tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816065258449299220.post3481817249681080515..comments2024-03-02T02:44:12.501-06:00Comments on Developing Professional Staff: For-Profit Involvement in OER - Part 3Dan McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17165245665212961209noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816065258449299220.post-49488136881852216342016-06-18T09:56:41.733-05:002016-06-18T09:56:41.733-05:00I am really intrigued by this comment from David, ...I am really intrigued by this comment from David, which I don't disagree with at all: "And while we do occasionally find institutions with strong feelings one way or the other, the truth is that most could care less how we are organized." I wonder what that is about. Is it because the for-profit/non-profit distinction doesn't matter to institutions (I'm particularly interested in public ones), or is this due to lack of time? lack of understanding of the distinctions? lack of good non-profit pathways? Earnestly interested in this, since I agree with David, but am somewhat alarmed at the way that so many partnerships around EdTech seem to built around services and products without much critical conversation about how the funding paths we choose could ultimately shape the services and products we can access over time. This is not at all an argument against for-profit companies involved in OER, but more an observation, and a question to public institutions about what kind of analyses we have done to reflect on this.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03365357318740831789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816065258449299220.post-33395818183233285192016-06-13T10:15:58.425-05:002016-06-13T10:15:58.425-05:00Your criticism of Lumen's approach makes much ...Your criticism of Lumen's approach makes much more sense now that I understand that you are selling a competing model of OER adoption to institutions. When you say, "Lumen's solution to the problem of how to most effectively provide OER in community colleges is problematic," in addition to providing an honest critique you're positioning against a competitor. That makes sense.<br /><br />You and I - and others - can argue endlessly on blogs about which approach to supporting OER adoption at community colleges adds the most value. However, this kind of argument is academic in the very worst sense of the word. "Which of the dozens of possible models is superior?" is an empirical question that can only be answered (meaningfully) by the community colleges themselves. They will each declare which model they find the most valuable when they decide who to partner with. (And if no model adds sufficient value, they won't partner with anyone).<br /><br />This is the point where I'm supposed to write "may the best model win" and exit with a flourish and bow, but there's more to say.<br /><br />Community colleges differ widely from each other, and a model that adds significant value at one institution may prove counterproductive at another. If every student at every community college is going to be using OER instead of traditional publisher materials in the near future, the field needs many models that differ from each other in important ways. By making your specific set of OER adoption services available in the market, you increase the diversity of the OER ecosystem - which is critically important to its viability and sustainability (as I wrote about a few weeks ago - http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4585). I'm genuinely glad you're doing what you're doing.<br /><br />Since you keep returning to organizational structure, let's take that as an example of the way two approaches might vary from one another. You view Lumen's for-profit status negatively, which is entirely your prerogative. However, our experience talking with senior academic leaders has been that for every leader that hesitates to partner with a for-profit entity on principle (because they're a for-profit), there are more leaders who hesitate to partner with a non-profit entity on principle (because they struggle so much with sustainability). In other words, we have found that being a for-profit creates more opportunities to support OER adoption than being a non-profit would. And while we do occasionally find institutions with strong feelings one way or the other, the truth is that most could care less how we are organized. Most institutions' main concern is whether or not we're going to effectively support scaled OER adoption at their institution. <br /><br />PS. As for locating the available documentation for Lumen's various open source tools, see the individual tools' Github links in my previous post. And to find out who Lumen's support staff are, see our Team page - http://lumenlearning.com/meet-the-team/. It's missing a few people, but will still give you a good sense of who we are.opencontenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13425714975594777192noreply@blogger.com