Access under siege: Are the gains of open education keeping pace with the growing barriers to university access?

Abstract

Traditional and affordable access to a university education is under siege from all sides. National realpolitiks and global economic downturns have driven open education into the mainstream to stand against educational elitism, the growing digital divide, and to support the core values that give education its fundamental credence as a human right. Indeed, open is good-open with measurable impacts is even better. In the final analysis, the future of open education is at a crossroads that must be driven by those core values that define education as an essential human right with a commitment to expanding access and strengthening academic quality.

Faculty Perception of Openness and Attitude to Open Sharing at the Indian National Open University

“…Lerman et al (2008) noted that open sharing of knowledge is at the heart of the academic process. It is widely believed that world's knowledge is a public good to be shared, used, and reused (Olcott, 2013;Torres, 2013;McNamara, 2012;Jones, 2015). This idea is central to the OER movement (Smith & Casserly, 2006).…”

“…Openness was also enabled by further developments in distance teaching-learning (Peter & Deimann, 2013). Open learning and distance education represent approaches that focus on opening access to education and training provision, freeing learners from the (Olcott, 2013).…”

“…Several researchers (Bayne, Knox & Ross, 2015;Edwards, 2015;Moe, 2015;McNamara, 2012;Olcott, 2013) have discussed the idea of openness in educational practices through varied perspectives. The (Jones, 2015).…”

Διοίκηση Ολικής Ποιότητας Στην Ανοικτή Εξ Αποστάσεως Τριτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση: Τάσεις Και Προοπτικές

“…Η ΔΟΠ εστιάζει σε αξίες με βάση τις οποίες θα πρέπει να λειτουργεί ένα εκπαιδευτικό ίδρυμα προκειμένου να στοχεύει στη διαρκή βελτίωσης της ποιότητας σε κάθε διάσταση της λειτουργίας του κι αυτό έρχεται σε πλήρη συμφωνία με το ιδεολογικό υπόβαθρο της ανοικτής εκπαίδευσης. Η πρόσβαση στην εκπαίδευση, η δικαιοσύνη και η αμεροληψία, η ισότητα, η ανέχεια είναι ενδεικτικά αξίες που εμπλέκονται με την ανοικτότητα, είναι πιο επίκαιρες και επιτακτικά επιδιωκόμενες περισσότερο από ποτέ (Olcott, 2013). Βεβαίως οι αλλαγές συμβαίνουν σταδιακά και με τον βαθμό ανοικτότητας να ποικίλει (Olcott, 2013) Η ανάπτυξη μιας κουλτούρα ανοικτότητας δεν αναιρεί την ανάπτυξη κουλτούρας ποιότητας, μάλλον το αντίθετο.…”

Are We Having Fun Yet? Institutional Resistance and the Introduction of Play and Experimentation into Learning Innovation through Social Media

“…Ultimately, the overall tendency towards control by academics restricted students' autonomy and as a result there was a deficit of openness in a majority of projects. Through the course of our evaluation it became clear that we were seeing not a dichotomous understanding of openness, rather there were degrees of open practice informed by ethical, literacy and pedagogical understandings (Olcott Jr, 2013;Deimann and Farrow, 2013).…”