Access to education is part of the United Nations Declarations on Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality education), yet many people all around the world do not have access to this very vital factor for successful living and national development. Open education is a collective term for referring to many practices and activities that have both openness and education at their core and this concept is one that is emerging fast and becoming very popular because it is considered an avenue for removing barriers to education; making it free and open for everyone in all parts of the world irrespective of race, age, class, religious or any other bias.
There are many perceived benefits of open education and its practices, the major one being its ability to provide an additional means by which people can access knowledge and engage in lifelong learning. However, there have been many discussions about the degree of “openness” of open education. “Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose (subject to requirements preserving provenance and openness). In other words, open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose. The issue of accessibility to data and content, participation in and contribution to it are of great relevance to the concept.
There are many qualities and characteristics attached to the state of being open but they are all dependent on individual's ability to access, participate in, and take advantage of the full benefits of open education. In the proposed presentation, the researchers intend to bring to the fore as well as engage and interrogate some important aspects of openness such as free availability, barriers to possible usage of the resource (whether technical, legal or price), among others. Specifically, this paper will also conduct a critical review of literature with the aim of contextualizing and conceptualizing open education across the world, narrowing the discussion down to both the developed and developing worlds with specific focus on the extent of participation of these two divides. Countries are at various stages of Open Education Resources (OER) acceptance: many are still on raising its awareness and potential benefits while others are dealing with digital divide issues or struggling with business models and sustainability issues. Conclusively, the researchers will talk about some barriers to harnessing the full benefits of open education and accessibility to open education resources.
After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
- Understand open education better
- Get insight into best practices of open education all over the world
- See disparities in open education practices in different regions of the world
- Identify reasons for the disparities in open education practices
- Get a better understanding of open education resources and attached technologies
