This document discusses the arguments for being open with educational content and resources. It outlines 8 reasons to be open: 1) Education is sharing, 2) Buy one, get one (political argument about public funding of research), 3) The paradox of free (financial argument that free resources don't hurt sales), 4) The $5 textbook (financial sustainability of low-cost open textbooks), 5) Facilitate the unexpected (openness enables new ideas), 6) Continuous improvement (openness allows improving resources over time), 7) Content is infrastructure (open content fuels innovation), 8) Do the right thing (openness fulfills our moral responsibility). The document provides examples and evidence supporting each argument.
7. If the Book Didn’t Change Schools
Can the computer?
Can the internet?
Can “open”?
8. Why Be Open?
1. Education is Sharing
(the technical argument)
2. Buy One, Get One
(the political argument)
3. The Paradox of Free
(the financial argument, part 1)
9. Why Be Open?
4. The $5 Textbook
(the financial argument, part 2)
5. Facilitate the Unexpected
(the serendipity argument)
6. Continuous Improvement
(the quality argument)
10. Why Be Open?
7. Content is Infrastructure
(the innovation argument)
8. Do the Right Thing
(the moral argument)
56. Do OER Hurt Sales?
Won’t people stop paying for the
course materials or books if they’re free?
57. Publications
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (in press). Free E-Books and Print Sales.
Journal of Electronic Publishing.
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (in press). Open access textbooks and financial
sustainability: A case study on flat world knowledge. International Review of
Research in Open and Distance Learning.
• Johansen, J. & Wiley, D. (2011). A sustainable model for opencourseware
development. Educational Technology Research & Development.
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). A sustainable future for open textbooks? The Flat
World Knowledge story. First Monday, 15(8).
• Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). Free: Why authors are giving books away on the
Internet. Tech Trends, 54(2).
• Hilton, J., Wiley, D. (2010). The short-term influence of free digital versions of
books on print sales. Journal of Electronic Publishing, 13(1)
http://davidwiley.org/
58. Findings
• Over 2% of people who access open
online courses become paying
customers
• Downloads of free online books
correlate strongly with sales of print
books
• A for-profit business can be financially
successful using CC licenses on its
textbooks
59. 4. The $5 Textbook
the financial argument, part 2
(aka your fellow travelers)
64. “How would you rate the quality
of the texts used for this course?”
Answer Response %
WORSE than… 4 3%
About the SAME AS… 67 56%
BETTER than… 49 41%
65. “How do you feel about the online
format of the texts used…?”
Answer Response %
I like it MORE than … 65 52%
I have no preference 38 31%
I like it LESS than… 21 17%
66. “Imagine a future course you are
required to take. If two different
sections were offered…”
Answer Response %
I would enroll in the section with 17 13%
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHED TEXTS
I would enroll in the section with 93 74%
TEXTS LIKE THOSE OFFERED IN
THIS COURSE
I would have no preference 16 13%
67.
68. High School Science Classes
Teachers adapted CK12 books
for print or digital use
77. Back of the Envelope
Cost of Traditional Books Over Cycle $61,875,000
Cost of Open Books Over Cycle $28,875,000
Potential Savings Over Entire Cycle $33,000,000
Potential Savings Per Year $4,714,286
86. Character Classes
• Bard - Master of the lore, history, and
politics of the field, know what's “out there”
• Artisan - Has materials production skills in all
the necessary Web 1.0 and 2.0 tools like
HTML, video sharing, podcasting
• Monk Master of copyright and licensing
arcana and defender of the university brand
• Merchant Deals with short- and long-term
sustainability issues
97. What is Infrastructure?
“The physical components of interrelated
systems providing commodities and services
essential to enable, sustain, or enhance”
societies or enterprises.
As paper became more affordable, dictations became the common form in early universities, and students hand wrote their own copies of texts.
CC By-NC-SA Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/nelsray/3760100376/in/photostream/
With the “lecture text” we get wide margins, so that faculty can now dictate their annotations to students. Though universities temporarily ban dictations, students demand them and they continue.
And this is still our primary mode of instruction, 3000 years later.
CC By Photo by David Wiley
CC licensedphoto http://www.flickr.com/photos/62693815@N03/6277209256/