As we watched "Ending Knowledge Cartels" in class today, I suddenly remembered a conversation I had with my aunt roughly a year ago, regarding a project that our state was doing that was creating open source courses. I wondered, what ever happened to that project? What was it anyway?
Some Googling later, I believe the program she was referring to was opencourselibrary.org. Opencourselibrary.org is a program funded by the state of Washington, as well as by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. What the program basically does is it provides Creative Commons (specifically share-alike) sources to the top 81 most enrolled community college classes in this state. These sources range from completely free to a $30 maximum.
At first glance, the program seems to be something like a dream. Students can save themselves a ton of money by using these sources; projections say that if this program were to be adopted statewide, Washington students as a whole could save a whopping $41.6 million annually. While the writer of the study admits that the chances of the program being adopted statewide is low, even a partial adoption of this program would relieve many a financial burden for students. The same study estimated that the annual savings for students of one department in one community college could add up to $223,791.46. (Source)
The authors of these free sources wouldn't be losing out either. The authors of the works used (selected through a competitive process), were compensated through grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
But one thing really bugged me as I was reading about this program: this project was launched in October 31, 2011; within 11 days of its launch, the site saw 10,000 visitors. In the beginning of 2013, the amount of courses offered, these courses being the top community college courses, raised by 39, taking it from 42 to 81. It all sounds very promising, and yet...why have I heard almost nothing of this? Except for a coversation with my aunt (who worked in the education field), I had heard nothing. Even as I was looking up resources for writing this blog, it was hard to find sources that dated past early 2012, despite 39 more courses being added to the program in early 2013.
The latest source I found was an online article from May of 2013, and the author's wording made it sound like he was not in favor of the program, or hesitant at best. Why? Well, the author does raise a very good point: without the power and backing of the big publishing companies, these Creative Commons authors don't have the same resources, and therefore credibility, as the big textbook manufacturers. Opencourselibrary.org's sources are usually semi-formal documents published through Google docs -- I'm sure the content was sound, but in my mind, I just didn't find them as reassuring as most of my own current, if woefully overpriced, textbooks. The author of this dissenting article, "A Web raid on traditional higher ed" fears that cheaper alternatives like opencourselibrary.org will drive out the "expensive but irreplaceable educational experiences" that are our traditional textbooks.
The author doesn't completely disapprove of open source resources, but only advises that we be cautious. He feels that our goal should be "to ring in the best of the new – without ringing out the unique value of the old." Ideally, this would mean that these forward-thinking publishers should team up with the publishers of old to create resources for students that are both cheap and credible. The problem is though, I imagine with the intellectual monopoly that big textbook publishers currently have, resources like opencourselibrary.org will likely not have an easy time seeking a partnership with them.
So what will become of providers of educational CC sources, such as opencourselibrary.org? I don't know if I see them causing the big revolution in educational resources that my aunt was hoping for. At this time, in my opinion, the outlook looks bleak for them -- big publishers just have too much of a knowledge monopoly for them to crumble over smaller, if forward-thinking, companies like this.
The only way I could see this possibly changing is if this program can get a little less unknown (outside of the educational field), and for the common man to stage a rebellion, not unlike Dave Parry's recommended 10 steps to rock the knowledge cartels. Perhaps then, and only then, would textbook publishers feel enough pressure to work to create products that would benefit the students and the universities they attend, instead of primarily themselves. Maybe.
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