The document discusses the open access education revolution enabled by emerging technologies and intellectual property frameworks. It argues that traditional textbooks lock up educational ideas behind closed formats and copyrights, whereas open education can create vibrant, interactive communities through openly sharing, using, and reusing educational content freely. Key enablers are the web/internet for distribution and storage, and open licenses like Creative Commons that allow open access while retaining author copyright. Examples of open education platforms exchanging open educational resources are provided, along with opportunities and challenges around quality control, sustainability, and increasing access and customization of education through open models.

1. The
Open Access
Education Revolution
Richard Baraniuk
Rice University

3. vibrant
interactive
community
connected
innovative
up-to-date
efficient
effective

4. create
vibrant
interactive
share
community
connected
use
innovative
freely
up-to-date
efficient
re-use
effective
openly

5. create
vibrant
interactive
share
community
connected
use
innovative
freely
up-to-date
efficient
re-use
effective
openly

6. create share
use re-use
freely openly
why?
today’s textbooks/courses
lock up educational ideas
– closed formats
– closed copyrights

7. create share
use re-use
freely openly
why?
today’s textbooks/courses
lock up ideas
– not efficient
– not affordable
– not accessible

8. open education
create
vibrant
interactive
share
community
connected
use
innovative
freely
up-to-date
efficient
re-use
effective
openly

9. OE
enablers

10. enabler 1: technology
Web/XML
common framework
for sharing
Internet
virtually free distribution
virtually infinite, permanent storage

11. OE platform – primordial state

12. textbook / course

13. personalized courses

14. reuse materials

15. enabler 2: new IP
intellectual property
and copyright
make content safe to share
common legal vocabulary
inspiration: open-source software
(Linux)

16. (CC-BY)
author
retains
their
copyright
but
opens
access
via
open
license

17. 500+ million
licensed works
text
music
audio
images
video
art …

18. (CC-BY)
read ccLearn on: “Why CC-BY”

19. today’s textbook pipeline
authoring
editing
quality control
publishing
distribution

20. open education ecosystem
authoring
editing
feedback
peers
quality control users
learning
publishing
distribution

21. OE
examples

23. Connexions (cnx.org)
non-profit open education platform
founded 10 years ago
connecting ideas
900 open textbooks/courses
15000 Lego modules
free on-line
low-cost in print

24. Connexions (cnx.org)
non-profit open education platform
founded 10 years ago
connecting people
contributors worldwide
in many languages
usage per month:
1.2 million unique users
58 million hits
from 190 countries

25. some Connexions partners
Community College Open Textbook Project
100+ CC’s in USA and Canada
developing a suite of free open textbooks
Government of Vietnam
developing new curriculum at 40 universities
Siyavula / Shuttleworth Foundation
complete K-12 curriculum for South Africa
IEEE
educational outreach in electrical engineering
quality review of open materials

26. efficient
stanford
illinois
michigan
wisconsin
berkeley
ohio state
ga tech
utep
rice
cambridge
norway
italy

27. accessible

28. unexpected consequences
Catherine Schmidt-Jones
private music teacher, USA
music theory textbooks
Sunil Kumar Singh
engineer and parent, India
physics textbook

29. unexpected consequences
Catherine Schmidt-Jones
private music teacher, USA
music theory textbooks
15 million uses to date
Sunil Kumar Singh
engineer and parent, India
physics textbook
4 million uses to date

30. inreach
outreach

31. OE
the road
ahead

32. interactivity
see
do

33. interactivity
see
do

34. semantic / active content
Mathematics Markup Language (MathML)

35. open education
open research

36. open education
capetowndeclaration.org
open research

37. OA legislation
medical research is a public good
US NIH OA Mandate
UK Wellcome Trust OA Mandate

38. OE legislation
US state e-textbook initiatives
in CA, VA, WA, …
US President Obama’s AGI
$50m for community college
open textbooks
Open College Textbook Act, US Senate (Durbin)
textbooks and learning materials a public good;
materials developed with government support
(NSF, NIH, DOE, …) to be OE
Dutch Wikiwijs project (OE mandate)

39. sustainability
Q: is OE financially sustainable?
Q: is the status quo sustainable?
textbook prices have risen
4x faster than inflation
for well over a decade
publishers are pricing themselves
out of the market

40. computer hardware
and software
textbooks
music
newspapers

41. sustainability
Q: is OE financially sustainable?
A: OE (can be) compatible with
for-profit publishing
enables commercial entities
to add value to OERs and
sustain the community

42. sustainability
Q: is OE financially sustainable?
A: OE (can be) compatible with
for-profit publishing
enables commercial entities
to add value to OERs and
sustain the community

43. chris anderson

44. OE
quality
control

45. quality control
community peer review
inclusive exclusive
must be scalable

46. lenses
social software for quality control
inspiration:
cnx.org/lenses/
IEEE.org/cnx johnDoe
univ.edu/cnx

49. cnx.org/lenses
coming soon:

50. OE
opportunities

51. OE opportunities
outreach – access to all
free on-line
low-cost in print
never out-of-print
supports (in)formal learning
inreach – owned by all
more diverse materials
community involvement
teacher/faculty involvement
ecosystem
continuously updated
customizable, translated
high-quality
based on open standards

52. Richard Baraniuk
richb@cnx.org
Joel Thierstein
jt2@rice.edu