Developing an Institutional open educational practices (OEP) Self Assessment Instrument

Abstract

As institutions move to considering the implementation of open education environments, it is critical to understand the characteristics and potential success factors for institutional open educational practices. Higher education institutions are changing to meet the needs of contemporary learners, and as a result, there is a need to discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing open education practices in these spaces (Paskevicius, 2017). While there are currently limited institutional case studies on openness to build upon (Morgan, 2018; Childs, Axe, Veletsianos & Webster, 2019), there is potential for the lessons learned from the rich research on blended learning (Lim & Wang, 2017; Graham et. al., 2013) and institutional transformation research (Kezar & Eckel, 2002) to lend insight to potential practices for institutional OEP initiatives. By adopting both an appreciative and critical approach, a draft OEP self-assessment instrument for institutions was created with the intention of examining the similarities and differences between institutional approaches and their evolution.

This workshop will provide an overview of the theoretical underpinnings and description of the OEP self-assessment instrument and its component parts. Through small group activities, participants will examine and discuss propositional categories and components of the OEP self-assessment instrument. Participants will complete the online OEP self-assessment instrument and discuss their experience with a focus on expanding their understanding of what others are doing in institutions globally, and improving the OEP instrument for global use. Participants will also identify initiatives and/or approaches that could help expand OEP at their own institutions.