Going open education

Watch presentation: Part 1 (5 mins) Part 2 (5 mins)

Abstract

 * 1) WHAT: Open education involves educational practices which use open educational resources and which reduce barriers to participation.
 * 2) WHY: Advantages of open education include including greater accessibility, flexibility, quality improvement, and lower long-term costs.
 * 3) HOW: Transform to open education by using OERs, well-known open education web platforms, minimising barriers, encouraging students to contribute, and engaging in communities of open practice.

What is open education?

 * 1) Open education is a loose term which is generally used to refer to educational practices which involve using and sharing open educational resources (OERs).
 * 2) OERs are teaching and learning materials and resources which are licensed to allow their re-use (e.g,. Creative Commons).
 * 3) Open education is an important part of open academia (which also involves open research and open service).
 * 4) Open education is not just about using OERs, but also about creating and sharing OERs, and more broadly, minimising barriers to accessing and engaging in education.

Why open education?

 * 1) The range and quality of OERs and search tools are improving rapidly; many very good resources are already available, ranging from a single image, audio, or video ) or whole courses of study e.g.,
 * 2) Creative Commons Search
 * 3) MERLOT
 * 4) OERs generally offer lower cost in the long run than educational resources which are commercially distributed with copyright restriction. There can be a short-term increase in cost/time initially when switching over to, or developing OERs
 * 5) Quality improvement and community review: Openly shared materials attract more comment and scrutiny, helping to fuel ongoing development of the materials.
 * 6) OERs are more accessible and more flexible as they allow different people to access the material in different ways and for longer periods of time.
 * 7) Open education helps to serve the broader community - one of the key functions of a university.

How to go open?
Restricted practices can be gradually transformed into open practices for the benefit of society, learning organisations, teachers and students:
 * 1) Can be done gradually, as part of course improvement.
 * 2) Audit the copyright licenses on all teaching materials -> gradually switch it over to OER material
 * 3) Identify the barriers to engagement -> gradually reduce or eliminate as many of these as possible
 * 4) Use a well-known open education platform for hosting materials (e.g., Wikiversity, WikiEducator)
 * 5) Work and share in a community of practice - going open will benefit from, and enhance, support and mentoring