OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources: The Next Big Thing in Technology-Enhanced Education? Jason G. Caudill, PhD Assistant Professor of Business Administration School of Business Carson-Newman College Jefferson City, Tennessee ABSTRACT OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) are two new and closely re- lated educational technologies. Both provide open access to learning materials for students and instructors via the Internet. These are for the moment still very young technologies. While they have grown dramatically in just ten years there is still relatively little literature about their appli- cation in higher education. This paper will introduce the technologies, discus their potential, and offer some concepts for where researchers may take the topic in the future. INTRODUCTION ers to pursue new knowledge about just what is happening with these tools in practice. As technology continues to play a larger role in the delivery of higher education educational researchers face an ever-changing landscape of DEFINITIONS OF OCW AND OER topics and questions. Over the past decade focus OCW and OER are similar resources. Both are has shifted from questions of if online education digitized educational materials that are provid- can work to how it can work to how to best use ed online at no cost to the user. Both can be used what is known to work. Hardware-related re- in similar ways for education and in some cases search has moved from what students can ac- they are included almost interchangeably in re- complish with technology at home with desk- search on the topic. There are, however, some top computers to what they can do with laptop distinct differences between the two technolo- computers to what can happen with ubiquitous gies. technology in the form of mobile computing. These and other issues will continue to offer OER is the broader of the two categories. Hylen questions to modern educators. Part of the chal- (2005) defines OER as, “Open Educational Re- lenge to researchers is to continually identify the sources are digitised materials offered freely and next area demanding attention. openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and re- One rapidly growing new avenue of technology search” (p. 1). OCW is similar, but more nar- enhanced education is the creation, use, and rowly defined. The OpenCourseWare Consor- adoption of OpenCourseWare (OCW) and tium defines OpenCourseWare (OCW) as “… Open Educational Resources (OER). While free and open digital publication of high qual- the expansion of these new technologies, both ity university-level educational materials. These inside the United States and internationally, has materials are organized as courses and often in- moved at an astounding pace little exists in the clude course planning materials and evaluation literature about the real impact on education. tools as well as thematic content” (OCW Con- Some case studies have been done but when sortium, 2010). compared to other educational technologies OCW and OER are still relatively unexplored At a basic level, all OCW materials are, by areas. This paper seeks to first define OCW and definition, OER, but not all OER materials are OER and what they can do and also challenge OCW. The real differences are in breadth and the community of higher education research- organization. OCW materials are organized as Journal of Learning in Higher Education 55 Jason G. Caudill courses and as such have both a progression and materials, nor any central record-keeping of volume of content that covers a large enough OCW activity there is really no way to know area of a certain field or topic to approximate how many people have accessed OCW courses what a student would encounter in a post-sec- or how often people do so. ondary class on the subject. OER may rise to Information about OER is even more difficult that level, but at the same time may be as simple to obtain. Because OER materials can be as as a podcast of a single lecture or the sharing of a small as just a single multimedia file, produced single presentation file. and distributed by virtually any provider, there These distinctions may be important depending is no way to track individual access to OER re- on the need of the user. A learner seeking a large sources. There is real educational value to the volume of information about a subject probably information contained in OER materials, but needs to find an OCW course; a resource that at the moment there is no detailed information provides a full range of learning activities. For a about how or to what extent the information is learner seeking one specific piece of information being used. the right OER could be the better, more effi- To frame where OCW is in terms of the life cient resource. As with many resources the right cycle of educational resources online learning, a choice between OER or OCW depends on the delivery method that is still maturing and grow- requirements of the user. ing, was officially founded in 1993. The United States Distance Learning Association recogniz- A BRIEF HISTORY es this date as the time that Jones International University became the first accredited online At the time of this writing in 2011 OCW is university. So, online learning, something that reaching its tenth year of existence, originally many in higher education still consider to be launched by the Massachusetts Institute of new technology, was launched a full eight years Technology (MIT) in 2001 with content for before OCW came into existence. over 1600 courses (Abelson, 2007). The stated goal of the program is to “…provide the content that supports an education” (Kirkpatrick, 2006, THE NEXT BIG THING? p. 53). Since the MIT launch other organiza- This paper’s title is in the form of a question, tions have been created to organize and distrib- not a statement. The reason for this is that the ute OCW materials. The OCW Consortium author is posing a question rather than sharing boasts a membership of hundreds of universi- definitive results. Are OCW and OER going to ties and related organizations at the time of this be the next big drivers of online learning and writing (OpenCourseWare Consortium, 2010) blended course design? Will they impact higher and other universities have their own OCW education as a whole to the extent that online functions, including the Johns Hopkins Bloom- education has in the past several years? Will berg School of Public Health, Yale University, dedicated OCW and OER theorists begin to Carnegie Mellon, and Notre Dame just to name enter into the literature? a few. There are not any answers to these questions OCW has experienced large-scale growth, both right now. What is important to higher educa- at MIT and across other institutions. From the tion, however, is to openly ask these questions initial 1600 course launch of OCW at MIT and openly discuss the possibilities. With so their program has grown to over ten million many organizations investing in OCW and users (Edudemic, 2011). Yet another study in- OER, and so much material available, there dicates that there are more than 3,000 courses is anecdotal evidence that these materials are available from over 300 universities internation- popular, and perhaps even important. What is ally (Yuan, et. al., 2008). Other user statistics, lacking, however, is literature examining and as- outside of the membership of the OCW Con- sessing the use of such materials in operational sortium, are difficult if not impossible to attain. environments. While there is some, it is rela- Because there is no central repository of OCW 56 Fall 2012 (Volume 8 Issue 2) OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources:The Next Big Thing in Technology-Enhanced Education tively scarce considering the size of OCW and This possibility is not without its merits, and OER programs. is in fact already in operation in at least one program at Fredrick Community College in There are helpful guidelines available for how to the state of Virginia, USA. There, students can use OCW and OER materials, and even some take advantage of freely provided online courses information indicating that people have taken in emergency management and transfer those advantage of the materials. A 2004 survey of completed courses to the college, in addition to educators using MIT’s OCW found that 57% taking a college-provided exam, and pay a nomi- used OCW for course or curriculum develop- nal fee to receive academic credit and eventually ment and 47% have adopted elements of MIT earn an associates degree in Emergency Man- materials for use in their classrooms (Marguiles, agement. 2004). Rennie and Mason (2010) provide a five step process through which OER materials, in- Duderstadt (2008) has a similar, if more en- cluding OCW, are used to design a course: compassing, vision of what OCW may grow to become. The concept of the meta-university in- 1. Identify the main generic headings for volves combining resources in a manner where, course content (key topics for discus- “Open source, open content, open learning, and sion and learning) other ‘open’ technologies become the scaffold- 2. Search for relevant resources that can ing on which to build truly global universities…” (Duderstadt, 2008, p. 11). Duderstadt (2009) be re-used for these headings poses an even more forward looking projection 3. Write ‘wrap-around’ materials that by proposing that the combination of OCW, contextualize and support the learning emerging technologies, and other social and resources educational factors could, in the future, yield, “…the linking together of billions of people 4. Add your new materials to the com- with limitless access to knowledge and learn- mon pool (if required) ing tools enabled by a rapidly evolving scaffold- ing of cyberinfrastructure; which increases in 5.