Ten Years Later: Why Open Educational Resources Have Not Noticeably Affected Higher Education, and Why We Should Care

By Gerd Kortemeyer. When MIT first announced its Open Courseware (OCW) initiative in October 2002, it shook the business model of traditional higher education institutions that had established "virtual universities" in an attempt to sell their brand and their educational resources worldwide. With OCW, MIT sent a signal: we don't sell learning resources, we sell certification of learning; learning resources do not have much intrinsic monetary value, but a degree does. This was arguably the first disruption of the higher education market in decades, marking the birth of the open educational resource (OER). Fast-forward to October 2012: OERs have failed to significantly affect the day-to-day teaching of the vast majority of higher education institutions. Traditional textbooks and readings still dominate most teaching venues even though essentially all students are online: Course management systems are used only for the dissemination of syllabi, class notes, general communications, and as a grade book. OERs are out there…somewhere. Why aren't they on campus? Read more...