Workshop on

“The Why and How of Open Education:

Service Concepts and Provider Perspectives”

15th MindTrek Conference and the International Academic ConferenceDate/Place

28 – 30 of September, Tampere – Finnland

Date of Workshop: September 30^th from 10.00 to 15.00

Contents
Abstract
Workshop Schedule
Theme of the Workshop
Workshop Chair
Organizing Committee
CV of Workshop Organizers

Abstract
Abstract: This is a second workshop dedicated to advance the higher-level field of Open Education (OE), featuring interactive sessions to gather, review and define OE service concepts and practices.

Workshop Schedule
10.00 to 10.15 – Introduction to ‘Open Education’ and ‘Open Education as a Service’

The session begins with a 10 minute introduction to the Open Education (OE) and OEaaS fields.

10.15 to 12.00 – ‘The Why and How of Open Education as a Service’ – Service concepts and practices

This first half of the workshop is dedicated to the questions: Why engage in OEaaS, and what services this would imply? These are the core questions of this session, which begins with a post-it round where participants are asked to provide reasons and means for providing OEaaS, either as a standalone offer or embedded within a traditional/formal education context. By the end of the session we aim to match the why’s and the how’s, and to clarify derivative concepts.

12.00 to 13.00 – Break

13.00 to 15.00 – ‘The Why and How of Open Education as a Service’ – Service organization, business and sustainability options

This second half of the workshop will be dedicated to the questions: How are OEaaS services organized and how they may reach financial sustainability or become integrated into for-profit business? We will base this on the results of a survey among providers of education services, platforms and tools that has been conducted within the network of the European Learning Industry Group. By the end of the session we aim to have discussed business models and sustainability options – taking into account the specific context and interests of the participants. For this, the second part of the workshop will start with an assessment of the potential role of the participants in an OEaaS ecosystem.

Theme of the Workshop
This is the second workshop dedicated to advance the higher-level field of Open Education (OE), featuring interactive sessions to gather, review and define OE service concepts and practices. The first workshop focused on ‘Concepts and Practices’ and has been taken place 30 June 2011 in Berlin alongside the 6th Annual Open Knowledge Conference. The focus of this second workshop will be on ‘Service Concepts and Provider Perspectives’.

The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement has to date largely been driven by educational institutions. Through this movement, high quality tools and educational materials have been made freely available to educators and learners worldwide. In recent years, many institutions followed this move, indicating that there is a growing trend within traditional education to ‘open up’. Despite the huge potential and considerable growth of OER we are still witnessing the very first stages of adoption in the higher education sector. The OER movement may have opened the door to the next generation of higher educational provision but at this point in time many universities have not yet taken the step. OER potential is great when not reduced to an alternative to traditional education, but rather as an enabler to combine free / open learning with traditional educational forms and to provide new and innovative services. In its very basic form Open Education (OE) might be defined as “the free and open access to, the usage of and the right to modify and re-use digital educational resources and digital educational tools, and the free and open access to the related (virtual) educational communities, in order to learn, teach, exchange or advance knowledge in a collaborative and interactive way”. Stakeholders of OE, and in comparison to traditional education, might include the following: own and fellow students and educators; free learners outside of formal education; practitioners and enterprises as producers, consumers or collaborators; and established virtual communities of practice. OE is seen as a viable means to provide access to high quality education in developed and notably developing economies, including research and teaching activities.

Sustainability is as important for OE as for traditional formal education, so before joining any kind of OE venture it is important to have a clear understanding of how such a venture might be sustained. Donations, advertisements, commission on sales, cost-sharing or a higher value for money are all elements that might be applied to allow for the sustainability of OE, including a free basic support provision or learning facilitation. Another sustainability component, and a focus of the first part of this workshop, are services to be provided to learners or educational institutions. ‘Open Education as a Service’ (OEaaS) is an ‘on-demand’ concept at which services are provided around freely available educational offers and Open Educational Resources, such as courses and programmes with basic support provision. OEaaS therefore might be close to a ‘Freemium business model’ at which basic products or services are available free of charge, while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services. Services available to learners might include customizable support options, formal assessment and certification possibilities, or the access to physical infrastructures. Services are however not limited to the learner perspective, but could also be provided to educational institutions. Second level support; outsourcing and cloud-sourcing of institutional course environments; or learning resource updates and optimization are all opportunities for OE Service provider. The opportunities for OE Services are manifold and will be the focus of the first half of the workshop.

The second part of this workshop will focus on the service organization, funding and sustainability and present the results of a 2011 survey for providers of learning products, services and solutions. This survey analysed the extent to which the learning industry is aware or indeed engaged in using open education, open educational resources and related open tools, platforms or standards in the services or solutions they offer to the marketplace. The survey provides insights about what is already used or considered.

Workshop Chair
United Nations University UNU-MERIT – CCG Collaborative Creativity Group (NL) | Andreas Meiszner (meiszner@merit.unu.edu) & Ruediger Glott (glott@merit.unu.edu)

European Learning Industry Group (AT) | Elmar Husmann

Organizing Committee

• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR) | Ioannis Stamelos, Apostolos Kritikos, Vaios Kolofotias
• Ecole pour l’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées (FR) | Olivier Ricou
• Free Knowledge Institute (NL) | David Jacovkis, Wouter Tebbens
• Hellenic Management Association (GR) | Fanianna Gofa, Yannis Kalivas
• Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (PT) | Hugo Magalhães, José Carvalho, Rui Monteiro
• Tampere University of Technology (FI) | Imed Hammouda
• The Open University (UK) | Martina Wilson, Doug Clow, James Aczel, Patrick McAndrew, Simon Cross
• University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (CH) | Pascale Hardy, Mathias Rossi
• University of Oxford – OSSWatch (UK) | Sharon Gardner, Ross Gardler
• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (ES) | Felipe Ortega, Pedro Coca, Pedro Garcia Rodriguez

CV of Workshop Organizers
Dr. Andreas Meiszner is a senior researcher and project manager at the United Nations University UNU-MERIT (NL) and experienced international consultant focusing on education, innovation, and training. Andreas research and project experience are related to the fields of Open Education, Open Source Software and their communities, Open Educational Resources and Web 2.0 applications. Before entering the world of academic research Andreas has been working in various business sectors for more than 10 years and holds three higher education degrees in management from universities in France, Germany and The Netherlands.

Ruediger Glott is a social scientist and senior researcher at UNU-MERIT. He plays a key role in the design, execution and analysis of a number of surveys of FLOSS developers/users, governments, and firms. He also designed and executed a number of case studies on FLOSS in the European public sector, and played a key role at the establishment of EU research collaboration with developing countries. Besides his experience in methodologies he is also doing research in educational sociology. He is also experienced in roadmapping methodologies and quality assurance, or policy analysis.

Elmar Husmann is the Public Policy Advisor and Deputy Secretary General of ELIG, the European Learning Industry Group, and a senior managing consultant on behalf of IBM Business Consulting Services leading large scale program management and strategy projects. Elmar is representing IBM on the Steering Committee of the NESSI (Networked European Software and Services) ETP where he has a specific focus on linkages to FP7 IP projects and the connection to the IBM global research organization and open source activities. Elmar holds master degrees in engineering from both the Aachen University of Technology (RWTH) and the Ecole Centrale Paris. He also holds an M.A. in management sciences from the Ecole Centrale with a focus on innovation management and attended executive training programs at INSEAD, HEC and the Cambridge University.

This workshop is supported through the openSE and openEd 2.0 projects, which have been funded with support from the European Commission. The content reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein. | openEd 2.0 505667-LLP-1-2009-1-PT-KA3-KA3MP | openSE 503641-LLP-1-2009-1-PT-ERASMUS-ECUE

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