Indeed, many universities seem perplexed with indecision when developing a strategy for mobilizing scalable Open Educational Resources (OER). At first glance, the rhetoric is inspiring – we are a student centered university that embraces opening up the university [and its content], personalized learning spaces, portfolio development, digital innovation and the universal 21st century goal of enlightened student metacognition. Conversely, universities bureaucratize, dictate and control the essential resource that has the greatest potential for making open content a scalable, accessible and open resource – STUDENTS.
We have, in our infinite academic wisdom, assumed that the university’s single most important resource for creating and sharing open content is the traditional protectors of the academy – the faculty. And, of course, this is true to a large extent. However, we have decided that students, no matter how talented or how extensive their diverse portfolios, are incapable of producing high quality and replicable knowledge resources until we have conferred upon them a glossy qualification diploma. This seems unfathomable given the research has consistently shown that student-student learning in small groups, project teams, and through social networking and connected digital interaction can produce deep student learning. In sum, what is needed in the next wave of OER development is a new synergy that taps the unlimited intellectual capital of both faculty and students.
This session will examine a conceptual management framework that builds upon this basic premise that faculty and students create knowledge, albeit perhaps different levels with different uses, yet content knowledge all the same that can be used, revised, and distributed in different ways for different purposes to meet educational goals. This framework is built around a set of guiding assumptions. These include:
1.OER must be ‘institutionalised’ within the mainstream academic culture and policy continuum of the university.
2.Universities must develop a business model – not simply a budget or business plan – that is aligned with the basic business model of the institution.
3.Faculty and Student OER repositories must have clearly defined parameters for how these resources will be screened, evaluated, used, modified, distributed protected by appropriate licenses (Creative Commons).
4.Student OER development could be considered an essential component of student portfolio development and carefully aligned with selected digital literacies identified in institutional student learning outcomes.
5.Students would be encouraged to engage in collaborative OER development with fellow students as well as with the guidance of academic mentors versed in OER development and management.
This session will be highly interactive. The purpose is to engage participants in an exploratory discussion about mobilizing STUDENTS as source of OER across the future open educational landscape. Moreover, the trend towards knowledge as a global public good suggests that the range of individuals capable of creating open content will only expand. The new digital landscape is the cyber highway for the distribution and sharing of OER and as students are increasingly engaged in personalized learning environments, metacognition development, and connections through social media and innovative learning spaces, it is equally important that their creative content is embraced a potentially valuable educational resource. A few of the key questions that will be discussed regarding students as creators of open content will include:
Who should student OER be available to inside the university and externally?
What kind of management and screening process will be needed to effectively evaluate student OER? It is unrealistic to suggest that all student portfolio resources will become OER on a wider scale?
Does the institutional business model sustain the development and distribution of student OER? Why or why not?
What are possible collaborations between students and faculty in the creation and distribution of OER.
A summary of the session commentaries from participants will be drafted and shared post-conference to further examine the strategy of mobilizing student OER development in the future.
****A STUDENT WILL BE ADDED TO THIS PANEL TO DISCUSS THE VALUE OF OER DEVELOPMENT BY STUDENTS.