Call for papers SPECIAL ISSUE: Open Educational Practices in Higher Education

20-07-2022

call_for_papers_practicas_educativas_EN.jpgEditors of the Special Issue: 

Publication date of the issue: September 2023

Keywords: open educational practices, open educational resources, open education, open educational infrastructures, open knowledge, digital pedagogy

 

Introduction:

Whereas the notion of 'openness' is far from new in the field of education (Cuban 2004, Peter & Deimann 2013), over the first couple of decades of the 21st Century it has generated unprecedented levels of interest worldwide; primarily in relation to the access to educational resources and learning opportunities. The prominence of terms such as 'Open Educational Resources' (OER) or 'Massive Online Open Courses' (MOOCs) has evidenced a growing interest in making the traditional boundaries of formal education more porous.

'Open Educational Practices' is a concept that transcends content and goes beyond OER. Besides being concerned with the production and (re)use of OER, they also address topics such as the implementation of open educational infrastructures (Marín & Villar-Onrubia, 2022; Villar-Onrubia & Marín, 2022) or the adoption of innovative pedagogical models that respect and empower students as co-producers of their own lifelong learning journeys (Andrade et al., 2011).

Even though the adoption of OEP does not necessarily entail the use of digital media, in most cases they rely on the Internet and, more precisely, the World Wide Web. In this regard, they relate to pedagogical approaches concerned with the use of technology in education and with its role as an enabler of interactions with actors and communities outside formal education institutions, as proposed, for instance, by the idea of 'connected learning' (Ito et al., 2020).

The advocacy of global actors such as Unesco, as well as the enthusiastic involvement of educators and institutional leaders around the world, reveals OEP as a key element of education as a public service in contemporary society. Catering for more diverse student populations is no longer exclusively the responsibility of institutions created for that goal, such as the Open University in the UK and other distance universities.

Some of the main principles underpinning OEP include strengthening social justice and improving equity in access to learning opportunities, as well as learners' autonomy, agency, participation and responsibility. However, despite the good intentions of governments, institutions and educators, there is a risk that OEP – and more generally technology-mediated lifelong learning – may primarily benefit those who already come from privileged backgrounds, thus widening entrenched socio-economics gaps instead of narrowing them (Eynon & Malmberg, 2021; Knox, 2013).

Furthermore, except for some specific cases, not many universities have managed to integrate OEP in a sustainable long-term way. Overall, institutionalisation has been limited across the sector and enthusiasm has often been thwarted by systemic factors that make it difficult for educators to prioritise OEP within their already saturated repertoire of activities and responsibilities (Marín et al., 2022; Villar-Onrubia, 2022).

The aim of this special issue is to publish studies that shed light on the role of OEP in a diversity of HE contexts, with particular attention to implications for the widening of participation in HE, unintended consequences, as well as challenges to their institutionalisation and mainstreaming.

References

Andrade, A., Ehlers, U. D., Caine, A., Carneiro, R., Conole, G., Kairamo, A. K., …. & Holmberg, C. (2011).  Beyond OER: Shifting Focus to Open Educational Practices. Open Educational Quality Initiative. https://www.oerknowledgecloud.org/archive/OPAL2011.pdf

Cuban, L. (2004). The Open Classroom. Education Next 4. http://educationnext.org/theopenclassroom/

Eynon, R., & Malmberg, L.-E. (2021). Lifelong learning and the Internet: Who benefits most from learning online? British Journal of Educational Technology, 52, 569–583. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13041

Ito, M., Arum, R., Conely, D., Gutiérrez, K., Kirschner, B., Livingstone, S., ... & Watkins, C. S. (2020). The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship. Connected Learning Alliance, Irvine, CA.

Knox, J. (2013). Five critiques of the open educational resources movement. Teaching in Higher Education, 18, 821–832. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.774354

Marín, V. I., Zawacki-Richter, O., Aydin, C. H., Bedenlier, S., Bond, M., Bozkurt, A., ... & Zhang, J. (2022). Faculty perceptions, awareness and use of open educational resources for teaching and learning in higher education: a cross-comparative analysis. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 17(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-022-00185-z 

Marín, V. I., & Villar-Onrubia, D. (2022). Online Infrastructures For Open Educational Resources. In O. Zawacki-Richter & I. Jung (Eds.), Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (Global Perspectives and Internationalization). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_18-1

 

Peter, S., & Deimann, M. (2013). On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction. Open Praxis, 5, 7–14. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.23

Villar-Onrubia, D. (2022). "They Have to Combine the Future of the University and Their Own Future": OpenCourseWare (OCW) Authoring as an Academic Practice in Spain. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 23, 63–85. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v23i2.5765

Villar-Onrubia, D., & Marín, V. I. (2022). Independently-hosted web publishing. Internet Policy Review, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.2.1665  

 

Topics or lines of interest:

  • Challenges and unintended consequences of OEP
  • Open Educational Practices in discipline-specific contexts (e.g. STEM, arts and humanities, social sciences)
  • Co-creation, adaptation and remixing with students of OER (e.g. open textbooks, open data)
  • Use and appropriation of open educational infrastructures that foster autonomy and control over personal learning environments (e.g. Domain of One's Own).
  • Interaction between students and experts outside educational institutions (e.g. by means of Twitter, Wikipedia)
  • Open curricular co-design processes with students, academics and other stakeholders (e.g., syllabi, assessments, rubrics, codes of conduct, etc.)
  • Attitudes and perceptions of students and educators towards OEP
  • Digital competence and OEP adoption
  • Pre-service teacher education and OEP

 

Important deadlines: 

  • Initial date for submitting paper: 1st October 2022
  • Submission deadline: 31st March 2023 (EXTENDED)
  • Submission of revised manuscript: 30th June 2023
  • Publication of the special issue: September 2023

 

Profile of the editors:

Daniel Villar-Onrubia is a Senior Research Fellow (María Zambrano Fellowship) at the Faculty of Education and the Contemporary Aesthetic Theories Research Group of the University of Cádiz (Spain). He has worked at Coventry University (UK), both as Disruptive Media Learning Lab's Innovation Lead (2015-22) and Online International Learning Programme Manager (2015-2016). Prior to that he completed a doctorate at the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford). He has participated in several EU-funded projects focusing on the adoption of open educational practices and co-chaired the Open Education Research (OER20) international conference. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5908-0701  

Victoria I. Marín is Ramón y Cajal Senior Research Fellow and member of the COMPETECS research group at the Department of Pedagogy of the University of Lleida (Spain). She is also a member of the Centre for Open Education Research (COER, Germany) and collaborating researcher of the Educational Technology Group (GTE) of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Education (IRIE) linked to the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4673-6190 

 

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS AND SUBMISSION OF CONTRIBUTIONS

We welcome original contributions, written in English or Spanish that thoughtfully engage: 

  • Research projects reports, extension of 5000-6500 words.
  • Innovation experiences scientifically reviewed and susceptible of being transferred to other contexts and situations, extension of 5000-6500 words.
  • Systematic literature reviews, extension of 5000-6500 words.

 

Manuscripts must be sent through the journal management system selecting the special issue Open Educational Practices in Higher Education: http://www.edutec.es/revista/

Publication rules: manuscripts must be submitted following the regular structure of the EDUTEC-E journal available at: http://www.edutec.es/revista/

Last call for the reception of manuscripts: 28th February 2023

Editorial process: Submitted manuscripts will be under revision following established criteria for published manuscripts (editorial board and blind review). Once the Editorial Board has completed all the admission procedures, authors will receive anonymous scientific evaluation reports informing on their acceptance or rejection. More information about the review process and its communication is available at: http://www.edutec.es/revista/

Quality Index: EDUTEC journal is indexed in the main databases, directories and evaluation systems of specialized journals. More information about indexations is available at:  https://edutec.es/revista/index.php/edutec-e/indexacion