Topic 1: Open practice (2019/0)

How does ‘open’ intersect your practice and work?

[Image: rows of windows on a building, one of which is open] Is it enough to open a window; should we put up a ladder? Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

Archived page: This page relates a session held on 5 Feb 2020. Past participants can use this page to review materials as they appeared at the time.

This topic encourages you to think about what ‘open’ can mean in practice in Higher Education (HE) and more broadly what it may mean for the sector. We hope you are able to look through this page and leave a response before the session — if you are pushed for time, head for the essential preparation.

In the session, we hear from Chrissi Nerantzi (Manchester Metropolitan University; Global OER Graduate Network) and Jane Gallagher (University of Manchester; OKHE 2018/9), whose bios you can read on our Guests page. Chrissi will start the unit with a provocation: “openness as uncreative practice” and Jane will discuss her experiences and philosophy as an open educator in her role as curator at the John Rylands Library.

Topic 1 guests: Chrissi Nerantzi (left) and Jane Gallagher. Photos used with permission. Full bios.

The first essential preparation post is by Jane, and was a submission for the first assessment, OKHE1. You can explore the archive via the OKHE1 link on the homepage.

Essential preparation

All we ask is that before the session, you read one blog post, watch/read the slides for one presentation, and comment with your response to one question.

• Post: How Open is Open? by Jane Gallagher (OKHE 2018/9, guest in the session).
• Video: Considering Open Education by Catherine Cronin — recording of an OKHE session from Jan 2018: Slides with text | Lecture capture*
• Question: “What makes something open? What are the criteria for open?” — please comment below with your response.

* Due to the way this recording was created, we are sorry that we are unable to make it open access; it is only available to EDUC66092 participants.

Further reading

Choose from the below to develop your understanding and views further, whether before or after the session.

• Free lunches and business ethics: the relevance to open education & OER by Julian Satterthwaite (OKHE 2018/9)
• Open: on reaching ‘everyone, everywhere’ by Laura Bond-Sykes (OKHE 2016/7) asks whether we are ‘there yet’ with openness in HE.
• Open for Business by Anne Hesketh (OKHE 2016/7) looks at a few aspects of open practice in HE against the idea of universities as businesses.
• Open Education, Open Questions, by Catherine Cronin, explores ideas of critical openness and identity.
• This UNESCO report assesses the impact of different aspects of ‘open’ in education, looking at teaching & learning, research and policy.

What do you think?

Consider your response to this question:

What makes something open? What are the criteria for open?

Leave a comment

After reading and thinking about this topic, please comment below to share an idea or response. You may find Creating a Medium account useful. Any questions, you can contact the course leaders via Blackboard.