Reflection Topic 2: Open Learning – Sharing and Openness

It is still an open question how digital learning is going on to develop “after” the pandemic. I asked a colleague who attended a very interesting conference and she told me the trend was that on universities you will have more blended-learning, in adult education digital learning is still strongly ongoing but in school it will be reduced.
On some universities however it is a topic to create open educational resources. On one hand you can gain a good reputation and on the other hand your institution can contribute to something new and as well quite important. The advantage is that producing for example materials such as videos or audios is cost intensive. If more institutions work together and would share their outcome anybody could benefit.
Of course, using digital tools offers new possibilities. You can reach more persons, learners form different countries as well and you can learn together and have a nice exchange. From the institution´s perspective some issues have to be addressed. First a course should be guided and in case you have many students than you have to sort out how you manage to do that. Or you could as well produce a MOOC for example with maybe hundreds of students without a guidance. But in this case as I have read many don´t finish the course. Maybe due to a lack of motivation. Because when you offer online courses, you should arrange groupworks for students. Therefore, nobody feels alone, motivation is kept high and the drop-out-rate is much lower.
When you choose MOOCs as open format you have a teacher-centered approach. Otherwise with smaller groups you can choose a format where students are the main actors and actresses. The student-centered approach is one that is discussed or wanted on universities. But still often you have the “old school” method of the teacher conducting the lesson and the students being in the more passive role.
Openness would as well mean that minorities have access to the course, people who usually maybe are not qualified to take part because they didn´t finish school for example and the final degree is missing. Therefore, digital environments can open up new forms of courses and engagement. But this does not mean that courses are less expensive for institutions, as sometimes referred to, especially when they are smaller and teachers are providing guidance and support. But in general, all persons can produce free materials using Creative Common Licenses so others can use these freely.
Concerning the technical aspect e.g., Moodle would offer to let your course be accessible from anybody who has the link. But in reality, I guess this would lead to an overload on the platform or other problems. Therefore, I think for smaller groups the university platform can be used, for large once other solutions have to be found.