OERu/OERu 15.10 Meeting/Virtual group Critical friend review

What has the OERu done well?

• Maintaining a comprehensive record of participation in the planning, design and development of the OERu innovation partnership.
• Modelling open governance and open management approaches in education.
• Increasing participation in the activities of OERu working groups: http://wikieducator.org/OERu/Quicklinks
• Prototyped several methods of course delivery, including parallel integration with fee paying students.

How / where can the OERu improve?

• Explore "ways and means" of facilitating coordination among relevant working groups, who are focussing on shared KPIs.
• Share progress, concerns, successes openly in the mailing lists (or discussion forum) at all stages of development (early and often).
• Widen awareness of, and participation in, the OERu initiative within each partner institution.
• Needs to encourage the "silent partners" to contribute in their areas of expertise.
• Needs to develop a sense of urgency to execute on the plan: development and delivery of courses, and at least a suggestion of a pathway to a complete degree program.

In your view, what are the most important priorities the 2015 partner's meeting should address?

• Developing a pragmatic strategy/operational plan for achieving the minimum viable product for the "OERu First Year of Study" initiative.
• I endorse the essence of David Porter's proposal to concentrate efforts on modelling the "OERu end-to-end process" as follows:
  • 5 to 10 exemplar courses completed by a target date (eg June 2016)
  • Hosted on a common platform and available from one location (OERu.org) from which students can participate
  • On completion students could be directed to OERu institutions providing assessment, where they could achieve a credit-based assessment towards transcript credit that would be awarded, badged and recognised towards an exit credential.
  • Ideally this "OERu First Year of Study" initiative could be marketed, implemented and evaluated in 2016.
• Taking advantage of partner course delivery platforms and technologies in addition to centrally hosted infrastructure.

List any issues you would like to be tabled at the OERu Council of Chief Executive Officers meeting on 9 October 2015

• Based on the possible proactive dissemination of the aggregated open business model, delineate strategies/initiatives for creating awareness of the potential of OERu to generate more affordable access to higher education. The target audience for the proposed increasing awareness initiative should include politicians/government officials, who are responsible for policy-making associated with the funding of higher education, and who are (in many cases) increasingly concerned about the lack of fiscal sustainability of existing systems.