Pathways to Open Educational Practices (original) (raw)
Related papers
Opening Doors for Learners: Barriers and Challenges at the Open University of Sri Lanka
OUSL Journal, 2010
Research was conducted in order to identify psychological, personal, and institutional barriers that may hinder academic achievement and lead to non-completion at the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). Methods included exploratory interviews with 67 learners and staff, and the development and implementation of the Learner Support Questionnaire, which was administered to 227 learners. Findings indicate that many OUSL learners have an inadequate understanding of Open and Distance Learning, a limited repertoire of study strategies, insufficient metacognitive skills, and are overly dependent on teacher-centred pedagogies. Learners, particularly less experienced learners, may overestimate their academic abilities. Other barriers to success including personal and institutional factors are discussed.
Open education: Walking a critical path
Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice (Eds. Dianne Conrad & Paul Prinsloo), 2020
Link to Open Access version: http://eprints.teachingandlearning.ie/id/eprint/4345 ..... This chapter explores justifications for and movements toward critical approaches to open education. While “open” is often framed as an unequivocal good, the deceptively simple term hides a “reef of complexity” (Hodgkinson-Williams & Gray, 2009, p. 114), much of which depends on the particular context within which openness is considered and practiced. Critical approaches to open education consider the nuances of context, focus on issues of participation and power, and encourage moving beyond the binaries of open and closed. As a starting point, I draw on Lane’s (2016) analysis that open education initiatives can be considered in two broad forms. The first seeks to transform or empower individuals and groups within existing structures, e.g. by removing specific prior qualifications requirements, eliminating distance and time constraints, eliminating or reducing costs, and/or improving access overall. A second form of open education seeks to transform the structures themselves, and the relationships between the main actors (e.g. learners, teachers, educational institutions), in order to achieve greater equity. Many critical educators have planted their flags in the latter territory, advocating the use of an explicit inequality lens to support social transformation and cognitive justice. This chapter presents an argument for critical and transformative approaches to open education. After a brief overview of open education, I explore several different critical analyses of open education and then widen the lens to consider critical analyses of the networks and platforms on which many open practices rely. The chapter concludes with examples of and recommendations for critical approaches to open education.
2017
OpenMed is an international cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus + Capacity Building in HE programme of the European Union during the period 15 October 2015-14 October 2018 involving five partners from Europe and eight from South-Mediterranean countries (Morocco, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan). The overarching goal of OpenMed is to raise awareness and facilitate the adoption of Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Open Educational Resources (OER) in the S-M countries, with a particular focus on Higher Education (HE) in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine. OpenMed fosters the role of Universities as knowledge providers not only to their on-campus students but also beyond the walls of institutions, especially towards disadvantaged groups (e.g. low-income peoples, disabled students, people living in rural areas, learners at risk of low achievement, and refugees).
2019
This study examined a Canadian post-secondary institution in the period between 2010 and 2014, with a follow-up assessment in 2018 in order to understand its evolution with open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP). In the first timeline, the study looked at drivers that contributed to the uptake of OER in relation to the type of OER and factors contributing to the diffusion of OER. In the second timeline, the study looked at whether OEPs are being sustained and how they evolved at the institution. Results show that within the institution there are both benefits and tensions to being open, and an institutional approach that considers openness on a case-by-case basis is appropriate. In looking at these two time periods, the study fills a gap in OER research by providing a more longitudinal view of an institutional shift towards initiating and sustaining openness.
Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice
Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 2021
Book Review Conrad, D. & Prinsloo, P. (eds.). 2020. Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice. Leiden Boston: Brill | Sense.
Conceptualising OEP: A review of theoretical and empirical literature in Open Educational Practices
Open Praxis, 2018
Conceptualisations of open educational practices (OEP) vary widely, ranging from those centred primarily on the creation and use of open educational resources (OER) to broader definitions of OEP, inclusive of but not necessarily focused on OER. The latter, referred to in this paper as expansive definitions of OEP, encompass open content but also allow for multiple entry points to, and avenues of, openness. This paper explores the theoretical and empirical literature to outline how the concept of OEP has evolved historically. The paper aims to provide a useful synthesis of OEP literature for education researchers and practitioners.