Goldilocks and the 13 RepositoriesFinding the Perfect Fit

Jacky Hood, Open Education Program ManagerCoordinator, Open Doors Group

Co-Director, College Open Textbooks

November 7, 2011

A NEW QUEST FOR GOLDILOCKS

Goldilocks is no longer looking for a chair, bed, or porridge.

She is seeking an open educational resource (OER) repository that is a perfect fit.

Bears lurk in these Internet woods.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolldreamer/5919885358/ CC BY NC SA

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Open educational resources are here, there, and everywhere

One person’s ideal repository is another’s dead end.

Many lists, not so many repositories

Most open textbooks are on single-book sites…

THESE BEARS MAY LOOK FRIENDLY BUT….

Pictures licensedfor reuse by Mariah

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Yes, for OER materials I and my students can use

Yes, for a place to store OER materials I create

Yes, for both No. I am just

‘window shopping

POLL: ARE YOU ALSO LOOKING FOR AN OER REPOSITORY THAT FITS YOU WELL?

Trying on shoes CC BY NC by Michael D. Dunn http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikedefiant/470415573/sizes/z/in/photostream/

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Type Licensing Disciplines Quality Format Print Options Ease of Use

SOME CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING AN OPEN REPOSITORY

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licensed reuse benny's photostream

Type Nuggets, Textbooks, Ancillaries, Complete Courses

Licensing CC BY perhaps with SA, NC, ND; also PD, custom, others

Disciplines Humanities, Science, Math, Social Science, Language, etc.

Quality Authoritative source, reviews (criteria, depth, by whom)

Format O/S, Browser, Downloaded, Mobile Devices. Cost.

Print options Self-printing, print-on-demand, pre-printed. Binding & cost.

Ease of use Tradeoff between adopter, student, and author

CRITERIA OPTIONS

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MANY OTHER CRITERIA

Size Search tools Authoring tools Communities Business model

Sustainability model Feedback

mechanism Accessibility Cost

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Textbooks Courseware Crowd-Sourced or K-12

Connexions OCW Consortium WikiBooks

Orange Grove Texts+ NROC Hippocampus CK12

FlatWorld Knowledge Sofia Curriki

Lulu Saylor Foundation

Global Text Project Open Learn

THREE GROUPS OF REPOSITORIES

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THREE MAJOR REPOSITORIES

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Type Textbooks, Resources, Courses

Licensing CC BY only

Disciplines Academic

Quality High; some reviewed

Format XML

Print options PDF, bound

Ease of use Students OK; adopters need training

Funded by grants and consortium fees

19,367 modules in 1,167 collections

http://www.cnx.org

RICE UNIVERSITY CONNEXIONS

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Type Textbooks

Licensing CC BY NC

Disciplines Math, Econ, Business

Quality High

Format Proprietary

Print options Self-print and bound

Ease of use Moderately complex for adopters and users; authors by invitation and contract only

For-profit business model similar to open source software vendors

Give away textbooks and sell ancillaries and support

Invited named authors paid royalties for bound copies and ancillaries

www.flatworldknowledge.com

FLATWORLD KNOWLEDGE

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Type Textbooks,

Licensing CC BY 3.0

Disciplines Business, Computing, Education, Health, Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Quality High

Format Created in Open Office; converted to PDF

Print options Paper and CD or DVD

Ease of use High but limited flexibility

Affiliated with the University of Georgia

Grant funded by Jacobs Foundation

http://globaltext.terry.uga.edu/books

GLOBAL TEXT PROJECT

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NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

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http://www.textbookequity.com/ http://www.elevenlearning.com/

POLL: WHICH REPOSITORIES HAVE YOU VISITED? Connexions FlatWorld Knowledge Global Text Project Lulu OCW Orange Grove Saylor Foundation Others

Question mark made of puzzle pieces by Horia Varlan

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College Open Textbooks (COT) Advanced Technological Education Applied Math and Science Education

Repository OER Commons Student PIRGS OER Commons MERLOT

MANY LISTS ARE NOT REPOSITORIES

Photo licensed for reuse by J T’s photostream

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LISTS CAN PROVIDE REVIEWS AND INFORMATION. EXAMPLE FROM COT

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*Peer Reviewed

WE WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO HELP

http://opendoorsgroup.org http://collegeopentextbooks.org

Join us at http://collegeopentextbooks.ning.com

Contact me at jacky.hood@opendoorsgroup.org or +1 650-323-6509 Pacific Time Zone

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