Topic 2: Sharing and openness

In each topic we begin with a scenario and in the PBL group we try to reflect and find out different solutions with the starting point from the scenario.

The scenario in topic 2:

“I’m interested in opening up some of my courses and sharing the resources in a responsible way, but I don’t really know where to start. What options are there for offering courses that are open? How do I get support from my colleagues and how do I introduce the idea to my students? What are the opportunities and dangers of “going open”?

In our group we discussed and tried to find out what it means for us personally and for our students and organizations if we choose to be open. We also talked about copyright and how to share material in a responsible way. This topic really was an eye opener how much new opportunities it will come up for all of us if we want to change our courses to open courses.

We took part in an interesting introduction by Dr. David Wiley who is Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University. One of the important things he mentioned was how we all just can win by sharing content to each other. By sharing everyone wins and we can contribute with knowledge that others base their work on. It is also interesting to think about learning as a social event.

But when something happens online in a social context you need to make a choice how much you are ready to share and you have to go back and think a little bit of what is personal and what is professional and do your decisions and that’s sometimes not so easy at all to find out. This topic was interesting and opened up our minds for many questions and good discussion in our group. I can see there’s many benefits but also many challenges of openness in education and learning.

One challenge can be for example cost. Some students pay for taking part in a course. Is it then fair if some other students can get the content online for free? There are several questions that are easier to ask than to answer.

In topic two we also took part of an inspiring webinar with a practical approach and practical tips from Kiruthika Ragupathi  (National University of Singapore) and Alastair Creelman.

 

References

Judith, K., & Bull, D. (2016). Assessing the potential for openness: A framework for examining course-level OER implementation in higher education. Education policy analysis archives, 24, 42.

Oddone, K. (2016) https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/ple-or-pln-or-lms-or-oln/

Wiley, D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M

Wiley, D. & Green, C., https://press.rebus.community/idsconnect/chapter/why-openness-in-education/