Thanks for passing this on Cable – it’s great to CC engaging actively and constructively with the wider education community. I find that though awareness of OER is definitely increasing, it is often assumed that this is a catch all phrase that might include just about anything that is on the web that you don’t seem to have pay for. It can feel like an uphill struggle getting people to understand the distinctions between free and open (not to mention the different kinds of open), but I think it is worth it.
Best wishes
Leo
Leo Havemann
Learning Technology Support
Birkbeck, University of London
From: Open Education Special Interest Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cable Green
Sent: 16 October 2013 23:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OER] [OER-advocacy] OER in Educause Study of Undergraduate Students and IT
Thanks Doug, Valerie, Jackie and others... nice catch.
Correct - the survey instrument and the report mistakenly interchanges "free" and "OER."
CC just sent the following note to the report authors and to the Educause leads.
Warm regards,
Cable
========================
<excerpt>
The language in the Educause Survey <http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/SI/ESI1302.pdf> and the Report <http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS1302/ERS1302.pdf> co-mingled "Free" and "OER" which confuses the distinction between them.
* Free = no cost access to resources
* Open (as in OER) = Free + the legal rights to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute resources
This is a critical legal and practical distinction. For example, imagine my University sees content it wants to use in this Coursera course: https://www.coursera.org/course/powerofmarkets
Students may access this course for "free," though the course is not "open." It is not OER because the course materials are not openly licensed <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/> or in the public domain. If my University faculty download parts of this course, revises that content to meet my students' needs, and then offered those modules through my University LMS, Coursera could sue my University because my University violated Coursera's Terms of Service <https://www.coursera.org/about/terms> :
* All content or other materials available on the Sites, including but not limited to code, images, text, layouts, arrangements, displays, illustrations, audio and video clips, HTML files and other content are the property of Coursera and/or its affiliates or licensors and are protected by copyright, patent and/or other proprietary intellectual property rights under the United States and foreign laws. In consideration for your agreement to the terms and conditions contained here, Coursera grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Sites. You may download material from the Sites only for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, retransmit, distribute, publish, commercially exploit or otherwise transfer any material, nor may you modify or create derivatives works of the material.
The Educause Survey asked:
* 3.9 In the past year, to what extent have you used freely available course content external to your college/university (i.e., OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, iTunes U, Mayo Clinic, etc.)?
* ( ) Experimented with open educational resources
( ) Use open educational resources on occasion
( ) Use open educational resources all the time
Note: the question asked about "free" content... and the answer options used the phrase "open educational resources."
Moreover, while the survey question asks about "free" content, the results of that question are discussed in the Report as:
* Seven in 10 students (71%) say they have used freely available course content / open educational resources (OERs) in the past year...
The survey question was asked and the findings presented in a way which leads the respondents and readers to believe "free course content" and "OER" are interchangeable... though they are not.
Two ideas:
(1) It will be very helpful, to the increasing number of faculty and Universities / Colleges creating and using Open Educational Resources (OER), if Educause would use the Hewlett OER definition in its publications and surveys... and clearly distinguish between "free" and "open."
* Open Educational Resources (OER <http://creativecommons.org/education#OER> ) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.
(2) Creative Commons is always happy to review future drafts or survey instruments, reports, etc. that address OER (or other "open" topics) prior to publication ... at no cost to Educause or its members. Feel free to contact me anytime for "free" "open" consulting ;) [log in to unmask]
I'm happy to discuss this on the phone / Skype / Hangouts at your convenience.
Warmest regards,
Cable
Cable Green, PhD
Director of Global Learning
Creative Commons
@cgreen <http://twitter.com/cgreen>
http://creativecommons.org/education
reuse, revise, remix & redistribute
==================
On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 5:53 PM, Douglas Levin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Cable, do you have further information on how OER were defined in the study?
It is not clear to me if they were referring to OERs or merely freely available resources. The survey instrument is not appended to the report.
Douglas A. Levin
Executive Director
SETDA // Leadership :: Technology :: Innovation :: Learning
202-715-6636 x700 <tel:202-715-6636%20x700> | [log in to unmask] | @douglevin
Follow us online at: @setda and setda.org
On Oct 13, 2013, at 7:41 PM, Cable Green <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Good news re: mainstreaming OER in the latest Educause Study of Undergraduate Students and IT.
Report <http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS1302/ERS1302.pdf>
Infographic <http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS1302/Eig1302.pdf>
Sample tweet:
* 2013 @Educause Study of Undergraduates: 71% of students use #OER, 54% think #OER are very or extremely important: http://ow.ly/pMk2s
Good weekend all,
Cable
--
Cable Green, PhD
Director of Global Learning
Creative Commons
@cgreen <http://twitter.com/cgreen>
http://creativecommons.org/education
reuse, revise, remix & redistribute
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Cable Green, PhD
Director of Global Learning
Creative Commons
@cgreen <http://twitter.com/cgreen>
http://creativecommons.org/education
reuse, revise, remix & redistribute
