Lesson 10 - Trends in Open Learning

3. Open Learning

Figure 2: ‘I’m just a committed and even stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education…’ Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize speech, 2014. Click on image to see the speech.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in open learning, mainly related to open educational resources and MOOCs. Although in themselves open educational resources (OER) and MOOCs are important developments, they tend to cloud other developments in open education that are likely have even more impact on education as a whole. It is therefore necessary to step back a little to get a broader understanding of not just OER and MOOCs, but open learning in general. This will help us better understand the significance of MOOCs, OER and other developments in open education, and their likely impact on teaching and learning now and in the future.