Open? Closed? Or both?

CC BY

Reflections on topic 2, ONL 181

Open educational resources - fantastic opportunities
Why don’t the students sometimes use any of the textbooks that are obligatory textbooks in my courses? A question often discussed in the coffee-room. Is it possible to take a course without its recommended textbooks? Of course, it is. It sometimes causes problem when I refer to the course text book and they don’t have it. Maybe they use other textbooks? Textbooks for free? 

I have just found – after reading a free and a very nice handbook with the title Teaching in a Digital Age, chapter 10 (1) – a fantastic book in anatomy and physiology that is for free. Open and free! And then I become suspicious and feel that it has to be some hidden agenda here? Or is it really for free? For me and for everyone? I would like to present to you an open Stax resource in - yes:  Anatomy and Physiology (2). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, which means that you can distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors. Information of Creative Common you can find in one of the films in topic 2 in ONL181 (3).

Open or closed courses or both?

I love to give lectures and to have my students in front of me. I also like the interaction when meeting them alive and when I follow them in different learning situations. They become individuals to me. I have only closed courses in the platform called Mymoodle were all the material is produced by me or the other teachers on the course. Here I need to learn a new role. The courses given are both campuses based where I meet my students often and in real life and online based where they meet me, the teacher much more often than I, the teacher meet them. At least it feels that way.

There is an interesting movie presented in ONL181 topic 2, about two different learning environments – the first one being learning management system where Mymoodle are placed (4). Some of the advantages with this type of management system are presented in this movie. For instance, the students work is safe in a protected environment.  Also, the teacher’s communication to the students are protected. That is safe and feels secure even though I have found some presentations and materials over the years that have “gone public” without my knowledge. So, the feeling of secureness is maybe false?

And then there is the second free open access environment where Flickr, Tweet, You Tube amongst other places are included. Advantages and disadvantages with this are also presented (4).  To introduce somethings that can “go open” in the courses and still keep most of it closed, is definitely a way to start. The limits of going open is probably also a matter of not knowing how and where. And the question remains: who is going to pay for it?

It is not only the openness but also the online part that sometimes troubles me. The online courses with recorded lectures and meetings in the computer have changed the teachers work totally. If the work as a teacher ends up with only examining different parts and not being a part during the way to the examinations, then this work is maybe not as attractive as it has been. Or I need to change my way to look at this. And to find new opportunities to interact with the students, as a teacher. 

1) Bates, T. (2015). Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Teaching and Learning. 

2OpenStax College. (2018). Anatomy and Physiology, October 3, 2018. https://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11496/1.12/.

3) Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.(2012).Creative Commons guide. 

4) Watson, K. (2014) Learning management system or the open web?, Learning to teach online UNSW.