- Open Educational Resources (OERs) are learning materials that can be freely used, modified, and shared. The Commonwealth of Learning promotes the development and sharing of OERs to improve access to education. - A future with widespread adoption of OERs has already begun according to predictions from the 1960s. OERs allow the costs of educational resources to be shared among institutions and make materials more accessible. - WikiEducator is the Commonwealth of Learning's initiative to support the creation and sharing of OERs through an online wiki platform. It has grown significantly since being established in 2006 and supports various international collaborative projects.

1. Open Education Resources (OERs)‏ An ODL future that has already happend? learning for development

3. The future that has already happened Peter Drucker “ Father of modern management” HBR “ In human affairs — political, social, economic, and business — it is pointless to try to predict the future, let alone attempt to look ahead 75 years. But it is possible — and fruitful — to identify major events that have already happened, irrevocably, and that therefore will have predictable effects in the next decade or two. It is possible, in other words, to identify and prepare for the future that has already happened. ” Slide 3

4. Open learning – not just a method 80% CA Wedemeyer Learner autonomy versus Independent study DE Methods Learner freedom “ Perhaps no tenet of education is more widely held or expressed than that education must be centred in the individual” Wedemeyer & Childs 1961 Open learning Is an educational philosophy of widening learner choices in things like when and where to study, preferences for media used in delivery, widening entry and exit points if study, etc, Slide 4

5. OERs and upside-down thinking Open questions Do OERs mean that distance education providers should make their study guides freely available for anyone to use modify and adapt? Can free textbooks play a role in widening access to education? Slide 5

6. What about the future of distance education and institutional models for ODL delivery? Slide 6

7. A historical perspective of ODL 80% ? Slide 7 Agrarian society Industrial society Knowledge society Face-to-face pedagogy Single-mode DE pedagogy A new pedagogy

8. S-curve analysis & discontinuity 80% Slide 8 A B Strategy innovation

9. The mega-university S-curve Slide 9

10. Development costs of DE resources Instructional design, multimedia design, editing etc. Cost categories Academic authoring time 80% 20% Slide 10

11. Development costs of OERs Authoring and design costs shared among participating institutions Slide 11

12. What are the most important technological innovations in the history of education? Slide 12

13. The blackboard 80% The inventor or introducer of the blackboard deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not among the greatest benefactors of mankind Josiah Bumstead 1841 Slide 13

14. The motion picture 80% The motion picture is the most revolutionary instrument introduced into education since the printing press Hoban 1940 Slide 14

15. Television It now seems clear, however, that television offers the greatest opportunity for the advancement of education since the introduction of printing by moveable type Stoddard 1957 Slide 15

16. Computers The impact of computers on society, and hence on education, has been compared to that of moveable type and the printing press since Gutenberg Caffrey and Mossman 1967 Slide 16

17. How well are we doing, given all this technological innovation in education? Slide 17

18. Kids who won't be going to school 80% Slide 18

19. Productivity and price in higher education 80% 20% Source: Justin Tilton and Jim Farmer, Learning Environment 2015 Slide 19

20. Can technology make a difference? Slide 20

21. COL's WikiEducator We're turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks . We hope you can help us. Slide 21

22. Standing on the shoulders of giants “ Imagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. And we need your help ” Jimmy Wales microsoft.com Wikipedia.org Slide 22

24. What are the core freedoms? Slide 24

26. Core freedoms Richard Stallman Free Software Foundation Freedom 0 - Use The freedom to run a program, for any purpose Freedom 1 – Help yourself The freedom to study how a program works, and adapt it to your needs. (Access to the source code is a precondition for this.)‏ Freedom 2 – Help your neighbour The freedom to redistribute copies Freedom 3 – Help your community The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public Slide 26

27. What about copyright and licenses for OERs? Slide 27

28. The creative commons licenses Copyright “ All rights reserved” Public Domain Slide 28

29. Licenses Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. No derivative works You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share alike If you build upon this work, you may only distribute the resulting work under a license identical to this one. Flexible license – from “ all rights reserved ” to “ some rights reserved ”. Slide 29

30. What is WikiEducator's strategic plan and how is it used? Slide 30

31. Phases of our strategic plan Establishing foundations (May 2006 - Dec 2007 )‏ Scaling up free content development (Jan 2008 - Dec 2008)‏ Sustainable implementation (Jan 2009 - )‏ Slide 31

32. How is WikiEducator used? Planning planning of education projects linked with the development of free content. Developing Free content development of free content on Wikieducator Howtos work on building open education resources (OERs) on how to create OERs Funding proposals networking on funding proposals developed as free content Slide 32

33. Established on 1 May 2006 – How is WikiEducator doing? Slide 33

34. Daily users 62 users per day First quarter 179 users per day Second quarter 437 users per day Third quarter 810 users per day Fourth quarter Currently 4 327 users per day Slide 34

35. WikiEducator growth Wikeducator's growth trend Slide 35

36. Can you give us examples of WikiEducator initiatives? Slide 36

41. WikiEducator's invitation We're turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks . We hope Southern Africa can help us. Slide 41