Following the announcement of cuts in higher educational funding, universities are desperate to seek new forms of revenue and more effective ways of marketing their courses.
It is no secret that releasing Open Educational Resources (OER) via the web can lead to greater student numbers
he problem is that it is not just about releasing content. There is now so much material around and so many repositories offering material that there is intense competition for attention. Just because the content is free, it doesn’t mean that anyone will use it.
expensively funded release of university content in Ireland that was accessed by just 40 students.
University of Westminster has around 25 students on it, yet an average of 2,500 unique users from all over the world consume the course’s OER content
It is not as simple as just releasing OER on to the web or in a repository. The real work begins when you try to promote and disseminate the resources
t is not just about having a Facebook account or a Twitter feed. To make these things work, you have to interact with the people who follow you (your so-called friends or followers). You need to link to other key players releasing interesting content related to your own, respond to questions and requests on a regular basis and regularly update your content with lists of the most popular and newest releases.
One great thing about using the web for marketing is that you can track everything you are doing. I can tell you that today, 10 people came to our OER content via our Facebook site, 25 came via Twitter and 12 via YouTube. This is powerful stuff, because you can home in on what really works.
it is the argument that OER can be sustainable and even make a contribution to a university’s bottom line that is perhaps the most pertinent one.