Business Models of Sustainable Open Educational Resources (OER)

This article conceptualizes four business models for sustainable open education resources (OER) at four levels: the social level, the education institutional level, the OER community level, and the individual faculty member level. The business model at each of the four levels has its application realm. At the social level, social benefits of OER are the central motivation of the OER movement. At the institutional level, education institutions are facing challenges of student enrollment increase. At the OER community operational level, communities of practice must be established. At the individual faculty member level, the key players of OER must take effective actions for OER. Sustainable OER can be achieved only when the stakeholders at the four levels collaborate towards the common objective of sustainable value creation. The comprehensive set of business models can be used for all parties involved in OER to define and implement strategies for sustainable OER. The article also provides recommendations for future research into tests of the conceptualized business models for sustainable OER.

Business Models of Sustainable Open Educational Resources (OER)

This article conceptualizes four business models for sustainable open education resources (OER) at four levels: the social level, the education institutional level, the OER community level, and the individual faculty member level. The business model at each of the four levels has its application realm. At the social level, social benefits of OER are the central motivation of the OER movement. At the institutional level, education institutions are facing challenges of student enrollment increase. At the OER community operational level, communities of practice must be established. At the individual faculty member level, the key players of OER must take effective actions for OER. Sustainable OER can be achieved only when the stakeholders at the four levels collaborate towards the common objective of sustainable value creation. The comprehensive set of business models can be used for all parties involved in OER to define and implement strategies for sustainable OER. The article also provides recommendations for future research into tests of the conceptualized business models for sustainable OER.

Internationalization of Research: Key Considerations and Concerns

The internationalization of research has increasingly become an area of focus for higher education institutions but has received less scholarly attention in the study of internationalization in higher education. Drawing on the literature, this article outlines a range of key considerations and concerns for the continued internationalization of research, first by documenting the various rationales for—and factors affecting—international research collaboration and then by examining how internationalization in research might be measured. The article documents a number of key challenges, and highlights that the internationalization of research is influenced by the complex intersection of factors relating to the individual faculty member, to their discipline, to their institution, and to a range of external factors, such as funding. The authors conclude by questioning the likely success of national and institutional strategies for greater internationalization of research, and by calling for more detailed empirical research in this area.

Teaching Ad Tech: Assessing Collaborative Teaching in an Advertising, Computer Science and Design Course

Advertising technology is advancing quickly incorporating digital techniques that may be beyond the experience of the individual faculty member. Collaborative teaching, where faculty members from different disciplines co-teach a course, may be a solution. This report assesses the learning outcomes of an advertising technology course taught by faculty from one university's advertising, computer science and human-computer interaction programs. The course was run twice, with a third one in progress. Students were predominantly advertising majors, with a minority of computer science and design majors. Two semesters of pre- and post-tests were analyzed, finding increases in student comfort with preparing and presenting technologically advanced solutions to advertising challenges.

Preparing for Service: A Template for 21st Century Legal Education

Legal educators today grapple with the changing dynamics of legal employment markets; the evolution of technologies and business models driving changes to the legal profession; and the economics of operating – and attending – a law school. Accrediting organizations and practitioners pressure law schools to prepare new lawyers both to be ready to practice and to be ready for an ever-fluid career path. From the standpoint of law schools in general and any one law school in particular, constraints and limitations surround us. Adaptation through innovation is the order of the day.How, when, and in what direction should innovation take place? Who should lead, guide, and participate? These are questions often asked in both legal education in particular and in higher education in general. Rarely are answers accompanied by specific examples, strategies, or programs. This paper offers precisely that specificity. It documents one institution’s process and output, beginning with the concept of innovation in the face of multiple challenges and proposing one set of concrete, actionable strategies, tactics, and programs. These range from school-wide interventions to ideas for use at the level of the individual faculty member and course.The purpose of making the paper available is to note merely that if innovation is a hill to be climbed, then it can be climbed. The process and results may be more valuable if they are shared with others, even if the particular route documented here is not the only one available and may not the best for all times and places.

Technology Enriched Active Learning (TEAL) for Summer Sessions

Faculty within academic departments, colleges, and universities are now routinely faced with the decision to offer courses or programs in an online environment in addition to the more traditional, face-to-face classroom format. These decisions are made both by an individual faculty member who wants to expand teaching and learning formats to include online learning, to entire departments that decide to offer an entire program/course of study online. The regular school year (August through May) offers faculty many opportunities to present both online and hybrid courses. There is much research in the efficacy of online learning as well as specific types of pedagogical tools such as type of feedback provided to students (Morgan & Toledo, 2006). However, little research has been done on the possibilities that the summer school session provides to meet the needs of students who are enrolled in traditional, residential programs but living at home during the summer as well as learners who are interested in completing a specific course but not enrolled during the regular school year. The summer school session offered by most universities opens unique opportunities for faculty and students as well as academic departments and colleges to be involved in online courses.

Teaching Political Scientists: the Centrafity of Research

Three decades ago in his analysis of the academic profession, Logan Wilson found that the faculty in lesser institutions as well as the junior faculty in the major universities held teaching to have primacy over research. At the same time, however, “everywhere there (was) an attitude among the academic elite that dismisses meticulous attention to instruction as a deflection from the ‘higher’ purposes of scholarship and science.” Research, not teaching, was found necessary for professional prestige and institutional recognition. Theodore Caplow and Reece J. McGee identified the conflict between teaching and research as “the leading problem for the individual faculty member.” A faculty member is hired to teach but expected to do research and publish — at the expense of the former; and in fact, “academic success is likely to come to the man who has learned to neglect his assigned duties in order to have more time and energy to pursue his private professional interests.”Other authors argue from a different perspective. Frank Pinner did not see teaching and research as alternatives but as “part of the same process of education, complementary activities in the academic community.” Pinner went on to explain it was not possible to allocate time to each function due to differing teaching and research demands in different fields and due to individual work habits.