Schon die EduMedia-Tagung in Salzburg hat sich dem Thema Open Educational Resources (OER) gewidmet und für interessante Diskussionen gesorgt.

Von der OECD liegt nun eine neue Studie zum Thema vor: «Giving Knowledge for Free. The emergence of open educational resources». Dabei haben OERs mehr Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft, als gemeinhin angenommen:

OER is not only a fascinating technological development and potentially a major educational tool. It accelerates the blurring of formal and informal learning, and of educational and broader cultural activities. It raises basic philosophical issues to do with the nature of ownership, with the validation of knowledge and with concepts such as altruism and collective goods. It reaches into issues of property and its distribution across the globe. It offers the prospect of a radically new approach to the sharing of knowledge, at a time when effective use of knowledge is seen more and more as the key to economic success, for both individuals and nations. How paradoxical this may turn out to be, and the form it will eventually take are entirely unforeseeable. The report offers some preliminary handles for understanding the issues raised. (S. 9).

Ich habe mal kurz reingeschaut. Eine Frage, die sich ganz am Anfang stellt (und auch bei uns im Team gestern erörtert wurde) ist: Was sind OERs eigentlich? Folgende Definition wird im Bericht vorgeschlagen:

«The definition of OER currently most often used is “digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research”. OER includes learning content, software tools to develop, use and distribute content, and implementation resources such as open licences. This report suggests that “open educational resources” refers to accumulated digital assets that can be adjusted and which provide benefits without restricting the possibilities for others to enjoy them.» (S. 10)

Ein Ziel der Publikation ist es, herauszufinden, warum Institutionen Open Educational Resources (OER) austauschen. Hierfür liefert die Studie folgende Gründe:

Institutions mention six types of reasons for being involved in OER projects.
• The altruistic argument that sharing knowledge is in line with academic traditions and a good thing to do.
• Educational institutions (particularly those publicly financed) should leverage taxpayers’ money by allowing free sharing and reuse ofresources.
• Quality can be improved and the cost of content development reduced by sharing and reusing. It is good for the institution’s public relations to have an OER project as a showcase for attracting new students.
• There is a need to look for new cost recovery models as institutions experience growing competition.
• Open sharing will speed up the development of new learning resources, stimulate internal improvement, innovation and reuse and help the institution to keep good records of materials and their internal and external use.

Folgende Ziele erhofft man sich durch den Einsatz von OERs in der eigenen Lehre:

Doch die Frage, die für mich viel spannender ist, ist die Frage nach den Barrieren. Warum setzt man OER nicht ein? Da fiel mir die Grafik auf Seite 51 ins Auge:

Ich werde auf jeden Fall noch einen vertieften Blick ins Papier werfen.