Open-Education Movement

The topic I chose for this course is ‘Racial and ethnic diversity in higher education in America.’
Based on your reading of The Open Education Movement: Is This the Future of
Education? which is required for this week, how does this movement fit with the original
historical purpose of higher education and the history of your identified topic for this
course?

Brons (2017) defines open education (OE) as ” philosophy about the way people should
produce, share, and build on knowledge.” the open education movement is founded on the belief
that everyone across the world should have access to quality education. One of the reasons why
open education was introduced was to eliminate the barriers that hinder people from accessing
high-quality education and educational resources. Digitalized learning materials and the
development of the world wide web in the late twentieth century made education freely and
openly accessible to learners, educators, and self-directed learners. It became possible to reuse
and modify learning materials to fit the teaching, learning, and research needs of various scholars
and students across the globe.

The goals of the open education movement fit with the original historical purpose of
higher education. Initially, education was traditionally shared face to face between learners and
educators. Historically, higher education was aimed at providing knowledge and skills to people,
as this exposed them to many opportunities for advancement. Higher education was costly and
was more accessible to the wealthy class who could afford the costs of education. It was realized
that high school education was not sufficient to meet the complex needs of the world. Thus,
higher education equipped people with advanced knowledge and skills to meet the technical

demands in the labor market. Education could only be offered face to face, and thus
geographical location was a factor in determining a person’s eligibility to pursue education.
However, with the introduction of open education, the geographical gap was bridged. Students
could access education remotely without having to travel to sit in a traditional classroom. The
open education movement has enhanced diversity in higher education (Kumi-Yeboah et al.,
2019).

Open education has attracted a large number of students in the recent past. Consequently,
this has brought to the online classroom individuals with varying viewpoints of social,
intellectual, and cultural experiences. Students from different racial, ethnic, and cultural
backgrounds have come together in online classrooms. Students from different geographical
locations, such as different states and countries, come together and take part in discussion forums
within online classrooms. Open education has thus enhanced diversity and opened doors for
students from across the globe to get access to quality education and learning materials. This has,
in turn, enhanced racial and ethnic diversity in higher education.

What changes or trends do you see immediately impacting higher education teaching and
learning environment as a result of open education?

Open education has changed the way in which instructors interact with students. Luyt
(2013) holds that open education has made online learning studies to concentrate on a one-size-
fits-all approach for learning. Open education attracts a diverse pool of students with different
cultural, racial, ethnic, and even religious backgrounds. The strategy used in online studies does
not factor in the impact that cultural background has on the individual learning process. It is like
open education aims at preserving dominant practices and operates on the assumption that all

students will fit into the system and will adapt to it. A study done by Mittelmeier et al. (2016)
revealed that social-cultural factors such as social network diversity and cultural background
influence participation when students interact in an online classroom. Culture shapes how
students interact, share ideas and communicate in online learning environments. Due to such
differences, studies in the recent past have indicated possible miscommunication as students take
part in online discussions. Thus, although open communication has enhanced diversity in higher
education, changes in the mode of teaching could affect the success of differentiated learning.
The instructional strategies used are limited, and these could hinder the possibility of the
instructor to meet the individual needs of the diverse student population (Richardson et al.,
2017).

Discuss the correlation or possible conflict (laws and state or federal regulations) between
your chosen topic and the open-education movement. How do these two topics intersect?

Every Student Succeeds Acts gives direction on the kind of learning resources that should
be used in open education. It states that “openly licensed content” can be used to facilitate digital
learning and strengthen student’s educational experiences. The law allows states to use grants
provided to make instructional content widely available to students. Title IV provides guidelines
on how to enhance student achievement by increasing the financial capacity of individual states
and consequently learning institutions. The laws correlate as they provide guidelines that allow
every student access to quality learning materials. The funds are aimed at improving learning
conditions for all students, thus enhancing diversity.

References

Brons, M. (2017). The open education movement: Is this the future of education? Knowledge
Cultures, 5(1), 68-84. https://doi.org/10.22381/KC5120176
Kumi-Yeboah, A., Dogbey, J., Yuan, G., & Amponsah, S. (2019). Cultural Diversity in Online
Learning: Perceptions of Minority Graduate Students. In Care and Culturally Responsive
Pedagogy in Online Settings (pp. 230-251). IGI Global.
Luyt, I. (2013). Bridging spaces: Cross-cultural perspectives on promoting positive online
learning experiences. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 42(1), 3-20.
Mittelmeier, J., Rienties, B., Tempelaar, D., Hillaire, G., & Whitelock, D. (2018). The influence
of internationalised versus local content on online intercultural collaboration in groups: A
randomised control trial study in a statistics course. Computers & Education, 118, 82-95.
Richardson, J. C., Maeda, Y., Lv, J., & Caskurlu, S. (2017). Social presence in relation to
students’ satisfaction and learning in the online environment: A meta-analysis. Computers
in Human Behavior, 71, 402-417.