November 01, 2006
Making OpenLearn Sustainable
A couple of days ago I did a search on YouTube for "open university" that turned up a couple of OU adverts, as well as some snippets from old OU TV programmes and a spoof video or two (sometimes it's hard to disambiguate clips of 25 year old OU programmes from recent parodies of the same!).
Of the many rumours flying round about how YouTube is going to make itself pay, advertising is of course a contender - whether that's video advertising to top and tail movie clips, or other forms of on-site advertising, like traditional Google ads.
I guess some people may be asking similar sorts of questions about whether OpenLearn is sustainable once the Hewlett funding runs out (even though we're only really at the start of that funding...)?
I've commented previously (Ad Supported Courses) about the possibility of ad-supported courses - maybe a job ad, or two, or even the occasional dating agency ad?! (I believe the latter often goes hand in hand with divorce lawyers!). And I suppose to an extent in some weird internal market sort of way, links to the main OU site from OpenLearn could be deemed to have a certain value.
Anyway - internally there is keen interest (and maybe, I hear, even a sweepstake or two;-) on the number of people:
a) registering (for free, of course) onto the OpenLearn site,
b) going on to request more information about related OU courses, and then
c) actually registering for a course.
This 'try before you buy' element of OpenLearn is, I assume, one of the arguments that helped persuade the beancounters that there may be a financial payoff from OpenLearn - over and above the project funding and the undoubted social good payoff that will hopefully result from making our content available.
And if the early day rumours are to be believed, things are looking promising...
The following clip from a recent blog post suggests that the OpenLearn materials may draw not just new students into the OU, but that they may also be used to help current students in their future course choice:
I found an announcement on the StudentHome website that OU opens some of its learning resources to the broad public on a site called OpenLearn. ... I'm curious to see how this will develop and if it might help me in choosing appropriate courses for the future... if this turns out to be the right thing for me.""OU Student"
This resonates strongly with an email that crossed my desk last week commenting on how - even though we have e-book versions of all our current study guides - these are only available to students currently studying the corresponding course and apparently not to students who are considering taking the course.
Which means that students can only look at course materials to see if the course is right for them by going to their local study centre and checking out the OU materials there (you'll find a set in most academic libraries, I think...).
Part of the reasoning behind the lock down of content is, I assume, the belief amongst some people that the content is the key part of our contract with students and that if OUr content is free, the students won't come, something that OpenLearn may help to disprove.
What often seems to be ignored is that even if OUr content is free, the added value of open access, supported open learning (including academic support from local and regional tutors), a vibrant online student community (in general, as well as associated with particular courses), assessment and academic feedback and - let's not forget the ultimate goal for many - an accredited, often professionally recognised Higher Education qualification at the end of the day all contribute to the reasons why people choose to study with the OU.
It's not just the content...
