benefits of sharing
OECD (2007), Giving Knowledge for Free: the Emergence of Open Educational Resources http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/35/7/38654317.pdf
a mechanism to help people decide which business model/s to adopt as appropriate
a process where they would automatically generate a context specific business case to support funding requests
encourages an approach which starts with the needs (required benefits) not a preferred model
no one model fits all and often a combination of models may be appropriate depending on the context
Helps to prioritise benefits and recognise that by making some business model choices certain benefits are more difficult to achieve
to support a dialogue within institutions by identifying what benefits the institution and wider community already enjoy from existing sharing activities.

business cases
institutional benefits
global benefits
benefits to learners
Supporting subject-discipline communities to share
Encourages innovation and experimentation
Shares expertise and resources between developed and developing countries
Supports re-use and re-purposing
Supports community input to metadata through tagging, notes, reviews
Supports effective retrieval through professionally created metadata
Ensures trust through appropriate licensing
Supports continued development of standards and interoperability
Supports continued development of tools to support sharing and exchange
Supports the sharing and re-use of individual assets
Supports the sharing and re-use of complex learning resources
Helps to develop critical mass of materials in particular subject areas
Supports ease of access through search engines such as Google

national benefits
Cost efficiencies
Decrease in duplication
Supports cross-institutional sharing
Provides access to non educational institutional bodies such as employers, professional bodies, trade unions, etc
Supports shared curricula
Provides evidence of the provenance of learning materials
Supports discovery of most used/highest quality resources
Supports broad vision of sharing across UK HE
Supports sustained long-term sharing
Promotes the concept of lifelong learning
Supports the notion that educational institutions should leverage taxpayers’ money by allowing free sharing and reuse of resources
Mitigates the risk of doing nothing in a rapidly changing environment
Mitigates cost of keeping resources closed


Maintaining & building on Institutional reputation  globally
Maintaining & building on Institutional reputation nationally
Attracting new staff and students to institution – recruitment tool for students and prospective employer partners
Increased transparency and quality of learning materials
Supports sharing across/between departments within institutions and interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation
Shares expertise efficiently within institutions
Encourages high quality  learning & teaching resources
Supports modular course development
Supports storage, management, preservation, attribution and retrieval of student content
Easily incorporated with institutionally owned technologies
Supports the altruistic notion that sharing knowledge is in line with academic traditions and a good thing to do
Likely to encourage review of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
Supports preservation of learning resources
Facilitates presentation of resources for accreditation bodies
Enhancing connection with external stakeholders by making resources visible


Easy and free access to learning materials for learners
Increased access options for students enrolled on courses (particularly remote students)
Supports collaborative learning
Supports development of student content within and outside formal learning activities
Easily accessed through student-owned technologies
Increased access for non-traditional learners (widening participation)
Likely to encourage self-regulated and independent learning
Likely to increase demand for flexible learning opportunities
Likely to increase the demand for assessment and recognition of competences gained outside formal learning settings
Likely to encourage peer support, mentorship and ambassadorial programmes
Evidencing skills development/recording assessment and feedback

benefits to those supporting/facilitating learning
Increased personal  recognition
Supports sharing of knowledge and teaching practice
Encourages improvement in teaching practice
Supports attribution
Supports immediate one off instances of sharing
Offers one stop access point for staff 
Encourages multidisciplinary collaboration and sharing
Supports CPD and offers evidence of this

notion of publication
rights and rewards project
teaching fellowships/awards
rewarding excellence in teaching
issue of quality - subject to review of
peers 
students
themselves

value of sharing practice as well as content
promotion and cpd mechanisms
notion of repositories as tool to aid staff
removing barriers
ipr/ownership issues
confidence
skills
time
approaches
links to research
faster disssemination
collaborative problem solving
Personal non-monetary gain. Publicity, reputation or “egoboo” within
the open community. Specific gains from participating in OER
activities include support for digitising the teaching materials and
clearing copyrights to third-party materials, opportunities to restructure
and systematise lectures and get feedback, and finally increased
possibilities for future publication.
Research suggested that practical considerations were more important for teachers than altruistic concerns, such as assisting developing countries, outreach to disadvantaged communities, or bringing down costs for students. At the same time, however, the least important factor for respondents was personal financial reward. 
Another important barrier is the feeling of loss of control over materials and possible misuse or misunderstanding because of the lack of an appropriate context for the material, which is mentioned several times in the OECD case studies. 
To establish a credible academic reward system that includes the
production and use of OER might, therefore, be the single most important
policy issue for a large-scale deployment of OER in teaching and learning.
Respondents to the OECD questionnaire were asked what is important
to them as producers of open content, and they were asked to rank nine
different alternatives from very important to unimportant. 
As shown in Figure 4.1, the factors ranked as most important were “to be acknowledged as the creator of a resource when it is used”, and “when it is adapted or changed”, and “to have a quality review of the resource”. Financial compensation either to the creator him/herself or to his/her research group or department was considered the least important factor. 
Other kinds of rewards such as promotions, awards, etc., also seem not very important. This may suggest that many of those involved in producing OER are enthusiasts and people looking mostly for non-monetary gains.
http://rightsandrewards.lboro.ac.uk/index.php?section=21
McGill, L and Currier, S and Duncan, C and Douglas, P (2008) 
Good intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing 
learning materials.
http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/265/
resources
Good intentions: improving the evidence base in support of sharing learning materials
When asked about the most significant barriers among colleagues not using OER in their teaching, the respondents pointed out lack of time and skills, together with the absence of a reward system. Lack of technical know-how among faculty for producing and using OER is a recurrent theme in the OECD case studies. 
promote social responsibility angle
individual biographical information
benefits to institution important in long term
McAndrew, P. & Santos, A. I.  (eds.) (2009). Learning from OpenLearn: Research Report 2006-2008. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=12553