The document provides an overview of the Open Education Resource University (OERu), which aims to provide open online courses across institutions through the sharing of open educational resources. It discusses the background and origins of OERu, examples of existing open education initiatives, and provides a tour of the OERu platform. It also raises several big questions about how OERu will address issues like credentials, learner support, assessment strategies, and financial sustainability. The author reflects that developing open education at a global scale will be a long-term undertaking that requires establishing best practices, understanding learners, and addressing many challenges, but that it can reignite purpose and foster valuable connections.

1. The Open Education Resource
University:
View from the inside
Irwin DeVries
ETUG – Vancouver 2012

2. Overview
•
•
•
•
•
Overview and background
Examples
Tour of the OERu
Big questions
Reflections

3. Caveat
Ortelius world map 1570. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OrteliusWorldMap.jpeg.

4. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASorbona_2005b.jpg
By Bilboq (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons from Wikimedia Commons

5. A parallel learning universe
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AInflation_Universe.png By NASA/WMAP Science Team
(http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/060915/index.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons from Wikimedia Commons

6. Where did it come from?
• OER Foundation
– NFP NZ –
– Otago Polytechnic
• Taylor (2007)
• Discussions on BC
Campus SCoPE
• Two inaugural meetings
• Implementation began
2012

7. The milieu
Open
education
Open source
software
Open
courseware
OERs
Learning
objects

8. Various definition(s):
Open Educational Resources
• Open provision of educational resources, enabled by information
and communication technologies, for consultation, use and
adaptation by a community of users for noncommercial purposes
(UNESCO 2002)
• Available under open license – e.g. CC (Downes, 2007)
• 4 R’s reuse – redistribute – revise – remix (Wiley, 2008)
• “Without cost but not necessarily without conditions” (Hylén, 2011)
• Full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming
video, tests, software and other tools used to support access to
knowledge (Hewlitt, 2009)
• Tools needed for interaction and collaboration (Lane, 2009)
• OERs as a “common good” (Lane, 2008)

9. OER provider categories
(Hylén, 2011)

10. Licensing: A critical piece of the puzzle
From: http://www.squidoo.com/cc-flickr

11. Examples
• MIT
• Connexions
• Open Courseware
Consortium
– Toolkit
• OER Africa
– Materials
• University of the People
• Open Yale
• Open textbooks
– Flatworld Knowledge
• Open journals
• Saylor
Used under Creative Commons license
from Ian Britton FreeFoto.com
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASleeping_students.jpg By Love Krittaya
(Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons from Wikimedia Commons

12. Moving beyond content
• OER used for informal
learning
– Faculty, students, other
universities use OER in
many ways
• But…
– Support –
institutional, faculty, pee
rs?
– Assessment?
– Recognition/credit?
– What are the next steps?
By Flickr user
"Elson”http://www.flickr.com/photos/elson/1269568294/ [CC-BY-SA2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia
Commons from Wikimedia Commons

13. Moving beyond content
What about MOOCs?
Connectivism?
Universities as dinosaurs?
Link between OER and formal
educational sectors
Sustainable and affordable for
students
Building learning “ecosystems”
Photo used under Creative Commons from Bbanuch

14. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AParis_tourists.jpg By zoetnet (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons from Wikimedia Commons

15. A guided tour

16. Big Questions
•
•
•
•
credentials?
learner support strategies?
grading/assessment strategies?
cost analysis/ financial breakdown (value
proposition)?
• level of support for course development?
• quality standards in the course design?

17. Reflections
• Critiques
– Dreams and nightmares
• Own experience &
thoughts
– Working in WikiEducator
• Need to develop practices
• & workflow
• Rethinking everything
– Learning about copyright
– Explaining the concept
– Need lots of time
– Need to track and
understand our learners
– This is a huge, long-term
undertaking
• Personal benefits
– Reignites sense of
purpose
– Incredible contacts
– A live learning lab