The title of this post is cryptic on purpose. Topic 2 of ONL202 has prompted questions about the need for more open education, the (quantifiable) availability of education and of knowledge, the reasons for and against increased openness in higher education, to name but a few. But openness is not uncontroversial. The focus of this post is on opening existing courses to external participants (‘open boundary courses’)[2] rather than creating new MOOC courses or similar. Specifically, I consider the advantages and disadvantages of wider participation in traditionally (very) closed courses forming part of degree programmes.
The discussion on Topic 2 of the ONL202 has been an eye-opener insofar as almost all higher education I have received and given (up to the point of starting the ONL) has been of a ‘closed’ nature. The exception has been the wonderful possibility as a master student in the Neitherlands to take courses at other Dutch universities – an example of quasi-openness as enrolment as a student was required as well as prior consent from both the home and the host university. This has prompted me to think about the advantages and disadvantages of conducting my own teaching in an open, accessible format.
Some of the main reasons for opening courses to a wider range of participants are finances and building the reputation of the institution. If neither offer an immediate benefit for the particular degree programme, e.g. if no tuition fee is charged and the regular intake to the programme is highly competitive, would it make sense to open individual courses to non-institutional learners?
I agree with David Wiley [1] that the amount of expertise does not diminish as a result of being shared. Problems mainly concern the usually limited resources and whether the benefits of opening existing courses for open participation would weigh up the costs. Since a curriculum features progression from one course to another, the aims and content of later courses builds on knowledge and skills obtained in the earlier ones. Whereas ‘open boundary courses'[2] can in several ways be mutually beneficial for on-campus and open learners, I doubt whether unequal starting ground in terms of previous knowledge would benefit the achievement of learning outcomes for either group of participants. Separate MOOCs which aim at a ‘leisure learners'[2] specifically, are not concerned with that problem but do not benefit from the same integration effects as an open boundary course either.
I believe that opening existing courses in a degree programme up for participation from other institutions, including from other countries, might be the compromise solution for offering educational benefits for the external participants while maintaining or even increasing the quality of the education received from the course. The latter may be particularly true for very specialised advanced courses which may otherwise struggle with attracting a critical number of participants. Having personally experienced the benefits, it is certainly a kind of an open course that I would be happy to teach.
References:
- Wiley, D. (2010) Open education and the future. TEDxNYED talk 03/06/10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M
2. Weller, M. (2014) The Battle for Open: How openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bam
