Abstract

Title of session: Creation of a Statewide Survey of Incentives and Disincentives
for the Use of OpenCourseWare in Utah

Overview
This session examines the creation and distribution of a survey tool used to assess Utah resident views of incentives and disincentives for use of OpenCourseWare (OCW) and how they fit into the theoretical framework of perceived innovation attributes established by Rogers (1983).

This was a descriptive study that employed a survey method. This study consisted of three stages: a preliminary Delphi technique questionnaire based on Rogers (2003) attributes of innovation, a pilot study, and the primary study. In the primary study, a mail survey was given to 753 Utah residents using the Tailored Design Method (Dillman, 2000). Several strategies were employed in data collection which included:
(a) detailed introductory letters with the questionnaires and postage prepaid envelopes,
(b) monetary incentives to potential participants, and
(c) a series of three follow-up letters to remind non-responding participants.

A survey instrument was developed using attributes that emerged from a Delphi technique with input from experts in the OCW field. Eleven experts where asked to participate and five were actively involved. After the attributes were identified they were placed into Roger’s attribute characteristics. It was then pilot tested with 44 individuals. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to assess inter-item consistency for the pilot test and required a reliability of .70 or higher before the survey instrument would be used (Schumacker, 2005). The survey was then sent via postal mail to a randomized group of 753 individuals residing in Utah between the ages of 18 and 64. The names and addresses, along with associated demographic information, were obtained from Alesco Data Group, LLC of Fort Myers, Florida. The demographic information used for this study included (a) gender, (b) age, (c) education, (d) income, (e) occupation, and (f) ethnicity.

Purpose of session (why is this important and who is the target audience):

This research has a direct relationship to education and particularly higher education since approximately 33% of all OCW visitor population at MIT are students in formal educational programs, and another 16% are educators (Carson, p. 13, 2006). Equally, open educational resources are becoming increasingly prevalent for self-directed learning. This research has a direct relationship to education because it will give a needs assessment of end user’s perceived incentives and disincentives for OCW style resource use throughout Utah.

Objectives of the session (what are you planning to do):
Review the survey that was completed in 2009 of 753 individuals across Utah and how said survey was created, distributed, and analyzed.

Practical applications (how can your results/strategies be used by others)
Others can incorporate best practices as well as lessons learned from this survey experience; they can also review and assess the questions that were formulated using the Delphi Technique with topic experts.

Information (data or theoretical base) to support what is advocated.
This study examines Utah resident views of incentives and disincentives for use of OCW and how they fit into the theoretical framework of perceived innovation attributes established by Rogers (1983). Rogers identified five categories of perceived innovation attributes which include relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability.
The full report can be found at http://works.bepress.com/anne_arendt/1/

Hands-on experience (if applicable), and what particpants will need to bring to the session.
No hands on in this session

References

Carson, S. (2006). 2005 Program Evaluation Findings Report MIT OCW. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dillman, D. A. (2000). Mail and Internet surveys the tailored design method (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.

Presenter

Anne Arendt
Web Resource Director
Utah Valley University

http://www.mydeskdrawer.com

I currently work for Utah Valley University as the Web Resource Director in Marketing and Communications. Prior to this I worked in Distance Education as a resource manager. I was the Director of Web and Application Development at Walden University and Web Team Manager at Smyth Companies prior to working at UVU.
I have a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from the University of Minnesota, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, a Master of Science (MS) in Educational Change and Technology Innovation from Walden University, and a recently completed Doctorate of Education (Ed.D) from Utah State University in Higher Education. My dissertation topic was “An Assessment of Utah Resident Incentives and Disincentives for Use of OpenCourseWare Resources.” As you can likely guess, I like learning. I will always like learning. I think education is and should be enjoyable.

This presentation will (1) introduce the open education movement and, specifically, open educational resources; (2) explain work done to identify and match OER to Open High School of Utah curriculum needs; (3) describe implications and recommend directions for instructional designers and teachers interested in working with and creating OER.

Purpose of the Presentation

A significant movement in education concerns the use of open educational resources. By “open” it is generally meant that the resource is available at no cost to others for adaptation and reuse in different contexts. These resources could include books, lesson plans, syllabi, slide shows, etc. There are several examples of individuals and institutions providing open educational resources. The open education movement is introduced, and we discuss how to find and organize open educational resources, specifically within the context of the  Open High School of Utah.

In addition, some frameworks for those interested in creating OER will be provided. The “open” in “open educational resources” is not a simple dichotomy; rather, there is a continuum of openness. We discuss four separate aspects of reuse and demonstrate how these describe different levels of openness. Licensing and technical aspects of open educational resources are also discussed

Presenter

John Hilton III is a doctoroal student in Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University.

Presenting the research results of the adoption and implementation by Tecnologico de Monterrey College Faculty of Open Educational Resources (OERs) through the use and help of the Knowledge Hub search engine initiative created and managed by this institution (http://khub.itesm.mx/) in 2008. The purpose of this paper presentation will comment on the best practices used by professors on incorporating and implementing Open Educational Resources available at the World Wide Web within their college courses (http://www.itesm.edu/)(http://www.ruv.itesm.mx/).

Abstract

Title: The use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) by Tecnologico de Monterrey faculty through its Knowledge Hub search engine initiative in Mexico and world wide: Best Practices.

Purpose of the presentation:

1.What audience will learn? And what audience will find in the session? To recognize the importance on the Open Educational Resources (OERs) movement and the educational perspectives on the use of open access resources, data-bases, and metadata for distance education, e-learning, and traditional face-to-face education.
2.To enrich the practice of distance education professionals through the understanding of disadvantages and advantages of open educational resources, and learn about best practices in the use and adoption of Open Educational Resources from the Internet.
3.Audience will find a practical case of an open educational resources search engine available globally within the Internet.

Audience:

Higher Education, Community Colleges, Professionals of Distance Education and Distance Learning, Open Educational Resources, Open Access, and General Audience interested in distance education, e-learning experiences, computer education, and open access issues.

Objectives and Practical Applications:

1. Presenting the research results of the adoption and implementation by Tecnologico de Monterrey College Faculty of Open Educational Resources (OERs) through the use and help of the Knowledge Hub search engine initiative created and managed by this institution (http://khub.itesm.mx/) in 2008. The purpose of this paper presentation will comment on the best practices used by professors on incorporating and implementing Open Educational Resources available at the World Wide Web within their college courses (http://www.itesm.edu/)(http://www.ruv.itesm.mx/).
2. Describing the documentation and indexing process of Open Educational Resources (OERs), within the Knowledge Hub (KHub) website search engine initiative, also how OERs are adopted and implementing by teachers and professors to enhance the course material and class presentations. Describing KHub characteristics, potentialities, goals, target audience, functions, successes and constraints.
3. The paper conference will present two surveys results, as a part of a research study conducted during the past 2008 fall semester, to evaluate and to know how was developed this initiative of Open Educational Resources, and how faculty professors used them in their courses. One faculty survey on the documentation and adoption of OERs (149 professors responded the survey) was conducted, and a student survey was also conducted the fall semester of 2008 (471 students responded). Also, 25 qualitative structured interviews were conducted as a part of the qualitative section of the study, included two focus groups among faculty who are adopting and using these OERs at the Tecnologico de Monterrey.
4. Finally, the paper will present the result of the evaluation process of the effectiveness and quality of the Knowledge Hub search engine initiative and the best teaching practices developed by faculty while are using OERs.

Theoretical Framework (Information):

Currently Open Educational Resources (OER) is one of the most important trends that are helping education through the Internet all over the world, and it is every day more used in many higher education institutions; especially those which have embraced distance education and any other form of e-learning as one of their major institutional and teaching efforts, such as “The Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey” (ITESM –Tecnológico de Monterrey) has done in Mexico.
One of the most competitive private higher education institutions in Mexico, “El Tecnológico de Monterrey” (ITESM) (also named TEC de Monterrey), has implemented for more than 15 years videoconferencing, TV satellite and online instruction to deliver distance education courses and programs, and also more than 10 years using different e-learning platforms (LearningSpace, BlackBoard, FirstClass, BSCW, WebTec) to enhance its traditional face-to-face and distance education programs at undergraduate and graduate level (Masters and Doctoral).
Through this e-learning electronic delivery educational platforms ITESM has reached all its 20 or more campuses around Mexico; allowing them delivery, currently, more than twelve thousand e-learning courses every semester. Blackboard is its major e-learning platform, and it is widely used both locally (each campus has certain autonomy in its use) and through the entire ITESM system.
To help this institutional distance education effort and to respond to Mexican and Latino American educational needs “El Tecnológico de Monterrey” has developed an important educational initiative, named : “Knowledge Hub” (KHub). It is a search engine for open educational resources, which is available in the Internet for any people interested in educational resources available online, especially for teachers and professor of higher education level (undergraduate and graduate) (its website: http://khub.itesm.mx/).
Knowledge Hub is an academic search engine, which is specialized on academic material with educational content to help and support courses of different topics. It was created to assist mainly “Tecnológico de Monterrey” faculty, also to help professors and students from outside and other educational institutions and entities (http://khub.itesm.mx/) (http://khub.itesm.mx/legal), as an open educational resources search engine. The main idea of KHub is to have an open data base of educational resources (e.g.: PPT presentations, podcasts, videos-on-demand, web sites, blogs, and so on) available in the Internet to help students and teachers all over the world. Educational material from different universities world wide will be available openly, following the global open access trend. Already has educational material from MIT, UCLA, Berkeley and Tecnlógico de Monterrey.
Currently, after more the one year to be online, KHub has more than 230 faculty members (Tecnológico de Monterrey professors) working on the selection, gather, and evaluation of these educational resources available in the Internet, following academic criteria in its selection and copy right issues. The educational resources already selected (5,192 indexed material –July 2008) are from diverse higher education topics on the fields of: administration, accountability, business, marketing, engineering, telecommunications, physics, architecture, social sciences, liberal arts, ethics, etc.
The main goal of this paper presentation at the TTIX, Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange Conference is to comment and describe the best teaching practices on the use of Open Educational Resources through the KHub, and comment and describe how has been working and its characteristics, how the target audience has been responded to it, how faculty and students have used it.

Presenter

Fernando J. Mortera-Gutierrez

Presenter Qualifications: B.A. in Social Anthropology at ENAH, Mexico city; M.A. in Sociology (Socio-Demography) at FLACSO, Mexico City; Ph.D. (Doctor) in Educational Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Currently, Full Time Research Professor at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM),Virtual University (UV), Monterrey City campus, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Most Recent Presentation Experiences:
1. “Fostering Creativity in a Qualitative Research Course Using Blackboard with a Blended Learning Approach: Best Practices”. At the Ed-Media 2007 –World Conference: Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications-, Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Montréal, Vancouver, Canada, 2007.
2. “Quality Issues in the Blended Learning and E-learning Instructional Model of “Tecnológico de Monterrey”, Mexico City Campus: A Mexican Case Study”. At the Ed-Media 2005 (AACE), Montréal,Quebec, Canada, 2005.