The second module of Open Networked Learning focused on the concepts of sharing and openness. With advanced technology, it is very common these days for instructors and students to make use of free open resources for their teaching and learning (Rai, 2020). I myself usually compile free resources available on the internet and provide them to my students via our own closed learning management system but it is time to consider what these resources means for teaching and learning in general as well as in what ways we can contribute to the open resources that are available out there.

As our group was trying to unpack the idea of open learning and coming up with our presentation to conceptualize this notion, we figured that open learning and sharing open resources were more complex than we had initially thought. While we agree that knowledge should be considered a common good and be accessible as openly as possible, we ran into several factors that prevented academic institutions from providing free resources completely openly. For instance, the accreditation process makes it impossible for us to provide free academic learning resources to everyone without any forms of assessments at all. The cost of producing open resources is another factor inhibiting factor.

Luo, Hostetler, Freeman, and Stefaniak (2020) conducted a systematic review of literature on Open Educational Resources (OER) and found that discoverability, sustainability and remixing are barriers to the open resources but they can be used effectively to creating supporting learning outcomes. In other words, while there are challenges in producing and using open resources, there are great potentials of using these materials to enhance students’ learning.

In my own teaching practices, I started to develop some open resources that I believe are beneficial to my students in various classes. These resources are possibly useful for other colleagues who may find my videos useful in their own teaching. I have develop both concept specific videos that cover concepts that student need to understand in my discipline as well as videos that share some instructional strategies. The complexities, barriers, and potentials that I have learned in this module will guide my consideration of adopting and developing more open educational resources in the future.

References

Luo, T., Hostetler, K., Freeman, C., & Stefaniak, J. (2020). The power of open: Benefits, barriers, and strategies for integration of open educational resources. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 35, 140-158. doi: 10.1080/02680513.2019.1677222

Rai, L. (2020). The shifting landscape of open and distance learning. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 35, 1-3. doi: 10.1080/02680513.2019.1704233