Pragmatism vs. Idealism and the Identity Crisis of OER Advocacy

Abstract

The open education (OE) movement is in its adolescent years and experiencing an identity crisis as it is pulled towards both pragmatism (marked by an emphasis on cost savings, resources, and incremental change) and idealism (marked by an emphasis on permissions, practices, and radical change). In this article, I describe these tensions (free vs. freedom; evolution vs. revolution; and resources vs. practices) before going on to argue in favour of a nuanced resolution to this Eriksonian crisis that reflects the diverse needs and motivations of educators. The merits of an integrated approach and its implications for the future trajectory of the OE movement are discussed.

Content is King: An Analysis of How the Twitter Discourse Surrounding Open Education Unfolded From 2009 to 2016

“…This finding is reflective of the results reported by dos Santos (2008) The open education community seems to recognize that a tension exists between open educational practices and OER, where the former represents a revolutionary approach to education and the latter represents an evolutionary stance (Jhangiani, 2017;Wiley, 2016). Both evolutionary and revolutionary approaches can be framed as "practical and effective means for achieving scholarly aims that are socially valuable" which is one of the assumptions underpinning the open movement (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012, para.…”

Forms of innovation inspired by open educational resources: a post-project analysis

“…A further perspective on innovation and OER has been drawn by following the notion in Rogers' (2010) work that there are distinct categories of people who adopt or resist innovations over time. Jhangiani (2017) highlights the popular application to OER of a 'pencil metaphor' of six adoption groups for educational technologies, which positions many of the themes raised by Rogers (2010) in an educational context. Jhangiani (2017) also notes that alternatively, data can be used to categorise OER users according to their practices, for example as 'OER active', 'OER as facilitator' and 'OER consumer' (Weller, de los Arcos, Farrow, Pitt & McAndrew, 2016).…”

Cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions of Open Educational Resources in psychology: A narrative review of the literature

“…However, students often obtain access to textbooks through less expensive means than purchasing a new copy, such as sharing textbooks, downloading pirated copies, or using an outdated edition (which is generally much less expensive than the current edition; Christie, Politz, & Middleton, 2009;Jhangiani & Jhangiani, 2017;Moxley, 2013). Moreover, students report not purchasing the textbook at all if the cost is prohibitive (Florida Virtual Campus, 2016).…”

“…That said, a key feature of OER is that they can be adapted. The OER movement is about much more than free books, it is about freeing faculty to customize materials in a way that would best promote student learning (Jhangiani, 2017).…”

“…Therefore, there are calls to emphasize the opportunities for customized course design afforded by OER in addition to their cost savings (Blick & Marcus, 2017;Jhangiani, 2017;Wiley, 2017). Future research examining this would be informative.…”