Contributed by Jay Fulgencio

A few months ago, I attended the 1st RLOE (Regional Leaders of Open Education Network) Boston Summit that hosted several OER leaders from across the U.S. One of the leaders asked how to best centralize OER content for access to educators in their institution. After the question came up, I wondered what happens to OER content when the individual storing the content leaves the institution. Does anyone else have access? Does the person take all the information with them? Storing OER content in one’s cloud system, like a dropbox or google drive folder, can cause trouble. In this blog, I will discuss three ways departments, organizations, and individuals can use a centralized storage system for OER content without worrying about the content being lost in the clouds. 

Building a Two Person Team

When I worked in banking, money management was dealt with in a two-person team. Anytime the vault had to be open, when money needed to be put in the machine or received, it was a two-person job, not one. I bring this up because any OER team working with content needs to develop a two-person team with two people having access to a centralized system. No OER content should be in the hands of one person, especially not in their system. Although this may sound like a simple concept, folks still leave content in their folders, making it hard to access should that person leave, move, or desist. Build a two-person team with central system access. Ask your institution for a generic email if you don’t already have one, as that will serve as the primary key to the database. The second email should be from an institution’s admin or leader. 

Building a Consortium

The first central system of access should be a consortium. A consortium is when two or more groups, organizations, companies, or institutions come together to pool their resources for the common good. In this case, popular OER consortiums include the Community College Consortium for Open Education Resources, Opencourseware Consortium, School of Open. There are plenty of  consortiums available, but their purpose is to ensure the resources are available and not locked in one’s files. If your institution belongs to something other than a consortium, build a local consortium that provides access without worrying about losing content. 

Establish a Local Cloud System

How much content exists in the cloud system? It could be so much that endless encyclopedias can be written. Establishing a local cloud system may cost your organization financially. This is because, depending on your institution, they may not be open to hosting content separate from your account. For example, if your institution uses Gmail, you may only have access to create personal google drive folders based on your email. Cloud systems like Amazon-AWS, NextCloud, or ownCloud may be an option. Setting up a local cloud system may take time and effort. If that is the case, set up a system within your institution’s email system that is used with a general email with more than one person having access. 

Blockchain Technology 

Blockchain technology has become synonymous with Bitcoin and NFT (non-fungible tokens), including financial institutions, because of its decentralized system track system. Blockchain technology is an advanced technology that allows transparent information sharing within a network. In other words blockchain technology transactions and usage cannot be deleted or be modified without consensus from the network. But how does OER use blockchain technology? In an article by eLearning Industry describing blockchain technology usage in education, one key highlight was for blockchain to provide universal access to OER content. Setting up a blockchain management system would take time to learn along with a setup. Blockchain technology in OER is still in its early stages with limited resources. So why not be the pioneer in OER blockchain technology? 

The centralized storage systems mentioned each have designs, rules, and advantages. The main point is to create a two-person system with a centralized location for all OER content; that way, content is not lost in the clouds. 

How will your organization build a two-person system to manage OER content? 

Jay Fulgencio, Ph.D. (he/him), is an instructor at the Heller College of Business at Roosevelt University. Dr. Jose “Jay” Fulgencio, a Chicago native, earned his B.A. from Northeastern Illinois University and M.A., M.S.E., and Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Jay has been teaching in higher education for a decade, both face-to-face & online, and has been teaching at Roosevelt University Heller College of Business since 2018. Dr. Jay is a scholar-practitioner focused on using technology as a teaching tool and applying an entrepreneurial mindset in the classroom. Dr. Jay is a published scholar in OER. Visit www.jayphd18.com to learn more.

This post is by Jay Fulgencio and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, except where otherwise indicated. Please reference OER and Beyond and use this URL when attributing this work; for more information on licensing, see our Open Access Policy.