Open education is the umbrella term that describes the movement to bring our educational system into the modern world by using technology to provide resources, tools, and practices that are free of financial, legal, or technical barriers and can be retained, reused, remixed, revised, and redistributed in the digital environment for more affordable, accessible, and effective teaching and learning.

 

“Open education is a movement … about reducing barriers to education, empowering learners, and connecting the academy to the world that is serves” – Robin DeRosa, 2016 Open Education Intro

 

Open education …

  • centers social justice
  • builds community and care
  • considers how educators can empower students
  • considers the financial, technical, and legal barriers as well as social barriers to education

 

Practitioners and supporters of open education believe that students should have access to high-quality educational material and resources to provide a more affordable and accessible education experience. The common term that represents the products of open education is open educational resources (OER).

Open Educational Resources

OER are high-quality teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, adaptation, and redistribution by others. OER can be print or digital.

 

Open License

An open license permits creators or resources to retain copyright, while simultaneously allowing others to participate what are known as the “5R” permissions:

  • Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy)
  • Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)
  • Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
  • Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)
  • Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)

This material is an adaptation of Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources, which was originally written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.

 

OER vs Inclusive Access

Like OER, inclusive access models aim to ensure that all students have access to their learning materials on day one of class, but the cost is rolled into their tuition (whereas OER is free). Students lose access to these materials after the semester ends because of copyright restrictions and license agreements between the publisher and the institution.

True OER, in contrast, allow students to retain their learning content in perpetuity, serving students and learners of all ages and stages. This is important for students who may have to retake a course or who are enrolled in a sequence (ex. Biology I and Biology II), where having access to the previous semester’s book is essential.

Open Pedagogy

While the open ed community emerged to address the rising cost of textbooks, practitioners quickly realized that openly licensed materials allow for innovative, learner-centric pedagogies. Educators are engaging their students in content creation and seeing the impact of their learning through this “open pedagogy.” Even in the open ed community, the term open pedagogy takes on several different definitions depending on who you ask, but the basics are built upon the foundational principles of emancipatory, constructionist, and constructivist pedagogies. To learn more about what several practitioners are doing and how they define it, check out the Open Pedagogy Notebook.

Open Access

Open access is the movement to call on scholars to share their work in a manner that is free and immediately available in addition to the right to use these articles in the digital environment. This movement is to increase the impact of our research by publishing their peer reviewed work through journals that do not have paywalls.

“[Open access aims to] redefine impact by allowing our work to shape the world to its maximum potential” – Robin DeRosa, 2016 Open Education Intro