Suitable economic models for Open Educational Resources initiative in aquaculture higher education

Abstract

Many initiatives are developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) in a variety of sectors because they have the potential to increase access to education and knowledge. Investment is a limiting factor for many of these initiatives. Future OER initiatives in the aquaculture community, such as the development of the AquaCase 3.0 website, will need to address this limitation by establishing a sustainable financial model. One way to do this is by relying on volunteer content creation. This study examined whether educators and students in the aquaculture community already contribute their materials, and if they would be willing to voluntarily contribute their materials in the future. Responses to online questionnaires of students and educators in the aquaculture community suggested that, although respondents currently have low creation to usage ratios, respondents would be willing to contribute their materials voluntarily for altruistic and promotional reasons, which would reduce the costs of such an initiative. In order for this to happen, institutions must support Open Resource Practices (ORPs) among their educator and student base through revised copyright policies. Governments may wish to incentivize institutions to encourage OER contribution by providing funding based on OER development.