Open educational practices refer to collaborative approaches that involve the creation, use, and adaptation of open educational resources, alongside pedagogical methods that leverage participatory technologies and social networks to foster interaction, peer learning, knowledge co-creation, and learner empowerment.
What can open educational practices be from a teacher’s point of view?
Here are some ideas on what you can do:
Freely accessible and openly licensed educational materials e.g. textbooks, lecture notes, videos
Open licenses associated with OER typically allow users to adapt, modify and redistribute the materials
Openness offers students the opportunity to develop and share educational materials
Teachers instructing the same course can use materials that a colleague of theirs has opened. Support collaborative efforts.
Open educational resources can also be flexibly used in distance learning, without a university user account.
Peer-learning allowing students to co-write assignments
Students writing or editing Wikipedia articles
Students contributing to textbook creation
Asking students to teach particular topics or processes to their classmates
Allowing students to choose a format for completing assignments such as videos, graphics or papers
Practicing peer review: students assess each other’s outputs.
Students creating instructional videos or visual guides that are shared online or in another open forum e.g. in the aoe.fi.
A massive open online course (MOOC) is a model for delivering learning content online to any person who wants to take a course, with no limit on attendance. In MOOCs, the learning experience and materials are accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. As a result, MOOCs can change the world of learning by providing open and flexible learning opportunities for everyone.
Examples of MOOCs:
Elements of AI: A massive open online course (MOOC) teaching the basics of artificial intelligence. The course, originally launched in 2018, is designed and organized by the University of Helsinki and learning technology company MinnaLearn. Over one million people from 170 different countries have learned the basics of AI through Elements of AI, making it one of the most popular online courses in the world to date. The course has been translated into 26 languages.
Climate University: A network of higher education institutions and other stakeholders to foster climate and sustainability education in higher education and in the society. Currently, 28 Finnish higher education institutions, including UEF, have signed cross-study agreements that allow all students from these institutions to take Climate University courses.
Co-create or ask for student input on course contents and practices.
Write an article.
Conference presentation – share best practices.
Collaborate with other experts in different groups and forums.
What can open educational practices be from the student’s point of view?
In open education a learner is seen as an active agent who promotes the use of high-quality open educational practices through their own actions.
Here are some examples of how open educational practices can be seen from a learner’s point of a view:
Plan your learning process by making use of open education opportunities like OER and MOOCs.
Share openly the skills you acquired through open education.
Remember:
OEP often involve networked communities where learners and educators interact, create knowledge together, and contribute beyond the classroom.
You have now learnt that open education is an integral part of open science. It refers to educational practices and resources that are freely accessible, openly licensed, and designed to remove barriers to learning. There are many ways you can open up your teaching. Which ones could be yours?
