David Porter asks for research about the sustainability of open educational resources. Here is a list of our articles that appeared in peer-reviewed journals last year on the topic of sustainability of OER (with links to publicly available versions in the BYU Institutional Repository): A Sustainable Model for OpenCourseWare Development Johansen, Justin and Wiley, David http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/2353 Keywords: OpenCourseWare; sustainability; open educational resources; development; cost Description/Abstract: The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the cost of converting BYU Independent Study’s e-learning courses into OpenCourseWare, (b) assess the impact of opening those courses on paid enrollment in the credit-bearing versions of the courses, and (c) use these data to judge whether or not an OpenCourseWare program could be financially self-sustaining over the long-term without grant monies or other subsidies. The findings strongly suggest that the BYU Independent Study model of publishing OpenCourseWare is financially self-sustaining, allowing the institution to provide a significant public good while generating new revenue and meeting its ongoing financial obligations. ...

I’m sure someone will decry this as representing the increased corporatization of open education, but a rather high profile open ed job is now open in WA state. The position is listed as Open Education Project Manager, and was posted by the awesome Cable Green, whose title is Director of eLearning & Open Education. I’ll let him explain: The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) invites applications from qualified individuals for the position of Open Education Project Manager. ...

I had the opportunity to attend an Open High School of Utah student orientation meeting this morning. There are loads of students, parents, and teachers here. And the energy in the room is great. The second year of this amazing experiment is beginning! And this year is going to be even better than last year… Also, as a teaser… we’ve received our unofficial Criterion-Referenced Test scores for last year (these are the end of year, state standardized tests). I can’t blog the specifics until they’re made official, but let’s just say that we’ve succeeded in showing that OER “do no harm.” What do you think - can a completely online, publicly-funded school that commits itself to the exclusive use of OER across its entire curriculum outperform the majority of schools in the state in its very first year of operation? =)

Many people wonder why the Open High School of Utah has committed itself to using open educational resources licensed for reuse, adaptation, and sharing. I’ve heard that question more than once at the orientation this morning. (Did I mention that folks from RedHat / opensource.com are here doing a video / photo / interview production about the OHSU? But I digress…) Here are some possible hypotheses about why there’s an O in OHSU: ...

A draft of the OpenEd 2010 conference program is now available for review. I post it while still in draft form because so many people are asking for it. So, following the mantra “release early, release often,” please have a look at the program while realizing it is still subject to change! The final program should be available shortly…

In 2005, COSL engaged in a somewhat unsuccessful effort to bring social study groups to MIT OpenCourseWare. I’ve always been disappointed with how the project sputtered and ended. See, for example, the way the Discussion Group page for Linear Algebra looked back in 2005 on archive.org. Our analytics showed that fewer than 1 in 10 people who visited the Discussion Group page ever clicked on the link to visit the Open Learning Support study group. For a project where critical mass is the key to success, this was deadly. Aside from the link being in the same color as the text on the page, I’ve often wondered if the bullet list on the page scared people off a bit: ...

My blog contains over 600 posts, but my longer writing typically goes to more academic outlets like journals. Thanks to the help of the amazing folks at BYU’s Scholar’s Archive (our institutional repository), much of my peer-reviewed work now has a stable home online, too. I’ve gathered up links to these peer-reviewed articles as well as whitepapers and other long pieces on a new page called Articles. While, it’s not a “complete” collection of my writing (e.g., few of my book chapters are there yet), it should be enough to cure any amount of insomnia. Feel free to poke around when you have absolutely nothing else to do…

I’m at the AECT Board of Director’s meeting / Research Symposium this week. Rick Schwier (@schwier) is presenting about learning in formal, non-formal, and informal environments. Listening to him talk helped me crystalize something I already sort of knew but had never but into words to my satisfaction. IF people construct meaning based on their own prior knowledge and past experience, and IF a wide variety of tools and content like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, OpenCourseWare, blogs, etc., are significant, important parts of some people’s every day lives, and ...

I’m very happy to announce that BYU has just received a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The pilot project will examine the deeper learning and cost savings that can be achieved when open textbooks replace traditional, expensive textbooks in public high school science classrooms. 15-20 public high school science teachers in Utah will replace their expensive, traditional textbooks with open textbooks from CK12.org for the 2010-2011 school year. Approximately 2,000 students will be impacted by the changes. Most will use printed versions of the books, while a few hundred students in one-to-one schools will use the online versions of the books on netbooks or iPads. Teachers will continue to supplement the CK12 books with additional resources and activities just as they have historically supplemented expensive, traditional textbooks. ...

Earlier today the Open High School of Utah (disclaimer: I’m the school’s founder and currently serve on its board) issued the following press release. Congratulations to Sarah and the whole school. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 28, 2010 Contact: DeLaina Tonks, (801) 725-3396 Director~Open High School of Utah dtonks@openhighschool.org Online Teacher Named Utah Charter School Educator of the Year Open High School of Utah, a virtual charter high school serving students statewide, announces that online math teacher, Sarah Weston, is awarded Utah Association of Public Charter School Educator of the Year. ...