Overview
Open learning has the potential to transform education by lowering costs for students, diversifying the range of perspectives included in course materials, engaging students more actively in their learning, and ultimately improving student learning outcomes. However, realizing the possibilities afforded by open learning requires much more than exchanging expensive textbooks for open education resources. What conceptual understandings and proficiencies do educators need to help their learners reap the maximum benefit of open learning?
This site was developed as a companion to a presentation at the 2022 Annual Form on Open Learning and ePortfolios, sponsored by the American Association of Colleges & Universities. It includes a set of 6 Open Educator proficiencies that were derived from EDU6632 Open Learning, a fully- online Master’s course offered through the Graduate School of Education at Northeastern. The site also includes assignments designed to cultivate the 6 proficiencies and student reflections about their learning.
The Proficiencies
Proficiency 1: Origins and Context
Identify the diverse roots of Open Learning that are most relevant to your interests and needs as an educator.
Proficiency 2: Information Fluency
Locate and evaluate high quality open education resources that are most relevant to a given teaching scenario.
Proficiency 3: Curation
Curate an intentional, strategic collection of OERs that are most relevant to to the goals for learning in a given teaching scenario.
Proficiency 4: Learning Experience Design
(Re)design an online learning experience, integrating/adapting OERs that support and further the learning outcomes. Author/refine original collateral materials.
Proficiency 5: Education Technology
Stage an OER-integrated learning experience in an online learning platform, making effective use of tools and media. Decide and assign CC license attributes.
Proficiency 6: Open Pedagogy
Facilitate an online mini-course you developed that engages learners in authentic, collaborative work. Participate and provide feedback on an online learning experience developed and facilitated by a peer.
Licensing Information
Feel free to adapt, but please credit the source and also pay it forward by making your work available to others under CC. Note that some materials, such as the course syllabus, are copyrighted by Northeastern University.
