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 Activity 5: Are OER both open and innovative?

1.     How would you judge OpenLearn in terms of your definition of innovation?

My definition of innovation as opposed to something that is new would be based on several characteristics:

·      An innovation need necessarily include a different method or technology than what has been in circulation before,

·      An in novation should be able to create and subsequently solve the problems and/or conflicts that has been inherent to its introduction,

·      An innovation should work, otherwise it would just be an idea.

These listed, I think OpenLearn fulfills all these criteria; it is based on a new(ish) technology of online learning platforms, it has produced intrinsic problems and challenges as summarized by the McAndrew and Farrow (2013) paper and it seems to work, at least good enough to be adapted and incorporated into the systems of a large number of universities.

So apparently, it is more innovative than new.

2.     What key challenges facing the OER movement can be dealt with more quickly than others?

I think the easiest would be, contrary to the name given to it by McAndrew and Farrow, the ‘persistent’ challenges of copyright, technology and access. In fact, we may even think that the very introduction of OER has been only possible through the somewhat spontaneous emergence of solutions to these problems. These include but not limited to the development of the creative commons (CC) licensing system, development of open source technological infrastructure such as VLEs (Moodle may be a good example for this), and finally, the very concept of Web 2.0 itself, which has enabled all stakeholders in OER movement to not only access the content freely, but also to contribute to it without any real limitations.

That said, I think the most difficult would be the emerging challenges including advocacy, culture and open assessment. The problem here is that OER movement calls for a paradigm shift and emergence of an entirely new philosophy in the entire educational system, on any scale from individual schools to countries. This is not easy. I read the transcript of the speech by Secretary Duncan (2011) as well and was amazed when he had told the people that the US would be spending 60 billion USD on education just so as to develop and protect jobs. Acknowledging that money alone would not solve the problem, still, now the question here may be; what do you do if your government does not have or does not wish to use such resources?

3.     How do open educational resources challenge conventional assumptions about paying for higher education modules?

With due respect, I think this question is wrong. It implies that higher education modules shall be free of charge, as opposed to higher university degrees which also come with substantial costs to the consumer.

I see two major problems here:

·      Somebody will still be paying, although, probably, not the learner, at least openly.

o   I have always thought of OER similar to the Web 2.0 browsers such as Firefox or Chrome. Remember paying for your web browser (be it IE or netscape navigator) some 15 years ago? Now we have the same product, for free. Or at least, in exchange to letting ourselves be bombarded by countless offers and products.

o   For larger institutions adding OER systems to their arsenals (like Harvard) this funding may come directly from the students paying tuitions, indirectly from students when they buy promotional material or such, or, by grants (funded by tax money or purchases made) and donations (same).

·      There is every chance that if it is a degree that the learner is after (take MAODE) as an example, there will incur direct costs. This is also mentioned in the McAndrew and Farrow paper.

Reference:

Duncan, A. (2011). “Digital Badges for Learning.” Remarks by Secretary Duncan at 4th Annual Launch of the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Lifelong Learning Competition. Available at:  www.ed.gov/news/speeches/digital-badges-learning, Accessed on : Feb 11 2018