Dr. Cable Green
Director of Global Learning
cable@creativecommons.org
twitter: @cgreen
Global Open
Educational
Resources (OER)
Movement

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Slides, notes, references:
http://www.slideshare.net/cgreen

Open Educational Resources
Any kind of teaching materials –
textbooks, syllabi, lesson plans,
videos, readings, exams

Open Educational Resources
(1) Free and unfettered access, and
(2) Free copyright permissions to
engage in the 5R activities

open ≈ free

free is assumed online

Handwriting Printing Press Internet
Copying
a book
$1000s per
copy
$1s per copy $0.0001s per
copy
Distributing
a book
$1000s per
copy
$1s per copy $0.0001s per
copy

open > free

open = free + permissions

• Make and own copiesRetain
• Use in a wide range of waysReuse
• Adapt, modify, and improveRevise
• Combine two or moreRemix
• Share with othersRedistribute
The 5Rs

retain is fundamental

retain is prerequisite
to revise and remix
watch out for new publisher
“artificial scarcity” models

Cost to
Students
Permissions
to Faculty
and Students
Commercial
Textbooks
Expensive Restrictive
Library
Resources
Free Restrictive
Open Educational
Resources
Free 5Rs

“Faux-pen” (aka “open washing”)
1. Free (possibly gated) access
2. All rights reserved (or stronger)

most freedom
least freedom
Not OER
OER

Creative Commons puts the
“open” in OER

What’s happening
around the world?
A lot… and I can’t come close to
listing all of the excellent OER
projects in 20 min.
Let’s talk about the trends…

Global OER Strategic Discussions
oerstrategy.org
join us: Friday, 16 Oct: 11:00
“OER: Mainstreaming and the Moonshot”

Primary & Secondary (K-12) OER

Leicester City Council / CC BY 4.0

http://k12oercollaborative.org

Open / OER Business Models

Lumen Learning
$ Cut total spend on
textbooks by 90%
Measurable
increase (5-10%)
in student success
Open licensing
of all new content
Data-driven
course updates
Smooth faculty
transition to
open content
Student access
to materials
from day 1

Building an open source business by Libby Levi CC BY-SA

Open Pedagogy / Praxis / Practices

“what does open allow me to do?”

Disposable Assignments
Students hate doing them
Teachers hate grading them
Huge waste of time and energy

Renewable Assignments
Students see value in doing them
Teachers see value in grading them
The world is a better place at the end

Open Licensing Policy on
Educational Resources

openpolicynetwork.org

Institute for Open Leadership
Apply @
openpolicynetwork.org/iol

$2 billion: new academic programs @
700+ Community Colleges
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) required
SkillsCommons.org

letter:oerusa.org

Focus on Open Textbooks in US

OER Potential in U.S. Higher Education:
Save Students: Billions / year
If every:
Open textbook saves $128 per course / student

65%
of students decided against buying a
required textbook because of cost
US PIRG Report, 2014
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market

50%
of students said that cost of
textbooks impacted how many and
which classes they took
US PIRG Report, 2014
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market

82%
of students felt they would do
significantly better in a course if
textbook was available for free
US PIRG Report, 2014
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market

Research on OER

11 Peer Reviewed Studies:
OER Outcomes vs. Traditional Textbooks
http://openedgroup.org/

48,623 Students
http://openedgroup.org/

93% Same or Better Outcomes
http://openedgroup.org/

9 Peer Reviewed Studies of
Perceptions of OER Quality
http://openedgroup.org/

4,510 Professors and Students
http://openedgroup.org/

50%
Same35%
Better
15%
Worse
http://openedgroup.org/

Dr. Cable Green
Director of Global Learning
cable@creativecommons.org
twitter: @cgreen
Global Open
Educational
Resources (OER)
Movement