Presentation
Opening Up as the World Shuts Down: Empowering Students to Advocate for Equitable Access and Social Justice by Becoming Open Education Influencers
OEGlobal Annual Conference
(2020)
Abstract
In this panel discussion, stakeholders share insights, reflections, lessons and challenges of collaborating under lockdown, meeting and connecting for Open, from multiple spaces around the world. Becoming an Open Education Influencer (BOEI) is an Open, online empowerment course started through the Open Education Influencers (OEIs) (http://openedinfluencers.mandela.ac.za) project at Nelson Mandela University (South Africa). BOEI aims to support pathways for individuals and groups wishing to influence decision-makers, and those who want to affect decision-making and challenge practices through direct actions and advocacy.
BOEI is part of the Open Education for a Better World programme’s project cohort, engaging across the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals. In 2020 with the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown across the globe, an international collaboration was born, with BOEI opening up as the world was shutting down. Stakeholders include the University of Massachusetts Amherst, The Open University UK, ProductionHauss, and the OEIs from MandelaUni.Starting as a conversation at OEGlobal 2019 in Milano, Italy, MandelaUni and UMass Amherst explored possibilities for collaboration between institutions. Open education initiatives at UMass Amherst had been strengthening since 2011, with programs focused on faculty transitioning to open publishing, and providing low or no-cost textbooks (www.library.umass.edu/oer/open-education-initiative/).
Understanding that students outside of official student governance had little notion of what OER was or how to bring it to their classes, the BOEI program presented itself as an opportunity to educate and empower learners to advocate for themselves. The original intent was to start with engaging the library peer leaders with BOEI, then broaden to other institutions. The plan seemed clear and initial conversations went well, and then the world came to a screeching halt. The collaboration moved forward despite the pandemic, and designing the curriculum for BOEI took on a life of its own, enabling opportunity for professional development and engagement with Open Education.
The collaborative nature of the curriculum design and development process combined unique, global skills that could translate content from paper to the digital realm, ultimately bringing it to life. While the future of learning is still so uncertain for many, the case for OE has been elevated. Teachers from all over the world are leveraging online resources to make equitable access to education achievable for global learners.
Keywords
- Open Education,
- Sustainable Development Goals,
- SDG,
- UNESCO,
- OE4BW,
- Open Educational Resources,
- OER,
- Open Education Practices,
- OEP,
- Creative Commons,
- MOOC,
- Open Moodle,
- Moodle,
- Online Learning,
- Self-Paced Learning,
- Social Justice,
- Educational Equity,
- Asynchronous Learning,
- Global South,
- South Africa,
- Ubuntu,
- BOEI,
- OPen Education Influencer
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall November 16, 2020
Location
Virtual
Citation Information
Sarah C Hutton, Theresa Dooley, Annette M Vadnais, Gino Fransman, et al.. "Opening Up as the World Shuts Down: Empowering Students to Advocate for Equitable Access and Social Justice by Becoming Open Education Influencers" OEGlobal Annual Conference (2020) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sarah_hutton/21/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY International License.