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Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education
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Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 98924

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Carina Soledad González-González

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Computer Engineering and System, University of La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Interests: gamification; e-learning; UX
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. María Soledad Ramírez Montoya

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Humanities and Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, Col. Tecnológico, Monterrey C.P. 64849, N.L., Mexico
Interests: educational innovation; educational entrepreneurship; open educational movement
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Technologies are omnipresent in academic institutions, and they are changing their offerings and their methodologies. In this sense, learning platforms have appended various technological extensions (video conferencing, video streaming, extensions for mobile, devices, digital repositories, learning analytics, blockchain, and others), and they are being integrated into both physical smart campuses and cloud campuses. New innovative methods and strategies are emerging from this technological revolution, such as flipped classroom or mobile learning. Further, there is currently a wide range of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered by different institutions and providers around the world. This openness is raising the visibility of and providing open access to the cultural, scientific, and academic outputs of institutions and democratizing the access to the education of society.

This Special Issue aims to cover all aspects of open education, such as open educational resources (OER), open content, open access initiatives, open learning systems, emerging open learning technologies and innovative methods, as well as any innovation strategies and experiences of open education. Our main goal is to bring ideas about the challenges and future of open education.

We welcome submissions from all topics of open education, including but not limited to the following:

  • Open Educational Resources
  • Open content
  • Open access initiatives
  • Open learning systems
  • Emerging technologies and innovative methods
  • Experiences of Open Education
  • Massive Open Courses
  • Blockchain
  • Learning analytics
  • Legal issues and intellectual property

Dr. Carina Soledad González-González
Dr. María Soledad Ramírez Montoya
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Open Educational Resources
  • Open content
  • Open access initiatives
  • Open learning systems
  • Emerging technologies and innovative methods
  • Experiences of Open Education
  • Massive Open Courses
  • Blockchain
  • Learning analytics
  • Legal issues and intellectual property

Published Papers (17 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 3070 KiB  
Article
Learning Design Decisions in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) Applied to Higher Education in Civil-Engineering Topics
by Eva Gómez-Llanos and Pablo Durán-Barroso
Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8430; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208430 - 13 Oct 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2001
Abstract
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect the relationship among social, economic, and environmental aspects of society. Massive online open courses (MOOCs) represent an opportunity to promote lifelong learning (SDG 4), complementing university education or providing knowledge to society free and openly. The objective of [...] Read more.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect the relationship among social, economic, and environmental aspects of society. Massive online open courses (MOOCs) represent an opportunity to promote lifelong learning (SDG 4), complementing university education or providing knowledge to society free and openly. The objective of this work is to analyze experiences in one MOOC about wastewater treatment applied to higher education in civil engineering (SDG 6). The proposed educational methodology and the achieved participation results are studied. The MOOC had three editions and was hosted on the Miríadax platform. Data about sociodemographic characteristics, initial motivation, and satisfaction level were collected from questionnaires. The results highlighted the importance of design decisions to obtain a high completion rate: defining a target audience, without prejudice to the course’s open character, where the prior knowledge of students is crucial. The teaching methodology is based on autonomous and progressive learning, with short and direct master classes, social support, with the motivation of students to continue their training with opening complementary topics in the forums, following up on their doubts, and their combination with social networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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17 pages, 2586 KiB  
Article
Open Education through Interactive Training Material
by Pedro Manuel Hernández-Castellano, María Dolores Martínez-Rivero, María Dolores Marrero-Alemán, Luis Suárez-García and Alejandro Gutiérrez-Barcenilla
Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7645; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187645 - 16 Sep 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1998
Abstract
This work has come about as a result of an attempt to improve educational practices by taking advantage of research experience in the field of additive manufacturing technologies. As a result of the work carried out, an open educational resources project was developed [...] Read more.
This work has come about as a result of an attempt to improve educational practices by taking advantage of research experience in the field of additive manufacturing technologies. As a result of the work carried out, an open educational resources project was developed by the group of educational innovation Ingeniería de Fabricación of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It consists of interactive teaching material adapted to the new international standards that regulate these technologies and includes a methodology for selecting the most appropriate technology for the specific application. In this paper, we describe the co-creation process that was carried out with students in order to develop the resources, as well as a description of the didactic material itself together with its interactive elements. An analysis of its use in various academic courses is included and also an evaluation of its impact, both in teaching a specific subject and in other training activities. Our findings indicate that the process has led to the production of didactic materials that present content in an attractive way and which, in combination with active methodologies, noticeably improves students’ learning experiences, and is also considered a successful experience in open educational practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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27 pages, 634 KiB  
Article
A Derivation of Factors Influencing the Diffusion and Adoption of an Open Source Learning Platform
by Chi-Yo Huang, Hui-Ya Wang, Chia-Lee Yang and Steven J. H. Shiau
Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7532; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187532 - 12 Sep 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4355
Abstract
During the past two decades, open source learning platforms (OSLPs) have become a dominant part of modern education. OSLPs are free for usage and customization—unlike proprietary software restricted by copyright licenses. By utilizing OSLPs, users can download and use the source code, write [...] Read more.
During the past two decades, open source learning platforms (OSLPs) have become a dominant part of modern education. OSLPs are free for usage and customization—unlike proprietary software restricted by copyright licenses. By utilizing OSLPs, users can download and use the source code, write new features, fix bugs, improve performances, or learn from others how specific problems can be solved. Albeit dominant, the frequency of usage and motivation of OSLPs by students is not high; however, there has been very little research about this, and the problem is significant. Therefore, this research aimed to derive the factors that affect the adoption and diffusion of OSLPs. The factors on the diffusion and adoption were defined based on the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), where the integrated theoretical framework is called the IDT-TAM. Partial Least Square structural equation modeling was used to confirm the hypothesized IDT-TAM. An empirical study was based on the sample data collected from 340 Taiwanese technical university students to demonstrate the feasibility of the analytical framework and derive the factors related to the adoption and diffusion of the OSLP for students. Based on the results of the empirical study, through the mediation of perceived attitude (PA) and perceived usefulness (PU), trialability (TL), observability (OS), ease of use (EU), and relative advantage (RA) are the factors most related to the diffusion and acceptance of the OSLP innovations. The analytical results can serve as the basis for the design, development, and enhancement of acceptance and diffusion of OSLP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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14 pages, 2440 KiB  
Article
Human-Centered Design as an Approach to Create Open Educational Resources
by Carles Garcia-Lopez, Enric Mor and Susanna Tesconi
Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7397; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187397 - 09 Sep 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3976
Abstract
Open educational resources (OER) play an important role in teaching and learning, especially in lifelong learning. Educational resources should be created in a way that addresses lifelong learners’ needs. Human-centered design (HCD) is a design perspective and an iterative process that involves users [...] Read more.
Open educational resources (OER) play an important role in teaching and learning, especially in lifelong learning. Educational resources should be created in a way that addresses lifelong learners’ needs. Human-centered design (HCD) is a design perspective and an iterative process that involves users in all phases of the process. Thus, an HCD approach can provide relevant advantages when creating OER for lifelong learning. This work presents the Design Toolkit as a case study of digital open educational contents for design education that has been created following an HCD process. The orientation of the Design Toolkit is to provide users OER in a tool format rather than in a traditional manner. The main goal of this research is to contribute to the understanding of how HCD impacts OER creation. The research focuses on teachers, assessing the Design Toolkit content organization and analyzing teacher adoption and usage of the resources. The HCD approach fosters teachers’ satisfaction, promotes OER adoption and provides new design requirements for a future iteration of the HCD process. The results show that designing OER involving users through an HCD approach sets the focus adequately on their needs and limitations. Teachers feel satisfied with the Design Toolkit, fostering the adoption of OER in different educational contexts. Finally, users’ involvement in the whole HCD process points out design and educational requirements for future work. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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17 pages, 780 KiB  
Article
The UnMOOCing Process: Extending the Impact of MOOC Educational Resources as OERs
by José A. Ruipérez-Valiente, Sergio Martin, Justin Reich and Manuel Castro
Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7346; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187346 - 08 Sep 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3688
Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) came into the educational ecosystem attracting the attention of the public media, businesses, teachers, and learners from all over the world. The original courses were completely open and free, targeting the worldwide population. However, current MOOC providers have [...] Read more.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) came into the educational ecosystem attracting the attention of the public media, businesses, teachers, and learners from all over the world. The original courses were completely open and free, targeting the worldwide population. However, current MOOC providers have pivoted towards more private directions, and we often find that MOOC materials are completely closed within their hosting platforms and cannot be retrieved from them by their learners. This diminishes the potential of MOOCs by making content available to a small proportion of learners and severely limits the reusability of the educational resources. In this paper, we present a process that we call ‘unMOOCing’, in which we transform the resources of a MOOC into OERs. We taught a MOOC on Open Education in the UNED Abierta platform, and we ‘unMOOCed’ all of its educational resources, making them available to download by the learners that are taking the course. The results of the unMOOCing were very encouraging: the possibility of downloading the course resources was the most highly rated component of the course. Additionally, the two unMOOCed materials that were considered as most useful (presentations and contents in a PDF) were downloaded by 90% of the learners. Now that the majority of MOOC providers are moving towards a more closed educational approach, we believe that this paper sends a powerful message for bringing back the original MOOC concept of ‘Openness’ with the unMOOCing process, thus contributing to the wider dissemination and democratization of education across the globe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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17 pages, 1569 KiB  
Article
IC-Health Project: Development of MOOCs to Promote Digital Health Literacy: First Results and Future Challenges
by Lilisbeth Perestelo-Perez, Alezandra Torres-Castaño, Carina González-González, Yolanda Alvarez-Perez, Ana Toledo-Chavarri, Ana Wagner, Michelle Perello, Stephan Van Der Broucke, Gonzalo Díaz-Meneses, Barbara Piccini, Amado Rivero-Santana, Pedro Serrano-Aguilar and on behalf of the IC Project Consortium
Sustainability 2020, 12(16), 6642; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166642 - 17 Aug 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4771
Abstract
Digital health literacy (DHL) is the ability to search, understand and evaluate information from digital media and apply that knowledge to solve health problems. However, currently many citizens have not developed these skills, and this compromises not only the self-management of their health, [...] Read more.
Digital health literacy (DHL) is the ability to search, understand and evaluate information from digital media and apply that knowledge to solve health problems. However, currently many citizens have not developed these skills, and this compromises not only the self-management of their health, but the possibility that health services are socially sustainable. The objective of this article was to present the objectives, activities and results of the IC-Health project whose objective was to develop a series of massive open online courses (MOOCs) to improve the DHL skills of European citizens. An exploratory report on DHL’s current evidence was developed. Furthermore, a survey, focus groups and group interviews were conducted to determine DHL levels and the needs of population cohorts (children; adolescents; pregnant and lactating women; the elderly; and people affected by type 1 and type 2 diabetes). A participation strategy with end users was designed through a community of practice for the creation of MOOCs with the seven European countries that participated in the consortium. Thirty-five MOOCs were developed in eight different languages and a descriptive and exploratory assessment of MOOCs was conducted with new participants. This first evaluation indicated that MOOCs can be an effective educational resource for DHL and a facilitator of shared decision-making processes. The process of co-creation of MOOCs, the components, the challenges and the opportunities identified in this European project could be useful for other developers of MOOCs who want to co-create interventions with beneficiaries in similar settings. Further longer-term actions are still needed to improve citizens’ DHL. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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15 pages, 2079 KiB  
Article
The Challenge of Teaching Mobile Journalism through MOOCs: A Case Study
by Laura Cervi, José Manuel Pérez Tornero and Santiago Tejedor
Sustainability 2020, 12(13), 5307; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135307 - 30 Jun 2020
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 4566
Abstract
Smartphones have become a key social tool: They have changed the way people consume, receive and produce information, providing potentially anyone with the opportunity to create and share content through a variety of platforms. The use of smartphones for gathering, producing, editing and [...] Read more.
Smartphones have become a key social tool: They have changed the way people consume, receive and produce information, providing potentially anyone with the opportunity to create and share content through a variety of platforms. The use of smartphones for gathering, producing, editing and disseminating news gave birth to a new journalistic practice, mobile journalism. Incorporating mobile journalism is, thus, the current challenge for journalism educators. Our article aims at discovering whether new models of education, such as massive online courses, can help mobile journalism training. The research focuses on the first pilot project of a massive open online courses (MOOC) on mobile journalism, the Y-NEX MOOC. By assessing structure, functioning and participants’ opinion, the objective is to discover if MOOCs prove to be useful tools in mobile journalism training. Results show that this model of distance open learning can be helpful for mobile journalism training, providing some recommendations for improvement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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18 pages, 1213 KiB  
Article
Could MOOC-Takers’ Behavior Discuss the Meaning of Success-Dropout Rate? Players, Auditors, and Spectators in a Geographical Analysis Course about Natural Risks
by Sandra Ricart, Rubén A. Villar-Navascués, Salvador Gil-Guirado, María Hernández-Hernández, Antonio M. Rico-Amorós and Jorge Olcina-Cantos
Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 4878; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124878 - 15 Jun 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2567
Abstract
Research interest in massive online and open courses (MOOCs) is rapidly growing, questioning who enrolls, why and how to conceive engagement, and success rates. This study is focused on MOOC-takers behavior obtained from a seven-week MOOC experience on natural risks. Data scraping principles [...] Read more.
Research interest in massive online and open courses (MOOCs) is rapidly growing, questioning who enrolls, why and how to conceive engagement, and success rates. This study is focused on MOOC-takers behavior obtained from a seven-week MOOC experience on natural risks. Data scraping principles have been used to collect data. Demographics, success-dropout rates, engagement periods, achievement and scoring, and behavior were analyzed through descriptive statistics, non-parametric correlation analysis, and statistical hypothesis testing. The results show that students who start earlier and those who finish earlier the course obtain better grades in some of the modules (motivation and background on natural risks could be the explanation). However, for ‘last moment students’, speed in passing the modules is either related to greater motivation, although in this case it is not related to better grades. Furthermore, students who complete tasks during the weekend take less time to complete the modules and obtain a better grade. In addition, a learning strategy is promoted by reconsidering who is learning: players (those who complete the course and earning a certificate), auditors (those who have completed a thematic unit or the whole module, earning partial knowledge), and spectators (those enrolled until the end of the course, who intend earning experience in e-learning). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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19 pages, 1694 KiB  
Article
Dashboard for Evaluating the Quality of Open Learning Courses
by Gina Mejía-Madrid, Faraón Llorens-Largo and Rafael Molina-Carmona
Sustainability 2020, 12(9), 3941; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093941 - 11 May 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4480
Abstract
Universities are developing a large number of Open Learning projects that must be subject to quality evaluation. However, these projects have some special characteristics that make the usual quality models not respond to all their requirements. A fundamental part in a quality model [...] Read more.
Universities are developing a large number of Open Learning projects that must be subject to quality evaluation. However, these projects have some special characteristics that make the usual quality models not respond to all their requirements. A fundamental part in a quality model is a visual representation of the results (a dashboard) that can facilitate decision making. In this paper, we propose a complete model for evaluating the quality of Open Learning courses and the design of a dashboard to represent its results. The quality model is hierarchical, with four levels of abstraction: components, elements, attributes and indicators. An interesting contribution is the definition of the standards in the form of fulfillment levels, that are easier to interpret and allow using a color code to build a heat map that serves as a dashboard. It is a regular nonagon, divided into sectors and concentric rings, in which each color intensity represents the fulfillment level reached by each abstraction level. The resulting diagram is a compact and visually powerful representation, which allows the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the Open Learning course. A case study of an Ecuadorian university is also presented to complete the description and draw new conclusions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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13 pages, 1857 KiB  
Article
Implementation of E-Proctoring in Online Teaching: A Study about Motivational Factors
by Carina S. González-González, Alfonso Infante-Moro and Juan C. Infante-Moro
Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3488; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083488 - 24 Apr 2020
Cited by 83 | Viewed by 8046
Abstract
Most online teaching institutions still do not offer complete remote teaching, requiring the physical presence of the student in the evaluation process (for supervisory reasons), which could aggravate the evaluation and certification in massive open online teaching. Although, there are already e-proctoring tools [...] Read more.
Most online teaching institutions still do not offer complete remote teaching, requiring the physical presence of the student in the evaluation process (for supervisory reasons), which could aggravate the evaluation and certification in massive open online teaching. Although, there are already e-proctoring tools (electronic proctoring) that allow this process to be carried out remotely, without requiring that physical presence. For this reason, and in order for this complete remote teaching to be extended to institutions that do not yet believe in the success of its implementation, this study, through a bibliographic study and a causal study carried out by experts in online teaching, focuses on locating the determining motivational factors when accepting and implementing this evaluation system as a method of remote supervision and tries to encourage its use through them. The list obtained consists of the following motivational factors: Quality management, available information, external conditioning, trust, perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, attitude and intention, and the most decisive factor in this whole process is trust (which would be the extent of security and privacy that institutions have in the use of this tool). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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16 pages, 3601 KiB  
Article
Protected Users: A Moodle Plugin To Improve Confidentiality and Privacy Support through User Aliases
by Daniel Amo, Marc Alier, Francisco José García-Peñalvo, David Fonseca and María José Casañ
Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2548; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062548 - 24 Mar 2020
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 21894
Abstract
The privacy policies, terms, and conditions of use in any Learning Management System (LMS) are one-way contracts. The institution imposes clauses that the student can accept or decline. Students, once they accept conditions, should be able to exercise the rights granted by the [...] Read more.
The privacy policies, terms, and conditions of use in any Learning Management System (LMS) are one-way contracts. The institution imposes clauses that the student can accept or decline. Students, once they accept conditions, should be able to exercise the rights granted by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, students cannot object to data processing and public profiling because it would be conceived as an impediment to teachers to execute their work with normality. Nonetheless, regarding GDPR and consulted legal advisors, a student could claim identity anonymization in the LMS, if adequate personal justifications are provided. Per contra, the current LMSs do not have any functionality that enables identity anonymization. This is a big problem that generates undesired situations which urgently requires a definitive solution. In this work, we surveyed students and teachers to validate the feasibility and acceptance of using aliases to anonymize their identity in LMSs as a sustainable solution to the problem. Considering the positive results, we developed a user-friendly plugin for Moodle that enables students’ identity anonymization by the use of aliases. This plugin, presented in this work and named Protected users, is publicly available online at GitHub and published under GNU General Public License. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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16 pages, 1299 KiB  
Article
Technological Ecosystems in Citizen Science: A Framework to Involve Children and Young People
by Alicia García-Holgado, Francisco José García-Peñalvo and Paul Butler
Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1863; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051863 - 01 Mar 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4366
Abstract
Young people are distinguished as a social group with the capacity to drive new behaviours and understandings in today’s society. However, most young people consider that people in charge of decision-making processes are not addressing their concerns. The WYRED project proposes a framework [...] Read more.
Young people are distinguished as a social group with the capacity to drive new behaviours and understandings in today’s society. However, most young people consider that people in charge of decision-making processes are not addressing their concerns. The WYRED project proposes a framework for citizen science based on a technological ecosystem to promote the transfer of perspectives, ideas, and knowledge among young people and decision-makers on issues related to the digital society. The work goal is to analyse the model proposed through a citizen science case study centred in identifying the ideas and opinions of children and young people between 7 and 30 years old, concerning gender stereotypes on the Internet. A total of 69 children and young people from Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom have interacted for two weeks in a private space guaranteed by the defined ecosystem. The results of the analysis of the interaction between young people and facilitators (with different profiles: educators, researchers and decision-makers) demonstrate that the use of technological ecosystems to sustain the development of citizen science projects allows for the improvement of knowledge transfer processes between children and young people with stakeholders, as well as the analysis of these processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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11 pages, 1433 KiB  
Article
Unveiling the Relationship between the Use of Open Educational Resources and the Adoption of Open Teaching Practices in Higher Education
by Fabio Nascimbeni and Daniel Burgos
Sustainability 2019, 11(20), 5637; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205637 - 13 Oct 2019
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3623
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to advance the understanding of the way university educators currently adopt open educational practices (OEP) by analyzing the relation between the use of open educational resources (OER) and the implementation of open teaching practices. The results are [...] Read more.
The goal of this paper is to advance the understanding of the way university educators currently adopt open educational practices (OEP) by analyzing the relation between the use of open educational resources (OER) and the implementation of open teaching practices. The results are based on data collected through an online survey among 724 university educators. Depending on the actual use of OER and open teaching practices by the survey respondents, we have categorized them along a scale that goes from “novice” to “expert”, and we analyzed the data to evaluate their use of OER and their adoption of open teaching practices, looking for relationships between the two phenomena. The main finding of this paper, which confirms the latest research findings from the open education community, is that a strong relationship exists between the two dimensions: The more an educator uses OER, the more he will probably adopt open teaching practices, and vice versa. These results are discussed with a view to use this virtuous circle between the use of open content and adoption of open teaching as a way to build generalized open education capacity among universities’ teaching staff. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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14 pages, 955 KiB  
Article
Open Educational Resources and Practices in China: A Systematic Literature Review
by Ahmed Tlili, Ronghuai Huang, Ting-Wen Chang, Fabio Nascimbeni and Daniel Burgos
Sustainability 2019, 11(18), 4867; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11184867 - 06 Sep 2019
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 6671
Abstract
The concepts of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP), regarded as two pillars of the broader open education movement, have been evolving since the concept of OER was first coined in the 2012 Paris Declaration. Several research studies have been [...] Read more.
The concepts of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP), regarded as two pillars of the broader open education movement, have been evolving since the concept of OER was first coined in the 2012 Paris Declaration. Several research studies have been conducted to investigate the impacts of OER and OEP adoption and implementation in universities. However, most of those studies have focused on western and developed countries, and little information is known about developing countries, especially Asian ones. Particularly, China was one of the first Asian countries to adopt open education and its related strategies following the MIT OpenCourseWare conference in Beijing in 2003. This study conducts a systematic literature review to investigate the current state of the art of OER and OEP in China. The findings show that several governmental, organizational, and institutional initiatives have been launched to facilitate OER adoption in China. They also show that while several OEPs have been implemented, there is still a continuous need to work on these practices and further investigate their impacts on learning outcomes and behaviors, as no current reviewed study has done so. Finally, a generic framework of OER and OEP challenges is presented along with recommendations to further enhance the adoption of OER and OEP in China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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16 pages, 1508 KiB  
Review
Challenges for Open Education with Educational Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review
by Maria Soledad Ramirez-Montoya
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7053; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177053 - 29 Aug 2020
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 6816
Abstract
Open education can enrich learning environments and support the processes of educational innovation. The objective of this article is to analyze the evidence published about open education in the period 2014–2019 to identify future challenges. We performed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), identifying [...] Read more.
Open education can enrich learning environments and support the processes of educational innovation. The objective of this article is to analyze the evidence published about open education in the period 2014–2019 to identify future challenges. We performed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), identifying 245 articles on the topic of open education in the databases, Web of Science (WOS), and Scopus, from January 2014 to June 2019. We filtered to obtain the most relevant data by applying inclusion, exclusion, and quality criteria. The results yield information on (1) the characteristics of the publications; (2) the methodological trends; (3) the central and transversal dimensions of the topic; and (4) the innovative educational practices that have been implemented. The article concludes with a presentation of the challenges that are linked to coverage, empirical evidence, co-creation, and innovation. The contribution of this research is to add value to the body of knowledge available to trainers, researchers, and decision-makers interested in open education and educational innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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20 pages, 4162 KiB  
Review
Open BOK on Software Engineering Educational Context: A Systematic Literature Review
by Pablo Alejandro Quezada-Sarmiento, Jon A. Elorriaga, Ana Arruarte and Hironori Washizaki
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6858; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176858 - 24 Aug 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3336
Abstract
In this review, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on Open Body of Knowledge (BOK) is presented. Moreover, the theoretical base to build a model for knowledge description was created, and it was found that there is a lack of guidelines to describe knowledge [...] Read more.
In this review, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on Open Body of Knowledge (BOK) is presented. Moreover, the theoretical base to build a model for knowledge description was created, and it was found that there is a lack of guidelines to describe knowledge description because of the dramatically increasing number of requirements to produce an Open BOK, the difficulty of comparing related BOK contents, and the fact that reusing knowledge description is a very laborious task. In this sense, this review can be considered as a first step in building a model that can be used for describing knowledge description in Open BOK. Finally, in order to improve the educational context, a comparison among BOK, structure, and evolution is conducted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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23 pages, 801 KiB  
Review
E-Mentoring in Higher Education: A Structured Literature Review and Implications for Future Research
by Harold Tinoco-Giraldo, Eva María Torrecilla Sánchez and Francisco José García-Peñalvo
Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4344; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114344 - 26 May 2020
Cited by 48 | Viewed by 10244
Abstract
Mentoring in higher education helps learners acclimate to a new academic topic, increases the likelihood of academic success, and reduces attrition. Learners rely on the expertise and experience of mentors to help them graduate in a timely manner and advance on to their [...] Read more.
Mentoring in higher education helps learners acclimate to a new academic topic, increases the likelihood of academic success, and reduces attrition. Learners rely on the expertise and experience of mentors to help them graduate in a timely manner and advance on to their career. As online and distance education becomes more pervasive, computer-mediated mentoring allows learners to connect with their mentors in new ways. Research about mentoring in higher education includes investigations into the efficacy of virtual or e-mentoring. We conducted a literature review of research from 2009 to 2019 to identify relevant elements for implementing e-mentoring programs in higher education. Our research revealed that there is a consistent interest in the subject matter within educational research; however, there is a gap on virtual mentoring in higher education for students conducting offsite internships. Our research reviews e-mentoring programs, identifies how these programs are evaluated, identifies factors of successful programs, and establishes a research agenda in areas of e-mentoring programs for students in offsite internships and how they can be structured to achieve the same level of success. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Open Education)
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