There are several drivers behind the growth and democratisation of content in higher education: Open Educational Resources (OER), massively open online courses (MOOCs), cloud computing and third party content.
- ‘OER’ refers to educational resources that c3an be freely used, reused or adapted. Creative Commons (CC) is an internationally recognised copyright licensing system that enables a copyright owner to specify the conditions under which their content can be used, distributed, and duplicated. A momentum behind OER and CC means that from 2012, there is likely to be an increase in available OER for teaching, learning and research, including learning objects, lectures, course materials, content, journals, repositories, images, websites, games. (See, for example: http://www.oercommons.org/)
- MOOCs provide open access (free) and scalable (designed to support a large number of participants) online courses through content delivery and learning activities with automated or peer assessment.
- ‘Cloud computing’ refers to services and applications hosted in centralised data stores rather than control by an institution. Examples include virtual IT (remote, 3rd party servers linked to a local IT network), commercial software applications, and for network data storage. Services such as Amazon EC2, Google Drive, Google Apps, Apple iCloud, and Dropbox all use cloud computing. This model depends on high capacity networking and signals the potential for economies of scale and benefits of virtualization, including the use of low cost “thin client” end-user devices
- Third party content refers to new digital quality multimedia and non-university third party content providers on a licensing or fee-for-use basis are increasingly creating rich learning resources.
What might learning look like in 2020? : A possible scenario
In 2020, it may be the case that learning is assisted by open content, blended from multiple global sources and situated within a physical and virtual learning environment. Students will access open source content, blended with synchronous and asynchronous online use with self-directed learning, with a multiplicity of face-to-face learning environments’ (Govnick, 2010).
The increase of knowledge means that learning content and activities will be stored in object libraries and repositories as reusable, customisable and open-access resources (Kim and Bonk, 2006, p. 2). Online educational resources will be readily-accessible from multiple and global sources. Open content embraces the sharing of information and the ‘sharing of pedagogies and experiences as well’ (Johnson et al., 2012, p.11). Open education resources can lead to the what Govnick describes as a ‘meta-University’ – ‘a transcendent, accessible empowering, dynamic, communally constructed framework of open materials and platforms on which much of higher education worldwide can be constructed or enhanced’ (Govnick, 2010).
Many learning resources will be located and centralised in the cloud. Learners will access and use applications over the internet on web-based services. Cloud computing is ‘the unifying factor among content and applications on the many devices people use in everyday life’ (Johnson et al., 2012, p. 5). Through the cloud, educational resources and communication and collaboration tools will be more resilient and ubiquitous (Johnson et al., 2012, p.5).
Some Radical Learning Group ideas on OER, Web, MOOCs and Social Media:
Contact: Associate Professor Claire Macken c.macken@latrobe.edu.au
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