There is no business model for open educational resources: a business model approach

The economic proverb ‘There is no such thing such as a free lunch’ applies also to open educational resources (OER). In recent years, several authors have used revenue models and business models to analyse the different sources of possible funding for OER. In this article the business models of Osterwalder and Chesbrough are combined with research on the motives of the participants of OER to analyse possible funding models. If the motives of governments (knowledge economy), educational institutions (efficiency, marketing), individual producers (reputation, academic interests) and users (intermediary educational products, learning) are combined, it is shown that the only long-term sustainable independent business model is based on subsidies. However, this conclusion depends both on the definition of openness (in the sense of at no cost) and on motives. More research on both aspects could alter these conclusions.     

英国开放大学"开放学习"项目评述

英国开放大学一直是国际远程教育界的开拓者和典范,目前又在全球开放教育资源运动中后来居上,成功开展了“开放学习“(OpenLearn)项目.本文首先介绍了“开放学习“项目的背景和目标、项目实施现状,然后概括了该项目在学习资源与学习活动设计、学习工具与学习支持服务,以及开放理念与举措等三方面的特点,最后,还对“开放学习“项目进行了总体分析和评价,并提出了对我国远程教育资源建设、开放和共享的启示.     

Needs for and utilization of OER in distance education: a Chinese survey

The recent developments within open educational resources (OERs) and open licensing have generated considerable interest among distance educators since open and distance learning is supposed to be the largest consumer/user of and contributor to OER. In China, given the policy of development and use of elaborate courses, conversion of radio and television universities into open universities, establishment of the China Open Resources for Education, and adoption of Creative Commons by the Chinese government, there seems to be further expansion of OER movement in the country. Against this backdrop, it was imperative to know how distance education/open university teachers use OERs and what constraints they face in doing so. This study reports a structured questionnaire and open-ended interview findings on all the 74 teachers of the Beijing Open University for four variables: awareness, needs, utilization, and constraints. The findings show that while the teachers were generally aware of OERs, they misunderstood all web resources as OER; the Chinese elaborate courses dominated the perception and use of OER; and those who used OER mainly required it for teaching content, relevant research, and for adopting teaching methods. Searching for OER, choosing appropriate OER and copyright issues were the common constraints to effective use of OER. These results have been discussed further in relation to international research studies on OER, the context of Chinese distance/open university education, and the Chinese OER policy.     

Transgenic learning for STEAM subjects and virtual containers for OER

Abstract

Transgenic learning is a disruptive approach in education. It encourages modification of moving parts of the educational chain. This article provides a view of transgenic learning focused on the delivery of enriched learning contents in STEAM areas. It discusses the mutagenic role that the virtual containers may play in current distance education. We focus on the containers’ technology and how it can bridge students, computing resources, teachers and specific IT needs. We also present an experiment carried out at UNIR University where we describe the transition from using conventional software distribution methods to the use of containers. Thanks to this virtualization approach, it is possible to deliver the necessary software-based lab scenarios. The results show that the participation and satisfaction of the students increased over time. Our experience shows that the combination of open educational resources, containers, and modern distribution channels can play a significant role in STEAM education.     

开放教育资源在大学生群体中的应用综述

开放教育资源运动从开放课件阶段推进到各种资源深度整合应用阶段,形成了独特的结构及模式,它既符合高校教育改革的要求,又遵循现代教育信息化的需要。从认知、应用、效果等三个维度对当前开放教育资源在大学生群体中的应用现状进行总结,并从参与者、资源本身、技术实现、社会环境等方面对其影响因素进行分析,最后提出相关改进建议。     

大学生应用开放教育资源自主学习的实证研究——以厦门某本科院校为例

对大学生应用开放教育资源自主学习的现状进行调查,分析发现大学生虽然具备了应用开放教育资源自主学习的基本能力,但是应用开放教育资源自主学习的意识不强;教师对开放教育资源缺乏管理与更新,对学习活动缺少引导和组织,很少参与学生的基于网络的学习活动;国内开放资源内容形式较为单一,精彩视频较少;拓展资源可追溯性较差;网站响应速度太慢等问题,并针对这些制约因素提出相应对策。     

An empirical investigation of the emergent issues around OER adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the past few years, Africa has joined the rest of the world as an active participant in the Open Educational Resource (OER) movement with a number of home-grown and externally driven initiatives. These have the potential to make an immense contribution to teaching and learning in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, certain barriers prevent full participation. This paper reports on qualitative research that sought to investigate SSA's readiness to adopt OERs. This study involves three case studies based in higher education institutions involved in OER projects and located in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Contrary to the popular belief, findings indicate that low technological levels in Africa do not necessarily impede the adoption of such educational technologies; the real challenges facing the readiness to adopt OERs appear to be related to socio-economic, cultural, institutional and national issues. This paper argues for a complete mind shift in how people perceive OERs. It also proposes raising awareness of OERs at all levels, involving institutions and government, versioning OERs for the African context and conducting more research on OER adoption.     

OER perspectives: emerging issues for universities

This reflection examines some of the continuing and emerging issues in the open educational resources (OER) field. These include blending OER with university management structures; formal and non-formal OER; the need for sustainable OER business models; and expanding awareness, adoption, and use of OER. In the future, research will need to examine the concept of open educational practices (OEP) and OER issues relevant to faculty incentives and career advancement in the university. The author suggests there is no silver bullet solution to the “open” road ahead. Proprietary and open content will coexist in the education sector. OER are not a panacea for resolving all the range of global education issues and divides. OER are, however, a valuable resource that must be developed and sustained. OER may ultimately be the genuine equalizer for education and for empowering social inclusion in a pluralistic, multicultural, and imperfect world.     

Adoption of open educational resources (OER) textbook for an introductory information systems course

Open educational resources (OER) can make educational resources widely available to all students and educators for free; however, OER are still untried in many academic programmes in higher education. This article reports a case of adoption of an open access textbook for an introductory information systems course and discusses the process and suggestions of adoption of an OER textbook based upon the authors’ own experience. The study indicates that the process of adoption of an open access textbook demands more intellectual work on the instructors’ side in comparison with the adoption of a new commercial textbook. The study suggests that discipline-based communities of practice (CoP) can ease the workload problem in the process of adopting OER textbooks. The findings are important in encouraging the OER community to shift from project-based OER textbook development to discipline-based CoP for effective OER textbook adoption.     

The OER mix in higher education: purpose,process, product,and policy

Success in open educational resources (OER) has been reported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA and the Open University in the UK, among others. It is unclear, however, how valuable OER are in learning and teaching. Approaches to OER policy and sustainability are just two other key aspects that remain unresolved across the sector. Based on the findings from the Open, Transferable, Technology-enabled Educational Resources (OTTER) project at the University of Leicester, UK, ¹ 1. Open, Transferable, Technology-enabled Educational Resources (OTTER) project, University of Leicester, UK, http://www.le.ac.uk/otter we introduce the OER mix framework: purpose, processes, product, and policy. We argue that different mixes of the four Ps can generate different approaches to OER. We discuss the relevance of the framework and its importance for social inclusion and widening access to higher education. We also discuss the implications of the OER mix for the openness agenda. Institutions may find value in adapting and applying the framework. We invite colleagues to critique it and report back.     

The Creation of OpenCourseWare at MIT

This paper traces the genesis of the MIT OpenCourseWare project from its initial strategic precursors in 1999 and 2000, through its launch in 2001 and its subsequent evolution. The story told here illuminates the interplay among institutional leadership, and strategic planning, and with university culture in launching major educational technology enterprises. It also shows how initiatives can evolve in unexpected ways, and can even surpass their initial goals. The paper concludes with an overview of challenges facing OpenCourseWare in moving from the end of its production ramp-up and towards sustainability.

Open educational resources in support of science learning: tools for inquiry and observation

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the formal/informal spaces for inquiry learning. This is contrasted with an example of the use of free tools and community development for observation of scientific phenomena supported by open educational resources (OER) with a citizen science perspective. The article provides an assessment of how the availability of the resources has a potential for shaping the communities using OER for science learning and a discussion of the means of supporting inquiry.     

浅谈如何培养和激发学生的学习动机

动机是推动人们进行某种活动的动力。学习动机，是推动学生渴望学习，自觉学习的动力。本文以动机的理论研究为基础，提出了一些比较具体的、有效的、有根据的培养和激发学生学习动机的途径和措施。     

Developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: Teachers’ experiences of using the Open Educational Resources (OER) of the teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme

The TESSA (teacher education in sub Saharan Africa) programme aims to improve teacher education at scale by developing open educational resources (OER) that allow sustainable and locally managed pedagogical change in higher education institutions and schools. The article offers a sociocultural theoretical rationale for the pedagogy of mutuality represented in the TESSA OER; and for the research approach to understanding pedagogical change that recognises the dialectical relationships between national policies and institutional structures and practices, and the consequent impact of these on teachers’ practice and pupils’ learning. It reports from an interview-based enquiry, from the project¹ ‘Extending and embedding TESSA OER’, looking at how teacher educators at a Kenyan University served to broker changes in pedagogy within the institution and its partner schools. Two school-based cases are discussed that highlight the role teachers, who take up these pedagogical challenges play in further brokering change in their local institutions; some of the influences that support the process of institutional change are identified and how these are understood and reported to increase access and enhance learning for all pupils.     

Designing a robot teaching assistant for enhancing and sustaining learning motivation

Although many researchers have pointed out that educational robots can stimulate learners’ learning motivation, the learning motivation will be hardly sustained and rapidly decreased over time if the amusement and interaction merely come from the new technology itself without incorporating instructional strategies. Many researchers have identified that the sustainability of the learning motivation is closely related to the instructional strategies. Accordingly, learners must be well guided by suitable instructional strategies to enhance and sustain their learning motivation. In other words, suitable instructional strategies are required even if introducing educational robots to learners can stimulate learning motivation at the beginning of learning activities. Literature also suggests that systematic instructional strategies can be designed with the use of the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) model. As the rapid development of robotics, it has become feasible to apply the educational robot for enhancing learning. A robot teaching assistant (RTA) was designed to enhance and sustain learning motivation for the learning of English reading skills. A quasi-experimental design and the Instructional Material Motivational Survey questionnaire were used for data collection and evaluation. The findings showed that the design of the RTA-based learning activities guided by the ARCS model for learning English reading skills can significantly improve learners’ learning motivation, learning performance, and continuance intention.     

西方国家商学院教育环境变化与教育模式发展新趋势

随着经济全球化、新科技的快速发展以及商业实践活动多样性、复杂性、灵活性与不确定性的日益增加,西方国家商学院的教育环境发生了深刻变化。具体表现为:前所未有的大众化需求与不断深化的市场细分,强劲的全球化进程与明显的层次划分,不断增长的机构多元化与竞争的加剧,以及危机下承受压力的增加。这些环境的变化和所面临的挑战,虽未从根本上变革西方国家传统商学院教育模式的黄金标准,但也使其出现了一些新的发展趋势:即国际化、学术化与职业化新的平衡、认证与标准化、多样性与灵活性以及综合性与软技能化等。所有这些新的发展趋势无疑对我国商学院教育的未来发展有着重要的启示。     

Self-directed learning and guidance in non-formal open courses

Digital media and open educational resources (OER) are said to redraw the boundaries between learners and teachers, by weakening the centralization of expertise and the distribution of subject-matter authority. This paper presents the findings of an ethnographic study of how the use of OER mediates the relations between self-directed learners and facilitators in two online open courses offered at a non-formal educational organization. Findings highlight the different role played by OER in mediating the relations between learners and facilitators in the two courses. In one course, early-stage learners encountered difficulties in repurposing OER and needed help to move to a more advanced stage of conceptual understanding. In the other course, well-read participants used OER to develop an affinity space in which the facilitator was a fellow learner. The findings suggest that OER are better viewed as artifacts-in-interaction rather than resources to be delivered as they are to learners. Although facilitators at P2PU do not play the role of academic teachers, it is argued that the influence of OER on the facilitator role can have implications for that of the academic teachers as well.     

Cohere：有效利用开放教育资源学习中的集体智慧

集体智慧在开放教育资源学习中的作用日渐凸显,Cohere作为一款在线社会性语义注释及知识地图工具可以有效地支持和利用开放教育资源学习中的集体智慧.Cohere实现了网页注释、语义连接和信息筛选的功能,形成了包括文本、观点和社交的协作网络概念模型.在开放教育资源的学习中,利用Cohere可以进行知识管理、思维的可视化和协作式辩论学习.     

浅析网络游戏的经营模式

网络游戏作为一种新兴的产业,近几年发展特别迅速。网络游戏是文化、艺术和高技术的结合体,网络游戏产业具有重大的经济和文化价值,对传承和繁荣民族文化具有重要作用。     

如何运用互联网激发大学生学习动力

高等教育要求学生具有相应的学习动力,从而为学业乃至将来的职业打好基础。本文讨论如何运用互联网激发学习动力,并给出了实例研究。