OERmarketing

= Marketing Plan for Open Educational Resources =

= Executive Summary =

[to be written after the details of the plan are fleshed out]

= The Challenge =

Open educational resources (OER) are free and open resources that can be used for learning. While the term OER generally refers to software, educational content, and implementation tools, for the purposes of this plan, the focus will be on content. This content could include open textbooks, learning objects, reference books, for use in formal and informal educational contexts.

The landscape of OER is distinguished by a complex network of products (actual specific resources), producers (those creating those resources), customers (those using those resources and competitors (traditional educational materials), as well as challenging political, economic, cultural, and technological environments.

Despite this diverse landscape, there is a need for a common “plan of attack” to help move OER from its current status as a fringe movement to a place of prominence as a mainstay of education that can improve access to learning worldwide. Creating that “plan of attack” is the purpose of this marketing plan.

This plan will look at the whole spectrum of products, producers, customers, and competitors to attempt to synthesize elements of a plan that can be used across that spectrum. (Of course, individual OER organizations or products will also need to develop their own plans. To the extent that it is useful, this plan is licensed under CC-BY so that elements of it can be used by anyone.)

= Situational Analysis =

Goals

 * To expand the amount of OER available
 * To increase and ensure the quality of OER
 * To increase the amount of use of OER
 * To build awareness for OER among policymakers, end users, and prospective producers

Culture
Open culture

What is “open”?

Producer analysis
In a traditional marketing plan, this section would analyze the company producing the product. In OER, there is a complex web of producers (detailed below), which range from many individual contributors to large educational institutions, non-profits, and for-profit-companies. In keeping with the general approach of this plan, each of these groups will be described at a high level.


 * Individual contributors

This is currently the largest group working on OER. It is a very large and eclectic group from all over the world. Many contributors come from technical fields and are drawn to OER in part through their involvement with open source software. There are surprisingly few formal educators actively contributing to OER.

The strengths of this producer group are their large numbers and their enthusiasm and dedication. The weaknesses can include varying levels of quality, lack of common goals, and lack of long-term reliability and predictability of their production. However, the lesson of Wikipedia proves that the community of individual contributors is a huge resource to be tapped into.


 * Informal projects

This category of producers consists of projects that involve more than one person working under common goals, but that are organized informally and not under the guise of a non-profit, educational institution, or corporate structure.

Examples of these type of projects include: [various open textbook projects, stuff on Wikispaces, different open ed web sites, etc.]

A list of more of these projects is available in Appendix __: OER Projects.

The strengths of this group are that they have a common focus and set of goals. To the extent that there is one strong leader, which is often the case, that is a strength as well. The primary weakness is that a project often lacks sustained central leadership and funding. This can lead to works that are well produced, but not maintained or supported.


 * Non-profit organizations

Several non-profits have been formed around the vision of OER. These include Creative Commons (ccLearn), Wikimedia Foundation, the Shuttleworth Foundation, the Global Education and Learning Community (Curriki), COSL, and others.

Other non-profits have become involved in OER as an important component of their over all work, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, ISKME (OER Commons), the Open Society Institute, iCommons, the Commonwealth of Learning (WikiEducator), and others.

A list of more of these projects is available in Appendix __: Non-Profit Organizations Active in OER.

The strengths of this group are common vision, managerial structure, and funding mechanisms. One weakness is that these groups tend to be more focused on a somewhat vague mission or vision, rather than a specific product. This may change over time as this market space matures.


 * Educational institutions

This producer group consists of formal educational institutions actively engaged in OER with some level of formal organizational support. There are very few such entities at the elementary and secondary level. There are many at the secondary level. Early leaders in this area include MIT, Rice University (Connexions), and many others, including those in the Open Courseware Consortium. Community colleges, such as the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District, have also made commitments to OER.

A list of more of these projects is available in Appendix __: Educational Institutions Active in OER.

A key strength of this group is that they already have huge infrastructures geared toward the mission of education. In addition, they have ample human resources and can produce extremely high quality resources. The weaknesses are that they may be rigid about how their materials are used (how “open” they are); they are historically hierarchical, not always open to collaboration, and slow-moving. In addition, the majority of the participation of formal educational institutional participation in OER is “on the fringe” of the institution. Broadening this and bringing it into the mainstream would have great benefits to OER as a whole.


 * For-profit companies

There are currently a very small number of for-profit groups involved in OER, but this group is likely to a growing segment of the market. As OER gains in popularity and business models like those suggested in the book Wikinomics [add source] are established, more for-profit companies are likely to enter this space.

Examples include Wireless Generation, Flat World Knowledge

A list of more of these projects is available in Appendix __: For-Profit Companies Active in OER.

The strengths of this group are the same as with other institutions: focus, management, funding, human resources, and quality. An additional very important strength is sustainability. The primary weakness is currently a shortage of players, stemming from a lack of successful business models and the uncertain competitive and legislative environments.

Formal

 * Primary
 * Secondary
 * Post-secondary

Textbook publishers

 * K-12
 * Post-secondary

Legal

 * license issues
 * ed code
 * * new code relating to community colleges in CA

Political

 * Current educational-industrial complex; textbook publishers
 * DOEs, college boards, etc.

Cultural

 * resistance to “free”; perception that it can’t be high quality
 * resistance to “open”; bias to proprietary content

Technological

 * digital divide issues
 * standards, closed systems, etc.

SWOT Analysis

 * Strengths
 * Weaknesses
 * Opportunities
 * Threats

Market Segmentation

 * Primary/secondary
 * Post-secondary
 * Informal learning
 * Workplace training
 * Community development
 * Other

= Core Marketing Strategy =

Product and positioning

 * Need for a unified name/identity – OER?
 * Need for a unified approach to who and what OER are?

Price

 * free
 * not free (but under NC license?)
 * model with payment for ancillary services

Promotion

 * lots of work to do here – awareness initiative (KF-I'll take a shot at drafting something for this. I already have some of this written.)
 * Cape Town Declaration

Distribution

 * digital, online (various formats, etc.)
 * digital, offline
 * print

= Appendices =

Appendix ___: Contributors and license
This plan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Appendix __: OER Projects

 * could just link to various project lists already online