22-24 November 2006
The International Seminar was structured around four themed axes that linked Open Educational Resources to educational, technological, economic and legal aspects.
The main aim of a repository is to ensure visibility and to facilitate the lifecycle of the contents. This means implementing their re-use, the documentation of their uses, processes and results, they way in which this information on usage should be provided to other potential users, or the collaborative assessment of the whole lifecycle.
The greatest problem of an institution that wants to start up an open contents repository is that of critical mass; the second problem has to do with its visibility and quality. An Open Educational Resources-based learning process needs a formal definition of the concept of open content, its teaching and educational requirements, and of the scenario where the learning process occurs. The central problem that must be addressed is that of the management of the lifecycle: creation, publication, usage, documentation and analysis of this use, and updating in accordance with the results obtained.
Open Educationa Resources are a clear element for the promotion of the autonomy of societies in access to culture and knowledge. However, while the positive effects are obvious for more deprived societies and groups, it may appear not quite so for higher education institutions from the economic point of view. The impact of the introduction of Open Educational Resources covers aspects such as intellectual property costs, or the effects on enrolment figures, which must be tackled responsibly when creating an Open Educational Resources repository.
The appearance of initiative such as Creative Commons is an interesting starting point that enables the creators of educational contents to tackle the possible problems to be faced in terms of their potential commercial uses. The visibility of the Open Educational Resources repository is an important aspect to be determined. Access is determined by the technological infrastructure that supports the repository, but also by the policies and adopted in each case.
Sessions were organized around case studies linked to university institutions and set within a prior theoretical framework. Papers were the prologue to a unique, in-depth debate where participants had the opportunity to share experiences regarding use, management and dissemination of Open Educational Resources. Debate and reflection concentrated on analysing the main challenges, benefits and drawbacks of creation, introduction, dissemination and use of Open Educational Resources, so making it possible to obtain a global, integrated vision of all elements.
Higher education institutions managers, pioneers in the introduction of this kind of educational resources, presented the experiences of their institutions and the challenges that these experiences poses, as well as the technical and organisational solutions that have been employed in their management.