A Study on the Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in China

 Li Yawan & Li Ying
The Open University of China, Beijing, China

Abstract 

In 2003, a group of universities formed a collaborative institution called China Open Resources for Education (CORE), establishing a community for the promotion and application of open educational resources. Since then, significant progress has been made in developing open educational resources (OER) in China. However, the scope, development and influence of open education in China remain limited. What is the current state of OER use and development in China? The paper analyzes the current situation of OER use and development in China's mainland on the basis of quantitative investigation of CORE member institutions and individuals. It presents the opinions of institutions and individuals regarding OER, data on the publication and uses of OER, institutional policies towards OER, and the views of institutions and individuals regarding OER copyright issues. Finally, it puts forward suggestions on the future development of OER in China.

Keywords： OER, China, Investigation

1. Introduction 

Open Educational Resources (OER) are universal educational resources available for the whole of humanity. Ever since MIT introduced OpenCourseWare (OCW) to users worldwide in 2001, OER and its practices have drawn the attention of people around the world. With the support of UNESCO, the Hewlett Foundation and other international organizations, more and more educational institutions have created OER programmes, such as OpenLearn by the Open University in the UK, Connexions by RiceUniversity and OLI by CarnegieMellonUniversity in the USA, etc. OER promotes the sharing of knowledge, as opposed to the privatization and commercialization of knowledge. The successful development of OER will have far-reaching impact on management concepts, educational content, teaching models and educational theories.

In 2003, a group of universities formed a collaborative institution called China Open Resources for Education (CORE), establishing a community for the promotion and application of open educational resources. Since then, significant progress has been made in developing open educational resources (OER) in China. At present, China's main OER projects include the translation and application of overseas open courses, the production and translation of select national level courses, and the application and development of open education software. However, the scope, development and influence of open education in China remain limited.

What is the current state of OER in China? This paper analyzes the current state of OER use and development in mainland China on the basis of quantitative investigation of CORE member institutions and individuals. It presents the opinions of institutions and individuals regarding OER, data on the publication and uses of OER, institutional policies towards OER, and the views of institutions and individuals regarding OER copyright issues. Finally, it puts forward suggestions on the future development of OER in China.

2. Data Collection

OER in the scope of this paper refer to educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use, and that may be licensed for reprocessing, upgrade, or reclassification. OERinclude:

1. Learning content: Full courses, courseware, content modules, learning objects, collections and journals.

2. Tools: Software to support the development, use, re-use and delivery of learning content including the search and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools and online learning communities.

3. Implementation resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design principles and best practices, and localization of content. 

The survey questionnaires for this research paper were provided by the Asia Region OER Research Project. The main objective of the project is to understand the state of OER in Asia and promote regional collaboration in sharing curriculum, learning materials, learning tools and delivery strategies. The questionnaires were translated by Chinese researchers from English to Chinese before distribution. 

The survey consisted of two parts. Part A was to be completed by individuals with experience in OER, reflecting their personal views on OER. Part B was to be completed by institution (university) authorities who could comprehensively evaluate the institution’s OER practices.

Part A of the survey covers the following three aspects:

1) The individual's use of digital resources in teaching/research and degree of familiarity with digital resources, as background for understanding the individual's use of OER.

2) The individual's use of OER, including any involvement in OER collaboration projects, willingness to publish OER, barriers to and individual benefits from publishing and using OER, etc.

3) OER-related copyright issues, including individual awareness, views and basic knowledge of copyright issues involved in publishing and using OER.

Part B of the survey covers the following three aspects:

1) The institution's use of OER, including any involvement in OER collaboration projects, willingness to publish OER, barriers to and institutional benefits from publishing and using OER, etc.

2) OER-related copyright issues, including the institution's awareness, views and basic knowledge of copyright issues involved in publishing and using OER.

3) Institutional policies towards OER, including any regulations on sharing and importing OER, policies encouraging students and staff to use OER, technical infrastructure to support OER, and the institution's budgetary allocation for OER.

Analysis of the survey results are presented from the following four perspectives: individuals’ use of digital resources, individual and institutional use of OER, individual and institutional views of OER copyright issues, institutional policies towards OER.

Although OER in China has a history of eight years, its scope, development and influence remain relatively limited. To best reflect Chinese universities' and individuals' usage and understanding of OER, CORE members were asked to send the survey questionnaires to individuals with OER experience and university authorities responsible for resource construction or OER. CORE, established in October 2003, is a nonprofit organization made up of select traditional universities and provincial radio and TV universities in China. CORE's mission is to promote the international sharing of educational resources and to improve the quality of education. At present, CORE has close to 100 member universities.   

Between January 2011 and March 2011, 70 completed Part A questionnaires were received from individuals with OER experience, 65 of which were valid. 27 completed Part B questionnaires were received from institution (university) authorities, 26 of which were valid.

The 65 Part A questionnaires were submitted by individuals from China's public colleges and universities. 100% of them had experience using digital resources, which was in line with the requirement for respondents to have OER experience. 63.1% of the respondents taught undergraduate programmes, and 7.7% taught postgraduate programmes. As to the size of the university, 21.5% of the respondents belonged to universities with fewer than 10,000 students, and of those belonging to universities with over 10,000 students, 16.9% belonged to universities with over 100,000 students.

The 26 Part B questionnaires were submitted by persons of authority from China's public colleges and universities. 65.4% of the respondents taught undergraduate programmes, and 3.8% taughtpostgraduate programmes. 19.0% belonged to universities with fewer than 10,000 students, and of those belonging to universities with over 10,000 students, 26.6% belonged to universities with over 100,000 students.  

3. Background of Higher Education in China 

Higher education in China has been developing at a steady pace. The 2009 Statistical Report of National Education Development Affairs (see Table 1) shows that there are 2689 higher education institutions in China, among which 2305 are regular higher education institutions and 384 are adult education institutions. Of the regular higher education institutions, 1090 are universities with undergraduate programmes, and 1215 are vocational colleges. There are 796 institutions offering postgraduate programmes, among which 481 are universities and 315 are research institutes. The recruitment and student body at higher education institutions continues to expand. The collective student body of higher education institutions is 29,790,000, with a gross admission rate 24.2%. 510,900 students were recruited for postgraduate programmes: 61,900 for Ph.D. programmes and 449,000 for master's degree programmes. The total number of students studying postgraduate programmes is 1,404,900: 246,300 Ph.D. students and 1,158,600 master's degree students. 371,300 graduated with advanced degrees: 48,700 with a Ph.D. and 322,600 with master's degree. Regular higher education institutions recruited 6,394,900 for undergraduate or vocational programmes, with the total number studying in such programmes 21,446,600, and the total number of postgraduates 5,311,000. As for adult higher education institutions, recruitment was 2,014,800, the number of existing students studying is 5,413,500, and the number of postgraduates is 1,943,900. The average number of full-time students (undergraduate and vocational) per regular higher education institution is 9086.   

Compared with the development and scale of higher education in China, CORE's influence is very weak. This imbalance on the one hand reflects the limited development and reach of OER in China’s universities, and on the other hand indicates that OER has great potential for development in China. 

Table 1  Number of higher education institutions (HEIs)

Data source：http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s4960/201012/113595.html

4. Data Analysis

(1) Individuals’ use of digital resources

The individual's familiarity and usage of digital resources in teaching/research provides background for his or her usage of OER. The definition of digital resources in the scope of this paper is broad, and includes audio materials, photos, maps, text, manuscripts, charts, slides, graphs, video, reference materials, and other primary source materials. The following analysis is based on the 65 questionnaires from individuals with OER experience, and includes the channels through which they learned about digital resources, frequently used tools, factors influencing their use of digital resources, and the support they need to use digital resources. The results show that institutions play a significant role in the individuals' use of digital resources; the individuals have been equipped with the basic hardware support for publishing and using OER; free digital resources appeal to those who work at universities; they would like the process of using digital resources to be simplified; those who use digital resources at universities seek access to other related services including evaluation of digital resource quality, copyright license authorization, and training for students to find and identify digital resources. 

Through which channels did the individuals learn about digital resources? Table 2 shows that the primary channels are technology departments at universities and colleagues. Secondary channels include recommendations by professional associations and students. 

Table 2  How often do you learn about digital resources from each of the following?

Table 3 shows the frequency of individual usage of personal computers, the Internet, email, and presentation software.

Table3  How often do you use each of the tools listed below?

Certain factors may restrict an individual’s use of digital resources. 87.6% of respondents reported that whether the resource is free or not would influence their use; 66.1% reported that whether the resource requires registration or a password would influence their use. See Table 4. 

Table 4  How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

The individuals reported that in the course of teaching, support in the following areas was very important: finding and obtaining reliable digital resources; evaluating the appropriateness of resources; interpreting copyright laws or securing copyright authorization; digitizing existing resources; gathering, organizing, and maintaining digital resources; training students to find or evaluate digital resources; obtaining or setting up technical infrastructure. See Table 5.