Showcase Blog

For my showcase blog, I selected my third blog post where I reflected on the topic of equity and access.

Original Post:

This week’s readings expanded on the concept of open learning beyond simple definitions.

From A guide to making open textbooks, the author presented the concept of open educational resources (OER’s). Previously, when I thought of open learning resources, all I pictured were online articles and journals. But these resources typically represent a larger spectrum of online content that may be considered an open educational resource. The author proposed the 5 r’s, which suggest that OER’s should be reusable, retainable, redistributable, revisable, and remixable. I believe this is perhaps the best encapsulation of open learning and open learning materials. A classic example of a resource that supports this assertion is Wikipedia, this might be the biggest open learning resource in my opinion.

The reading also considered open learning from a learner’s perspective. A tenet of open learning is the ability to learn from and contribute to the learning material. Imagine if university students, the main consumers of higher education textbooks, could suggest changes and even offer input to the textbooks they consume. You would have textbooks that edify students and also mutates to accommodate varying perspectives. EDCI 339 has also provided us an opportunity to contribute to our own learning materials. We are actively learning and contributing to the same open learning structure that the course provides by providing reflection posts.

An important creed in open learning is the concept of equity and equal access. In my opinion, this concept is remarkably difficult to achieve in non-open learning forms because by nature, they are designed to be closed. Simply making online textbooks accessible and free does not guarantee equitable access to education. Even as a student, I had not stopped to consider how privileged I am to attend a university. But I also never realized the wide-scale issues that hamper equitable access to learning like, access to affordable housing, technology, and feeding. All these issues culminate to hinder equitable access to learning.

The author suggests a collaborative outlook on course creation. Understanding the opinion of students, for whom the course is meant to serve, is critical to creating a course that reflects their struggles and successes. I find it amazing how little input students get in their degree completion. No two university journeys are the same, and there should be a way to facilitate learning equitably and fairly.

Mays, E., & DeRosa, R. (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. The Rebus Community for Open Textbook Creation.

Further Reflections

I selected this post because I connected with it strongly as I reflected on my university journey so far. I didn’t realize how important OER’s were to my current education. I was interested to hear about my pod mates’ experiences with OER’s and how they viewed OER’s regarding the issue of equity and access.

Maddie commented about the need to give learners agency in their learning. She corroborated my premise about the collaborative course creation where students can have input in how their courses are structured. She also fortified the assertion that teaching students to edit Wikipedia posts enabled them to participate in utilizing OER’s

Maddie’s comment:

 Hi Samuel

I enjoyed reading your topic 3 post!

I like what you said at the end about collaborative course creation with students and teachers. It only makes sense that students should have a say in the courses that they take. Ultimately, I agree with Mays who said that Open learning allows students “to contribute to the knowledge commons, not just consume from it, in meaningful and lasting ways” (Mays, 2017).

The foundational values of open pedagogy are student “autonomy and interdependence; freedom and responsibility; democracy and participation” (Mays, 2017). By giving students a voice and choice in the classroom, they’re more intrinsically motivated to further their knowledge because learning becomes a part of their responsibility and they have the freedom to pursue what interests them.

I also like what you added about Wikipedia being the biggest open learning resource. I agree with this statement. One of the transformative examples of OERs from the Mays reading was to teach students to edit Wikipedia articles. According to Open Pedagogy, “By adding new content, revising existing content, adding citations, or adding images, students can make direct contributions to one of the most popular public repositories for information” (Mays, 2017). I think it’s important to add that if we are using Wikipedia with young students, we need to inform them that although it is a wealth of knowledge, every internet user in the world has the potential to edit articles. This means that sometimes the information may not be accurate. Wikipedia is a good jumping-off point, but cannot be our only source for information.

Ayden also contributed some information that is worth unpacking. She talked about the concerns surrounding Wikipedia, i.e the fact that it is very accessible is also its downfall. Anyone is able to change facts of their own volition. She also posed a question at the end of her comment that inspired me to research and reflect further. Ayden asks “why do you think non-open environments are designed this way”

Ayden’s comment:

Hi Samuel,

I’m on the same page as you, I thought that Open Educational Resources (OER) were just articles and journals like the ones the online university library offers to us at UVic too. In high school, I remember learning about Creative Commons and the 5R’s but I never equated these two things with OER’s.
In your blog, you mention Wikipedia as an OER. In the Topic 4 reading: Sharing Resources and Practicing ‘Open’, the author mentions a university course where the professor had their students create Wikipedia pages on topics pertaining to the course as well as editing other Wikipedia pages to make them more accurate. I thought this was an interesting and creative way to utilize OER’s in a course to not only create learning for the students, but to facilitate the learning of others as well. I think it’s great that you made the connection between Wikipedia and OER’s before reading the Topic 4 resource.
You mentioned that it’s remarkably difficult to achieve equity and equal access in non-open learning environments because they are designed to be closed. Why do you think these non-open environments are designed this way? Do you think there is a way to achieve equality and equal access in non-open environments?
When I think about the reason why most learning environments are closed, I always think it’s for the safety of young students. I wonder how teachers can use Open Teaching Practices in their elementary school classrooms when they need to consider all the safety concerns connected to the internet?

I decided to continue my reflection using Ayden’s question as a prompt and dive deeper into the concept of OER’s.

According to Mentor (2007), some of the major reasons why closed-environment learning is still prevalent are:

• Privacy: Privacy is incredibly hard to ensure in an open environment. In a closed environment, its very nature is to hide information from persons without the requisite access. Schools are mandated to protect essential student records and view closed environments like traditional classrooms or LMSes as a preferred solution. Through my learning in this course, I’ve realized that it is possible to engage in an open environment in a way that still protects students. FOr example, in EDCI 337, although my reflections are public, my final grades will not be.
• Property: Intellectual property and copyrights concerns are also presented as disadvantages of open learning environments. I share in the skepticism because ideas are often stolen without proper accreditation. For example, as a computer science major, if I were to make a contribution to an open environment that is innovative, I’d be worried about that contribution being potentially used for gain by another person. Although we learn by examining the teaching practices of others (Huber and Hutchings, 2005), there is a fear that educators might copy other educators’ materials verbatim without giving proper credit to the originator of the content.
• Corporate Publishing: The author asserts that corporate interests dissuade the use of an open learning environment. Publishing companies make profits from selling content. They view open learning tools like OER’s to their business success. Subsequently, they may parlay their influence keep the use of their products in a closed environment to ensure copyright protection and sustained profits.

Are OERs efficacious?

After exploring OERs as they relate to equity and accessibility, I wanted to explore how effective they were in supporting learning.

Grewe & Davis, 2017, collated various studies that focused on the effectiveness of OERs in high schools and universities.

Their research showed that in the limited sample size, students who made used of OERS performed similarly or better than their counterparts who used only traditional textbooks. This is very promising because it shows that OERs reduce the cost of learning (by eliminating the cost of textbooks) while improving learning or at the very least, not negatively learning.

Concluding Thoughts  

After exploring many resources regarding OERs, I see that they have a place in education. While they cannot single-handedly fix the issues of equity and access, they provide some solutions to otherwise nuanced issues.

Here are some links to useful OERs as suggested by the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellency (Open Educational Resources (OER) in Canada, 2019):

• https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/
• eCampusOntario: Open Library
• Manitoba Open Textbook Initiative
• Sol*r: Shareable Online Learning Resources
• Coursera
• EdX
• MIT OpenCourseWare
• OpenLearn
• OER Commons
• OpenStax College

References

Mentor, K. (2007). Open access learning environments. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring101/mentor101.htm.