This document discusses how open education programs can benefit higher education learners and promote social inclusion. It recommends understanding all learner needs, including those who are underprivileged. Open education programs should track the progress of underprivileged learners compared to privileged groups and target support to them. Institutions should bring all staff along in the digital learning journey and partner both inside and outside the university to support learners. The author proposes six critical dimensions of open education based on prior research: technology, learning materials, skills, social support, learner purpose, and autonomy. Tracking these dimensions can help adapt open education for social inclusion goals.

1. How can we shape Open
Education programs to benefit
our Higher Education learners?
Sarah Lambert – July 2017
slambe@deakin.edu.au
Twitter @SarahLambertOz

2. Firstly:
Hello from Australia

3. Lucky me
19 years in
Wollongong
South Coast of
NSW, Australia

4. Lucky me
16 years in
Educational
Technology
3 years in Open
Education
NOW
PhD in
Melbourne

5. 2 grown sons
24 and 21
One in Sydney,
the other in
Wollongong

6. My dog
Gypsy Music
Singing, Clarinet
Campervan
Food
Craft Beer
I love…

7. But before all this
 Brought up by my hard-working mum
 Her mother was from the country
 her grandmother a Swedish immigrant
 Her father’s family were Russian exiles from Scotland
 Maybe originally from Slovenia (not 100% sure)
 My mum was smart and worked in business (property manager, accounts)
 But had no qualifications
 I am First In My Family to go to University

8. OER Pioneers in Kyrgyzstan
 You are not alone
 OER is a global movement
 In Western and European education systems, advanced Technology Enabled
Learning, blend digital resources with class work
 In Australia, advanced Distance Education, support regional development, all
online
 OER developed very rapidly into OEP “open educational practices”
 Sharing, digital resources, smaller chunks than whole textbook
 Not only Wikipedia and textbooks, but YouTube, social media,

9. MOOCs 1.0 to MOOCs 2.0
Big changes globally for OER

10. MOOCs: specific benefits to staff, students
and Universities
 increased digital literacies relevant to modern professions
 free quality resources on complex topics in your existing curriculum
 building capacity for staff to move from traditional to elearning or distance
learning
 reduced reliance on expensive text-book costs, and
 enhanced University reputation when quality learning materials are openly
published

12. Issues with
MOOCs 1.0
Pedagogy
Technical topics
Expensive (how
to sustain?)
Inequality
In English

13. MOOCs
2.0
Better quality
No longer free

14. MOOCs 2.0
Any better for
the non-
privileged?

15. PhD Research Question
How can Australian Higher education providers make use of
Open Education programs
for Student Equity and Social Inclusion?
Access, progress
and success in HE
Lifelong learning, health
info, empowerment,
personal goals,
community development

16. Phase 1

19. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Coursera
Custom tools, platform, plugins
edX
LMS/VLE and other tools
OpenLearn (OU UK) inc Digital badges
Various digital resources inc OER
cMOOCs and social media
Multiple different MOOCs
Khan Academy plus Moodle
Rwaq MOOC (Arab world platform)
Community based MOOCs
NovoEd MOOCs (groupwork focus)
E-readers and online support site
Open Education to reduce Inequality 2014-16: types of technologies
used

20. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Coursera
Custom tools, platform, plugins
edX
LMS/VLE and other tools
OpenLearn (OU UK) inc Digital badges
Various digital resources inc OER
cMOOCs and social media
Multiple different MOOCs
Khan Academy plus Moodle
Rwaq MOOC (Arab world platform)
Community based MOOCs
NovoEd MOOCs (groupwork focus)
E-readers and online support site
Open Education to reduce Inequality 2014-16: types of technologies
used
Big international trend “personalised learning” – Gates
Foundation funding focus, $15billion in Ed Grants since 1998

21. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Coursera
Custom tools, platform, plugins
edX
LMS/VLE and other tools
OpenLearn (OU UK) inc Digital badges
Various digital resources inc OER
cMOOCs and social media
Multiple different MOOCs
Khan Academy plus Moodle
Rwaq MOOC (Arab world platform)
Community based MOOCs
NovoEd MOOCs (groupwork focus)
E-readers and online support site
Open Education to reduce Inequality 2014-16: types of technologies
used
Many combined with extra face to face supports, on campus
study groups, as “flipped classroom” resources, involve families
and local schools

22. Open Education = Ecosystem
Free tools
and
resources
OER (Wiley 5 Cs)
and OER enabled
pedagogy
Our classroom
technologies and
other resources
(not free)
Freemium
business
models
NFPs and NGOs
orgs
For profit
tech
business

25. How can we shape Open Education programs
to benefit our Higher Education learners?
 Understand all our learner needs
 Consider who is under-privileged in our national (macro), institutional (meso)
and discipline (micro) contexts
 Make sure they are not excluded
 Always track and monitor their progress as compared to privileged groups
 Target them when you can and offer a variety of support
 Bring all staff along for the digital learning journey
 Don’t leave it to technical staff only
 Partner with experts inside your uni (language, disability, women’s studies, equity
and development, library, digital literacy) and also partner with those outside your
uni (schools, libraries, NGOs, development and welfare groups, students’ families)

26. Remember learning is social
 Proposed 6 Critical Dimensions of Open Education (PhD)
 Technology
 Learning Materials
 Skills
 Social Support
 Learner’s purpose (own goals in life and uni)
 Autonomy (the way we enable or constrain them in meeting their goals)
 Adapting and verifying these with Open Education
 Based on solid work: Technology for Social Inclusion (Warschauer)

27. Comments and questions
 Email slambe@deakin.edu.au
 Twitter @SarahLambertOz
With thanks to supervisors Prof. David Boud,
Assoc. Prof Phillip Dawson, and Dr Nadine Zacharias