews Supports effective retrieval through professionally created metadata Ensures trust through appropriate licensing

Business cases - Global Case Subject Open Supporting subject-based communities to share   Encourages innovation and experimentation  Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries  Supporting re-use and re-purposing   Supporting continued development of standards and interoperability   Supporting continued development of tools for sharing and exchange   Supporting sharing and reuse of individual assets   Helps develop critical mass of materials in particular subject areas   Supporting ease of access through search engines such as Google 

Business cases - National Case Subject Open Cost efficiencies   Decrease in duplication   Supports cross-institutional sharing   Provides access to non-educational bodies such as employers, professional bodies, trade unions, etc  Supports a broad vision of sharing across the country  Promotes the concept of lifelong learning  Supports shared curricula  Supports discovery of most used/highest quality resources   Supports the notion that educational institutions should leverage taxpayers money by allowing free sharing and reuse of resources  Mitigates the cost of keeping resources closed  Mitigates the risk of doing nothing in a rapidly changing environment  Supports sustained long-term sharing 

Business cases - Institutional Case Subject Open Increased transparency and quality of learning materials   Encourages high quality learning and teaching resources   Supports modular course development   Maintaining and building institution’s reputation - globally  Attracting new staff and students to institutions – recruitment tool for students and prospective employers  Shares expertise efficiently within institutions  Supports the altruistic notion that sharing knowledge is in line with academic traditions and a good thing to do  Likely to encourage review of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment  Enhancing connections with external stakeholders by making resources visible 

Business cases - Teachers Case Subject Open Increased personal recognition   Supports sharing of knowledge and teaching practice  Encourages improvement in teaching practice   Supports immediate one-off instances of sharing   Supports attribution  Encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration and sharing  Supports CPD and offers evidence of this 

Business cases - Learners Case Subject Open Easy and free access to learning material for learners  Increased access options for students enrolled on courses (particularly remote students)  Easily accessed through student-owned technologies  Increased access for non-traditional learners (widening participation)  Likely to encourage self-regulated and independent learning  Likely to increase demand for flexible learning opportunities  Likely to increase demand for assessment and recognition of competencies gained outside formal learning settings  Likely to encourage peer support, mentorship and ambassadorial programmes 

National sharing scenario

Reflects government ideals of widening participation, encouraging effective utilisation of publicly funded collections of resources, promoting cross institutional collaboration, encouraging re-use and re-purposing and supporting lifelong learning

Obviously a national approach would be required to facilitate these benefits but combining this with an open approach (on a national scale) could add many benefits, particularly if this meant open to learners as well as those supporting learning and teaching. A CoP approach could support sustainability, and a subject-based approach would also support the development of a critical mass in different subject areas. A possible model to support this scenario would be an open national repository with access by students, possibly opened wider than the UK with subject based community support mechanisms to encourage sharing of practice, deposit of materials and re-use/re-purposing.

Conclusions

Report referred to in recent JISC OER call

Develop Toolkit for institutions building business cases

Consider “intent” – know your objectives

Recognise that these may change through the lifecycle of any repository

Adapt, modify, sustain

Good intentions

The vision of a world where teachers in HE, FE and WBL/CPD would share and re-purpose their learning materials, using the Web as a medium, with the support of interoperability standards, and repository platforms utilising those standards has been with us for many years.

Despite our best efforts and good intentions we've not always moved forward as fast as we would have liked. And now we find that after all that work and, sometimes painful, experience our world has changed.

The evidence suggests that the landscape of policy, technology, and learning and teaching practice may have changed sufficiently for us to realise the vision.