1. JISC CETIS, Institute Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton
Open Educational Resources – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education
Li Yuan
JISC CETIS, Institute Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton

2. “Open” means… “Open” Educational Resources
Open Access: Content is provided free of charge
“Open” Educational Resources
Social domain
Open Standards: Produced in open format and with open source software
Technical domain
Legal domain
Open Licensed: licensed for re-use, free from restrictions to modify, re-mix and repurpose

3. Milestones in OER Movement
1998: Open Source Initiative & Open Content Initiative
2001: Open Access Initiatives
2002: Creative Commons

4. A Definition of OER Content Tools Implementation
“digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research” (OECD, 2007)
Content
Tools
Implementation
Textbooks & course materials
Development & Delivery
Searching & Organising
Sharing & Collaborating
Full courses & modules
Co-produce or Producer- Consumer
IPR & Copyright
Institution & Community & individual
Collections & Journals

5. Funding Models – Stephen Downes, 2006
Endowment Model
Eg. SEP
Contributor-Pay Model
Eg. LAMS
Conversion Model
Eg. PLoS
Donations Model
Eg. Wikipedia
Membership Model
Eg. MERLOT
Sponsorship Model
Eg. Stanford on iTunes
Institutional Model
Eg. MIT Open Courseware
Governmental Model
Eg. Learning Federation

6. Different Institution OER Models
Centralised Model
e.g. MIT OpenCourseWare
Centralised and Decentralised Model
e.g. Utah State University OCW
Decentralised Model
e.g. Rice University’s Connexions

7. MIT OpenCourseWare

8. Utah State University OCW

9. Rice University’s Connexions

10. Open.Michigan

11. Openlearn

12. Stanford University on YouTube

13. Individual OER initiatives
Introduction to Open Education
David Wiley, wiki, a 3 credit graduate-level course
Connectivism and Connective Knowledge
George Siemens & Stephen Downes, Moodle & Wiki, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hungarian, and Chinese
Multimedia Training Videos
Russell Stannard, free learning videos on using multimedia and helping teachers to incorporate technology into their teaching

14. OER initiatives for the General Public
Wikiversity
9,355 learning resources, all levels, types, and styles of education
Curriki
The combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki, a community of educators, learners, and experts;
GLOBE
Making online learning resources available to educators and students around the world.

15. National OER Programmes
ParisTech Open Course Ware
Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium (JOCW)
China Open Resources for Education (CORE)
Irish Open
JorumOpen (2009) ???

16. Issues and Challenges :
Sustainability
IPR & Copyrights
Quality Issue
Interoperability Issue

17. “The UK must have a core of open access learning resources organised in a coherent way to support on-line and blended learning by all higher education institutions and to make it more widely available in non-HE environments.”
Sir Ron Cooke’s Report “On-line Innovation in Higher Education”

18. Resources
Cetis Briefing Paper (2008), Open Educational Resources – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education ,
Cooke, R. (2008) On-line Innovation in Higher Education
Downes, S. (2006) Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources, National Research, Council Canada,
OEDb (2007), 80 Open Education Resource (OER) Tools for Publishing and Development Initiatives,
OECD (2007), Giving Knowledge for Free: the Emergence of Open Educational Resources,
OECD (2007), Open Content Licensing (OCL) for Open Educational Resources,
UNESCO, 2008, UNESCO OER Toolkit,
Wiley, D. (2006) On the Sustainability of Open Educational Resource Initiatives in Higher Education,
ZaidLearn, (2008), University Learning = OCW + OER = FREE!,

19. Thanks for your attention!!!
For more information about OER working group and future events at CETIS, please visit Cetis website at or Li Yuan at

20. Discussion:
What technical standards, architectures and tools would be required to make teaching and learning resources searchable (discoverable), reusable and freely accessible globally? Is there anything we can do simply and cheaply with commonly-used authoring tools to help?
How can we make sure that content is legally ok to share? What do people need to know about creative commons licences? Who should be responsible for checking the copyright, performance rights, data protection etc of the video clip they are about to publish? What should the role of institutions be? What kind of policy in the area of IPR and innovative approaches to copyright could facilitate the growth of OER?
Why do institutions engage (or not engage) in OER initiatives? Why do academics use web2.0 content sharing services like Youtube and Slideshare, and how does that relate to their jobs? How does OER change the existing methods and models for teaching and learning?
What are the existing business models for sustainable open educational content projects? To what extent are the institutional model and community models for OER initiatives compatible and to what extent do they compete? Are there other revenue models within the institutional approach that could be of interest?
Any other concerns on OER initiatives, such as quality assurance of teaching and learning materials, pedagogical issues and accreditation, the importance (or not) of knowing what’s happening to content once its “out there” etc.