Presentation about OpenCourseWare for OpenData meeting at European Parlement on 20th of October 2011

1. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Open Sharing, Global Benefits
The OpenCourseWare Consortium
www.ocwconsortium.org

2. Willem van Valkenburg
Director TU Delft OpenCourseWare
OCW.tudelft.nl
Assistant to the President of the
OpenCourseWare Consortium
Projectleader EU-project
OCW in the European HE context
twitter.com/wfvanvalkenburg slideshare.net/wfvanvalkenburg

3. • ~260 members
• ~100 live OCW sites
• ~14,000 courses
http://www.ocwconsortium.org

4. “Open” Terminology
Open = free/flexible/sharable
Open License = sharable license (example:
Creative Commons’ most open license: CC-BY)
Open CourseWare (OCW) = sharable course
materials
Open Educational Resources (OER) = sharable
learning materials (broader than OCW)
Source: Tom Caswell
http://www.slideshare.net/tom4cam/going-open-lessons-learned-from-the-open-course-library

5. 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)
4. The $5 Textbook (the financial argument, part 2)
5. Continuous Improvement (the quality argument)
6. Content is Infrastructure (the innovation argument)
7. Do the Right Thing (the moral argument)
Source: David Wiley
http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/why-oer

6. 1. Education is Sharing

7. 1. Education is Sharing
• Teachers Share With Students
• Students Share With Teachers
• Knowledge is Magical:
– Can be given without being given away
• Educational Sharing also means adapting or
editing
– but copyright forbids this

8. 2. Buy One, Get One

9. Who Pays for Research?
• Publishers make 2% of the investment, then
take © and charge you for access
• Public (Who Paid) Has No Access
All taxpayer-funded educational resources
should be OER

10. 3. The Paradox of Free
Won’t people stop paying for the
course materials or books if they’re
free?

11. Research from David Wiley
• 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
Source: davidwiley.org

12. 4. The $5 Textbook

13. 4. The $5 Textbook
• Open Textbooks: FlatWorldKnowledge.com
– Pay $35 instead of $150 - $200 per book
– http://opencontent.org/calculator

14. 5. Continuous Improvement
Almost every industry (1) gathers
and (2) uses data more effectively
than we do

15. 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?
Knowing what needs fixed, when you don’t
have permission to fix it

16. Openness
Gives us permission to make
changes and improvements

17. 6. Content is Infrastructure

18. • To speed innovation, increase quality and
decrease cost of infrastructure
• Content is Critical
– An important part of every educational
institution’s infrastructure
• Examples
– Openstudy.com
– University of the People: tuition-free online university
– OER University
– Mozilla Badges

19. 7. Do the Right Thing

20. Consider Our Responsibility
What kind of ethical or moral
responsibility do we have?
Who are you accountable to?

21. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Activities of the OpenCourseWare Consortium are generously supported by:
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Sustaining Members of the OCW Consortium:
The African Virtual University
China Open Resources for Education
Delft University of Technology
Fundação Getulio Vargas
Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium
Johns Hopkins Bloomburg School of Public Health
Korea OpenCourseWare Consortium
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Netease Information Technology Co.
Open Universiteit
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Tufts University
Universia
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
University of California, Irvine
University of Michigan
University of the Western Cape
And contributions of member organizations

22. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
www.ocwconsortium.org
opencourseware.eu
ocw.tudelft.nl
twitter.com/wfvanvalkenburg
slideshare.net/wfvanvalkenburg
e-learn.nl

23. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Slides credits:
David Wiley – Why OER?
http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/why-oer
Tom Caswell - Going Open: Lessons Learned from the Open Course Library
http://www.slideshare.net/tom4cam/going-open-lessons-learned-from-the-open-course-library
OCW Consortium - Overview ocw july 2011
http://www.slideshare.net/OCWConsortium/overview-ocw-july-2011
Photo credits:
Share
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4424154829/in/photostream/
IMG_4591 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bionicteaching/4700979984/ cc-by-sa
La belle tzigane http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyoflife/21063837 cc-by-sa
Karen and Sharon http://www.flickr.com/photos/brookebocast/209420446/
cc-by-nc-sa
Learn http://www.flickr.com/photos/heycoach/1197947341/ cc-by-nc-sa
Discussion http://www.flickr.com/photos/djof/294059951/
cc-by-nc-sa
Asian Library Interior 5 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubclibrary/453351638/ cc-by-nc-sa
Petru http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyoflife/23724427/ cc-by-nc-sa
Opensourceways http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4371000710/ cc-by-sa
Anka Mulder at OCWC Conference May 5th 2011
Photographer Willem van Valkenburg
http://foto.e-learn.nl/v/ocwcglobal2011/0505-banquet/IMG_1150.jpg.html cc-by-sa