Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science

by Rajiv S Jhangiani (Editor), Robert Biswas-Diener (Editor)

Affordable education. Transparent science. Accessible scholarship.
These ideals are slowly becoming a reality thanks to the open education, open science, and open access movements. Running separate--if parallel--courses, they all share a philosophy of equity, progress, and justice. This book shares the stories, motives, insights, and practical tips from global leaders in the open movement.

Table of Contents

-Acknowledgements vi
-Contributors vii

INTRODUCTION 1
-Introduction to Open (Robert Biswas-Diener and Rajiv S. Jhangiani) 3
-A Brief History of Open Educational Resources (T. J. Bliss and M. Smith) 9
-Open Licensing and Open Education Licensing Policy (Cable Green) 29
-Openness and the Transformation of Education and Schooling (William G. Huitt and David M. Monetti) 43
-What Can OER Do for Me? Evaluating the Claims for OER (Martin Weller, Beatriz de los Arcos, Rob Farrow, Rebecca Pitt and Patrick McAndrew) 67
-Are OE Resources High Quality? (Regan A. R. Gurung) 79

OPEN PRACTICES 87
-Opening Science (Brian A. Nosek) 89
-Open Course Development at the OERu (Wayne Mackintosh) 101
-From OER to Open Pedagogy: Harnessing the Power of Open (Robin DeRosa and Scott Robison) 115
-Opening Up Higher Education with Screencasts (David B. Miller and Addison Zhao) 125
-Librarians in the Pursuit of Open Practices (Quill West) 139
-A Library Viewpoint: Exploring Open Educational Practices (Anita Walz) 147
-How to Open an Academic Department (Farhad Dastur) 163

CASE STUDIES 179
-The International Journal of Wellbeing: An Open Access Success Story (Dan Weijers and Aaron Jarden) 181
-Iterating Toward Openness: Lessons Learned on a Personal Journey (David Wiley) 195
-Open-Source for Educational Materials Making Textbooks Cheaper and Better (Ed Diener, Carol Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener) 209
-Free is Not Enough (Richard Baraniuk, Nicole Finkbeiner, David Harris, Dani Nicholson and Daniel Williamson) 219
-The BC Open Textbook Project (Mary Burgess) 227
-TeachPsychScience.org: Sharing to Improve the Teaching of Research Methods (David B. Strohmetz, Natalie J. Ciarocco and Gary W. Lewandowski, Jr.) 237
-DIY Open Pedagogy: Freely Sharing Teaching Resources in Psychology (Jessica Hartnett) 245

CONCLUSION 255
-You Can’t Sell Free, and Other OER Problems (Robert Biswas-Diener) 257
-Open as Default: The Future of Education and Scholarship (Rajiv S. Jhangiani) 267

INDEX 281

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The editors have collected 22 papers on the current state of open education -paying particular but not exclusive attention on open access textbooks- and, to a far lesser degree, open science with special emphasis on the field of psychology. It is a very readable collection which provides a good non-technical and enriching perspective on the current (2016) state of affairs.

The papers are grouped into four sections Introduction (6 papers), Open Practices (7 papers), Case Studies (7 papers), and Conclusion (2 papers). The editing process has been very well carried out, so the papers fit together smoothly and without needless repetition, thus making good on the editors’ claim that they constitute chapters.

The first section provides an excellent introduction to current thinking on open education and particularly on open education resources -the current term for what used to be known as open access learning objects. The editors first set the stage in Introduction to Open:

[A]dvances in technology have enabled the marginal cost of education, such as the sharing of resources, to approach zero. This means that barriers to education are now being removed for a broader swath of humanity than at any time in history. What is more, that all people should have equal access to not only job skills-related education but also a liberal arts education is a case that can be made more strongly on a human rights platform than on an economic empowerment platform.
[…]
Unfortunately, educational inequality abounds [...and] are as much a reality in affluent and industrialized societies as they are in developing economies.
[...]
The open education movement offers one possible, partial remedy to educational inequality. The most obvious benefit of open education is in its low cost. The word ‘open,’ in this sense, means ‘allowing access to’ although it is also often equated with ‘free of cost.’ In fact, most open education resources are freely available and even in cases where they are low cost, they still help to drive the market toward a lower price point. By removing or substantially reducing the expense normally associated with software, textbooks, and course fees, education becomes more accessible to more people. The open education movement can also help raise the quality of education for all students because instructors are better able to share and build on one another’s pedagogical innovations. It is here, in the second sense of ‘open,’ meaning customizable by and shareable among instructors, that we have the potential to design more engaging, locally relevant, interactive, and effective teaching resources.

The editors also correctly draw the readers’ attention to the themes that emerge in the papers:

In addition to the obvious focus on access, these include transparency, flexibility, credibility, and creativity. Access concerns scholarly publications, data, required course materials, and, of course, tertiary education itself. Transparency is manifested in the preregistration of research hypotheses, course development on the open web, and faculty reviews of open textbooks. Flexibility includes the contextualization of open educational resources, hybrid delivery models, and flexible learning pathways built across an international network. Credibility is seen in the support of Open Educational Resources (OER) development by professional bodies, leading scholars serving on editorial boards of open access journals, and research on the impact of open textbooks on learning outcomes. And creativity is exhibited by student−creators of OER, collaborative efforts to develop ancillary resources, and the development of licenses, organizations, repositories, and other infrastructure to support the open movement.

The rest of the papers in the Introduction provide an excellent history of the development of open educational resources written from the viewpoint of Hewlett Foundation’s evolving US $170 million strategic efforts over 15 years in this area (A Brief History of Open Education Resources), the crucial role of open licensing efforts by Creative Commons (Open Licensing and Open Education Licensing Policy), research on many of the claims made on open educational resources benefits (What Can OER Do for Me? Evaluating the Claims for OER) with a separate paper devoted to research on the important question of OER quality (Are OE Resources High Quality?). The only chapter which I found disappointing and shallow was the paper which attempted to provide a broader interpretation of the meaning of open education (Openness and the Transformation of Education and Schooling).

The third section (Case Studies) is an excellent one, including fascinating experience reports on setting up a successful open access journal (The International Journal of Wellbeing: An Open Access Success Story), experiences leading to the founding and development of Lumen Learning with its intriguing plan to move beyond open textbooks and instructional design support for OER adopters to address issues such as open competencies. open assessments, and open credentials (Iterating Toward Openness: Lessons Learned on a Personal Journey), Noba’s innovative platform for flexible, modular, high quality textbook integration based on modules written by experts but suject to editorial review. peer review, student review. international review. accessibility review, and empirical review ( Open-Source for Educational Materials Making Textbooks Cheaper and Better.), OpenStax’s economically sustainable approach to producing high quality open textbooks (Free is Not Enough), British Columbia’s groundbreaking BC Open Textbook Project, a showcase example of the use of public funding to produce high quality textbooks (The BC Open Textbook Project), setting up a successful website to teach research methods and statistics (TeachPsychScience.org: Sharing to Improve the Teaching of Research Methods), and blogging (DIY Open Pedagogy: Freely Sharing Teaching Resources in Psychology).

The second section (Open Practices) is the most uneven. Some of its chapters would seem to be more at home in the section on case studies. In particular I was very disappointed by one of the two papers on the role of libraries and also felt the paper on screencasting (Opening Up Higher Education with Screencasts) did not quite come up to scratch. Opening Science is a good but far too brief introduction to a topic which deserves more coverage than this book provides, Open Course Development at the OERu provides an intriguing case study of open course design, while From OER to Open Pedagogy: Harnessing the Power of Open provides several thought-provoking examples of active student involvement in the production of OER. A Library Viewpoint: Exploring Open Educational Practices is an interesting experience report on why so many faculty members still hesitate to adopt OER; How to Open an Academic Department nicely complements the previous paper by a case study on overcoming barriers to faculty engagement with OER by applying a process of cultural change.

The final section (Conclusion) provides each of the two editors space to provide some personal, final reflections (You Can’t Sell Free, and Other OER Problems, and Open as Default: The Future of Education and Scholarship).

In short, an excellent book for anyone interested in the state of open educational resources, with enough web references to let you explore key quality resources, which though they tend to be somewhat biased towards psychology. are interesting and typical enough to provide a worthwhile experience for readers interested in other fields.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most comprehensive and lucid overview of the open education movement that I'm currently aware of. Open access, open science, and open source are covered, but there's an emphasis on OER, as might be expected from the editors' own backgrounds as OER leaders in psychology. Many of the chapter authors are founders of open movements or lead key organizations: Green from Creative Commons, Bliss & Smith from the Hewlett Foundation, and Wiley from Lumen Learning, for example. As a librarian who recently transitioned from a job focusing on open access and copyright to one focusing on OER, I found this book relevant and encouraging. The chapters--whether penned by teachers, librarians, or non-profit administrators--are comprehensible by a general audience. I found the chapters on OER quality and open pedagogy to be the most helpful. The editors' commentary before each chapter (especially with the chapter on "Openness and Transformation of Education and Schooling") was essential to seeing how the whole work fit together.