Openness. Open learning is something not foreign to me. Having been in education for many years, I’ve benefited from open learning thanks to the free online resources available within my fingertips. There is a myriad of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s) on the web, and only my circadian rhythm seems to be the physical limit from learning new skills or languages. Personally, I’ve found that MOOC platforms like Coursera and FutureLearn have been very useful for learning and developing new skills; and so, open learning, without a doubt, gets a big thumbs up for me. However, as we were having our groups discussion on opportunities brought about by open learning, a niggling thought came to mind: am I truly for open learning if what I am only comfortable doing is consuming and benefiting from what is already out there? I am reluctant to share my own materials and putting them out in the open. Then I realised, I only practiced open learning one way, and I’m not fully on board in doing the same. The thought of sharing materials that I developed from scratch to the digital world seems foreign to me. I am used to just creating materials exclusively for my target audience or for my current students. And so the question is, why the one-sided relationship with open learning? Although I’ve gotten a lot out of open learning, I am full of hesitation about the idea of putting my content out there. The quick answer: danger.

Persistent Dangers. The dangers of misunderstanding content in an open learning setup is something that was discussed in our group. This fear seems to resonate with me and perhaps is one of the strongest stumbling blocks that have kept me from completely embracing two-way open learning. It’s not uncommon to see neutral materials online misunderstood and in a worst case scenario even become a trigger to polarize individuals. Words are powerful and can provoke certain emotions and we can get caught unaware of these, only to haunt us later on. As time passes by, words becomes archaic and new politically correct words emerge. This cycle continues and we can’t stop it since the society changes over time. However, materials in the open learning environment are out there for eternity. The danger that future society will judge the material we put out there is in the back of my mind. Without boundaries, without the four corners of the classroom, without a chance to clarify certain points and details, it seems to me that there is a lot of room for possible misinterpretation.

Engagement. Engaging the digital world and connecting with other like-minded individuals to develop online materials is one of the keys to reducing possible misunderstanding and misinterpretation in an open learning setting. Materials developed through collaboration with people from different parts of the world brings about a wealth of knowledge and also helps each other to uncover the blind-sides that we might not be aware of. Working together with openness seems to be a more efficient way of using our resources.

Nurture. Nurturing the opportunities of open online learning rather than focusing on the dangers is the way to go. The advantages of open educational resources (ORE) such as expanded access to learning, the availability of freely accessible and openly licensed materials provides a strong backbone to worry-free open learning. As we nurture the benefits of open learning, more opportunities to learn and to collaborate are created, and some readily available material can even be inspirational.

So am I ready to be better about open learning? I think so. Thanks to the group discussions, I am more open about sharing my work and making a two-way relationship with open learning work.

Reference:

Am I Really Ready For Open Learning?