On Open Educational Resources Development Model And Operation

This study focuses on the present trend of Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement. The information technology revolution has changed how knowledge is disseminated in speed, range and forms. Thanks to the technology people all over the world are now possible to share knowledge with almost no margin cost. Open Educational Resources movement is rapidly growing.This paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter begins with the background and significance of Open Educational Resources, and then gives literature review of the development of concepts of"openness"and"resources"with the author's definition of OER followed.The second chapter analyses the models of present OER projects in perspective of content and capital and human resources. In terms of content, the current models of OER include Open Learning Community, Open Courseware, OA Journals and repositories, free E-books and Open Online Encyclopedias. In terms of capital resources, OER models include Foundation Model, Government Model, Conversion Model, Author-Payment Model, Membership Model and Sponsorship Model. In terms of human resources, there are Volunteer Model, Institution Model and Cooperation Model.The third chapter moves on to actual operation of OER; Example cases of Beijing Quality OCW and MIT OCW are compared in aspects of access, application and influence.The last chapter concludes the difficulties lie ahead and the trends for the future of OER movement. Firstly, American universities dominate OER movement while many other countries are contributing OER in other languages. Secondly, copyright issue is a serious obstacle for OER development but new copyright mechanism adapted for the Information Age is being explored and developing. Thirdly, not all OER items have the quality assurance. Fourthly, there are not enough high-quality studies for people to understand OER in depth. Fifthly, OER will not replace the traditional models; instead, OER will co-exist with the traditional models and push them to develop, vise versa. Sixthly, some OER are built bottom-up while the others top-down; almost all sectors of the society are taking part in this movement. Finally some suggestions are given on how the Chinese universities should react to it.