Access to varied knowledge

 

Open education: a variety of disciplines, knowledge, players and methods to promote “learning to learn” skills

 

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Authors

Sophie Depoterre (sophie.depoterre@uclouvain.be) is a pedagogical advisor responsible for open education at the Louvain Learning Lab, UCLouvain.

Yves Deville (Yves.Deville@uclouvain.be) is a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain (UCLouvain).

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Imagine a learner who, in a single day, can take a course on ocean biodiversity, explore emerging technologies such as AI and test their programming skills. Open education provides access to a wide range of disciplines, knowledge and media in a variety of ways, promoting diversity of learning. 

Let’s look at eight elements we believe characterise open education in all its variety:

1. A wide range of disciplines

Open education allows all learners to explore a wide range of subjects and disciplines before choosing their path to higher education. By accessing free online courses and diversified educational resources, they gain a better understanding of their own interests and aptitudes, which helps them to make a more informed choice for higher education.

2. Variety of media and approaches

Videos, podcasts, exercises, assessments, tutorials, infographics, case studies, online courses: these are all educational materials that can be shared freely on the Internet, enriching and energising any learning experience for both learners and teachers. 

This diversity of media and teaching approaches not only enriches learners’ knowledge, but also helps them to develop critical thinking skills and a global understanding of the world.

3. Variety of repositories and meta-search engines

There are many repositories and meta-search engines where you can find open educational resources or OER. Explore them to find out which ones are best suited to your needs. 

OER repositories host their own resources and are structured by collection, discipline, institution or media type. Meta-search engines reference OER metadata hosted on several repositories.

Through the OER repositories and meta-search engines, authors share their resources with the whole world.

4. Variety of uses

An OER allows free access to an individual resource, whether for reading, integration into a work or redistribution. But different OERs can be structured into learning pathways, forming an Open Courseware. These courses can then be made available to learners via a Learning Management System (LMS).

5. Variety of licenses

The various Creative Commons licenses offer flexible options for sharing, reusing and adapting content to individual needs and local contexts. The author of free content can choose the license according to the type of sharing desired and the conditions of use.

6. Geographical and temporal diversity

Open education makes it possible to access online educational resources from anywhere at any time. Whether you’re a student living in a remote region or a professional looking for training outside working hours, open education eliminates the constraints of location and time.

7. Diversity of target audiences

Open education can meet the needs of all learners who want to enrich their knowledge or develop their skills: students, future students and lifelong learners.

Teachers and trainers will be able to draw on a variety of materials and new teaching approaches tested by their peers to enrich their own teaching and dare to innovate in their courses. In turn, these same teachers and trainers will be able to inspire their peers and share their own resources, helping to enhance their work and professional experience.

8. Diversity of contributors

We find this same diversity among the authors of open educational resources. Teachers, trainers, students, citizens, administrations and companies are all contributors to open education insofar as they participate in the wider dissemination of knowledge in their field.

 

Open education offers learners free access to a wide variety of media, teaching methods and online courses, stimulating self-learning. By having the freedom to choose when, where and how they learn, learners become more autonomous, responsible and involved in their own education. This autonomy fosters the development of the “learning to learn” skill, essential for adapting to constant societal change and new knowledge in our rapidly evolving world.

Open education not only democratises access to knowledge, it also cultivates learners from all backgrounds and profiles who are able to continue learning throughout their lives.

It’s this richness and variety that makes open education so valuable!

 

Please note that this article has been translated with the help of artificial intelligence and reviewed by individuals who are not professional translators. Despite our efforts to ensure accuracy and fidelity, errors or inaccuracies may remain. Feel free to let us know at: chaireunescorelia@univ-nantes.fr