When this topic started, understanding of the topic was vague and unclear. How do you define open learning?

Education is, first and foremost, an enterprise of sharing. In fact, sharing is the sole means by which education is effected. If an educator is not sharing what he or she knows with students, there is no education. No sharing No education!

What is open sharing? I had to give this some good thought. It is a larger audience that goes beyond just our students. Material is more accessible so you can access material when you require. It also give access to material to some at no cost. Pedagogies, recorded videos, live webinars, slide shows. These are all open sharing.

This provides flexible learning, and an opportunity to learn without it being time dependant. It is now open to a larger audience as mentioned and openness and sharing is greatly student centred. Technology has evolved over several years and the various platforms available has made sharing possible. Each students approach learning very differently and the many platforms would allow for the specific needs of the different groups of students. Open Learning is really about access and achieving.

Many of South Africa’s population still struggle with access to internet and the affordability of data, when compared to the rest of the world. For this reason online learning has taken longer to take off in SA. However educational institutions are confident that online learning will play a big role in the advancing of higher education in the near future. Therefore the open online sharing will definitely, with all its advantages add value to online learning. The challenges that present itself need some attention. In time it will be resolved..