Feasibility Protocol for OER and OEP: A decision making tool for higher education

This summary document is written for the senior executives of higher education institutions, mostly Australian institutions. It explores the Feasibility Protocol, which is a key outcome of a research project titled “Adoption, use and management of Open Educational Resources to enhance teaching and learning in Australia”, primarily funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), but with support from DEHub also. Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) have been receiving global attention, especially in the last ten years, as the demand for open resources increases in all aspects of education and knowledge sharing and distribution. Despite some important Australian initiatives and policy developments regarding OER and OEP (discussed in detail in the full project report), the lack of explicit educationally‐oriented government policies appear to be limiting the process of OER adoption in Australia. To date, there have been few policy levers or enablers to encourage universities and other tertiary providers to pursue OER initiatives to better support current students, attract new ones and compete against other Australian and international institutions.

We believe that the Feasibility Protocol is a valuable instrument to assist senior executives in making decisions regarding institutional adoption of OER and OEP. The Feasibility Protocol is a set of guiding principles that prompts questions and raises issues to be considered by universities and tertiary institutions wishing to take advantage of OER and OEP. More specifically, the protocol aims to assist senior executives, managers and policy makers to make informed decisions about the adoption of OER and OEP at several levels within their institution. Even though we are aware that the introduction of OER and OEP into mainstream higher education in Australia could have not only a global impact on the sector (e.g. meeting some of the Paris OER Declaration recommendations), but could also impact on small and isolated communities, as well as individuals outside the university sphere, this study is focused primarily on the higher education sector.