Alexandra Pounds and John Bostock's research on the potential role for Open Education Resources in higher education aquaculture institutions has been published in Aquaculture International. It encourages that these institutions direct resources into developing OERs for the aquaculture community in addition to developing best use practices.
The project found that both students and educators have a demand for these types of resources. Although students were not willing to pay more tuition to attend a school that offered OERs, students were more likely to enroll in and respect institutions that supported these types of initiatives.
The paper recommends that institutions support OERs by developing best use practices for their staff and students, not only to supply this demand, but also to encourage knowledge-sharing and increase global access to education.
The original research was carried out By Alexandra Pounds as part of her MSc studies at the Institute of Aquaculture with support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 728030 (EURASTiP). Our thanks to everyone in the Aqua-TNET, ASEAN-FEN, SARNISSA and other networks who participated in the survey. Work in this area is continuing as part of the EURASTIP project.