Why OER?

David WileyInstructional Psychology & Technology

Brigham Young University

Why OER?

1. Education is Sharing(the technical argument)

2. Buy One, Get One(the political argument)

3. The Paradox of Free(the financial argument, part 1)

Why OER?

4. The $5 Textbook(the financial argument, part 2)

5. Continuous Improvement(the quality argument)

6. Content is Infrastructure(the innovation argument)

Why OER?

7. Do the Right Thing(the moral argument)

1. Education Is Sharing

the technical argument

Teachers Share With Students

Knowledge and skillsFeedback and criticism

Encouragement

Students Share With Teachers

QuestionsAssignments

Tests

If There Is No Sharing

There is no education

Successful Educators

Share most compeltelywith the most students

Knowledge is Magical

Can be given without being given away

Physical Expressions Are Not

To give a book you must give it away

Expressions Are Different

To give a book you must give it away

When Expressions Are Digital

They also become magical

E.g., Online Book

We can all read simultaneously

An Indescribable Advance

The first time in human history

Both Knowledge and Expressions

Can be given without giving away

Unprecedented Capacity

We can share as never before

Unprecedented Capacity

We can educate as never before

What Does “Share” Mean?

Online it means copy and distribute

Cost of “Copy”

For one 250 page book:

• Copy by hand - $1,000

• Copy by print on demand - $4.90

• Copy by computer - $0.00084

Cost of “Distribute”

For one 250 page book:

• Distribute by mail - $5.20

• Distribute by internet - $0.00072

Copy and Distribute are “Free”

This changes everything

Educational Sharing

Also means adapting or editing

Sense-making, Meaning-making

Connecting to prior knowledgeRelating to past experience

(In an appropriate language)

Digital Makes Editing “Free”

Editing a printed book or magazine is difficult and expensive

Free Copy, Distribute, Edit

We can share as never before

Free Copy, Distribute, Edit

We can educate as never before

Except We Can’t

© forbids copying, distributing, and editing

© Cancels the Possibilities

Of digital media and the internet

InternetEnables

What to do?

CopyrightForbids

Use copyright to enforce sharing

The 4Rs

Reuse – copy verbatimRedistribute – share with others

Revise – adapt and editRemix – combine with others

Over 400 Million Items

Using CC licenses at end of 2010

The “Open” in OER

Free permission to do the 4Rs

InternetEnables

OERAllows

Sharing and educating at unprecedented scale

2. Buy One, Get One

the political argument

“Buy One, Get One”

Pizza in Ohio

Who Pays for Research?

Understanding relative contributions

Public Investment in Research

$105,385 to $119,913 per article(U.S. NIH-funded research)

Publisher Investment in Research

$2750 per article, includingadministrative and all other costs

Does This Make Sense?

Publishers make 2% of the investment, then take © and charge you for access

Public (Who Paid) Has No Access

I thought I bought a pizza?!?

If You Buy One, You Should Get One

All taxpayer-funded educational resources should be OER

U. S. Department of Labor

$2 Billion for curriculum for high-demand two year programs

3. The Paradox of Free

the financial argument

Do OER Hurt Sales?

Won’t people stop paying for the course materials or books if they’re free?

Publications• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (in press). Free E-Books and Print Sales.

Journal of Electronic Publishing.• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (in press). Open access textbooks and financial sustainability:

A case study on flat world knowledge. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.

• Johansen, J. & Wiley, D. (2011). A sustainable model for opencourseware development. Educational Technology Research & Development.

• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). A sustainable future for open textbooks? The Flat World Knowledge story. First Monday, 15(8).

• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). Free: Why authors are giving books away on the Internet. Tech Trends, 54(2).

• Hilton, J., Wiley, D. (2010). The short-term influence of free digital versions of books on print sales. Journal of Electronic Publishing, 13(1)

http://davidwiley.org/

Findings• Over 2% of people who access open

online courses become paying customers

• Downloads of free online books correlate strongly with sales of print books

• A for-profit business can be financially successful using CC licenses on its textbooks

4. The $5 Textbook

the financial argument, part 2

Postsecondary Students

Pay $35 instead of $150 - $200 per book115,000 students have saved $20M

High School Science Classes

Teachers adapted CK12 books for print or digital use

http://opencontent.org/calculator

A Chemistry Book for $4.86

Lean, focused textbooks

1200 Students in 2010-2011

3500 students in 2011-2012

Pedagogy and OER

Highlighting, annotating, taking notes

Impact on Learning?

Data coming in two weeks!

5. Continuous Improvement

the quality argument

Each and Every Click and View

Recorded and stored for analysis and quality improvement

Analytics

Almost every industry (1) gathers and (2) uses data more effectively than we do

If Only We Could Get Data!

We could do analyses (aka research) too

What Kind of Data?

Assessment dataNon-assessment behavioral data

Assessment Data

Difficulty estimatesDiscrimination estimates

Per-standard expertise estimatesAnd “grades,” of course

Behavioral Data

When they logged in, read, and workedHow long they logged in, read, and worked

Pathway informationSocial network analysis

What If You Could Know

Which students need the most help?Specifically what those students need help on?

The least effective parts of you curriculum?Which parts of your tests are malfunctioning?

Teaching as Science

Possible with data, tools, and commitment

Learning Analytics

Can tell us who and what needs help

It’s Useless

Knowing what needs fixed, when you don’t have permission to fix it

Openness

Gives us permission to make changes and improvements

It’s Useless

Having permission to fix things,when you don’t know where to start

Openness + Analytics

Tells you what to fix and allows you to fix it!

Enables Continuous Quality Improvement

Curriculum Use

Curriculum Redesign

StudentPerformance

Data

Data Describing Curriculum

Performance

Data Supporting Strategic Tutoring

TheLoop

6. Content is Infrastructure

the innovation argument

What is Infrastructure?

Electric grid, telecom, roads, airports, water, sewer, etc.

What is Infrastructure?

“The physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services

essential to enable, sustain, or enhance” societies or enterprises.

To Speed Innovation

Increase quality and decrease cost of infrastructure

Content is Critical

An important part of every educationalinstitution’s infrastructure

To Speed Education Innovation

Increase quality and decrease cost of content infrastructure

University of the People

OER University

Mozilla Badge Lab

Mozilla Badge Lab

7. Do the Right Thing

the moral argument

Consider Our Responsibility

What kind of ethical or moral responsibility do we have?

Who are you accountable to?

Our Potential Is Limitless

The good we can do is constrained only by our creativity and commitment

Why OER?

To be helpful

Thank You

david.wiley@byu.edu@opencontent

http://davidwiley.org/