The dark side of open

Griff Richards, Ph. D. Thompson Rivers University

Canada

Moscow, 08 December 2011

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Open educational resources (OER)

Media resources

Learning objects

OER courses

DegreesOER University

What began 10 years ago with the sharing of course notes and media files has evolved in organization to the point when it will soon be possible to earn an OER Degree from the OERUniversity Consortium.

Open Journals

Open Textbooks

Wiki Educator

Open repositories

The sunny side of OER Degrees

• 1. University degrees are now accessible {affordable, online and flexible} for people everywhere

• 2. People in developing countries will benefit from low cost and accredited transfer of knowledge from the developed world.

• 3. Developing countries will build social and economic capacity

• 4. Life will be better all round the world

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The Dark Side of OER Degrees

• New model to cut costs in education.• Government push for lower education costs will

favor the use of OER courses in the developed world too

• Public universities will continues to have their funding cut -> fewer faculty and facilities

• Only elite universities will retain significant research capacity.

• Higher education will move towards lower cost arts degrees rather than science training

Have digital diploma mills arrived?

• 2000 book by David Nobel

IF quality equals F2F interaction with faculty and

IF on-line has little F2F interaction

THEN on-line education will lead to lower quality degreesDigital Diploma Mills:

The automation of Higher Education

Traditional Open and Distance Education Model = High Quality

Audit trail of quality in educational materials.• Course teams of faculty, designers + media• Design:– Course Goals -> Module Outcomes-> Learning

Objectives• Assessment:– Rigorous, frequent, formative and summative

• Faculty oversight of tutors

On line for everyone

• Over last 10 years every university has online and/or blended course offerings

• Usually is it Faculty + some technical help• Transfer of existing F2F courses• Few designers, fewer media experts• The quality process is traditional F2F system

Digital “Stuff”

• Side product of faculty going on line is an exhaust trail of digital stuff

• e.g. MIT Open Knowledge Initiative (2001)• Course notes, videos, slides (but not courses)• Not very coherent, of marginally use

Learning Objects

• MERLOT.org – learning objects have pedagogy!

• Stuff you can learn from.• Stuff for faculty to share with each other.

• YouTube.com – video mini-lessons e.g. Khan academy. 2000 + lessons

Connexions.org

• Open text books.• Collaborative writing• Goal– reduce the high cost of text books– Create common texts where none exist

OER Courses

• WikiEducator.org– Common tool (text text text & more text)– But fast fast fast and easy– 1000’s of users– hundreds of “courses”

OER University

OERu is a consortium of Open Institutions who• will contribute open courses• will accept each other’s credits

http://wikieducator.org/OER_university/Logic_model

Benefits of OER u

• Courses are FREE– BUT this means no $$ for tutors or faculty

• Assessments are at cost– Challenge exams?– Prior Learning Assessment & Recognition (PLAR)?

• The cost of a degree as low as one-tenth (10%) of current costs• Other universities can adapt the courses to

other languages or delivery models.

The parasite universities(Terry Anderson)

Universities have 2 main roles:1. Preservation and transmission of knowledge;2. Creation and transfer of new knowledge.

A parasite university builds its business on the backs of research universities

3. Part-time or retired faculty from other U’s4. No training of research students (no PhDs)5. Little research activity to generate new knowledge

e.g. University of Phoenix

• BIG Private for-profit on-line US University (1976)• 300,000+ undergrad students• 61,000+ graduate students

• Fined for irregular recruiting practices• Fined for irregular access to student loans• High debt students, low graduation rate and

questionable employability skills (Wikipedia)

Filling the niche

UOPX fulfills an access to education roleBUT• While strong learners do well– Most are not that strong– Many do not complete the journey

• Research is mostly student papers, few if any organized programs of research.

But it is profitable!!!

• Despite a 30% decrease in enrolments this year, UPOX stock price is at an all time high!

• Will the availability of OER courses lower the entry barriers for new private universities?

• Can private universities multiply like Dollar Stores?

• Can public universities afford NOT to follow?

Are low-cost universities the goal?

In squeezing prices, Wal-Mart created a trail of lower quality products, bullied suppliers and communities, exploited employees, and pollution in developing countries. (Fishman, 2011)

In 2011 the UK squeezed funding to Universities by 17% (The Guardian 29 May 2011)

The new profile of UK Higher Ed?

Regional Research Universities

And Regional Colleges

Elite Research

Universities

The potential downside of OER Universities is the notion that this low cost model might be the way to reduce the high costs of tertiary education in a system already under heavy political attack to reduce costs.

Open Universities

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1. Start by reducing labour costs.non-union P/T faculty or no faculty at all

2. Reduce transportation costs. in Education that is hard copy3. Standardize the product Only 1 version of any course4. Deregulate where possible

No residence periods, no contact hours5. Leave the waste by the roadside

7% grads means 93% failures6. Challenge others to meet low prices

The squeeze is on in F2F universities7. Offer lower cost programs, arts, business and humanities -> fewer scientists8. Wipe out the research programs

No provision for next generation of PhDs(but then there’s no jobs for them anyway)

There is pressure for Higher ED to reduce costs

• As government contributions reduced, universities were given freedom to become entrepreneurial

• This has off-loaded the costs of higher education onto the student.

1970 $400 tuition for $12,000 family = 3.3% 2010 $6000 tuition for $60,000 family = 10%

• New unsubsidized Law School tuition $16,000htt

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Canadian Federation of Students, 2011

The challenge for OER universities

• Is to remember their philanthropic goal is global access to quality education

• Is to set a high standard for accessible educational services that make it possible for most open learners to be open graduates

• Is to not abandon the creation of new knowledge while exploiting the old

• Is to remember that the Creative Commons NON-COMMERCIAL license applies to them too

The dark side of open

Griff Richards, Ph. D. Thompson Rivers University

Canada

Moscow, 08 December 2011