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Open Educational Resources: a Review of Attributes for Adoption in an Online Bachelor’S Degree Program

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Open Educational Resources: a Review of Attributes for Adoption in an Online Bachelor’S Degree Program 61 OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: A REVIEW OF ATTRIBUTES FOR ADOPTION IN AN ONLINE BACHELOR’S DEGREE PROGRAM Patricia Neely, Higher Learning Institute Jan P. Tucker, Higher Learning Institute Angela Au, Higher Learning Institute ABSTRACT $V FRQFHUQV DERXW WKH VN\URFNHWLQJ FRVWV RI D FROOHJH GHJUHH KDYH FRQYHUJHG ZLWK WKH LQFUHDVLQJ DYDLODELOLW\RIRSHQHGXFDWLRQDOUHVRXUFHV 2(5 KLJKHUHGXFDWLRQDGPLQLVWUDWRUVDUHDVNLQJIDFXOW\DQG FXUULFXOXPGHVLJQHUVWRXVH2(5VWRGHVLJQFRXUVHVDQGSURJUDPV7KLVFDVHVWXG\H[SORUHVWKHGHFLVLRQ PDNLQJSURFHVVDQGRXWFRPHVRIDQRQOLQHIRUSURÀWXQLYHUVLW\·VDWWHPSWWREXLOGORZFRVWEXVLQHVVGHJUHH programs using open educational resources. The paper concludes with a list of suggested criteria for evaluating open source content when designing similar programs. .H\ZRUGVRSHQHGXFDWLRQDOUHVRXUFHVRSHQVRXUFHFRQWHQWFXUULFXOXPGHVLJQFRXUVHGHYHORSPHQW GHFLVLRQPDNLQJ INTRODUCTION who are often accused of changing editions to keep 2SHQ (GXFDWLRQDO 5HVRXUFHV DUH GH¿QHG DV textbook prices high (Grasgreen, 2014). College “teaching, learning and research materials in any textbook costs have increased over 80% in the past medium that resides in the public domain and have GHFDGHIRXUWLPHVWKHUDWHRILQÀDWLRQ 6FKRODUO\ been released under an open license that permits Publishing Resources and Academic Coalition, access, use, repurposing, reuse and redistribution 2014). For students already struggling to pay by others with no or limited restrictions,” (Atkins, college tuition and fees, which have risen 1000% Brown, & Hammond, 2007, p. 7). Open educational in the past 30 years (Jamrisko & Kolet, 2012), resources can include full courses, degree programs, textbook costs can hinder their goal of earning a course materials, modules, syllabi, teaching notes, college degree. textbooks, research articles, podcasts, videos, With public concern over escalating college assessments, simulations, databases, software costs, it is no surprise that colleges are looking applications, and various other types of educational at open educational resources (OER) as an materials. opportunity to increase access for students, and For most students and faculty members, allow students and institutions to save substantial textbooks are an integral part of the college amounts of money by reducing dependence on classroom experience. Student budgets for an expensive textbooks (Bliss, Hilton, & Wiley, 2013; academic year include funds for buying textbooks Hilton & Wiley, 2011). with costs running $1,200 or more per academic In the past ten years, interest in OER has year per undergraduate student (Senack, 2014) grown, driven not only by the high costs of college equating to over $10 billion being spent annually on textbooks but also by government and public textbooks (Green, 2013). Faculty instructors design pressures over the high cost of a college degree and courses around textbooks created by publishers the inability of current educational institutions to GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY Journal of Instructional Research | Volume 5 (2016) 62 meet the worldwide demand for higher education. barriers to research, data and materials (Creative 1HDUO\WZRWKLUGVRIDOOFKLHIDFDGHPLFRI¿FHUV Commons, 2014). agree that open education resources have the With the advent of the Digital Age, the terms potential to reduce costs at their institutions (Allen open and OER are interpreted as meaning content & Seaman, 2012). Maricopa Community Colleges is free for use and available over the Internet. estimated that students could save over $700 per Open means an ability to reuse (unaltered, as is), semester (Fraulino, 2015). Supporters of open revise (adapt and modify the content, such as a educational resources suggest that OER has the translation), remix (combine the original content potential to lower the direct cost per institution or revisions, creating something novel), and of developing high quality learning materials, to redistribute (share copies of the original, revised provide unique opportunities for institutions to or remixed content) (Tucker, Neely, & Belcher, offer low enrollment courses and programs in a 2013). Multiple types of users including faculty, cost effective way, and to radically reduce textbook instructional designers, subject matter experts, high costs (Anderson & Elloumi, 2004). In turn, this school teachers, corporate trainers and learners should improve “access to and quality of schooling can download OER. Once downloaded, OER can for students, self-taught learners, educators, and be used as an informal learning tool for students institutions around the world,” (The Hewlett (e.g., Khan Academy videos) or integrated within Foundation, 2013, p. 6). a structured course environment. For example, a OVERVIEW OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES course may be designed around an OER instead of around a textbook or a course may offer a varied Although free online textbooks are the most set of learning resources for students including popular option among open educational resources, purchased materials, such as a textbook and open a variety of open resources are available including material like white papers, reports or videotaped full courses, degree programs, simulations, articles, lectures. Each resource is issued under a license podcasts, videos, learning objects and software that spells out how it can be used. applications (MIT Open Courseware, 2014). When Along with lowering the costs of producing originally coined, the term OER referred to openly D FROOHJH GHJUHH RWKHU SRWHQWLDO EHQH¿WV FDQ available materials and did not indicate that the be attributed to the creation and use of open materials needed to be available online or in digital educational resources. D’Antoni (2009) wrote format (UNESCO, n.d.). Resources had to be free WKDW SRWHQWLDO EHQH¿WV RI 2(5 LQFOXGH PDNLQJ for use, but they could be in formats that have to be information available to all, widening participation printed rather than downloaded from the Internet. in higher education by expanding access to non- The early beginnings of open educational traditional learners and learners worldwide and options for students can be found in Great Britain’s promoting lifelong learning. OER has been touted Open University, which was founded in 1969. as a way to bridge the gap between formal and Another strong supporter of OER is UNESCO, informal learning as well as leveraging taxpayers’ ZKLFK ¿UVW FRLQHG WKH WHUP ³RSHQ HGXFDWLRQDO money by sharing and reusing learning content resources” in 2002. Within the United States, between institutions (D’Antoni, 2009). Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was Open educational resources may reshape an early supporter of OER, launching its Open KLJKHUHGXFDWLRQEXWVLJQL¿FDQWFKDOOHQJHVWRWKH Courseware Project in 2002. Other efforts around DGRSWLRQRI2(5ZLOOQHHGWREHDGGUHVVHG¿UVW open resources include the Open Learning Initiative including technical challenges, price/cost barriers, from Carnegie Mellon, Connextions from Rice permission barriers, and limitations to the ability to University, the University of Leicester’s OTTER adapt or build upon a resource (Open Knowledge, Project and Harvard Extension School’s Open 2014). Early adopters of OER considered education Learning Initiative (Tucker, Neely, & Belcher, to be a public good and suggested that openness can 2013). The Creative Commons organization create positive change in education by improving provides support for the use of open educational student outcomes (The Hewlett Foundation, 2013). resources by developing copyright licenses for Furthermore, garnering administrative support for open materials as well as identifying and lowering the integration of open resources and motivating GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY 63 faculty to change curriculum design processes can cadre of subject matter experts who will be referred be challenging. Restrictive intellectual property to as the “work group” also provided support for policies, lack of time for educators to develop and the redevelopment of the program. remix OER, reward systems that fail to reward EVALUATION OF SERVICE PROVIDERS USING open educational activities, and a lack of strategic SELECTION CRITERIA goals and leadership can impede the development 7KH¿UVWVWHSLQWKHHYDOXDWLRQSURFHVVEHJDQ and adoption of OER within an institution (Bissell with identifying the courses in the Bachelor & Boyle, 2007). In a 2012 survey of chief academic of Science in Business program that would be RI¿FHUV$OOHQDQG6HDPDQ IRXQGWKDW³« converted to the new model in Phase 1 of the approximately one-half of institutions of all sizes, course redevelopment project. In Phase 1 of the ranging from the very smallest (under 1500 total project, only the courses required for the Bachelor enrollments) to the very largest (with over 15,000 of Science in Business with a concentration in total enrollments) report that they currently use Management/Leadership were re-developed. Phase OER materials in their courses. This pattern of 1 of the redevelopment process included 20 general use by institutional size is consistent for all course education courses, 11 business core courses, nine delivery types – online, blended and face-to-face,” Management/Leadership concentration courses, (p. 7). In the past, learning resources developed by and three elective courses. The general education a university’s faculty were considered intellectual courses and elective courses were prescribed for property and a key differentiator in the educational WKLV¿UVWSKDVHRIGHYHORSPHQW experience at the institution. Today, there is The courses were selected based
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