Benchmarking open educational practices in higher education

Abstract

Open Educational Resources are widely discussed in higher education circles and open education practices are being upheld as the second generation of OERs that have the potential to make education freely available to all students. The OERu is a collaborative initiative between 12 institutions globally that is intending to offer courses free of charge to students using only OERs and open practices. This poster presents preliminary results from a research study conducted with 110 representatives of higher education institutions around the world, of which 12 were official; members of the OERu. The study was aimed at identifying the extent to which higher education institutions are currently implementing open policies and practices as well as explore the challenges faced by institutions when considering implementing open initiatives. Results from the study indicate that although higher education institutions are aware of and interested in open education resources and initiatives such as the OERu, there are a number of challenges that need to be overcome before these initiatives are sustainable and more widely adopted.