How Open Educational Resources and Digital Technologies are Changing Higher Education
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Editor's Notes
We start with the Internet. Internet connectivity is virtually everywhere, and it provides the greatest distribution channel we have ever known.When we add digital content to the World Wide Web, we should be able to lower costs, increase access, and increase quality… right?
WRONG!
One example of this problem is our current academic publishing model.Higher Ed faculty write research articles for free. Other faculty review these submissions… also for free. Journals then publish and sell access to these articles back to institutions that created them. Subscriptions can cost $25,000 or more for EACH JOURNAL. As libraries are forced to scale back their offerings of academic journals we have a situation where a professor could write an article for a journal and then be unable to access it.
This is insane! So what is missing?
It turns out that copyright law hasn’t kept up with digital content and global connectivity. So even though the technology allows us to copy and share digital content in non-rivalrous ways, the default, “All Rights Reserved” copyright model requires users to request permission from copyright holders before using their content. Not very efficient or scalable for those who want to share their creative works.
We need a way to make sharing digital content easy, legal, and scalable. This is where open licensing comes in.
The old model isn’t working for us
We need to leverage open, digital technologies to lower costs AND better meet the needs of our students.
In 2010 the State Board approved the first “open” policy.
Through a match from the Gates Foundation and the State Legislature, the Open Course Library initiative was created. The goals of the Open Course Library are to:design and share 81 high enrollment, gatekeeper coursesImprove course completion ratesLower textbook costs for students (<$30)Provide new resources for faculty to use in their coursesFully engage our colleges in the global open educational resources discussion