Erik Christiansen | Posted March 5, 2024
Open Education Week is a global celebration that showcases the potential and power of open education. Established over a decade ago, Open Education Week brings together educators, students, educational developers, and librarians to raise awareness for this educational movement and to reshape the ways we teach and learn.
At its core, open education is about dismantling barriers to learning. It is a philosophy that champions the creation, sharing, and adaptation of educational resources through open licenses such as the Creative Commons. By embracing openness, we are not just sharing knowledge; we are inviting collaboration and innovation in teaching and learning processes.
Mount Royal highlights open education in its most recent academic plan under “inclusive and accessible programming,” and defines it as “… a movement that aims to make education more accessible, participatory and transparent by incorporating open teaching practices, open-access research and open learning materials.” These open learning materials are referred to as open educational resources (OER).
OER are the building blocks of open education, encompassing any type of educational material that is freely available and modifiable. OER cover a wide range of formats, from complete courses (such as MIT OpenCourseWare), to open textbooks, to individual course activities and lesson plans.
In an era where the cost of educational materials is soaring, OER are more important than ever. Traditional publishing models often restrict access through high costs and limited digital availability (see our previous blog posts relating to this subject here and here), making it challenging for libraries like ours to provide these essential resources. For example, e-textbooks purchased by students are often only available digitally for a set period of time (often 180 days) functioning more like a subscription service rather than a tangible object they can carry into the future. Open textbooks and OER can offer cost-effective, high-quality, digital alternatives that are accessible and can be adapted to meet diverse learning needs.
The open education movement is rapidly evolving, with peer review programs and advanced publishing platforms enhancing the quality and credibility of OER. These initiatives are crucial in addressing concerns about the quality of open resources and ensure that they meet rigorous academic standards.
At MRU, we champion open education through initiatives like OER grants, saving students significant costs and providing hands-on OER development experience. Looking ahead, we invite proposals for our 2025 OER grants, supporting the creation and adaptation of open educational resources.
As part of Open Education Alberta, MRU Library collaborates with post-secondary institutions across Alberta to support and enrich our provincial open textbook catalogue. We also spotlight Open Champions on our website, showcasing faculty engaged in open projects that enhance teaching and learning. Check out the Open at MRU page to see projects by faculty on campus.
Interested faculty members can engage with open education in various ways. Try adopting an existing OER textbook, sharing your course materials under a Creative Commons license, replacing a paid resource with links to resources in our library catalogue, or engaging in open pedagogy projects with your students.
Beyond our vibrant campus network, you can also get involved with open education through organizations such as Open Education Global, the Open Ed Conference, and the SPARC Network.
The library is one of the campus resources here to support your open education endeavors, offering expertise from our subject librarians and resources on open access publishing, data, and educational resources. Our copyright guide and advisor provide essential guidance on open licensing and fair dealing. For those interested in textbook creation, we offer Pressbooks training and support. To get involved with our OER grants or learn more about open education support, visit our website or contact us directly (oergrants@mtroyal.ca). Together, we're advancing a culture of openness and innovation in education at MRU.
If you have a project you think would be suitable for our OER grant, please send us a note at oergrants@mtroyal.ca or visit our OER guide for eligibility details.
Open Education Week 2024 runs from March 4 to 8 and serves as a reminder of the collective power of openness in education. By participating in this movement, we are not just making education more accessible, we are advancing a culture of collaboration and innovation.
For everything open education, please visit library.mtroyal.ca/open
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