THE OPEN EDUCATION (R)EVOLUTION

Research is telling that Open Education is here to stay (http://www.oerknowledgecloud.org).

Open Education solutions (OER, MOOCs, Virtual Mobility) are more and more considered as mainstream practices by universities around the globe.

“The key question is no longer about the “how” of OER development. (…) It is more about realising the value to be derived from OER”.

A. Kanwar in McGreal 2013

NEW CHALLENGES OF OPEN EDUCATION

The attention of the OE debate is moving from:

•technological challenges, where the objective now is to be able to work and learn across platforms

•legal challenges, where instruments are there to be implemented and used at different levels,

•content challenge, where OER are being increasingly created, shared and repurposed,

to three kinds of challenges, corresponding to three stakeholders groups:

Pedagogical, Sustainability and Organisational challenges

PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES

Have to do with the way teaching and learning have to change in an Open Education setting and that are the main concern of teachers.

Approaches such as self-directed learning, cooperative learning, problem-based and project-based learning, project and inquiry based learning, together with issues like assignments approaches, motivation and assessment are all being transformed by the Open Education (r)evolution.

SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES

Are mainly the concern of policy makers, funding agencies and companies, who realised that Open Education needs long-term investments, in a sector where well-established business principles and concepts are still under development.

At the same time, Open Education policies still are often conceived as experimental attempts, showing that more needs to be done to convince decision makers of the payoff of Open Education.

ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES

Mainly concerning leaders within education institutions, who are faced with the increased complexity brought by open approaches, looking for the balance between traditional and new educational practices, struggling with how to implement and recognise Virtual Mobility schemes, testing new Open Assessment schemes, and putting in place some sore of Recognition of Prior Learning.

And realizing that adopting Open Education practices means working with an extended group of stakeholders, including practitioners, researchers, peers, etc.

POLICY IS (EVENTUALLY) TAKING OPEN EDUCATION SERIOUSLY

“Technology offers unprecedented opportunities to improve quality, access and equity in education and training” and “action should be taken for scaling up the use of ICT-supported learning and access to high quality OER”.

European Commission, Opening Up Education Communication, 2013

The policy push is reaching the country level: Opening up Slovenia.

The very ambitious objective of the initiative is to “create an open educational system”, making of Slovenia a testbed for a number of dimensions of Open Education: open learning environments, open education theories, new business models, open education computational tools, and new and emerging technologies.

OPEN EDUCATION IS CHANGING INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION AMONG UNIVERSITIES

The eMundus project (Erasmus Mundus) is exploring how international cooperation is changing with the introduction of Open Education practices, by mapping initiatives, providing tools, analysing new ways of international cooperation.

www.emundus-project.eu

NEW WAYS OF INT. COOP. ENHANCED BY OE

• Agreements around open intellectual property licences that allow for free use, adaptation and distribution of resources (ex. OERuniversity)

• Multi-actors platforms to share expertise around the development and use of OER through training and knowledge transfer, with a focus on languages other than English (ex. REA Brasil)

• Sustainable Virtual Mobility schemes among universities (ex. Being Mobile report)

• Sustainable Virtual Mobility schemes between universities and companies, enhancing students employability potential (ex. Leuven University College)

• Platforms for jointly promoting MOOCs from one country or one region (ex. OpenUpEdu or Futurelearn)

• International research projects working on fostering Open Education (ex. OPAL, VM-Pass projects)

OPEN EDUCATION IN BRAZIL

• In the 60s, Brazil decided to improve the educational level of its population and implemented free self-instruction radio and television programs, with certification via public exams

• In the 90s Escola do Futuro of the Universidade de São Paulo, a research centre on new Technologies in education, started the Brazilian Student Virtual Library (BibVirt), which collected educational materials of public domain

• Shortly afterwards, the Ministry of Education creates RIVED which collects freely usable learning objects produced in a collaborative manner by several institutions

• Presently, open education has already reached higher education, through government initiatives called UAB (Open Brazilian University)

• MOOC portals, like Veduca, expanded the possibilities of open education

• Some important initiatives: Open Education, Society and Technology Seminar, held in May 2014 in the University of Sao Paulo; REA Brasil Project; MIRA

CONCLUSIONS

• The analysis of Open Education in Brazil shows a rich ad lively community struggling with the challenges that are appearing globally

• The problems seem to be the same 8Pegagogy, Organisation, Sustainability), but the solutions must be localised

• It is time to start thinking of a global Open Education ecosystem, where national actors are collaborating through ICT and learning from each other

• Fruitful and global/local “coopetition” might be the next future of Open Education.