2. A questionnaire aimed at staff in non-OERTen institutions

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15-minute survey: investigating the UK Higher Education Institutions' compatibility with OER university concept (closes on 21 May 2012)

Researcher: Gabi Witthaus, University of Leicester and the Open University (UK)

Purpose of study: This survey forms part of a study investigating the Open Educational Resources university (OERu) concept and its applicability to the UK HEI sector.

Publication of findings: The collated results of the survey will be made available in the project blog (www.toucansproject.wordpress.com) in June 2012 and in a paper to be presented at the Higher Education Academy conference in Manchester in July 2012. The “compatibility ratings" of individual institutions with the OERu concept will not be stated in any published materials, but you can choose to receive this information specific to your institution by email.

Background to the OERu concept: The OERu is a global partnership in which several higher education institutions are collaborating to offer free learning resources and low-cost assessment and accreditation to informal learners on a mass scale. Currently there are 15 institutions in the partnership.

The key reasons given by OERu partner institutions for their participation in the OERu are:

An opportunity to market the institution as a world leader in higher education
Gathering evidence on a potentially more sustainable way of delivering higher education
Widening participation in higher education
Meeting workplace needs (in partnership with industry and government bodies)
Collaboration with other accredited HEIs worldwide for the purposes of benchmarking practices, enabling staff development, improving quality, learning from other world leaders, and offering students a wider ranger of programmes to choose from.

Further information: http://tinyurl.com/OERu-5things-you-should-know

What you will get out of this survey: This survey will let you know to what extent your institution has the policies and practices in place that are compatible with the OERu concept. The indicators are derived from a series of interviews with the OERu partner institutions. Further data is currently being gathered from these institutions to enable the calculation of an overall numeric "OERu compatibility indicator" for your institution, which we will e-mail to you if requested. Please note that, as this is a very small-scale study, the findings will be indicative and will only tell a small part of a much bigger story. However, we hope that they will provide a useful reference point for discussion within and between institutions about collaborative initiatives in open education.

Important notes:

In no circumstances will your contact details be passed to any third party.
If we plan to include the views of an identifiable individual respondent in any published materials, we will only do this having obtained your express permission.
All publications relating to this research are released under an open licence (Creative Commons-BY).
Should you decide to withdraw from this study before completing the current questionnaire, you can just leave the web page, and the programme will not write your responses to file.

For further information e-mail: Gabi.Witthaus@le.ac.uk.

Thank you - your contribution is greatly appreciated!