For
a third consecutive year, Open Praxis has partnered with the Open Education Consortium for
the publication of selected papers among those presented in the last Open
Education Global Conference, which took place in Krakow (Poland) from the 12th
to 14th of April 2016. Following a collaboration that led to the publication of
special issues in 2014 (vol. 6 issue 2)
and 2015 (vol. 7 issue 2),
in this occasion the issue collects 8 selected papers.
As
stated in the conference website (http://conference.oeconsortium.org/2016/about-oe-global-2016/),
The
Open Education Global Conference is the annual opportunity for researchers,
practitioners, policy makers and educators to deeply explore open education and
its impact on global education.
Conference
participants learn from thought leaders in open education and have the
opportunity to share ideas, practices and discuss issues important to the
future of education worldwide. Sessions cover new developments in open
education, research results, innovative technology, policy development and
implementation, and practical solutions to challenges facing education around
the world.
The
theme of the conference in 2016 was Convergence Through Collaboration, and it
featured various tracks, such as integration of open practices, collaboration,
open education as strategy, or research to advance open education. The selected
contributions relate to these topics and present either research results or
innovative practice case studies. Among the diverse issues that the papers
cover, we can group them into three main focuses:
- A critical concern with various dimensions of open research, addressed
in the first two selected papers.
- Relevant examples of regional and institutional experiences
supporting and promoting open education, presented in the next four papers.
- Experiences of OER addressed to specific populations, teachers and women
in developing countries respectively, seeking their empowerment through the use
of OER, analysed in the last two papers.
Papers
submitted for publication in Open Praxis have followed a separate review process. The Open
Education Global Conference 2016 Programme Committee first reviewed submissions
for inclusion in the conference; those accepted for presentation and best rated
by the committee were then recommended to Open Praxis for peer review and possible
inclusion in this issue. The papers followed the usual submission guidelines in
Open Praxis (i.e.
double-blind peer review by two reviewers); additional revisions were requested
during the peer review process, and finally eight papers were accepted for
publication.
Thomas
William King, Cheryl-Ann Hodgkinson-Williams,
Michelle Willmers and Sukaina
Walji, from Cape Town University in South Africa (Dimensions of
open research: critical reflections on openness in the ROER4D project),
with a concern on favouring coherence between open ideology and open practice,
take ROER4D as a case study to reflect upon fours dimensions of openness and
exemplify how they approach them to undertake iterative open research.
Ideological, legal, technical and operational openness are systematically
analyzed in the paper, applied to ROER4D. The paper is an invitation to develop
open research and hold a critical approach. ROER4D was one of the winners of the
Open Education Consortium 2016 Project awards, in the category "Open
Research".
Robert
Farrow, from The
Open University (United Kingdom), presents A Framework for the Ethics of Open Education.
The ethical dimension in educational research and the implications of open data
in research are discussed. The author presents a framework for thinking through
ethical issues in contexts where openness is emphasized and/or
without institutional support. The frame, which includes three positions within
the normative theory (deontological, consequentialist
and virtue ethics), is then applied to analyse the case of the OER Research Hub
project. As the previous paper, this one is also an invitation to other
researchers, in this case to incorporate the ethical dimension "in the
open".
After
those first two papers, which provide a reflection over various dimensions of
open research, the next contributions present various relevant experiences of
implementation of open education, narrated step-by-step and highlighting decisions,
findings and lessons learned.
Jane-frances Obiageli Agbu, Fred Mulder, Fred de Vries, Vincent Tenebe and Abel Caine, from National Open University of Nigeria, Open Universiteit in The
Netherlands and UNESCO (The Best of Two Open Worlds at the National Open University
of Nigeria)
present the NOUN case in relation to OER. The paper explains in detail all the
steps followed in the institution until they have reached and OER strategy and
agenda. Framed within the situation of other open universities worldwide, NOUN
has moved towards an OER-based university, and the paper highlights the process
and lessons learned. It is remarkable that the
Organizational Leadership Award, granted by the Open Education Consortium Board
of Trustees, was awarded in 2016 to NOUN due to its strong determination to
become a full-fledged OER-based Open University.
Faye
A. Chadwell and Dianna M. Fisher, from Oregon State University (US)
(Creating Open
Textbooks: A Unique Partnership Between Oregon State University Libraries and
Press and Open Oregon State) introduce an open textbook initiative launched
in partnership between the State and the University Library in Oregon. The
project is clearly framed and explained in the paper. Being a successful
initiative, it is being continued in a second phase now, with more prospective
projects for adopting or developing OER in the horizon.
Also
referring to open textbooks as OER, Lawrence Hanley and Diego Bonilla, from the
California Open
Educational Resources Council (US), (Atolls, Islands, and Archipelagos: The California
OER Council and the New Landscape for Open Education in California) explain
the labour developed by this council. It is conformed by representatives from
three California public higher education systems, with the mandate of locating,
reviewing and curating a collection of open
textbooks for the 50 most highly-enrolled courses. The paper explains the project,
with a special focus on scale and complexity that the project has to face; on
first findings about open textbook adoption and use, analysed through surveys
and focus groups; and on sustainability of the council work. These elements are
identified as key dimensions of interest to other OER projects.
Closing
this section, another institutional experience by Patrina
Law and Anne Jelfs, from The Open University (UK) (Ten years of open
practice: a reflection on the impact of OpenLearn), reports on the OU
platform for free learning in its 10th anniversary. After a descriptive
overview of OpenLearn, the authors introduce learners' profiles, and focus
specially on OU formal students as users of OpenLearn. The authors, building
upon the gathered experience and analysis, collect some lessons learned, useful
for open course providers. One of the OpenLearn projects, the
Badged Open Courses, was recipient of one of the Open
Education Consortium 2016 Project awards, in the category "Creative
Innovation".
The
first paper covering the use of OER with specific populations is written by Lauryn Oates and Jamshid Hashimi, from the Darakht-e Danesh Online Library for Educators in
Afghanistan (Localizing
OER in Afghanistan: Developing a Multilingual Digital Library for Afghan
Teachers). They describe the development of a digital library in the three
languages taught in the Afghan public school system. The need for
localizing and contextualizing resources meets the need for increasing the
available resources for teaching. Thus, the digital library purports to, at the
end, improve teaching methods and educational quality in Afghan schools. The
paper explains the process of creating the digital library, encountered
challenges and decisions made in this pioneer initiative in Afghanistan.
Leigh-Anne
Perryman and Beatriz de Los Arcos, from The Open University (UK) (Women's empowerment through openness: OER,
OEP and the Sustainable Development Goals), analyse women's digital
exclusion and study, based on data collected on the OER Research Hub,
developing world's women's interest in using OER, barriers to OER adoption,
engagement with OER, and perceived impact of OER on teaching
practices. This gender-based study describes women's perceptions
and uses about OER and advances their potential for empowerment. The authors
suggest some valuable recommendations for OER and OER projects to include a
gender equality component.
Finally,
a book review completes this special issue about OER and Open Education. Justin
Keel, from US, presents a review of MOOCs: Opportunities, impacts, and challenges.
Massive open online courses in colleges and universities,
published by Michael Nanfito.
It
is our wish to contribute to the current and exciting debate about open
education with the papers included in this issue.
We
specially thank from Open Praxis to the authors and the reviewers for their valuable contributions,
and to the Open Education Consortium for the partnership and collaboration in
the preparation of this special issue.