What is Open Education?
Education is a fundamental human right, but for many people there are barriers to access it. Open education as an overall movement seeks to lower or eliminate as many of those barriers as possible.
What is Open Education?
To learn what open education is, start with the driving philosophy behind this work, the core principles that help define whether something is “open education” and give a few examples of how those principles can be applied to different areas of education.
“Education is a fundamental human right, globally recognized as a foundation for peace, human dignity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.”
UNESCO, 2016
Open education starts with a core philosophy that education is a fundamental human right. However, there are many different barriers that limit access to and limit engagement with education for many individuals and groups. These include physical circumstances, geographic remoteness, financial constraints, technological barriers, and/or cultural or social norms for particular individuals and groups.1
Open education seeks to eliminate barriers to education where possible, with the aim of improving educational access, effectiveness, and equality.
1 Brown & Czerniewicz, 2010; Lane, 2009, found in Cronin, C. (2019). Open education: Walking a critical path. In D. Conrad, & P. Prinsloo (Eds.), Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice. Leiden: Brill.
In practice, open education attempts to build opportunities for learners to:
- access education, resources, and scholarship
- collaborate with others
- create and co-create knowledge openly
- integrate learning2
Open education is most often used in these four ways, which build opportunities for learners to access education, teaching resources, and scholarship; to collaborate; to create knowledge (instead of passively receiving it); and to integrate knowledge gained inside the classroom with knowledge learned elsewhere.
These principles overlap with many other education frameworks, such as active learning, and when we dive into the specific approaches there’s overlap with Universal Design for Learning and more.
2 Cronin, C. (2019). Open education: Walking a critical path. In D. Conrad, & P. Prinsloo (Eds.), Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice. Leiden: Brill.
The 4 principles of open education can be applied to many different educational practices and areas, and are loosely grouped into 3 categories:
When we apply the principles to teaching resources, we get Open Educational Resources (OERs).
When we apply the principles to teaching practices, we get Open Pedagogy.
When we apply the principles to scholarship, we get Open Science (Open Research, Open Data, Open Access, etc.).
View the infographics below for a quick overview of the key areas of impact and the specific impact that Open Education can have on teaching practices.
Further Reading
Further Training
If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of open education, below are some professional development opportunities.
Support at KPU
KPU Open is available to answer any questions you have about open, to provide training and resources, and to consult on how you can incorporate open practices.