Topic 3: Equity and Access

Topic 3: Equity and Access

Image: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Things to do by July 20

1. Read the three assigned topic 3 readings
2. Complete the Digital Equity and Perspective pod project by Wed, July 20. It is completed as a group and is worth 40% of your final grade. This project should provide evidence of learning the course readings to the end of Topic 3 (this topic!)
   • Message me on Mattermost to submit
3. Complete the individual peer evaluation form for the pod project by mid-day on Thurs, July 21
   • This is accessed and submitted on Brightspace
4. Write a post related to the Topic 3 readings (share on your personal blog) – due Tues, July 19
   • Let your pod members know when your post is up. Message them on Mattermost or wherever you have decided to chat
   • You can find each students’ blog URL on our student blog list
5. Comment on your pod members’ Topic 3 posts to stimulate conversation, reflection, and critical thinking – due Wed, July 20
   • Your pod members should share with you when their new post is available
   • Tip: open learners typically link to one another’s posts within their blog posts and comments. This creates a network of learning. Try to find an opportunity to do that this week
6. Review the Digital Portfolio assignment. It is due Tues, July 26 and worth 50% of your final grade
   • The portfolio is where you provide evidence of your learning in this course. If you have not been blogging or engaging with your learning pod, it will be very difficult to produce evidence

Topic 3 readings

Topic 3 expands on the discussions from Topic 1 about privacy and also introduces issues of access for minority and vulnerable populations. This aligns most closely with our fourth course learning outcome, but also contributes to learning in others (e.g., 2 and 3).

In a lot of ways, we are all lucky to be able to attend great universities, like UVic and USask. This type of education isn’t accessible to everyone, or at least not without many challenges to overcome. Open education has always primarily been about providing increased access to learning for those who may otherwise have been excluded.

Confusion between ‘open’ and ‘distributed’ learning comes partly from the fact that open education has its roots in distance (or distributed) education and the two both have the same goal of improving access. Today, however, I find it useful to think of ‘open’ education as being specifically for people who choose to participate in learning experiences because those experiences are made available on the open web, and they do so for their own personal edification, not for credit.

EDCI 339 is an example of a course that is offered in the open on WordPress, and learner interactions are open (unless you have chosen otherwise), so it is an open course. However, if you are a registered UVic learner and are completing EDCI 339 for credit towards your degree, then you are not an ‘open’ learner. You are learning in a distributed format, and you are paying tuition to do so.

If you told your neighbour, co-worker, or a friend about this course, pointed them to the course site, and they decided to follow along for their own interest, they would be considered an ‘open’ learner.

Part of the reason we began this course in Brightspace is to demonstrate this difference. Topic 1 was a classic ‘distributed’ model. Access was limited to registered learners, interactions and learner contributions are invisible to the public, and it would be impossible for someone not registered at UVic to participate. Beginning in Topic 2, we opened the course by moving all content and interactions into WordPress. Many of the constraints of the learning management system (LMS – Brightspace) are gone. Anyone can access the course materials, you are free to share your work with your community, and anyone can follow along for free.

Another reason we chose this model is to demonstrate the extent of the data that is generated when you participate in an LMS-based course. Brightspace collects data on every interaction you have in the course. It can then aggregate this data for instructors, and others, with the proper permissions, to review and analyze it. Here is a snapshot of some of high-level data for the first week of our course (to the left is each student’s name, which I cut off).

Brightspace Course Progress Summary

Every time you click on something, Brightspace records the click in the database, along with your IP address. If we think back to the Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019) article from Topic 1, we know that there are ethical considerations at play when data like this is being collected.

Open educators often prioritize open platforms (like WordPress) because learner data is spread out and can’t go up for sale, if it is collected at all. When you interact with your own site on opened.ca, you are the one in control of your data. I don’t have access to the analytics on your sites.

To bring this back around to access for marginalized and minority groups, we know that platforms which prioritize the gathering of user data (Google/YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) and then displaying content based on past views have a very strong influence on culture. The algorithms that these tools use primarily prioritize and normalize content created by and for white people, which excludes people from other ethnic backgrounds.

Another component of openness is the ability of all people to participate in higher education. I argue that Higher Ed is fundamentally about three things:

• the creation of new knowledge
• sharing new knowledge
• service for the good of the community

These three purposes are at the core of faculty work, with most faculty spending about 40% of their time on each of research and teaching, and the remaining 20% on service. Your role as a learner also reflects these values. You are participating in the process of creating and sharing new knowledge, and doing so is a service to the community. However, if your work is “disposable” and locked behind the login screen of the LMS, how are you contributing? If, on the other hand, your work is open, you are potentially contributing to the community with every post you make.

With all that in mind, the readings for Topic 3 reflect these priorities for open education.

• Reading 1 explores the concept of open pedagogy. I would encourage a very close reading of this one as it contains many core concepts and examples related to open learning.
  • The reading contains a list of “transformative examples of OEPs”. Have you done any of these? If you are planning to work in education, how could you implement or adapt these to your context? What benefits would they provide to your learners?
• Reading 2 explores the concept of access. I hope it can broaden our perspective on learners and help us imagine learning beyond the research-intensive universities we are lucky enough to attend. For those of you that work or expect to work in public education, it may resonate more with you.
• Reading 3 uses a case from Australia to explore design principles for Indigenous learning spaces. This isn’t directly related to open learning, but I encourage you to look for overlaps between open learning environments and Indigenous learning spaces.
  • Note that this is a very long reading. You do not need to read it word-for-word.

I hope this week’s topic expands your thinking about education. You’re all engaged in learning to receive a credit and a degree. Are there people that learn without a certification as the end-goal? What does that look like? Why do they do that? How can different learning environments support that? Feel free to explore beyond the assigned readings!