This document discusses developments in open educational practice. It notes that open and distance education, open education, and widening participation each face challenges and have separate communities of practice with little dialogue. Recent MOOCs have increased access but not necessarily participation or innovation. The importance of open educational practices is emphasized as practices that support open resources, innovative pedagogy, and empower learners. A recent project in Scotland found that barriers to online learning combine situational and institutional factors, and that redesigning with student contexts and peer support in mind improves retention.

1. Developments in Open
Educational Practice
Pete Cannell - @petecannell,
petecannell2012@gmail.com

2. Reflecting on experience
 Open and distance education
 Open Education
 Widening participation
Since around 2010 I’ve been working
on projects where these three
domains intersect
Each has it’s own community of
practice – there is relatively little
dialogue between the communities
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-education
CC BY-=SA

3. Challenges
 Serious challenges face all three domains
 ODL - Relevance and role of Open
Universities in the 21C
 Open Education – limited success in fulfilling
its promise of breaking down barriers
 WP – deep and persistent inequality in the
developed world and huge unmet demand in
the global south

4. Access vs Participation
 The MOOC phenomenon has
demonstrated the ability of online to
reach very large numbers – it has also
increased the number of staff with skills
and interest in online and distance
learning
 Little evidence of widening participation?
 Innovation in technology but not in
pedagogy?
www.futurelearn.com
www.coursera.org
www.edx.org

5. Importance of OEP
 Practices that support the (re)use and
production of OER through
institutional policies, promote
innovative pedagogical models, and
respect and empower learners as co-
producers on their lifelong learning
path (OPAL 2011)
 ...collaborative practice in which
resources are shared
by making them openly available, and
pedagogical practices are employed
which rely on social interaction,
knowledge creation, peer-learning,
and shared learning practices (Ehlers
2011)

6. OEPS Project
 Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
 Focus on partnership, co-creation and
widening participation
 Defining OEP:
 We think of Open Educational Practices as
those educational practices that are
concerned with and promote equity and
openness. Our understanding of ‘open’
builds on the freedoms associated with “the
5 Rs” of OER, promoting a broader sense
of open, emphasising social justice, and
developing practices that open up
opportunities for those distanced from
education.

7. Findings – (1)
 Barriers to engagement and success in learning
online combine institutional, dispositional and
situational factors well known in WP practice with
specific features of the online environment
 Open Education has often had a technology focus –
there is a strong case for reorienting on practice,
pedagogy and new models of student support
 Reusing content through a process of participatory
design allows for new and effective models of
curriculum development
 Rethinking the boundaries between universities and
other organisations that support (potential) learners
and working across boundaries to coproduce learning
materials has benefits for academic and non-
academic partners and for students
https://pixabay.com/en/jigsaw-puzzle-
game-match-puzzle-1297102/ CC0

8. Findings – (2)
 Good design recognises student context – the
medium may be online but students may be online
and in face to face groups
 In any case designing in opportunities for peer
support has significant impact on retention and
success
 The affordances of open can allow the mass scale of
ODL (or MOOCs) to be combined with student
centred and context specific customisation https://pixabay.com/en/people-girls-women-students-
2557396/ CC0

9. Further reading – (1)
 Extended notes relating to this presentation can be found on my blog
www.openinguped.wordpress.com
 A full report from the OEPS project and an archive of project activity can
be found at www.oepscotland.org
 Arinto, P. (2018) OER and OEP towards equitable and quality education
for all.
 Arinto, P., Hodgkinson-Williams, C. and Trotter, H. (2017) OER and OEP
in the Global South: Implications and recommendations for social
inclusion.
 Cannell, P., Macintyre, R. and Hewitt, L. (2015) Widening access and
OER: developing new practice. Widening Participation and Lifelong
Learning, 17(1), pp.64-72.
 Cannell, P. (2016) Lifelong learning and partnerships: rethinking the
boundaries of the university in the digital age. Widening Participation
and Lifelong Learning, 18(1), pp.61-73.
 Ehlers, U-D. (2011) Extending the territory: From open educational
resources to open educational practices. Journal of Open, Flexible and
Distance Learning,15(2), 1-10.

10. Further reading – (2)
 Geser, G. (2012) Open Educational Practices and Resources:
OLCOS Roadmap 2012. Available at
http://www.olcos.org/english/roadmap/.
 Havemann, L. (2017) 'Yes, we are open’: exploring definitions of
openness in education.
 Hogan, P., Carlson, B.R. and Kirk, C (2015) Open Educational
Practices' Models using Open Educational Resources.
 Karunanayaka, S.P., Naidu, S., Rajendra, J.C.N. and Ratnayake,
H.U.W. (2015) From OER to OEP: Shifting Practitioner perspectives
and practices with innovative learning experience design. Open
Praxis, 7(4), pp.339-350.
 Perryman, L.A. and de los Arcos, B. (2016) Women’s empowerment
through openness: OER, OEP and the Sustainable Development
Goals. Open Praxis, 8(2), pp.163-180.
 Wiley, D. (2013) What is Open Pedagogy. Blog post at
https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975
 OPAL (2011). Beyond OER Shifting Focus to Open Educational
Practices. OPAL Report 2011. Available at
https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/OPA
L2011.pdf