Time flies, and we are almost at the end of the Topic 2 now. In this topic we were asked to explore the benefits and challenges of openness in education and learning.

It is a very interesting topic indeed. As all educational resources, there are advantages and disadvantages to Open Education Resources. Especially when we are heading towards a trend during this “new era” nowadays, where distance education is quite common for us. Sure, by having open learning online resources, we can expand the access to knowledge from a classroom full of students to a broader audience. However, there are a couple of areas I’m still a bit unsure, and I can’t really wrap my head around it.

1. Cultural differences & barriers – The whole point for having our courses open is to approach as wider audience as possible. How are we going to deal with language issues? For example, I currently live in Sweden; many courses are only offered in Swedish when those courses are being “opened”, I think the usefulness of those course materials will be limited to non-Swedish speakers.

2. Sustainable? – Traditionally, educators have been paid and one their duties is to make sure the course materials are up to date. When it comes to “Open learning materials”, I can’t see much “incentive” in place for creators to do such thing which with “cost” normally….

I guess I will have to continue the Search & Learn Journey.