Reflective Blog on Topic 2 - Open Learning – Sharing and Openness

First of all, I would like to state, for the record, that I am a key believer of sharing educational materials for the benefit of students. However, I feel that there are still challenges that need to be addressed with regards to open learning.

As mentioned in my first reflective blog, Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore, introduced the Masterplans for ICT in Education since 1997. In the Education Technology Plan, teachers are envisioned to be designers and facilitators of meaningful tech-mediated learning. They should be able to:

• Be designers of learning experiences;
• Be skillful practitioners who facilitates active learning by leveraging on technology and learning data, and;
• Be digital learners who develop themselves professionally to learn and share digitally and keep abreast with educational technology.

 

Hence, the path and platform for Singapore educators for sharing and openness are already there. There is also support for teachers and learning resources are shared centrally via the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS) online. There is also professional development programmes where teachers can build new capabilities through sharing and collaboration.

 

While MOE provides support and platform for sharing, collaboration and openness for primary, secondary and junior college level, in my opinion, more could have been done for Singapore universities to adopt open learning. There are efforts such as the UK-Singapore Alliance for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, The Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), and The Singapore-Hebrew University Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE). However, these are alliances between top-tier universities where there are mutual benefits for sharing and openness. There could be more openness for greater inclusion and social diversity in education to benefit not only students, but the whole population in general.

 

From there, my next question is, how willing are educational institutions in sharing their materials especially when they still need the revenue from their content and materials in order to be sustainable? Why are educational institutions reluctant to fully embrace open learning?

 

According to Hylen, (2006), although Open Educational Resources (OER) is popular at the moment, there are three challenges that may suppress the growth of OER. They are; lack of awareness of copyright issues, quality assurance and sustainability of OER initiatives. Stacey (2013) stated that there are lack of policies, strategies and resources in open education.

 

Lacking of awareness in copyright issues and unfamiliarity with open licenses can pose a challenge. Open learning caused educators and researchers to interrelate with licensing like never before and therefore they are either unprepared or unwilling to engage with troublesome licensing procedures.

 

The lack of quality assurance is an issue because there can be a difference in quality as well as non-standardized credit systems and recognition. Some institutions only use branded or reputable institution’s materials. As such, this will lead to another problem, which is the validation of students’ competencies and the recognition of certifications. Will employers be more accepting of open learning certification as compared to diplomas and degrees from traditional universities? How do we set the recognition of competencies through open learning?

 

Institution launching OER programme might also need to look into different models for the long-term stability of the programme. Dholakia (2006) proposes the replacement model; the foundation donation or endowment model; government support model, the segmentation model, conversion model, voluntary support and the contributor-pay model to generate revenue for the programme to be sustainable.

 

With all the challenges stated, is it still worthwhile for educational institution to fully embrace open learning. In my opinion, it is a definite yes. There are steps that can be put in place to make it a success.

 

Moving forward & concluding remarks

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so are the efforts to build a successful open learning framework. Ministry of Education (Singapore), Education Technology journey, for example, took more than twenty years, a few phases and constant improvements to the process before it became an established Educational Technology Plan.

 

As stated by Bachmaier (2021), open education resources can increase visibility, better quality teaching through collaboration and provision of equal access to knowledge.

 

Given time, proper planning, training, good IT infrastructure, in addition to positive collaborations between educational institutions, government bodies, employers and stakeholders, I believe there are boundless possibilities that be achieved from open learning.

 

References

 

Dholakia, U., King, J., Baraniuk, R.: (2006) ”What makes and Open education Program Sustainable? The Case of Connexions” from http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,2340,en_2649_33723_36224352_1_1_1_1,00.html

 

Stacey, P. (2013). Government support for open educational resources: Policy, funding, and strategies. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(2), 67-80

 

Vorschlag zur Zitation des Blogbeitrags: Regine Bachmaier (11. October 2021). Creating and Sharing Open Educational Resources In: Lehrblick - Center for University and Academic Teaching Excellence, https://lehrblick.de/en/creating-and-sharing-open-educational-resources/.

 

Inspirational Materials

Educational Technology Journey: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/educational-technology-journey

 

Educational Technology Plan: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/educational-technology-journey/edtech-plan

 

Policy paper: Singapore-UK joint statement 2021: a partnership for the future: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/singapore-uk-joint-statement-2021-a-partnership-for-the-future/singapore-uk-joint-statement-2021-a-partnership-for-the-future

 

Singapore-MIT Alliance: https://web.mit.edu/sma/about/overview/index.htm

 

Support for teachers: https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/parliamentary-replies/20211101-support-for-teachers

 

16 UK and Singapore Universities Form an Alliance to Accelerate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Collaboration: https://www.singaporetech.edu.sg/digitalnewsroom/16-uk-and-singapore-universities-form-an-alliance-to-accelerate-entrepreneurship-and-innovation-collaboration/