How institutional culture can change to adopt open practices

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Table 1: Themes and sub-themes emerging Theme Sub-theme Vision and philosophy Philosophical stance? Extensive cultural change OER cultural change that is managed Changing traditional practices New models of online delivery/new commercial models Market research Support for existing strategies International partnerships and recruitment Transitions Diversity Distance learning OER quality Ensuring quality Technological considerations Resources and support Resourcing Staff development Vision and philosophy/extensive cultural change At the highest level, several interviewees mentioned that the University’s philosophical position and values needed to be explored concerning its attitude toward learners: ... so I guess there’s a philosophical position in there that needs to be understood, both of the university and the sector as to how it sees itself and where it wants to be. ... as an institution we need to make a statement I think which says this is what we value and we’re going to put time and resource into that. ... as to how it views learners is another thing? Maybe one of the questions is, does it consider learning as something which is altruistic for instance, is it there for it’s own sake that it makes in that sort of ancient Greek model of making people better citizens and through being better citizens you have a better society. Nearly every participant commented that organisational and cultural change was required at this point in time, not just to accommodate open education but in light of sector changes. Universities needed to be exploring innovative educational models and seek out new commercial opportunities and to become more commercially aware. It was felt that universities were poor in relation to planning and developing new programmes and responding to the changes in demand of existing programmes. For example, having to validate new programmes that the do not recruit cannot be a time and financially efficient process, and more rigorous planning need to go into understanding market demand. New and existing programmes should be asked of them ‘how many ways can we deliver this?’ 6
New commercial models for education that were suggested included the use of mobile apps, and exploring the app model of offering free resources or services that can be upgraded to a paid for educational service. The commercial manager talked at length about the need for market research to understand who our learners are, and their attitudes toward online learning as a new commercial venture. Would they purchase value-added educational services? Do OER influence attitudes toward study? Who are our learners and what groups of learners do we want to attract who may want to access learning in other ways? In relation to shifting institutional culture the following elements were mentioned: steer and sign-in from executive board; position paper to executive board with proof of concept/scenarios/commercial viability; the need for a policy and no need for a policy; working group; strategic statement; become part of Learning and Teaching Strategy. The discussions also reflected the process underlying change management and the need to adopt a strategic champion and embed OER within existing committee and working group activities. A vision for success would be required that could then be worked back from, and thinking about what external organisations could support the vision and what internal resources would be required. The strategy for developing the vision and influencing institutional culture was focused upon by several interviewees; in general the view was that the direction should come from the ground up with current practice influencing/informing future policy rather than an institutional strategic aim leading to a top-down approach to the adoption of OER. This view reflected precisely the initial developments at DMU as far as OER are concerned, but it is recognised that there must be a point at which the institution adopts OER and open practice as a strategic aim if the necessary support and resources are to be allocated. Support for existing strategies When asked how OER could be used to support existing university strategies, links were found to several areas as outlined in Table 1: international partnerships and recruitment; student transitions; supporting diversity; and distance learning. Employability was also mentioned in other contexts. A fit for OER in supporting the international strategy was clear, but this was not just in relation to marketing and recruitment, but the use of OER to catalyse new educational partnerships that are not bounded by geography or constrained by institutional platforms: ... a genuine partnership model of sharing and contributions from both sides, and that includes open content and delivery platforms. This view was not universally held though with some interviewees promoting what they viewed as OER primarily as a means to support the delivery of existing international partnerships. It was unclear if openness was then just an inevitable spin-off from this type of interaction or whether it would be sought as one of the key benefits of the interaction. A strategic approach for seeking out places synergetic with our provision was advised, as well as being strategic about the academic areas that we would wish to promote, i.e. those subjects that might be more attractive to international audiences. OER were viewed as a positive to enriching the student experience through boosting distance learning, particularly to give flexibility to learners and also support new educational models including evening, weekend and study during the holidays. A careful understanding of how enrolling for online courses would affect student number control and completion rates would need to be considered. Also the concept of paying for courses online would need to incorporate a recruitment and selection process, to fulfil the moral duty of accepting students on their ability to succeed and not their ability to pay. Few comments were made regarding the use of OER to support student transitions or any other strategic area. However one interviewee felt OER fitted well with supporting diversity by providing learning materials that were more readily customisable to suit their learning needs, and also in providing educational opportunities for people with different life styles. 7
Page 1 and 2: HEA/JISC Open Educational Resources
Page 3 and 4: The interviews were around 30-60 mi
Page 5: I’m not entirely sure that we’v
Page 9 and 10: • In our institution, OER activit
Page 11: Contact us 11 The Higher Education

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