Social Media and the OU

Dr. Nick Pearce, IET

n.a.pearce@open.ac.uk@drnickpearce

http://digitalscholar.wordpress.comwww.slideshare.net/pearcen

Session Outline

• My Talk– OU and new technology– What is Social Media, what makes it different?– What is the OU doing with social media?– Why does this matter?

• Discussion about the issues– Privacy– Security– ?

OU history

• From mission:– the advancement and dissemination of

learning and knowledge …by a diversity of means such as broadcasting and technological devices

• ~180k students

• Technology has always been important and necessary

Broadcast Media

Broadcast media today

What is social media?

• Peer created content– Youtube, Wikipedia etc.

• Low barriers to entry

• Interactive

• Dynamic

• Increasingly through mobile devices

Some more critical thoughts

• Wisdom of the crowds Vs Herd Instinct

• Much read/write web is still read only– Web 1 users in a web 2 world

• Who pays for it?– Sustainability– Time investment for staff

OU’s social media: An ecology of openness

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Youtube

• ItunesU

• Second Life

• OpenLearn

• The OU has 23,500 official fans– Other more informal groups

• 2 ‘apps’– Course Profiles– My OU story

• 5,000 followers– Perhaps less than you’d expect?– Brian Cox has 72,000– Lady Gaga has 4mn

• Sends links to press releases

• OU joined in July 2007

• Several channels– OU View– OU Learn– OU Research

• High quality video

• Total of 2.7mn views

• 6,000 comments

• OU joined in June 2008

• Since then– 17mn downloads– 2mn visitors– 89% outside UK

• Academics are being encouraged to produce content

• Launched 2003– 3D environment– Well studied in education– High barriers to entry

• OU presence since 2006– Virtual campus– Used for some teaching/ conferences

2L video

• Access to 100s of hours of contact and learning tools (discussion, quizzes etc.)– Part of OER movement

• Externally funded at the moment

• Pros and cons?

Ecology of Openness

• Platform

• OpenLearn

• Bringing content together in a single portal– Incl. BBC

Benefits

• Individuals– Supports lifelong learning

• OU– Positive PR – Improves content

– increased enrolment

• Society– Social inclusion

Challenges

• Hard to encourage meaningful dialogue

• IPR

• Accessibility and learner support

• Sustainability

Social Media and you

• Are you thinking of using (more) social media?

• How could it help you in your job?

• What are the important issues for you?– Privacy– Security– ?