Goal Congruence, Trust and Organisational Culture: Strengthening Knowledge Links

Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links -- a form of strategic alliance that gives organizations access to the skills and capabilities of their partner and opportunity to create new capabilities together. Using the example of alliances between two universities and SAP AG, the market leader in Enterprise Software, the paper suggests some management practices to improve goal congruence, trust and alignment between different organizational cultures. For example, face-to-face interactions are critical for building a close relationship over time. A theoretical framework of the five phases of partnership development and the three challenges faced by knowledge link partnerships is proposed, along with implications for management, universities and research

Open Universities: the next phase

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report on research on the views of Presidents and Vice Chancellors of Open Universities of current threats and opportunities for their institutions as the author approaches the 50th anniversary of the first Open University in the UK in 1969. The paper offers a historical account of the development of the Open University model, and assesses the extent to which it remains in the key position as owner of innovation in the higher education sector. Design/methodology/approach - Interviews were conducted with leaders of Open Universities or distance teaching universities. They covered a total of 14 universities. Findings - The replies from institutional leaders reveal the current developments, opportunities and strategic challenges of the universities. It is suggested that the digital revolution along with a wider range of environmental changes for higher education have substantially eroded the first-mover advantage that Open Universities had undoubtedly enjoyed in the first 25 years. Originality/value - The paper concludes that there are significant concerns that innovation in Open Universities is not sufficiently embedded to ensure that their contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals will be maximised, or even in some cases their survival, and that a key but undervalued element is leadership development for innovation and change

The University as Publisher: Summary of a Meeting Held at UC Berkeley on November 1, 2007

With the advent of electronic publishing, the scholarly communication landscape at universities has become increasingly diverse. Multiple stakeholders including university presses, libraries, and central IT departments are challenged by the increasing volume and the rapidity of production of these new forms of publication in an environment of economic uncertainties. As a response to these increasing pressures, as well as the recent publication of important reports and papers on the topic, the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) convened a meeting of experts titled, The University as Publisher. The event was sponsored as part of the A.W. Mellon Foundation-funded Future of Scholarly Communication project at CSHE.Our goal was to explore among stakeholders -- faculty, publishers, CIOs, librarians, and researchers -- the implications of the academic community, in some structure, taking over many, if not all, aspects of scholarly publishing. Two themes were the focus of the public panels: Institutional Roles in Evaluation, Quality Assessment, and Selection and Structuring and Budgeting Models for Publishing within the University Community. Our discussions included the importance of distinguishing between informal dissemination and formal publishing and the challenges that each presents to the university community. The harsh economic realities of high-quality formal scholarly publication, not least of which are managing peer review and editorial processes, were emphasized. Understanding disciplinary needs was cited as paramount throughout the discussions; the needs and traditions of scholars in the sciences and humanities, as well as among myriad disciplines, will likely demand different dissemination and publishing models and solutions. An additional theme that emerged was acknowledging the diverse forms electronic dissemination takes in the academy and the need to foster a spectrum of alternatives in publication forms, business models, and the peer review process. Budgetary and academic freedom concerns were explored as well. Regarding the expensive infrastructure required for electronic dissemination and publishing, it was agreed that there is enormous duplication among the university press, IT, and the library

Overview and Analysis of Practices with Open Educational Resources in Adult Education in Europe

OER4Adults aimed to provide an overview of Open Educational Practices in adult learning in Europe, identifying enablers and barriers to successful implementation of practices with OER. The project was conducted in 2012-2013 by a team from the Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, funded by The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). The project drew on data from four main sources: • OER4Adults inventory of over 150 OER initiatives relevant to adult learning in Europe • Responses from the leaders of 36 OER initiatives to a detailed SWOT survey • Responses from 89 lifelong learners and adult educators to a short poll • The Vision Papers on Open Education 2030: Lifelong Learning published by IPTS Interpretation was informed by interviews with OER and adult education experts, discussion at the IPTS Foresight Workshop on Open Education and Lifelong Learning 2030, and evaluation of the UKOER programme. Analysis revealed 6 tensions that drive developing practices around OER in adult learning as well 6 summary recommendations for the further development of such practices

A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities

Examines the state of the foundation's efforts to improve educational opportunities worldwide through universal access to and use of high-quality academic content

Maximizing the benefits of international education collaborations : managing interaction processes

International collaborations are frequently mentioned in university strategies as a way of promoting internationalisation, often in relation to achieving greater connectivity among staff from different backgrounds. Much less explicit attention is paid to the underlying rationale for facilitating such connectivity, or the challenges academic staff may face in participating in such collaborations. In this article I argue that failure to pay adequate attention to such interaction issues can hinder the added value that international projects can offer and that much greater attention needs to be paid to the collaboration process itself in order to maximise benefits. I analyse the interaction experiences of staff who participated in a set of Sino-British collaborative e-learning projects and report and illustrate the key challenges they faced and the ways in which they responded. I conclude with a number of implications and recommendations for personnel involved in researching, planning and/or participating in international education collaborations

Towards Open Educational Practice

Significant claims are made for the potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) to widen access to higher education. Most recently, the very large numbers of individuals enrolling on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has dominated discussion in universities and beyond. Advocates such as D’Antoni (2013) have written persuasively of how OER can potentially open up access to education and redefine the boundaries between institutions and society. However, the evidence from the first wave of MOOCs suggests that the participants are primarily individuals with prior experience of higher education. While this indeed widens access, there is no evidence that it is widening participation from those distanced from education (Lane et al, 2014). Indeed there is limited evidence of significant impact on widening participation by OERs (Falconer et.al, 2013). The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, however, has longer and deeper roots (Lane, 2012: 140), roots that are about more than licensing and has engaged in educational practices that break down barriers to education. This paper explores recent examples from Scotland of partnership-based approaches to the development, design and delivery of OERs. Drawing on this experience and ideas from the academic literature on educational technology, pedagogy and widening participation, we draw some provisional conclusions on an approach that combines key elements from all these fields. In particular we note that openness is not simply a matter of barriers to access related to licenses or technological aspects, but are inherently cultural, social and situational. We conclude that while the OER movements early focus on licenses and technology was useful, widening participation requires a shift in emphasis, a shift that accounts for peoples, places and the practices of open educatio

Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Colleges and universities should embrace the concept of increased openness in the use and sharing of information to improve higher education. That is the core recommendation of this report. The report was produced by CED's Digital Connections Council (DCC), a group of information technology experts that advises CED's business leaders on cutting-edge technologies