Definitions: At first, OER seemed like a rather straightforward matter to define and explain. Research showed, however, that there are a variety of definitions and foci. For example, Guntram Geser claims there is no established definition and, instead, provided three core elements for OER (link provided below):
- that access to open content (including metadata) is provided free of charge for educational institutions, content services, and the end-users such as teachers, students and lifelong learners;
- that the content is liberally licensed for re-use in educational activities, favourably free from restrictions to modify, combine and repurpose the content; consequently, that the content should ideally be designed for easy re-use in that open content standards and formats are being employed;
- that for educational systems/tools software is used for which the source code is available (i.e. Free Software/Open Source software) and that there are open APIs and authorisations to re-use Web-based services as well as resources (e.g. for educational content RSS feeds).
Geser, Guntram (2007-01). "Open Educational Practices and Resources. OLCOS Roadmap 2012". Salzburg, Austria: Salzburg Research, EduMedia Group. p. 20. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
Comparing OER to the Reformation: As a former history major, I enjoyed David Wiley's comparison of policies surrounding the initial distribution of vernacular copies of the Bibles to current policies surrounding open resources. This is an interesting choice of comparisons. In some ways, I can understand the threat the Catholic church felt towards vernacular copies of the Bible more than I can understand the current fear of open resources.
It seems that reverting to an "opt-in" copyright system rather than our current "opt-out" system would allow protection for those who would like to profit from their work. At the same time, this would foster the use of the vast remainder of the resources for educational purposes (e.g. share, modify, combine, re-purpose content).
Wendy, I've just finished a large literature review on OER that shines a bright light on the definition problem you identified above - there is almost no consensus among articles in peer-reviewed journals or NGO-sponsored white papers on a particular set of words. Even the UNESCO document describing the meeting where the term OER was first created contains two contradictory definitions!
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that, if you're not trying to be overly academic, you can just default to an operational definition that says 'anything in the public domain or that uses an open license'.
The problem with the Reformation metaphor, of course, is that those who wanted to reform from the inside ended up getting excommunicated and carrying out their reforms on the outside. That's not a situation any of are looking for any more than Luther wanted to leave the church. Here's to hoping it can be different this time.