User:Mackiwg/Sandbox/ACODE Abstract

Crossing the OER chasm: From advocacy to organisational implementation

The 2010 Horizon Report identifies open content as a significant technology that will affect the practice of teaching, learning, and creative enquiry and is prioritised as a technology to watch in higher education on the near-term horizon. This burgeoning phenomenon of open education resources and open textbooks is reason to celebrate: we are returning to the core vocation of education, which is to share knowledge freely. The cost of establishing large-scale, institution-based OER projects like MIT OpenCourseWare and OpenLearn is beyond the financial means of most tertiary education institutions. This presentation will highlight strategies and collaborative business models for universities and colleges to realise tangible benefits from selected OER projects. The presentation will interrogate the myths associated with open content approaches in education and consider models for institutions to achieve their objects through open education approaches by drawing on the international experience of the OER Foundation. OER is a sustainable and renewable resource. When we look back at the history of OER, will we wonder why it took us so long?