OPEN LEARNINGA PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THINKING ABOUT OPEN EDUCATION

FREDRICK W. BAKER III

WWW.FREDWBAKER.COM

THE PATH• Defining Openness• Open Learning• Elements of Open

Learning Environments

• Types of Openness• Open Educational

Designs (course types)

• Conclusion

http

://li

veho

lines

s.co

m/w

p-co

nten

t/up

load

s/20

12/0

2/pa

th.jp

g

OPENNESS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/6555466069/sizes/l/in/photostream/

DEFINITION

• No consistent definition of openness in literature or thinking

• Very context dependent • Many related areas with subtle

differences• Identifiable through characteristics

NATURE OF OPENNESS

• Continuous construct

• like a door- not on/off• Can be a little open, more open, or wide

open

CHARACTERISTICS

• General tenets

• Transparency• Reduction of Barriers• Universal Rights/Ownership

• Freedom of information• Access• Ability to Leave/Fork• Sharing

Baker III, & Surry, 2013

OPEN LEARNING

http://www.ingeniosus.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Purchased-Man-in-Field-Freedom1.jpg

OPEN LEARNING

• Open Learning is:

• Digitally enabled-Web 2.0• Social Media/creative tools/PLEs/Blogs

• Taking in/Digesting info/Sharing

• Self-directed• Learner directs his/her own path• Sets own goals, engages where

interested

OPEN LEARNING

• Not accredited-No real degrees

• Various assessment/certificates models

• Open Badges• Peer grading-essays• Different for different models

• Issues with authentication, cheating, plagiarism

We cannot teach another person directly; we can only facilitate his

learning. ~Attributed to Carl Rogers 

OPEN LEARNING

• Participation in open learning is done for the sake of learning

• from internal, intrinsic motivation• Some important elements are:

• connections, • communities, • authentic practice, • networking

ELEMENTS OF OPEN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/4h/unit1/grassho.gif

OPEN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS-ELEMENTS

Webs of connection:

• Traditional classes are one-to-many,

• OLEs are one-to-many, many-to-many, many-to-few. They are webs of connections.

OPEN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS-ELEMENTS

There are three primary elements to all open learning environments:

1. Environment

2. Instructor

3. Learners

OLE ELEMENT 1

• Environments• Freedom rule (learner agency) • Environment rule (resources and

opportunity); • Individual Instruction rule (personalized,

toward worthwhile education goals); • Respect rule (respect for learners)

Tunnell, 1975

OLE ELEMENT 2Connected Instructors

• Have active Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)**

• Connections (people, tools, resources, communities, etc.) enable better teaching

Couros, 2009, Drexler, 2010

OLE ELEMENT 3

Students are often Open Scholars.

Open Scholars have PLEs:

• Distributed online presence/identity (variety of services)

• Central place to share

• Network of peers

Engage in new technologies and openness

• Informal & open publishing outletsWeller, 2011

OLE ELEMENT 3

Students are not always open scholars!

• Many are just everyday people• Parents• Professionals and ameteurs• All ages• Various industries

Basic comfort level with technology is very helpful

TYPES OF OPENNESS

http://www.corebankingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Differentiation.jpg

TYPES OF OPENNESS

Three schools of thought on openness

• Procedural Openness

• Normative Openness

• Revolutionary Openness

Hill, B.V., 1975

PROCEDURAL OPENNESS

• Course designs reflect policy and design decisions that enable structured openness

• Changes in procedures/environment• Enhances educational goals through

enabling the tenets of openness• (Transparency, Reduction of Barriers,

Universal Rights/Ownership, Access, Ability to Leave/Fork, Sharing)

Baker III, & Surry, 2013, Hill, B.V., 1975, Klein & Eshel, 1980

NORMATIVE OPENNESS

• Learners should have full agency over their own learning;

• i.e. have total ownership over all elements of all tasks and activities involved in education

• Instructors/designers have almost no say

• Probably best for autonomous/experienced learners

Baker III, & Surry, 2013, Hill, B.V., 1975, Klein & Eshel, 1980

REVOLUTIONARY OPENNESS

• Concerned with **disruptive change in education;

• i.e., New model so superior and different that old must give way to new

• Open Ed as innovative system to supplant traditional education

• Education structures can be culturally bias, enforce oppression (Friere, 1970)

Baker III, & Surry, 2013, Hill, B.V., 1975, Klein & Eshel, 1980

OPEN EDUCATIONAL DESIGNS

OPEN EDUCATIONAL DESIGNS

• OEDs: Overarching term referring to all types of open learning environments• Traditional Education Models

• Procedural Openness

• Topic Focus Models• Normative Openness

• Alternate Education Models• Revolutionary Openness

Baker III, & Surry, 2013.

OPEN EDUCATIONAL DESIGNS

Open K-12

• Utah Open High School

Open Home Schools

Anchored Open Courses

(Higher Education courses)

• Wiley’s open courses

• Ed Startup 101• Openness in Education

• DS106-(Groom/Lavine)

• EC&I 831: Open Education & Social Media (Couros)

Baker III, & Surry, 2013.

Traditional Education Models (Procedural Openness):• Standard education models made open- some students registered

with/graded by a university

OPEN EDUCATIONAL DESIGNS

Well Structured• Khan Academy• BonkOpen• MOOCMOOC

Ill Structured

cMOOCs (**Connectivist Massively Open Online Course)

• Change11• Oped12• CCK11

Baker III, & Surry, 2013.

Topic Focus Models (Normative Openness):• No schedule, free access to resources, full agency

OPEN EDUCATIONAL DESIGNS

Peeragogy Models

• Peer2Peer University/Wikiversity

Open University Models

• MIT Open CourseWare (OCW)/ University of the People (UoPeople)/edX

Mass Delivery Models

• Udacity

• Coursera

• xMOOCs (Institutional)

Baker III, & Surry, 2013.

Alternate Education Models (Revolutionary Openness):• Presented as alternative to traditional education models

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50723930@N03/6164296462/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/6610909727/sizes/l/in/photostream/

CONCLUSION

• Openness is defined by characteristics and context

• Three elements to OLEs

• Three types of Openness

• Three categories of OEDs

CONCLUSION

You can find the slides, presentation audio set to slides (later), links, references (many

free to access), and resources at

www.fredwbaker.com

Under the “Resources” tab.

THE PATH• Defining Openness• Open Learning• Elements of Open

Learning Environments

• Types of Openness• Open Educational

Designs (course types)

• Conclusion

http

://li

veho

lines

s.co

m/w

p-co

nten

t/up

load

s/20

12/0

2/pa

th.jp

g

CONTACT ME

Fred Baker

www.fredwbaker.com

fredwbaker@gmail.com

@fredwbaker

REFERENCESBaker III, F.W., Surry, D.W. (2013). Open Educational Designs: A taxonomy for differentiating and classifying

open learning environments. Paper submitted for the Annual Conference of the Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE). New Orleans, LA.

Couros, A. (2009). Open, connected, social-implications for educational design. Campus-Wide Information Systems 26 (3). Retrieved from http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE2008Proceedings/couros041.pdf

Drexler, W. (2010). The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(3). 369-385. Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.pdf

Friere, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Hill, B.V. (1975). What’s open about open education? In Nyberg, D. (1975). The Philosophy of Open Education (pp.3-13). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd.

Klein, Z., Eshel, Y. (1980). The open classroom in a cross-cultural perspective: A research note. Sociology of Education, 53 (April) pp. 114-121.

Tunnell, D. (1975). Open Education: an expression in search of a definition. In Nyberg, D. (1975). The Philosophy of Open Education (pp.14-23). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd.

Weller, M. (2011). The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice. USA: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved from http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/view/

DigitalScholar_9781849666275/chapter-ba-9781849666275-chapter-009.xml