Open Education 2017

Open Up Resources has partnered with Illustrative Mathematics to develop an open middle school math curriculum and are working with school districts in the US with the goal of widespread adoption.

This session will focus on how each organization has developed a business model that features materials licensed using CC BY. We'll discuss the issues and opportunities inherent in selling related products, like print editions and materials kits, and services, like teacher professional development.

The Open Textbook Network (OTN) is an alliance of more than 380 colleges and universities committed to improving education through the use of open textbooks. The OTN was built on some basic faculty education and engagement strategies that were found to be effective in convincing faculty to adopt open textbooks. While the successful growth of the OTN has been primarily based on this effective faculty development, these tactics are grounded in a larger vision for open education in higher education.

Central to this model is the belief that open education is critical to the mission of colleges and universities - so critical that it merits the ongoing investment of institutional resources in the effort. These resources are used to embed the necessary work required for a sustainable open education ecosystem (e.g., adoption, editing, creation, pedagogy) within and across higher education institutions. The OTN's efforts are focused on motivating faculty, staff, and institutional leaders to enact this permanent change.

Many in the field of open education are only looking to for-profit ventures in their quest for the "business model" for open education (presumably because for-profit companies are primary players in course content today). In contrast, the OTN is working toward a vision where colleges and universities are primarily and collectively responsible for course content. As open education leader Hal Plotkin once said, "We have a business model for open education. It's called 'schools.'"

The presentation will describe this vision, the strategies that the OTN is using to move toward that vision, and measures of progress to date.

With little question, OER have the potential to greatly improve affordability, access, and student success in education. Yet, to achieve the greatest impact, OER need to be successfully adopted at scale with intentional planning for sustainability. In this session, the authors present a model for identifying and defining eight dimensions of sustainability in OER adoption:

• open content creation

• institutional program management

• initial course design and course refresh

• faculty development

• content sustainability and development

• marketing and communications

• technical support

• research and reporting

The model will demonstrate how to prioritize these various dimensions, how their interrelated nature impacts sustainable OER adoption, and ultimately how each dimension facilitates OER adoption at scale for the greatest long-term impact. The model draws on the empirical examples from ongoing system-level higher education OER initiatives at the City University of New York (CUNY), the State University System of New York (SUNY), and the University System of Maryland (USM) to demonstrate real-world approaches to engaging with these various dimensions of institutional OER transformation.