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Join the OER Foundation
From WikiEducator
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -- Winston Churchill
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Institutional membership packages
The OER Foundation is a philanthropic organisation committed to providing free hosting services for open education projects including free wiki skills training for educators around the world. No educator or institution should be restricted from participating and sharing in the benefits of open content for lack of funding.
To assist with financial support of this global initiative, the OER Foundation has implemented a tiered annual membership structure with value-added services to support your institution in achieving its objectives through OER. Institutional membership packages are designed for the post-secondary sector and we have a special membership category for schools.
- Institutional member (US$200): This basic membership provides an opportunity for your organisation to contribute to the social good of education. Your financial contribution will help the OER Foundation to continue providing free training opportunities in collaborative OER projects to thousands of educators around the world and help us maintain the technical infrastructure of the WikiEducator websites ensuring an advertising-free OER environment.
- School member (US$50). This is a membership category designed for the school sector to acknowledge membership while contributing to the social good of open education in this sector.
- Bronze member (US$1,000): This package is designed for departments or institutions who want to test the OER waters with some professional consulting support from the OER Foundation. The OER Foundation will provide 4-hours of professional consulting and networking/marketing support for a dedicated OER pilot at your institution. We will help you configure an OER portal page for your department or institution in WikiEducator to profile your work in open education.
- Silver member (US$8,000): Is a premier package which includes 12 hours of professional consulting and networking/marketing support for your OER projects. This includes design, coaching and mentoring services and we will assist you in setting up a branded landing page in WikiEducator for your organisation. Silver members hold voting rights for commissioned development of OER courses from surplus funds.
- Gold member (USD$5,000): Is also a premier package with the same benefits as Silver membership. However, Gold members designate an individual or group to work 1 day per week on institutional OER projects (i.e. a designated 0.2 full-time-equivalent OER staff member). Gold membership will ensure the greatest return on your OER investment. Gold members also hold voting rights for commissioned development of OER courses from surplus funds.
- Platinum member (US$10,000 - US$30,000). This package is designed for corporate members, and financially privileged education institutions to sponsor up to five OER partner institutions in the developing world who may not have the funding to contribute as a member of the OER Foundation (See our FTE4Wikieducator initiative). Platinum members receive the same benefits as Silver and Gold members in addition to sponsoring the same benefits for a deserving institution in the developing world. Platinum members receive a star rating, i.e. up to a five star platinum member depending on the number of institutional sponsorships.
Note: All institutional members will be acknowledged on our websites and qualify for discounted consulting services. The OER Foundation provides professional development support by hosting a minimum of one online training workshop every month for your staff. Discounts for 3-year memberships apply for our silver, gold and platinum tiers.
Table of OERF membership benefits - Detailed Comparison
| DETAILS | OER FOUNDATION CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS | | ||||
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| Member | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | ||
| BASE MEMBERSHIP FEE (annual, excluding discounts) | USD200 | USD1,000 | USD8,000 | USD5,000 |
USD10,000 - USD30,000 | |
| Leadership & Financial Support for WikiEducator/Open Education Ecosystem (i.e., Social Responsibility) |  | | |
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Designated OER individual or group assigned to work 1 day per week (i.e. 0.2FTE) | - | - | - | | - | |
| Sponsorship of Educational Institutions | - | - | - | - | YES (up to 5) | |
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OERF Thought Leaders Forum / Network | - | - |
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| OER development voting rights | - | - |
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| OER Consulting Support (includes design, mentoring and coaching services) | - | 2 hours | 8 hours | 10 hours | 20 - 50 hours | |
| Access to E-Learning/Training (professional development support, 1 workshop per month) |
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| Access to Collaborative Wiki Platform (i.e., hosted service -- no installation, development, maintenance or storage costs) |
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| INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS | | |||||
| Marketing & Communications Channel Support (i.e., publicity, promotion, linking, identification of projects and opportunities, etc.) | | 2 hours | 4 hours | 4 hours |
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| Support for international projects, open textbooks and collaborative OERF bidding opportunities | | - - |
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| Recognized Membership Status on WikiEducator |
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| Branded landing page in WIkiEducator (A portal page with institutional logo to profile your OER activities internationally ) | | - |
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| DISCOUNTS OFF BASE MEMBERSHIP FEE | | |||||
| OER consulting rates discount (Less 20%) | |
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| 3-yr membership fee discount (Less 20%) | | |
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Other types of membership
FTE for WikiEducator Members (FTE4WE)
This is a special category of contributing member designed for institutions in the developing world who may not have the financial resources to afford membership. These institutions will assign a 0.2 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staff member to work and facilitate institutional OER activities on WikiEducator. The OER Foundation will seek to find sponsorship from platinum members and the international donor community to assist in covering the costs of membership.
Sponsored FTE4WikiEducator members will qualify for the standard benefits of silver or gold membership, and be listed on the site under the FTE4WikiEducator category. Voting rights for commissioned OER development projects may be possible depending on requirements specified by the sponsor.
Associate Members
This a special category of membership dedicated for registered non-profit entities working in the open education space. This will be based on a reciprocal membership trade to foster sharing of expertise, thought leadership and collaboration among like minded non-profits and NGOs. Associate members do not have voting rights on the allocation of financial resources for OER development. We encourage Associate members to provide preferred member pricing to OERF Members, for their services, conferences and events.
Affiliate Members
Affiliate members are for consultants, learning designers, and researchers who secure projects of a minimum threshold of $5,000 in one (1) calendar year, for related work in the WikiEducator community and make a 3% honesty box contribution to the OER Foundation.
- Organizations
- Organizations which fund projects (where WikiEducator is used as the foundation for community or organisational development) of a minimum threshold of $5,000 gross contract value in one (1) calendar year are eligible.
- Individuals
- For example, learning design services for the development of OER materials in WikiEducator; funded code development projects which improves our technology, research grants focused on OER research and and self-organising educational systems based on WikiEducator data or consulting projects where WikiEducator is used as the foundation for community or organisational development.
- 3% OER Contribution
- The OER Foundation uses an honesty box approach where we invite Affiliate Members to donate 3% of the gross contract value or grant as a contribution to our operational expenditure and support for our open source community.
- Affiliate members will be profiled on the WikiEducator website for one (1) calendar year and this is a great way to profile your work and expertise. Affiliate members will NOT qualify for voting rights on commissioned content development projects.
General donations
We invite the general public, WikiEducators and the corporate sector to consider the gift of free knowledge by making a donation to the OER Foundation.
You can donate via credit card on PayPal (being set up at the moment) or direct wire transfer (being set up at the moment). For donation enquiries email Wayne Mackintosh.
How to join
Our commitment to transparent and open processes means that our promotional literature is currently under development. However, it is possible at this time to sign up and join the OERF as a founding member.
We invite you to:
- Consult our FAQs (and please let us know if you have any unanswered questions)
- Send an email to Wayne Mackintosh for any membership-related queries.
Resources under development
| Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page. |
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