Mapping the open education landscape: citation network analysis of historical open and distance education research

The term open education has recently been used to refer to topics such as Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Historically its roots lie in civil approaches to education and open universities, but this research is rarely referenced or acknowledged in current interpretations. In this article the antecedents of the modern open educational movement are examined, as the basis for connecting the various strands of research. Using a citation analysis method the key references are extracted and their relationships mapped. This work reveals eight distinct sub-topics within the broad open education area, with relatively little overlap. The implications for this are discussed and methods of improving inter-topic research are proposed

Developing an Institutional open educational practices (OEP) Self Assessment Instrument

As institutions move to considering the implementation of open education environments, it is critical to understand the characteristics and potential success factors for institutional open educational practices. Higher education institutions are changing to meet the needs of contemporary learners, and as a result, there is a need to discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing open education practices in these spaces (Paskevicius, 2017). While there are currently limited institutional case studies on openness to build upon (Morgan, 2018; Childs, Axe, Veletsianos & Webster, 2019), there is potential for the lessons learned from the rich research on blended learning (Lim & Wang, 2017; Graham et. al., 2013) and institutional transformation research (Kezar & Eckel, 2002) to lend insight to potential practices for institutional OEP initiatives. By adopting both an appreciative and critical approach, a draft OEP self-assessment instrument for institutions was created with the intention of examining the similarities and differences between institutional approaches and their evolution. This workshop will provide an overview of the theoretical underpinnings and description of the OEP self-assessment instrument and its component parts. Through small group activities, participants will examine and discuss propositional categories and components of the OEP self-assessment instrument. Participants will complete the online OEP self-assessment instrument and discuss their experience with a focus on expanding their understanding of what others are doing in institutions globally, and improving the OEP instrument for global use. Participants will also identify initiatives and/or approaches that could help expand OEP at their own institutions

Adverse Fetal and Neonatal Outcomes Associated with a Life-Long High Fat Diet: Role of Altered Development of the Placental Vasculature

Maternal obesity results in a number of obstetrical and fetal complications with both immediate and long-term consequences. The increased prevalence of obesity has resulted in increasing numbers of women of reproductive age in this high-risk group. Since many of these obese women have been subjected to hypercaloric diets from early childhood we have developed a rodent model of life-long maternal obesity to more clearly understand the mechanisms that contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes in obese women. Female Sprague Dawley rats were fed a control diet (CON - 16% of calories from fat) or high fat diet (HF - 45% of calories from fat) from 3 to 19 weeks of age. Prior to pregnancy HF-fed dams exhibited significant increases in body fat, serum leptin and triglycerides. A subset of dams was sacrificed at gestational day 15 to evaluate fetal and placental development. The remaining animals were allowed to deliver normally. HF-fed dams exhibited a more than 3-fold increase in fetal death and decreased neonatal survival. These outcomes were associated with altered vascular development in the placenta, as well as increased hypoxia in the labyrinth. We propose that the altered placental vasculature may result in reduced oxygenation of the fetal tissues contributing to premature demise and poor neonatal survival

Open Course Design and Development: A Case Study in the Open Educational Resource University

The purpose of this comparative case study is to explore and examine the practices of open course design and development as they are being undertaken in the Open Education Resource university (OERu) network, an international partnership of member post-secondary institutions. With a focus on the design and development of an OER-based university-level course, the study identifies and describes features of OERu open design and development processes and compares and contrasts them to similar practices in traditional instructional design and the open source software (OSS) development field. The study was conducted in three parts. First, a detailed description of the OERu project and its explicit purposes, structure and logic models was provided. Second, a review of the literature traced conceptual roots of the OERu in the history of reusable learning objects, open educational resources, sharing of learning design knowledge and OSS development, interwoven with the functions of social processes and mediating artifacts in collaborative design settings. Third, data were collected though interviews with developers and analysis of communications, artifacts and developer contribution histories within the OERu WikiEducator development environment. The study concludes that the goal of enabling achievement of university credit through study of free OER-based courses imposes important considerations on the planning stages of open design and development at both course development team and partner institution levels. Further, attention to community development is key to the success of open design and development in the OERu

The Student Experience of Distance Education over Time – A Research Challenge

Introduction This brief essay provides a context for Penelope Rush’s research article titled “Isolation and connection: The experience of distance education” (2015). My aim is to highlight what to me are the two main highlights of this article and their importance to the field of distance education research: a refreshing focus on the sadly neglected field of early distance education research, and welcome attention to the student experience in distance education as a valid area to theorize in ..

Open Universities and Open Educational Practices : A Content Analysis of Open University Websites

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of how open universities depict their current institutional engagement in open educational practices. In view of the growth of programming for non-traditional students by conventional universities, particularly through online learning and increasing interest in open educational practices, the intention is to gain a better understanding of the unique contributions currently made, or potentially to be made, by open universities in comparison to conventional universities. The study is conducted through a content analysis of open university websites, exploring key themes related to access-oriented open educational practices derived from terms and related concepts in relevant literature. With the growth of distance education, online learning, and other emerging access-oriented open educational practices in traditional higher education, open universities should be uniquely situated to provide visible leadership in these domains. The open university website content analysis explores the extent to which this is the case