The document discusses open educational resources (OER) and the University of Exeter's efforts to promote their use. It notes that OER should be seen as part of scholarly work and integrated into curriculum design. Exeter launched projects to explore OER issues and release course materials as OER. It recommends a two-stage approach of creating some high-quality OER and developing OER versions of programs, and embedding OER awareness into staff development. Challenges include copyright, quality assurance, and incentivizing staff contribution and use of OER.

1. OER as a scholarly activity within staff development accredited programmes Matching individual and institutional objectives University of Nottingham, UK | 11 th March 2011 Tom Browne, Open University SCORE Fellow, Education Enhancement | Academic Services | University of Exeter, UK

2. OER on the Horizon One year from now…setting the scene: “ The movement toward open content reflects a growing shift in the way academics ... are conceptualizing education to a view that is more about the process of learning than the information conveyed in their courses.” “ Information is everywhere; the challenge is to make effective use of it. As customizable educational content is made increasingly available for free over the Internet , students are learning not only the material, but also skills related to finding, evaluating, interpreting, and repurposing the resources they are studying in partnership with their teachers.” (Educause Horizon Report, 2010) Its time has come!

3. Online Learning Task Force Reported to HEFCE in January 2011 OLTF had been tasked to address how UK HE might maintain and extend its position as a world leader in online learning. Recommendation 6 Investment is needed for the development and exploitation of open educational resources to enhance efficiency and quality Collaborate to compete. Seizing the opportunity of online learning for UK higher education Report to HEFCE by the Online Learning Task Force http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2011/11_01/ / Efficiency or effectiveness?

4. OER University Universities in Australia, Canada and New Zealand launching an "OER university". drawing together existing free online learning materials from around the world and develop new OERs to create whole degree programmes that can be studied via the internet for free. Degrees could cost up to 90 per cent less than a traditional qualification. could run alongside traditional modes of delivery, “augmenting and adding value to" existing provision. By Rebecca Attwood, LTHE, 10 February 2011 Threat or opportunity?

5. Open Educational Resources O for : Open – resources that are free and accessible over the internet . You can use them ‘as is’ or modify them to suit any context of your own. You merely have to acknowledge the original contributor. E for : Educational – is commonly the context but it can, if the author allows, also be commercial R for : Resources – can be anything , but commonly will include full courses, course materials, complete modules, notes, videos, podcasts, assessments, tests, simulations, worked examples, software, and any other tools or materials or techniques used to facilitate learning. Free stuff!

6. Exeter’s Journey Open Exeter HEFCE-funded, JISC-managed : May 2009 - April 2010 Explored organisational, technical, support and academic issues at an institutional level Recommendations ‘ Re-engineering’ existing material, particularly to make them copyright compliant, is not scalable. OER must be seen as an integral part of scholarly endeavour – factored into curriculum design and delivery. Open STEM HEFCE-funded, HEA-managed : Sept 2010 - Aug 2011 aligning to UK Professional Standards Framework Incorporate OER awareness into accredited staff development programmes Phase-1 to Phase-2

7. OER Phase 1 : May 2009-April 2010 UNESCO OECD UK Government Open Exeter

8. Project Focus Institutional Supply side agenda Tangible deliverables: Release 360 credits equivalent of materials Create an ‘open’ repository (Open Exeter) And explore impacts: Embedding educational cultural changes Sustainability - life after the project 2 projects :– tangibles + story

9. Dichotomy? between: individual perspective Institutional perspective In harmony or conflict? Illustrate how being played out at Exeter. 2 benefits for the price of one?

10. Why should Academics contribute to OER? Altruism: Contributing to the public good Raise personal profile: Get you and your work known Career enhancement: TRN; virtuous circle Share knowledge: Creating worldwide communities If no academic buy-in no OER

11. Rethinking Pedagogy OER has potential to: support widespread transformations in L&T encourage sharing and reusing promote active, independent, student focused learning which can ‘range’ across disciplinary boundaries be integral component of curriculum design and delivery underpin research-informed learning and teaching Utopia! (improved student learning experience)

12. Why should an Institution invest? Relevant strategies (and KPI’s identified) Education Research and Knowledge Transfer Marketing and Internationalisation Employability Academic buy-in must be underpinned by institutional mission

13. Marketing OER has potential to: Have a positive impact upon ‘brand’ Attract best international students Align with promoting best of our research Improve quality of material, thereby also student satisfaction Also: Other big hitters are promoting OER so we must too – league tables New fees regime – ‘positioning’ Utopia! (lots of money / status)

14. Challenges to Practice Staff awareness Reward and recognition IP issues Quality and reputation Confidence and trust Staff resources “ There needs to be much more consideration for lecturers workloads if Exeter is going to push this” Time (and as proxy for other challenges)

15. Staff Awareness Start with promoting demand -side, into staff development: +ve “ I found some very useful courses which are relevant to my teaching” “ Reduces the uncertainty whether a particular material may be used legally” -ve “ Unless I have invested in creating course content I feel I lack the authority to teach a course” Initial sensitisation

16. Reward and Recognition Focusing on the supply side: +ve “ All I'm really interested in as a contributor is making my resources more freely available to other educators to use as they see fit - I think there is some value in my resources that I'm happy to see others take advantage of if they wish” -ve “ Making this material available as OER is the equivalent of giving away research that would otherwise be patented (and hence could earn income) and would not be in the best interests of either the staff or the University” “ Spending time putting my work on to OER is not going to help me in my career at Exeter” Need institutional policy incentives

17. IP Challenges Quality “ Having reviewed some material ... [it] is so riddled with copyright sensitive images that there isn’t going to be much left ... As a result it isn’t going to resemble the polished diamond we hoped” Coherence “ I am having some trouble, in that the IPR requirements mean very, very drastic changes are necessary to the existing material. I am concerned that academic credibility is being lost, because of the ferocious requirements of IPR.” Time “ I’m slightly disillusioned after wasting several hours over the last couple of weeks chasing permission to use a map only to be told no, and that was just one map” Exeter taking ‘risk averse’ approach

18. Quality and Reputation “ An OER repository definitely does give an impression of the institution and the staff (team) that produces it” (Philip et al , 2008) Different motivations lead to different outcomes: Formal (cf peer review journals) Some resistance in-house Informal (e.g. community blog) Materials will reflect upon Exeter so quality must always be ‘high’

19. Confidence and Trust Licence-out: Creative Commons concerns re CC ‘derivative’ option having their material mangled Education or commercial? Challenge: ‘all rights reserved’ v ‘some rights reserved’ Trust of greater concern than copyright!

20. Support Issues Concerns similar to old arguments re. VLE: “ We will have to invest massive amounts of resources in supporting teachers to deliver OER material” “ Noting the heavily resourced models such as MIT and the UK Open University’s OpenLearn and even worse, the community driven Wikipedia, would it not be better to let them get on with it and merely promote a demand-led model?” But is OER is marginal cost?

21. Staff Development Recommendations from Open Exeter ‘ Re-engineering’ existing material, particularly to make them copyright compliant, is not scalable. OER must be seen as an integral part of scholarly endeavour – factored into curriculum design and delivery. However: “ I have been advised by senior academics that we should not strive for teaching excellence if this undermines the delivery of grants and publications.” T v R tension transcends OER agenda

22. Institutional Response Open Educational Resources: The Way Forward (April 2010) Recommendation: Two stage proposal (requiring internal bridging funds) then Colleges should fund future developments from their own business plans. Stage One 2010-2012 Create limited volume of high quality OER, linked to University’s primary research. Provide support and training for staff to ensure that they utilize OER materials available from elsewhere effectively and to develop the skills and understanding needed to create their own high quality OER materials. Stage Two 2011-2015 Develop OER ‘sample’ of high quality course material for each University programme. To be made available through online prospectus, also as part of each programme specification. The Business case!

23. OER Phase 2 : Sept 2009-Aug 2010 HEA strand: 11 projects, all releasing OER Open Materials for Accredited Courses (OMAC) Generate resources to support staff engaged in teaching and supporting learning. Support accredited programmes, enabling staff to provide evidence against the UK Professional Standards Framework. Open Stem (Exeter) Transforming Teaching in Mathematics and Biosciences 2 cohorts of participants (Autumn and Spring Term) Trialing resources of activities used in staff development All resources to be released as OER Institutionally embed OER agenda into University behaviour

24. Open STEM outputs Project page : http://labspace.open.ac.uk/course/enrol.php?id=6597 (You will be asked to obtain access details). Course materials: videos, learning and teaching activities including subject-specific supporting material, intervention cards, scenario cards and completed student assignments for practice marking. Evidence: Substantial bank of evidence from focus group transcripts, evaluation and reflective log book feedback, coffee conversations, blog entries, quotes, data and session evaluations which will be built into a comprehensive case study. Guidance : ‘Pedagogical’ packages’ including our evaluation of materials and guidance on how to use them. Free for you (soon ….)

25. Subject specificity Outcomes: Development of subject specific activities and materials (Maths and Biosciences) - resulted in impetus to create similar resources for further disciplines - Engineering, Physical and Human Geography, Psychology, English. STEM participants respond well to a strongly evidence-based theory and approaches which involve quantitative as well as qualitative measurement and evaluation. STEM / HASS strands / ???

26. SCORE Fellowship “ OER as a scholarly activity within staff development accredited courses” http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/tom-browne Building upon Exeter experience Applying more widely, particularly to institutions in SW England HEA ‘critical friend’ for several projects Supervising Masters students at Falmouth Umpteen ‘ambassadorial’ visits, talks, workshops Raising awareness and profile of OER

27. References Open Exeter http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/educationenhancementprojects/openexeter/ Browne, T.J.& Newcombe, M. (2009) Open educational resources: A new creative space. In Same places, different spaces. Proceedings ascilite Auckland 2009 . http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/aukland09/procs/browne.pdf Tom Browne, Richard Holding, Anna Howell, Sue Rodway-Dyer (2010) The challenges of OER to Academic Practice. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/2010-3/pdf Open STEM http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/educationenhancementprojects/openstem/