Economic Aspects of OER Peter Baumgartner This Work is licensed under a Creative Commons.

Economic Aspects of OEREconomic Aspects of OER

Peter Baumgartner

http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/imb

http://www.peter.baumgartner.name

This Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

• The Myth of Learning Objects

• OER Definition (revisited)

• Open Courses and Open Content

• Business & Exchange Models

• Conclusions and Discussion

Definition of OER (by OECD, Jan HylDefinition of OER (by OECD, Jan Hylénén))

• Open courseware and content• Open software tools• Open material for e-learning capacity building of faculty staff• Repositories of learning objects• Free educational courses

http://www.oecd.org/document/26/0,2340,en_2649_33723_35733402_1_1_1_1,00.html

Essential in my definition: no financial transaction involved

OpenEducationalResources

(EOR)

Different Concepts: LOR and EORDifferent Concepts: LOR and EOR

LearningObject

Repository(LOR)

LO’sfreely

available

Free educationalResources +

Tools forCreating,

Changing,Evaluating

LO‘snot freelyavailable

Store,Find, +

Other Services(Interoperability)

Regrouping of the DefinitionRegrouping of the Definition

• Open courseware and open content

• Open software tools• Open material for e-

learning capacity building of faculty staff

• Repositories of learning objects

• Free educational courses

• Open courseware• Open content; LO• = Open source• Open courseware or

open content (LO)

• Learning object (LO)• Open courseware

Summary: 2 main types: Open Courses and Open Content

Two Motives for OERTwo Motives for OER

1. Production

• Re-usable content should decrease the productions cost of

content (Learning Object, Content Sharing)

2. Education

• Educational Resources should be open for everybody (free

access to knowledge)

Re-usable Learning Objects (RLO‘s)Re-usable Learning Objects (RLO‘s)

Learning Object

Lecture,Chapter

Course,Certification

Die LEGO - MetapherDie LEGO - Metapher

Die LEGO - Metapher (2)Die LEGO - Metapher (2)

Die LEGO - Metapher (3)Die LEGO - Metapher (3)

Re-usableLearning Objects

Independentof context

Dependentof context

PedagogyEducational Scenario

„„ROI-Paradox“ROI-Paradox“

Reusability of Objects

and Instruction

Paradox

Reusability of Objects

and Instruction

Paradox

Learning ObjectLearning Object

Media Objects (Assets): Text, Sound, Graphic, Image, Animation, Movie etc.

Sound

MovieText

Image

Information Objects: Concepts. Facts, Principles, Processes, Procedures etc..

Media Objects are packaged to information (e.g. Functionality of a pump).

Multiple Representations

Learning objects: Closed collection of information objects with exactly one learning objective. 7 +/-2 information overload rule of the short term memory

Addresses exactly one learning objective: How does a motor work? -> Assessment and Evaluation!

Reusable in other learning contexts????

Learning Object (revised)Learning Object (revised)

IO ES

EO

LO

IO = Information Object EO = Educational Objective

ES = Educational Scenario LO = Learning Object

IO = Information ObjectRLA= Re-usable Learning Asset

Teaching Method: Group PresentationTeaching Method: Group Presentation

Teaching Method: „Ball Bearing“ (“Station Learning”)Teaching Method: „Ball Bearing“ (“Station Learning”)

IMS LD - Conceptual ModelIMS LD - Conceptual Model?

Interaction beInteraction betweentween IO and DS IO and DS

IO

DS DS

DSDS

DSDS

DS

DS

Information-objects (IO’s)

DidacticalSettings (DS’s)

R e

p o

s i

t o

r y

Export

IO

IO

IO

IOIO

IO

IO

IOIO

IO

DS

LC

MS

Runtime

DS

IO

DS

IO

DS

IODS

IO

DS

IO

DS

IO

EducationalScenarios

Integration

IODS

Levels of GranularityLevels of GranularitySubject Module (Course)

Learning Time: Hours - WeeksDiscipline Unit

Educational ScenariosLearning Time: Min. - Hours

Pedagogical Unit

Didactical InteractionLearning Time: Sec. - Min.

Action Unit

Two AssumptionsTwo Assumptions

1. The quality of educational settings is a mix of

content AND learning environment (educational

scenarios)

2. Different types of educational resources support

different kinds of learning environment and vice

versa.

TransferTransfer TutorTutor CoachCoach

• factual knowledge, “know-that”

• Transfer of propositional knowledge

• to know, to remember

• Production of correct answers

• Verbal knowledge, Memorisation

• to teach, to explain

• procedural knowledge, "know-how"

• Presentation of pre-determined problems

• to do, to practice

• Selection of correct method and its use

• Skill, Ability

• to observe, to help, to demonstrate

• social Practice, "knowing-in-action"

• Action in real (complex and social) situations

• to cope, to master

• Realisation of adequate action strategies

• Social Responsibilty

• to cooperate, to support

Teaching ITeaching I Teaching IITeaching II Teaching IIITeaching III

TransferTransfer TutorTutor CoachCoach

Teaching ITeaching I Teaching IITeaching II Teaching IIITeaching III

Content

?

Conclusions so farConclusions so far

• Keep the Pedagogy out of the Learning Object. (Robert McCormick)

• Separate Didactical Model and Information Object. (CampusContent)

• Concentrate on the combination of Information Objects AND Educational Scenarios (Peter Baumgartner)

• Questions:– How to integrate the Information Objects into an appropriate

Learning Environment?– How to design the Learning Environment for using the Information

Objects most effectively

Principles of LearningPrinciples of Learning

Learning is fundamentally social.

Knowledge is integrated in the life of communities.

Learning is an act of participation.

Knowing depends on engagement in practice.

(Institute for Research on Learning - now defunct -, Menlo

Park, California, 1999.)

Interactingwith Self & Society

Perceive & Do (Debug)

Teaching &Facilitating

Knowing-in-action

Produce &Deposit

Tutoring &Managing

Interactingwith Object

Reflecting-in-action

Artefact(user driven content)

Practice &Discuss

Coaching &Orchestrating

Interactingwith Subject (Human)

Reflecting-in-practice

Environment

““Canned” versus Open Content (I)Canned” versus Open Content (I)

• Prefabricated content

• Packaged and delivered

• Static, seldom updated

• Produced by few specialists

• Quality control by experts

• “all rights reserved”

• User generated content

• Processing, interacting

• Dynamic, evolving

• Produced by many people

• Quality control by community

• “some rights reserved”

http://www.olcos.orghttp://wikieducator.org/Open_Educational_Content

““Canned” versus Open Content (II)Canned” versus Open Content (II)

• Access restricted

• Database, Downloads

• Teacher as instructor

• Facts, Rules, Principles

• Transfer of knowledge

• Curriculum, Courseware

• Open Access

• Web 2.0, P2P, Community

• Teacher as mentor/coach

• Competencies, Skills

• Construction of knowledge

• Informal learning

http://www.olcos.orghttp://wikieducator.org/Open_Educational_Content

Open Courses & Business ModelsOpen Courses & Business Models

privateinstitution

publicinstitution

self learning material(autonomous learner)

blended learning material(educational support)

Cross-promotionBrand extensionLock-in policy

Limited Access(Version, Amount, Time, Log-Ins)Show Window - attracting students

AltruismAcademic traditionsReputation

TaxpayerSharingPublic Relations

Open Content & Exchange Models (I)Open Content & Exchange Models (I)

1. General Principle = (not monetary) exchange with

mutual advantage (win-win situation)

2. Building up a new Ecology for Learning and Teaching

(eg. Metadata Ecology for Learning and Teaching =

MELT http://info.melt-project.eu )

Open Content & Exchange Models (II)Open Content & Exchange Models (II)

• Content for “a better world”: altruistic motive

• Content for Reputation: publicity, honours, quotation index

– Development of professional career models

• Content for Content:

– How to start up? (How to get a critical mass?)

– How to compare Content? (evaluation problem)

• Content for other Services: Providing Metadata, Experiences

– Benefit for the original Content(provider)

Some Barriers (Fears) to overcomeSome Barriers (Fears) to overcome

• copyright infringement

• material has to be improved for general use

• print publication is better than web publication

• lack of knowledge (of OER, of CC License)

• giving away business opportunities

Medida-PrixMedida-Prix

Conclusions I = Principles of (e)LearningConclusions I = Principles of (e)Learning

• The production of special (e)learning content (“canned content”) loses importance.

• (e)Content is created in collaborative learning situations (“user generated content”)

• Good Content is everywhere. It has to be integrated in social learning situations (situated learning).

• What matters is the social (learning) arrangement, content is just a part of it.

• For better content sharing separate content from educational modelling/integration.

• Provide educational scenarios as own content type.

Conclusions II = Principles of OERConclusions II = Principles of OER

• There are different Strategies to apply for Open Content and Open Courses.

• Open Courses of private institutions serve often just as appetiser or as Pre-Promotions in their business models

• Public institutions may offer more Open Courses under a national license model for taxpayers.

• Open Content needs the development of exchange models to foster the individual participation.

• Close the link between individual motives and institutional interests through institutional career models.

Some Questions for DiscussionSome Questions for Discussion

• Does the distinction between Open Courses and Open

Content make sense?

• If so: What are the consequences for OER?

• What kind of exchange models are necessary?

• How to overcome the mentioned barriers?

• What strategy should we choose/create for a change of

culture in content sharing?