Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Open Universities

Open Universities. It sounds like such a noble idea-provide educational opportunities to those that seek it to meet their personal professional objectives. But, does it really fulfill mission? Are the resources being applied equitably and are they helping their societies or widening existing divides?

The first large scale open university was the Open University United Kingdom which emerged in the late 1960's. This model has since been adapted and replicated around the world. It was not the first institution to attempt to offer education to everyone they serve, but did set standard for creating an autonomous, distance education-based educational system designed as an open university.

Part of reaching a wider population is the ability to offer education at an affordable price. Open universities tend to be large to benefit from economies of scale. As the number of students increases, the cost of producing learning material and providing centralized services is spread across a larger population thus resulting in a reduced per-learner cost to the institution. This industrialized model tends to work well in a traditional DE framework. However, as the demand for increased student interaction grows, institutions are facing the challenge of how to provide those interactive resources without increasing the cost beyond what their target learner can afford. Many OUs accomplish this through tutors, facilitators  or learning centers where students can access education specialists other than the professor or content specialists.

Another challenge for the OU institutions is how to meet their diverse learners' skill without sacrificing the quality of their programs. Some unique solutions emerge by offering courses both inside and outside a degree or certificate program. For example, the Idira Gandhi National Open University, also known as the Peoples' University (www.ignou.ac.in), offers in addition to their formal programs a Flexilearn site which offers free access to educational materials and courses to provide resources to anyone who seeks them. In Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Open University (www.bou.edu.bd) offers both informal classes that do not lead to degrees or certifications, but also does the majority of their DE through broadcasts of lectures on tv and radio to help educate their predominately illiterate population. BOU is also researching ways to improve the interaction levels given their dominant one-way directive broadcast medium.

As the open university, and as other institutions with similar missions begin to offer educational material such as the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) movement, evolve to include freely available content there are concerns about potential negative impacts. Tony Bates expressed concern that open, free content could increase the knowledge divide rather than empower more of the population. There is a concern that the quality of the free content may be lower, that is represents that which an educational institution no longer deems valuable enough to charge for, or is outdated compared to what they offer in their other programs. While this may be a valid concern, there are efforts to minimize that effect. The current MOOC initiatives are examining how to provide quality and effective grading and feedback into a free system, and the BOU informal , model offers the same material as their decreed classes, but at a more affordable price.

The open universities are alive and well and effectively reaching for their goals. They are researching and adapting to meet the changing needs of their diverse learners. Despite the challenges, they are evolving into a popular, important, and increasingly powerful force in the educational community.

No comments:

Post a Comment