Support the OER Foundation
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
-- Sir Norman MacEwan[1]
Benefit from the cost-effective OER development and production opportunities, thought leadership, international networking and joint-ventures. You'll be glad you did!
Join the OER Foundation today.
Contents
OER Foundation partnership packages
The OER Foundation is a values-based, philanthropic organisation committed to nurturing the development of sustainable OER ecosystems. The OER Foundation provides free hosting services for innovative open education projects including free wiki skills training for educators around the world. No educator or institution should be restricted from participating and sharing in the benefits of open content for lack of funding.
To assist with financial support of this global open education initiative, the OER Foundation distinguishes between three categories of contributing partners:
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| An Active Partner is an education institution who selectively integrates OER approaches into their operations in the attainment of their strategic objectives.
The OER Foundation provides a number of value-added services (over and above the standard benefits) to help education institutions reduce cost, improve quality and widen access to educational opportunities using OER as determined by their partnership status:
Silver, Gold and Platinum members can become anchor partners in the OERu. |
A Strategic Partner's contribution supports the OER foundation in helping education institutions to lower cost and save time required to produce high quality education thus ensuring that whole education systems can improve the return on tax payer dollars through open education approaches. The Strategic Partner category is designed for government, international and policy agencies including national learning and teaching councils. There are two tiers for strategic partners:
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A Donor Partner believes in the educational value of sharing knowledge freely and their contribution helps us to build sustainable OER futures. Their financial contribution forms part of our international giving campaign to support the WikiEducator/Open Education Ecosystem.
Donor partners participate in OER Foundation activities including access to free professional development (training) and an international collaborative wiki platform. They are acknowledged on the OER Foundation website and may join in the capacity of an:
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Active partners
OER Foundation has implemented a tiered annual membership structure with value-added services to support your institution in achieving its objectives through OER. Institutional membership packages are primarily designed for the post-secondary sector.
- Bronze member (US$1,000): This package is designed for departments or institutions who want to test the OER waters with some professional consulting support from the OER Foundation. The OER Foundation will provide 4-hours of professional consulting and networking/marketing support for a dedicated OER pilot at your institution. We will help you configure an OER portal page for your department or institution in WikiEducator to profile your work in open education.
- Silver member (US$8,000): Is a premier package which includes 12 hours of professional consulting and networking/marketing support for your OER projects. This includes design, coaching and mentoring services and we will assist you in setting up a branded landing page in WikiEducator for your organisation. Silver members may participate as anchor partners in the OERu and hold voting rights for commissioned development of OER courses from surplus funds.
- Gold member (USD$5,000): Is also a premier package with the same benefits as Silver membership. However, Gold members designate an individual or group to work 1 day per week on institutional OER projects (i.e. a designated 0.2 full-time-equivalent OER staff member). Gold membership will ensure the greatest return on your OER investment. Gold members may participate as anchor partners in the OERu and also hold voting rights for commissioned development of OER courses from surplus funds.
- Platinum member (US$10,000 - US$30,000). This package is designed for corporate members, and financially privileged education institutions to sponsor up to five OER partner institutions in the developing world who may not have the funding to contribute as a member of the OER Foundation (See our FTE4Wikieducator initiative). Platinum members receive the same benefits as Silver and Gold members in addition to sponsoring the same benefits for a deserving institution in the developing world. Platinum members receive a star rating, i.e. up to a five star platinum member depending on the number of institutional sponsorships.
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: Note: All institutional members will be acknowledged on our websites and qualify for discounted consulting services. The OER Foundation provides professional development support by hosting a minimum of one online training workshop every month for your staff. Discounts for 3-year memberships apply for our silver, gold and platinum tiers.)
Table of OERF membership benefits for active partners - Detailed Comparison
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OER FOUNDATION PARTNERS |
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Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | ||
| BASE MEMBERSHIP FEE (annual, excluding discounts) | USD$200 | USD$1,000 | USD$8,000 | USD$5,000 |
USD$10,000 - USD$30,000 | |
| Leadership & Financial Support for WikiEducator/Open Education Ecosystem (i.e., Social Responsibility) |
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| Anchor partner in the OERu | |
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Designated OER individual or group assigned to work 1 day per week (i.e. 0.2FTE) |
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| Sponsorship of Educational Institutions |
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YES (up to 5) | |
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OERF Thought Leaders Forum / Network |
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| OER development voting rights |
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| OER Consulting Support (includes design, mentoring and coaching services) | - |
2 hours | 8 hours | 10 hours | 20 - 50 hours | |
| Access to E-Learning/Training (professional development support, 1 workshop per month) |
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| Access to Collaborative Wiki Platform (i.e., hosted service -- no installation, development, maintenance, hosting or storage costs, and unlimited number of users) |
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| INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS & NETWORKING | | |||||
| Marketing & Communications Channel Support (i.e., publicity, promotion, linking, identification of projects and opportunities, etc.) | |
2 hours |
4 hours |
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| Brokering and Partnering Support for international projects, open textbooks, collaborative OERF bidding opportunities, and partner internetworking | |
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| Recognized Membership Status on WikiEducator |
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| Branded landing page in WikiEducator (A portal page with institutional logo to profile your OER activities internationally ) | |
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| DISCOUNTS OFF BASE MEMBERSHIP FEE | | |||||
| OER consulting rates discount (Less 20%) | |
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| 3-yr membership fee discount (Less 20%) | |
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Other types of membership
FTE for WikiEducator Members (FTE4WE)
This is a special category of contributing member designed for institutions in the developing world who may not have the financial resources to afford membership. These institutions will assign a 0.2 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staff member to work and facilitate institutional OER activities on WikiEducator. The OER Foundation will seek to find sponsorship from platinum members and the international donor community to assist in covering the costs of membership.
Sponsored FTE4WikiEducator members will qualify for the standard benefits of silver or gold membership, and be listed on the site under the FTE4WikiEducator category. Voting rights for commissioned OER development projects may be possible depending on requirements specified by the sponsor.
Associate Members
This a special category of membership dedicated for registered non-profit entities working in the open education space. This will be based on a reciprocal membership trade to foster sharing of expertise, thought leadership and collaboration among like minded non-profits and NGOs. Associate members do not have voting rights on the allocation of financial resources for OER development. We encourage Associate members to provide preferred member pricing to OERF Members, for their services, conferences and events.
Affiliate Members
Affiliate members are for consultants, learning designers, and researchers who secure projects of a minimum threshold of $5,000 in one (1) calendar year, for related work in the WikiEducator community and make a 3% honesty box contribution to the OER Foundation.
- Organizations
- Organizations which fund projects (where WikiEducator is used as the foundation for community or organisational development) of a minimum threshold of $6,700 gross contract value in one (1) calendar year are eligible.
- Individuals
- For example, learning design services for the development of OER materials in WikiEducator; funded code development projects which improves our technology, research grants focused on OER research and and self-organising educational systems based on WikiEducator data or consulting projects where WikiEducator is used as the foundation for community or organisational development.
- 3% OER Contribution
- The OER Foundation uses an honesty box approach where we invite Affiliate Members to donate 3% of the gross contract value or grant as a contribution to our operational expenditure and support for our open source community.
- Affiliate members will be profiled on the WikiEducator website for one (1) calendar year and this is a great way to profile your work and expertise. Affiliate members will NOT qualify for voting rights on commissioned content development projects.
Founding Members: to December 2010
WE have commenced our recruitment drive for Founding Members. Any organisation who becomes a contributing member or institutional donor partner before 31 December 2010 will be recognised and recorded as a "Founding Member" and profiled as an "OER Foundation Featured Institution". In addition, the OER Foundation will work with Founding Members to profile their organisation with a featured interview or relevant case study. This will be posted on our front page news and circulated via our international community lists. The WikiEducator website typically generates between 8 and 10 million hits per month. This is an appropriate way to confirm your organisation's leadership and commitment to the core mission of education with a focused international audience.
Help the OER Foundation make the future happen and be recorded in history of transforming education for the better.
So spread the word, blog about what we're doing and we will be able to tell our grandchildren how WE nurtured and succeeded in building a sustainable OER ecosystem.
General donations
We invite the general public, WikiEducators and the corporate sector to support the OER Foundation's financial sustainability, and to donate funds to ensure access to open education.
You will be able to donate via credit card on PayPal (being set up at the moment) or direct wire transfer (being set up at the moment). For donation enquiries email Wayne Mackintosh.
How to join
Our commitment to transparent and open processes means that our promotional literature is currently under development. However, it is possible at this time to sign up and join the OERF as a founding member.
We invite you to:
- Review our Table of OER Membership Benefits (above)
- Consult our FAQs (and please let us know if you have any unanswered questions)
- Join the OER Foundation today.
- Email Wayne Mackintosh for further information.
Resources under development
Reference
- ↑ Often attributed to Winston Churchill, but not confirmed. Some sites attribute Sir Norman MacEwan"
