Affordable Teaching and Learning Redefining What's Possible Erin Walker Learning Technology Consultant

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela

How do we educate? There are 1.4 Billion+ students on Earth 1.23 billion students in pre-k to high school 170 million students in higher education 9.2 million faculty in higher ed 56 million teachers in pre-k to high school Open Education

Agenda OERs Affordable Learning Materials Discover Landscape Implement

OPEN EDUCATION

Open Education “…is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general, and the Worldwide Web in particular, provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge.”

The Buzz….. Cost Savings Equity Textbook + CreativityNo Limits

Why Open Education Matters Video

OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OERS)

OER? What is an OER? – At a minimum, no cost to the consumer or user of the resource What resources? – Content – Tools – Capacity 4Rs: – Reuse – Revise – Remix – Redistribute Not just courseware! Makes OERs unique

Types of OER? Open Courseware Learning Repositories MOOCs Learning Objects Podcasts Open textbooks Videos Images Open Journals Open Source software Games …….and more!

Benefits of OER Educators Freedom of access Freedom from proprietary systems and corporations Co-creation empowers more collaboration and creativity Sharing development costs among institutions Contributes to the local and global community Lowers costs to students. availability of quality peer reviewed material to enhance their curriculum Increased student engagement and use of course materials Learners Lower cost materials Enhanced quality and flexibility of resources Freedom of access (e.g. at work/home/on placement) and enhanced opportunities for learning Support for learner-centered, self- directed, peer-to-peer and social/informal learning approaches Skills development (e.g. numeracy) through release of generic OER that can be re-used and re-contextualized in different subject areas Authentic or 'real-life' learning experiences through OER that link to employer or professional sector activities

Challenges of OER Copyright challenges Lack of awareness of copyright Embedded copyright Lack of technical skills Unwillingness to share Unwillingness to use Assuring quality Incentives – time Pedagogic skills Infrastructure Development costs Maintenance costs Raising funds Range of strategies Broadband Interoperability Meta data standards Meet accessibility requirements for persons with disabilities Technical Economic LegalSocial

The OER Landscape

Open Textbooks Flat World Knowledge College Open Textbooks Open Staxx

OER Commons

Open Courseware Consortium “…course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the internet”

Galileo

AFFORDABLE LEARNING MATERIALS (ALMs) Not free…….affordable

Types of ALM’s eBook platforms Publisher-provided online learning tools

Benefits of ALMs Educators Robust learning and classroom management capabilities Adaptive functionality Valuable pedagogy and course management tools that are difficult to replicate in open landscape Flexibility Search/Highlight/Bookmark/Notes Typically 50-60% cost of new print book High quality content and resources Accessible on mobile devices Learners High quality content Immediate feedback State of the art pedagogy Adaptive learning functionality Learning tools to accommodate any learning style Accessible on mobile devices

Challenges of ALMs Often difficult to keep content updated in real time Limitations imposed by providers Complex interfaces w/ often steep learning curves Cost savings can vary Many options are not downloadable Costs still often high depending on text and course May restrict which textbooks you can select

The ALM Landscape

Yuzu

Brytewave

McGraw-Hill SmartBook

MOVING FORWARD

Criteria for Evaluating ALMs Does it match your learners’ needs? Does it align with curriculum standards? Is there ease of use and accessibility (i.e. open formats, ability to download source files)? Are there license restrictions? What is the quality of the content? Is the source reputable? For example, has it been peer reviewed? Is there a community of users? How large and open is it?

Do you have an OER policy? Designed to help you review your own institutional policy environment and where necessary institute policy changes that will facilitate collaboration and the development and sharing of OER.

But first….. Important precursors: Awareness Value Proposition Adoption Admin/Faculty investment

What’s Your ALG Why? Save $$$ Tailor teaching content and methods to 21st century learner with ease Equity in learning Break free from system boundaries on teaching and learning …..and more!

THANK YOU! Erin Walker