Open Education Week 2: Giving Knowledge for Free

This week's reading for Introduction to Open Education is a May 2007 report entitled  Giving Knowledge for Free – The Emergence of Open Educational Resources. It is a 140+ page summary of a recent project by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to study the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement. The project's web site is at www.oecd.org/edu/oer and provides additional information about the project, including the case studies and site visits that were compiled during the study, as well as a free download of the report.*

What's in it for individuals, for society, for educational institutions? That is a primary focus of the study and the paper. The paper cites a laundry list of reasons to produce OERs, including such things as:

• altruism,
• outreach to undeserved learners (non-traditional and lifelong learners),
• public relations and publicity,
• collaboration on shared interest projects,
• flexibility in course content delivery,
• support for online learning initiatives, and
• survival (don't miss the OER train).

While the reasons provided are compelling, the study reports far from universal adoption with growth in pockets mainly in North America and the UK. The report, and especially the case studies of individual institutions, paints a picture of the reasons why. While the OECD report lists possible misuse, sustainability concerns, differences in definition, and other operational concerns (such as getting the word out and storing / organizing  / cataloging the resources), there appears to be a huge hurdle facing the OER movement:

Educational institutions view participating in the OER movement as giving away their most prized and valued asset – intellectual property.

An illustration of this reluctance is found within the OECD case study for Athabasca University. As Canada's Open University, Athabasca is routinely cited as a leader in openness. On p.3 of the OECD's Athabasca case study, it is noted that the university is "dedicated to the removal of barriers that restrict assess to, and success in, university-level studies". Yet, Athabasca is far from approaching the OER movement with open arms. As stated on p. 6 of the case study, "The University intends to proceed with great caution in making any other course resources open … The University is attracted in principle to making its resources openly available. It is hesitant and extremely cautious at so doing because of a concern about the protection of its assets from the competition." They struggle with the idea of allowing their hard work and efforts to fall into the hands of for-profit entities.

This perception of "giving away the farm" must be overcome. I would argue that in order for the OER movement to receive widespread support within educational institutions, it must be shown that intellectual property is not tied exclusively to content. A distinction must be made between the content an institution makes available and the education it provides. Content is but one part of education. An educational institution and its members possess and offer students many other important assets, such as teachers who support learners, as well as the ability to offer learners credentials in the form of certification and degrees**.

* While the paper is being given away for free on the website, I found the work's copyright provisions (no reproduction, copy, transmission, translation etc. without permission) ironic given the theme and content of the project.

** The distinction between content and a more holistic view of an educational institution's offering is highlighted within the OECD case studies:

• In the Athabasca case study (p. 7), "Athabasca places strong value on the alignment of its course materials with the online support for students working with that content."
• In the Johns Hopkins University case study (p.2), "Materials on the OpenCouseWare website make clear that the courses are not available for credit and that the courses do not provide access to faculty members."
  
• In Open University case study (p. 7), the Open University in the UK is evaluating approaches to openness within their open content initiative funded by the Hewlett Foundation – see project site at the www.openlearn.open.ac.uk web site. One option under consideration is a "conversion model" in which learners accessing the open content can transfer into fee-paying courses if they desire the additional support and credentials.

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