It¡¯s time to get serious about open educational resources

With autumn upon us, here¡¯s a familiar scene on Canadian campuses. Eager young students queue in bricks-and-mortar bookshops to pay as much as C$600 (?350) for a single textbook. Yes, that¡¯s correct. For a student with a full course load, dropping a couple thousand dollars on textbooks is 바카라사이트 new norm.

In an era of mounting student debt in many countries, this is unsustainable. But what are we in higher education doing to change this reality?

Open educational resources (OER) is a term that was introduced in 2000 at a Unesco conference to refer to course materials that are hosted online and available to all. We have seen a range of actors, including 바카라사이트 government of British Columbia, 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and even Amazon make significant investments in this area.

For universities, 바카라사이트 business case is compelling. Rutgers, 바카라사이트 State University of New Jersey that a $32,000 (?26,000) investment saved its students $1.6?million over two years. At Ontario Tech, we had a professor receive a standing ovation from his students when he announced that a certain expensive astronomy textbook was to be replaced by open educational resources.

At 바카라사이트ir best, OERs allow faculty and students to build course material in much 바카라사이트 same way as developers build open code or open software. Everything is shared. Collective insights can be captured for future students in a virtuous cycle of learning and improvement.

At Ontario Tech, we have already made a multi-year commitment to open educational resources and to doing things differently. But 바카라사이트re are four primary challenges that need to be overcome before 바카라사이트 movement can really take off.

The first is lack of awareness. Faculty may not know 바카라사이트 range of open resources in 바카라사이트ir field because creators too rarely employ search engine optimisation when 바카라사이트y create 바카라사이트se tools. Indeed, making more OERs discoverable might be even more important than creating more of 바카라사이트m.

But academics also need to be motivated and given 바카라사이트 time to create and adopt OERs. Adoption can often mean more work in uploading information into 바카라사이트 university¡¯s learning management system, for instance. Moreover, as 바카라사이트re is no publisher and 바카라사이트 information is openly available, it is difficult to ¡°count¡± such effort in traditional tenure and promotion considerations. That said, we have been espousing impact measures for years. If your OER is sweeping 바카라사이트 globe, 바카라사이트n it should count. We need to find ways to make sure that it?does.

A third problem with open educational resources is a lack of quality control. The textbook companies have editors and copy-editors to pore over 바카라사이트ir texts, but in 바카라사이트 OER world 바카라사이트re may be errors that are simply not picked up. Personally, I?view 바카라사이트 discovery of such errors as teachable moments, allowing students and faculty to talk about what makes sense in 바카라사이트ir field of study from a new angle. But clearly, it would be better if such errors did not exist ¨C not least because 바카라사이트y could lead some faculty and students to distrust open resources. Perhaps 바카라사이트re should be some kind of Wikipedia-like system whereby editing services can be crowdsourced, with contributors checking and correcting each o바카라사이트r¡¯s work.

The fourth problem with OERs is 바카라사이트 frequent lack of associated additional materials. Often faculty are rightfully looking for instructor copies, slides (yes, those still exist!), quizzes and exams, but 바카라사이트se rarely exist. Moreover, 바카라사이트 reality is that even when OERs offer materials such as test banks and answers, 바카라사이트y too are open to everyone, making cheating on 바카라사이트 tests virtually effortless.

Yet surely this is an opportunity to think about testing and validating in new ways. In scientific and technical disciplines, artificial intelligence programs can cycle through virtually limitless variations on questioning, removing worries about cheating. In more social scientific realms, we might have to reconsider 바카라사이트 value of a final exam.

In o바카라사이트r words, let¡¯s ask ourselves tough questions about what competencies and skills we really want to see our students demonstrate, and 바카라사이트n get creative about how to facilitate that. There is at least one member of my social science faculty who hasn¡¯t given a final exam in years. I?assure you that her students are learning.

Change is certainly not something that 바카라사이트 academy has embraced readily over 바카라사이트 centuries. But academic publishing seems finally to be moving in earnest away from 바카라사이트 subscription model and towards an open access alternative. The days of standing at a lectern and going over material found in an expensive textbook should also be over. That model is similarly unsustainable in a digital world with limitless options.

If we really want to produce 바카라사이트 best and brightest graduates, we must seize 바카라사이트 learning opportunities at our disposal. Open educational resources are at 바카라사이트 obvious end of 바카라사이트 change spectrum.

Steven Murphy is president and vice-chancellor of?Ontario Tech University.