Open Education Design

Objectives and competences

The aim of this course is to teach students how to develop an open education solution that best fits a specific case or scenario (user needs and requirements) while focusing on promoting quality learning experience.

Students will acquire the following competences:

  • Draw up plan of activities, resources, selection of appropriate ICT tools and training necessary for the realisaation of proposed improvements;

  • Shape a protptype or plan of a learning experience in open education context,

  • Understand differences between designing learning experience in traditional educational context and open educational context;

  • Master principles, tools and technologies for design, content preparation, structuring, analytics and assessment in open education;

  • Master how to translate didactical principles to the design of content, methods and approaches.

Prerequisites

Students should have a basic understanding of the concepts, strategies and didactical models of open education. They should be able to use computer supported tools for content genera-tion and design, as well as communication and collaboration tools. Additionally, they should be prepared to work in interdisciplinary teams

Content

During the course students will learn about the basics of the open education design. During the lectures they will explore the theoretical background, models, strategies, concepts and approaches.

In the continuation, students will combine online lectures, self-and group learning and hands-on practical work to gather deep and practical knowledge about essential topics on instructional design and openness. Through the identification of a real and con-crete demand (in their institutions, for ex-ample) through scenario-based design (en-visioned problem/need) they will create a context for the development of a course or platform that will embody the principles of open design (process and product).

The following topics will be explored in more detail:

• Open Education Concepts: Lessons for historical notions of openness
• Instructional systems design and the challenges of openness
• Didactics in Open Education
• Scenario-base design: Audience, context and user experience
• ICT Platforms, software as service mod-els, and Learning Management Systems
• Designing openly: Open education tools for collaboration and content creation
• Quality assessment of Open Education

Intended learning outcomes

After completing this course, students will:

• Understand and master the complexity of designing open educational programmes and courses;
• Be able to conceptualise, structure and plan the design of open educational programmes and courses;
• Be able to select the most suitable tools and technologies for open education design;
• Be able to design the demands and needs for appropriate designs for specific scenarios;
• Reflect on personal performance in terms of quality and attractiveness of the designed open education programme or course.

Readings

  • Peters, S., & Deimann, M. (2013). On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction. Open Praxis, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.23 E-version
  • Rathbone, C. H. (1972). Examining the open education classroom. The School Review, 80(4), 521–549. E-version
  • Hannafin, M. (1992). Emerging technologies, ISD, and learning environments: Critical perspectives. Educational Technology Research and Development, 40(1), 49–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02296706
  • dos Santos, A. I., Punie, Y., & Muñoz, J. C. (2016). Opening up Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions (No. EUR 27938 EN). Seville: JCR. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc https://doi.org/10.2791/293408 E-version
  • Wedemeyer, C. A. (1973). Characteristics of Open Learning Systems: Report of the NAEB Advisory Committee on Open Learning Systems. New Orleans: NAEB. Retrieved from ERIC. E-version
  • Hodgkinson-Williams, C., & Arinto, P. B. (2018). Adoption and Impact of OER in the Global South. African Minds. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1005330 E-version
  • Bentley, T. (2010). Innovation and diffusion as a theory of change. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), Second international handbook of educational change (pp. 29–46). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_2 E-version
  • UNESCO/COL. (2011). Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education. Vancouver: COL. E-version
  • Hilton III, J., Wiley, D., Stein, J., & Johnson, A. (2010). The four ‘R’s of openness and ALMS analysis: frameworks for open educational resources. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 25(1), 37–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680510903482132
  • Amiel, T., & Soares, T. C. (2016). Identifying Tensions in the Use of Open Licenses in OER Repositories. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.2426 E-version

Assessment

30% interim 30% Final presentation 40% Final report

Lecturer's references

Dr Jako Olivier is an Adviser: Higher Education at the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada. Before this he was the holder of the UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) and was a Professor at North-West University, South Africa until August 2022. His research interests include: ODL, self-directed learning, multimodal learning, open educational resources, open pedagogy, renewable assessments, microlearning, individualized and contextualized blended learning, e-learning in language classrooms and online multilingualism. After some years teaching languages and information technology at secondary school level in South Africa and the UK, he joined the North-West University as lecturer in September 2010. In 2018 he received the Emerging Researcher Medal from the Education Association of South Africa, and he is rated as an established researcher with the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

Selected bibliography:

Recent article and book chapter publications

OLIVIER, Jako. 2016. Blended learning in a first-year language class: evaluating the acceptance of an interactive learning environment. Literator, 37(2):a1288. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/lit.v37i2.1288
OLIVIER, Jako. 2019. Short Instructional Videos as Multimodal Open Educational Resources for a Language Classroom. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (JEMH), 28(4):381-409.
OLIVIER, Jako. 2020. Self-directed open educational practices for a decolonized South African curriculum: a process of localization for learning. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 16(4):20-28.
https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135330
OLIVIER, Jako. 2021. Online access and resources for open self-directed learning in Africa. In Burgos, D. & Olivier, J.eds. 2021. Radical Solutions for Education in Africa: Open education and self-directed learning in the continent. Singapore: Springer. pp. 1-16. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4099-5_1
OLIVIER, J., BUNT, B.J. & DHAKULKAR, A. 2022. Open educational practices for self-directed learning: A staff fellowship as a case study. In Olivier, J., Du Toit-Brits, C., Bunt, B.J. & Dhakulkar, A., eds. Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning. Cape Town: AOSIS. pp. 1-17.
OLIVIER, J., AMIEL, T., DE MESQUITA, R. D. C., & BDAIR, F. 2023. Mapping Open Education: an analysis of the Open Educational Resources landscape in Brazil and South Africa. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 19(2), 52-59. https://je-lks.org/ojs/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/article/view/1135722
TLILI, A., ALTINAY, F., HUANG, R., ALTINAY, Z., OLIVIER, J., MISHRA, S., JEMNI, M. & BURGOS, D. 2022. Are we there yet? A systematic literature review of Open Educational Resources in Africa: A combined content and bibliometric analysis. PLOS ONE, 17(1):e0262615. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262615

WITTMANN, Gerda-Elisabeth & OLIVIER, Jako. 2021. Blended learning as an approach to foster self-directed learning in teacher professional development programmes. The Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning, 16(2):71-84.
WITTMANN, Gerda-Elisabeth & OLIVIER, Jako. 2021. Implementing an online collaborative learning teacher professional development programme for teachers of German SAL in South Africa. Acta Germanica, 49(1).

Edited books

OLIVIER, J., ed. 2020. Self-directed multimodal learning in higher education. Cape Town: AOSIS. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2020.BK210
BURGOS, D. & OLIVIER, J., eds. 2021. Radical Solutions for Education in Africa: Open education and self-directed learning in the continent. Singapore: Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4099-5
MENTZ, E., LAUBSCHER, D. & OLIVIER, J., eds. 2021. Self-Directed Learning: An imperative for education in a complex society. Cape Town: AOSIS. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2021.BK279
OLIVIER, J., OOJORAH, A. & UDHIN, W., eds. 2022. Perspectives on Teacher Education in the Digital Age. Singapore: Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4226-6
OLIVIER, J., OOJORAH, A. & UDHIN, W., eds. 2022. Multimodal Learning Environments in Southern Africa: Embracing Digital Pedagogies. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97656-9
OLIVIER, J., DU TOIT-BRITS, C., BUNT, B, & DHAKULKAR, A., eds. 2022. Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning. Cape Town: AOSIS. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2022.BK345
OLIVIER, J. & RAMBOW, A., eds. 2022. Open Educational Resources in Higher Education: A Global Perspective. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8590-4
OLIVIER, J. & BAROUD, F., eds. 2023. Open educational resources and open pedagogy in Lebanon and South Africa. Potchefstroom: Axiom Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8139675
HAVENGA, M., OLIVIER, J. & BUNT, B.J., eds. 2023. Problem-based learning and pedagogies of play: Active approaches towards Self-Directed Learning. Cape Town: AOSIS. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2023.BK409