Presentation by Edmundo Tovar about the situation of OpenCourseWare in Spain at Barcelona Workshop on 20th of September 2012

1. The current situation of
OpenCourseWare in Spain
Edmundo Tovar
(Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
edmundo.tovar@upm.es
edmundo@opencourseware.eu
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
1

2. Past studies
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
2

3. Studies on the impact of OCW
• A New Model for Open Sharing (MIT):
Margulies (2004)
– Methodology: survey
– Findings: OCW statistics on use and its consequences.
Advantages for MIT OCW:
• Reference site for many teachers
• Preserving teacher materials and pedagogy (a record is kept)
• Preservation of course materials (notes and transcripts);
• Graphical assistance
• Greater visibility for teaching; promotes grant applications.

4. Studies on the impact of OCW
• Studies at MIT (2004, 2005,
2007, 2010, 2011).
– Methodology: survey and analysis
of access
– Findings: this study covers three
areas: access, use and impact.
• OCW site use statistics
• Source and type of users.
• Ease of use
• Impact on users.

5. Studies on the impact of OCW
• “Impacto del Open Course Ware
(OCW) en los docentes
universitarios” María Dolores Frías Navarro,
Juan Pascual Llobell, Héctor Monterde i Bort y
Marcos Pascual Soler (2010):
– Methods: Survey sampled from
Spanish and Lat American professors;
– Findings:
• Number of courses and their type.
• A study of contents of a randomly
selected group
• A poll that has been answered by 255
Spanish professors and 53 from Latin
American universities

6. Studies on the impact of OCW
• “OER Impact Study”: (Liz
Masterman y Joanna Wild
(2011):)
– Methodology: interviews and
focus groups with professors,
students and OCW managers
– Findings: Potential benefits of
OER to both educators and
students.

7. Studies on the impact of OCW
• Chapter of advantages and disadvantages,
detected several areas:
• Pedagogic:
– Provenance: Quality
– Pedagogic intent, explicitly developed for educational
purposes
– Granularity.
– Media. Rich.
• Attitudinal:
– emphasizes the enhancement of students' autonomous
learning, increased confidence when professors publish
their own materials, teacher openness to learn them too.,
etc
• Logistics:
– the amount of resources in some areas is insufficient,
lack of quality of content,
• Strategy
– to identify individuals and groups using OER

8. Studies on the impact of OCW
• “The impact of
OpenCourseWare on paid
enrollment in distance learning
courses” (Justin K. Johansen, 2009):
– Methodology: experimental
method focusing on several
courses compared with previous
years using statistical techniques
– Findings:
• OCW is sustainable because of the
new students attracted.

9. Studies on the impact of OCW
• “Measuring our Impact: the
Open.Michigan Initiative”
(Emily Puckett Rodgers, 2011):
– Metodología: SWOT analysis,
using opinion survey,
interviews and user feedback
– Findings: how to implement
a culture of quality
measurement in the MU
OCW:

10. International context
Our survey in the EU OCW project
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
10

11. Survey Results EU OCW Project
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
11

12. Factors
Factors enabling OCW/OER initiatives Factors inhibiting OCW/OER Initiatives
• Institutional support
• Lack of institutional support
An institution supports open sharing in
• Negative attitudes from faculty
education through:
• Copyright-related challenges
-Actively encouraging participation in the
production and sharing of OCW/OER amongst
• Lack of information about institutional benefits
faculty members
related to OCW/OER projects
-Implementing open content or open access
policies
• Difficulties with finding appropriate and quality
-Providing resources (financial and staff) to
OCW/OER (when attempting to reuse materials
assist faculty members in the production of
produced elsewhere)
OCW/OER
-Providing incentives to faculty members to
engage in the production and sharing of
OCW/OER
• Positive attitudes from faculty members
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
12

13. Benefits of OCW/OER Initiatives
for the involved Institutions
• The content used by educators, professionals, and individual users.
• Allows to work in a business model.
• It increases the quality of education.
• OCW has become the KPI of the university.
• Medium for sharing information among a community of institutions.
• Increased visibility of the university.
• Increased visibility of teachers and materials.
• Collaboration with other universities.
• Teacher recognition (awards).
• Attracting new students.
• To provide to the society the knowledge generated in the university.
• Contribution to national development.
• Provide users with materials - free of charge.
• Medium to share materials among teachers.
• OER integrated into the objectives of the academic or research organizations,
scholarships, etc…
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
13

14. Aplicación de tecnologías web
emergentes para el estudio del impacto
de repositorios OpenCourseWare
españoles y latinoamericanos en la
Educación Superior
EA 2011-120
Grant of the Spanish Ministry of
Education
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
14

15. Challenges on management of OCW information generated and shared by
Organizations
(1) Large amounts of unstructured, and semi-structured data.
(2) Although the collected data from OCW repositories may have certain
structure accepted by community, but not all data have an similar or
compatible structure and meaning.
(3) Open education materials are shared as Information Silos or "Walled
Gardens"

16. Application of Semantic technologies:
Faceted Query of OCW
based on Linked opencourseware data
GICAC UPM-UTPL Educational Innovative Group

17. Focus Group: What is OCW for your
institution?
• It is a way of promotion of our University
• It is a shop window for others, new students and
new clients
• It is an altruistic initiative to help those who have
no access to Higher Education
• It is an opportunity for students to know class
materials before enrolling
• It is a website that allows teachers and students
publish freely available contents in a structured
way and with a reasonable cost

18. Focus group: …but it has some problems
• In some cases it has been a failure, mostly due to lack of
institutional support (no resources and no personnel
devoted to it)
• It is something that is good having, but managers do not
really care about
• It is hard to reach professors and motivate them to
collaborate
• There is a problem with licenses (too restrictive) and
acceptance by professors of the Open culture
• There are problems with platforms and several duplicities
(moodle, OCW, Aula Virtual, etc.)
• There is not a good set of incentives for professors to take
part in it

19. Focus Group: …and offers opportunities
for those taking part in it
• Way of promotion of professors’ work, with
potentially thousands of users looking at their
materials
• Way of learning one of each other
• Offers prestige to the institution hosting it
• Increases the quality of teaching materials
• Allows to inspect how professors are doing
regarding their teaching techniques and materials
• Saves money by reusing materials of other peers

20. Survey (First data): Teachers’s view
• OCW Problems
Porcentaje
válido
El proceso de publicación tarda demasiado 2,6
He necesitado respaldo jurídico sobre el funcionamiento de los derechos del
10,5
copyright y no lo he encontrado
Hubiera querido acceder a material OCW de otras universidades pero no tenía
7,9
recursos para encontrarlo
Me hubiera gustado tener más feedback de quién visita mi página y no lo he
31,6
tenido
No existían guías sobre cómo publicar 13,2
No fue posible colgar determinados contenidos que deseaba compartir 2,6
Problemas con el contrato OCW 5,3
Resulta complicado cambiar cualquier cosa una vez publicada 23,7
Resulta difícil acceder a la información relevante sobre el OCW 2,6
(n=73)

21. Survey (First data): Teachers’s view
• Incentives to publish
Porcentaje
válido
Mayor reconocimiento como publicación 74,3
Reconocimiento del tiempo dedicado a la preparación de los cursos como tiempo de
57
docencia
Incentivos salariales a través de los complementos docentes 37,1
Facilidad a la hora de publicar 28,6
Concursos que premien a las mejores asignaturas publicadas 20,0
Mayor publicidad de las personas que han publicado un curso 17,1
Cursos de formación sobre lo que es el OCW 14,3

22. Survey (First data): Teachers’s view
• Priorities to improve OCW
Porcentaje
válido
Fomento del uso de OCW en asignaturas concretas 57,1
Creación de un taller sobre su uso para los profesores 51
Implantación del uso del OCW en los programas de máster y de preparación del profesorado 48,6
Creación de un programa de "tutorías" para que el profesorado acceda al OCW 22,9
Creación de comunidades de estudiantes de cualquier parte del mundo interesados en una
20,0
asignatura
Incorporación de materiales de OCW a una red social 14,3
Creación de un grupo de profesores pioneros que fomenten el uso del OCW 11,4

23. SWOT Analysis (First draft)
S W
Welcome to the Open philosopy Unknowledge of the Open Philosophy
Users’ perception of Quality of some Low Quality Materials
courses Dificulty to publish and update
Infrastructures operatives (many) Lack of information
Receptivity and wish of improvement
Disappointing of the good authors becasue the
quality
Spanish Language Global competence
Early arrival to the community Unknowledge by teachers and students
OCW as teh future Recognition policies may not depend on
OCW Consortium univeersities
O Explosion of social networks Economical situation T
Unknowledge by the Society

24. Thanks!
Edmundo Tovar
(Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
edmundo.tovar@upm.es
edmundo@opencourseware.eu
with the support of the Lifelong Learning
opencourseware.eu Programme of the European Union
24