5.2.3: The Value of Open Education
- Page ID
- 265681
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Open education refers to educational practices and resources that are openly available for anyone to use, access, modify, and share. It encompasses a variety of initiatives aimed at making education more accessible, affordable, and inclusive. In the context of college students, open education can manifest in several ways:
- Open Educational Resources (OER): These are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other educational purposes. OER include textbooks, lecture notes, videos, and other educational materials that are typically available online at no cost.1
- At California Community Colleges, these are often reflected in courses labeled as 'ZTC' or Zero Textbook Cost. However, ZTC can be achieved through non-OER means as well including providing class textbook sets at the library or designing courses without textbooks.
- Open Access Journals: These are scholarly journals that make their articles freely available online to the public. This allows students to access the latest research and academic publications without any financial barriers.
- Open Pedagogy: This approach involves engaging students in the creation of open educational resources as part of their learning experience. It promotes collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills among students.
By embracing open education practices, college students can benefit from a more flexible and diverse learning environment while reducing the financial burden associated with traditional educational resources. Additionally, open education promotes knowledge sharing and collaboration on a global scale.
Open Educational Resources are accessible and open. This means that, in an ideal world, anyone can use and even edit them. However, in reality, there are different types of licenses that permit different types of use. While all open resources will be available and accessible to anyone, they may have limits on how someone can use them beyond just reading the materials. Most commonly, Open resources are licensed under some version of the Creative Commons license.
Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC)
The California Community College systems have lowered the cost of education through their ZTC initiative. This program encourages faculty to develop courses that have no textbook cost. It also requires that ZTC courses be labeled in the class schedule of each college. This enables students to find and enroll in these Zero Textbook Cost courses.
Enrolling in ZTC courses can help students save money, but it also provides more flexibility in how students can access their course resources, encourages the use of more diverse learning materials, and may even improve student performance.2
Challenges to Open Access of Information
There are a number of challenges to providing information that people can freely access. First and foremost is the cost! We can assume that most people have, at some point, accessed information on the internet; but is it really free?
Cost
Websites and videos are created by people. That work takes up time and often that work is performed as a part of their job as a part of an organization of some sort. Hosting websites and content also costs money. The amount of data you need to host online and the amount of people visiting your website increases the cost to host that resource. So where does the money for this come from?
- Ad revenue
- Donations
- Subscriptions
These are a few examples of how people afford to provide information on the internet. Creating and hosting a video on YouTube is free for the creator and for the user, but then the viewers have to watch ads.
This causes a very similar problem for open education. Educators and researchers generally do not want to use advertisements, as it makes their content seem less reputable. So websites hosting open content have to find money elsewhere. This is often through donations or through requiring the researchers themselves to pay for publishing their articles!
Quality Control
- Lack of Standardization: Open educational resources (OER) may vary widely in quality and accuracy since they are created by different individuals or organizations without a standardized review process.
- Outdated Content: OER may not always be updated regularly, leading to the dissemination of outdated information.
Sustainability
- Funding: The sustainability of open education initiatives can be a concern due to the lack of a clear funding model. Without sustainable funding, projects may struggle to maintain resources and support.
- Long-term Maintenance: Ensuring the long-term maintenance and updating of OER can be challenging without a dedicated team or organization overseeing the content.
Accessibility
- ADA Accessibility: Without the resources of big companies paying for resources to be created, it can be challenging to ensure that the information we put out there is accessible to people with disabilities, such as those who use screen readers.
- Digital Divide: Not all learners have equal access to technology or the internet, which can create barriers to accessing open educational resources for some individuals or communities.
Findability
A big part of accessibility is finding the resources in the first place! If you cannot discover a new source of information then you certainly can't access it. Tools like Google tend to prioritize certain types of results, often favoring large publishers and creators that already have a big audience. Open content creators and publishers are essentially small, indie creators. It's a challenge for them to compete for visibility!
- Search Expertise: Many college faculty are not experienced with searching for open education resources. This can make it difficult to locate suitable resources.
- Lack of Centralization: OERs are located across many different websites, making them more difficult to find.
Licensing
In order for a work to be "open", it must be properly licensed or in the public domain (a state in which a work belongs to the public and is not protected by copyright law). An open resource is one that someone can share, edit, and even use to create a totally new work. Whenever you create something in a tangible form (such as recording a song, taking a photograph, painting a picture, or writing a book), you immediately have author's rights to that work. Those rights include control over the distribution (sharing and access) of your work, use and reuse of your work (whether someone can use it or reuse it in their own projects), and the right to be acknowledged and credited for your work (this is part of why we cite sources!).
In order for someone else to be able to use your content, you have to agree to let them. This usually involves a licensing agreement of some sort. This is also why social media platforms like TikTok have user agreements that require you to give up some of your author rights. They literally could not legally share your videos if you didn't. In the next section we'll talk more about author's rights and licensing. The ability to license works in a way that makes them "open" is vital to open education, as it allows educators to customize and create free educational resources such as textbooks.
Instructional Concerns
- Lack of Resources: Many courses use textbooks that include videos, case studies, online homework, and other types of tools that enrich the classroom but are not easily replicated by OERs.
While open education has the potential to democratize access to education and resources, addressing these concerns is crucial to ensure its effectiveness and sustainability in the long run.3
How Do We Address These Challenges?
Colleges and scholars are doing many things to simplify the use of OERs:
- Creating central repositories for finding and accessing OERs.
- Developing more robust training in using and licensing OERs.
- Providing grants and other financial incentives to develop OERs.
- Hiring librarians and other staff specialized in Open Education.
Sources
- SPARC. (n.d.). Open education. Sparcopen.org. https://sparcopen.org/open-education/(opens in new window)
- California Community Colleges. (n.d.). Open education resources. California Community Colleges. https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Chancellors-Office/Divisions/Educational-Services-and-Support/Open-Education-Resources(opens in new window)
- Kortemeyer, Gerd. (2013, February 26). Ten years later: Why open educational resources have not noticeably affected higher education, and why we should care. Educause. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/2/ten-years-later-why-open-educational-resources-have-not-noticeably-affected-higher-education-and-why-we-should-care(opens in new window)