OERu/Planning/OERu marketing communications and partner engagement/Sound bites and barriers

Key points

Mohawk Media have been commissioned to develop two whiteboard style explainer videos targeting prospective OERu partners and learners respectively. We invite your inputs before 30 April 2016' to:

1. Provide sound bites which capture the essence of the OERu;
2. Submit reasons why senior leaders may decide against joining the OERu.

These inputs are required as part of the design process before commencing work on the script and storyboard for this development. Note that you must log in to WikiEducator to provide feedback.

Sound bites capturing the essence of the OERu

In journalism a sound bite is a short phrase or sentence that captures the essence, and is used to summarize information and entice the viewer. Please add sound bites that capture the essence of the OERu. They don't need to be perfect, but these will help the video design and production team in developing the script. Add "sound bites" below:

1. Study world class courses for free and count them towards real qualifications
2. OERu envisions a world where all learners have more affordable access to higher education
3. OERu is low cost, low risk but high impact innovation.
4. OERu members help tertiary institutions avoid reinventing the wheel for learning materials by putting their learning materials on the web for reuse.
5. Contributions from those providing and reusing OERu materials are creating a constantly improving Commons for quality Online Educational Resources
6. An intentional side effect of OERu is to make the materials for a world class tertiary education available to literally everyone in the world with interest and an internet connection.
7. OERu is an unassuming, benign, hopeful revolution in the making.
8. OERu members are democratising learning for that substantial portion of people unable to access the traditional, age-old model for tertiary education.
9. OERu members are acting on the belief that lives are richer when they are filled with learning, no matter where those lives are led, and with what means.
10. OERu shifts the value of tertiary education to where it belongs - not access to learning materials, but access to quality assessment and certified qualifications. In doing so, it has the potential to revolutionise and democratise education in one fell swoop.
11. OERu is returning to the core values of the academy of sharing knowledge (freely).
12. OERu demonstrates a fundamental property of education which has been lost in many places: learning requires sharing.
13. Ever wonder what completely open education, offered by an open organisation through open collaboration, looks like? Wonder no more: it looks like OERu.
14. OERu offers free learning as well as pathways to earning credentials from reputable educational institutions.
15. OERu aims for 100% "open"..open pedagogy, open resources, open technology, open philosophy about education
16. OERu widens access to more affordable education for disadvantaged learners currently excluded from higher education.

Barriers why institutions don't join OERu

In this section we invite you to share reasons why senior leaders and managers at prospective OERu partners may decide against joining the OERu. You can also suggest a counter point how to address the concern.

1. Leaders just don’t “get” open education in any form. Their world view and incentive environment is all based on some form of rankings which themselves are rigged and focused on inputs and serving those doomed to succeed. (Contribution from member of the Executive Committee of the OERu Council of CEOs)
   • Approximately 75 percent of respondents to the 2014 Babson Survey Research Group study didn't know about or couldn't accurately define OER or why it is important. (We need a succinct and compelling way to communicate what open education is without getting into the detail of what constitutes OER - eg open education removes barriers to participation.)
2. Leaders can’t see the “pay-off” in terms of profit or prestige. If we could do something newsworthy or sexy (some are jumping on the Syrian situation for instance, with some good intentions but also with an eye on publicity: we’ve never been without refugees, so why the interest now?). (Of course, OERu might take a leaf from this and align its offerings accordingly: I read an article about how Syrian universities are trying to keep going in the thick of things…) - (Contribution from member of the Executive Committee of the OERu Council of CEOs)
3. Fear that the OERu model will cannibalise existing students (Counter point: The OERu is targeting new markets the institution doesn't serve well.)
4. Concern that assembling and offering courses for OERu will increase local costs (Counter point: Generating an open version of new course development by integrating this into the normal workflow means that no new money is required and recurrent cost for assessment services will be recouped.)
5. There is just too much going on and the increases in expectations of universities are constant. There simply isn’t enough time and money to engage in yet one more activity and to do it well. (Contribution from member of the Executive Committee of the OERu Council of CEOs)
6. Institutions are competing for students to be profitable and OERu will take away students.
7. Why would students want to take a course without a qualified instructor present? That's not quality education.
8. Students will not value an education they didn't pay any money for.
9. How can we trust the credentialling process? It will be easy to cheat.
10. It's too hard to build courses that cater for diverse student needs at one time.

Research data

1. Input evaluation survey on motivations and potential benefits of joining OERu (see Q24). Important reasons for joining in order of priority:
   1. Participation in an international network of accredited institutions (mean = 4.14)
   2. Philanthropic vision of widening access to more affordable education for learners excluded from higher education (mean = 4.12)
   3. Participation in a recognised OER initiative (eg designated project of the UNESCO OER Chair network) (mean = 4.14)
   4. Raising international profile of my institution (mean is 3.92) but starting to split into two groups of opinion
   5. Retaining competitive advantage (mean is 3.78) but starting to split into two distinct groups.
2. See also barriers restricting participation in OERu to inform the message

Any other comments?

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