OEGlobal 2024

There is a lack of research on how localized OER are created and used in low- and middle-income countries (Wolfenden and Adinolfi, 2019; Buckler, Perryman, Seal, and Musafir, 2014). This lack of understanding of how all educators use openness to meet the needs and goals of their students furthers epistemic injustice, for particular knowers are not valued as knowers (Pohlhaus, 2017). Valuing the knowledge of educators in low- and middle- income countries will expand the OER community and its understanding of OER’s capacity to support teachers in meeting the needs of students in different contexts.

This presentation will share how a grassroots nonprofit organization’s embrace of openness supported teachers and students in Lebanon. Lebanese Alternative Learning (LAL) is a nonprofit that collaborated with teachers to build Tabshoura, a digital learning platform that houses content aligned with the Lebanese curriculum for K-9 students. In partnership with LAL, this research design utilizes photovoice to center the teachers’ experiences with Tabshoura through the submission of a photo and caption in response to a prompt. Interviews and classroom observations are then used to expand understanding of the diverse experiences of teachers during an economic and refugee crisis in Lebanon.

This study expands the social inclusion model designed by Arinto, Hodgkinson-Williams, and Trotter (2017) to show how access to localized OER provides teachers with more opportunities to build and direct a responsive learning environment that supports and motivates students—and even parents—to take control of their own learning. Teachers in Lebanon are navigating decreasing stability in schools and navigating a student population with increasing gaps in their education. Through Tabshoura, teachers have a foundation of reliable resources connected to the classroom objectives, exciting tools for engaging students who have experienced trauma, and the flexibility to adapt resources and create an environment of learning for all their students. Teachers have incorporated their knowledge into Tabshoura to customize the learning experience:

• Personalized lesson plans based on students’ progress on Tabshoura
• Alternative schedules that support continued learning outside of school
• Student-centered pedagogical approaches that are exciting for students AND for teachers

The teachers in this project also highlighted that the individualized approach deepened their relationships with the students and their parents. Schooling is no longer limited to the building with students’ ability to use Tabshoura at home on mobile phones, so students can learn at their own pace and repeat lessons as needed. Parents are also more aware and connected to their children’s education that even their own learning was enhanced.

Openness means that educators in all regions and contexts can make the necessary choices to support their students. LAL demonstrates openness by incorporating teachers’ knowledge in the development of Tabshoura and in its continued support of teachers adapting and using Tabshoura as it best fits their students. LAL and the Lebanese teachers have demonstrated that openness is their business, too, and the OER community can benefit and expand from their example of supporting students through OER.



Included in [Session 6B]: Global Access and Equity

References
Arinto, P. B., Hodgkinson-Williams, C., & Trotter, H. (2017). OER and OEP in the Global South: implications and recommendations for social inclusion. In C. Hodgkinson- Williams & P. B. Arinto (Eds.), Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South (pp. 577-592). Cape Town: African Minds Publishers. Buckler, A., Perryman, L.-A., Seal, T., & Musafir, S. (2014). The role of OER localisation in building a knowledge partnership for development: Insights from the TESSA and TESS-India teacher education projects. Open Praxis, 6(3), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.6.3.136 Pohlhaus Jr., G. (2017). Varieties of epistemic injustice. In I. Kidd, J. Medina, G. Pohlhaus Jr. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of epistemic injustice (pp. 13-26). Routledge. Wolfenden, F. & Adinolfi, L. (2019). An exploration of agency in the localisation of open educational resources for teacher development. Learning, Media and Technology, 44(3), 327-344, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2019.1628046after-public-schools-shut-their-doors

Author Keywords
Epistemic Justice, Social Inclusion, Grassroots Nonprofit Organization, Teacher Agency, Vulnerable Students, Lebanon

The challenges facing the world are mirrored in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Globally there is deepening inequality, wars and countries in conflict and the crisis we all face through climate change. All these wicked problems require action from all citizens of the globe to recognise and take responsibility to find solutions. HEIs must tackle inequality in education, raise awareness and knowledge of wars and climate change. There is inequality not only in access to education but also in the varying degrees of quality of education and aspect that needs to be address to achieve SDG 4. These challenges are complex and require multiple strategies. These challenges are ‘everyone’s business’ and open education is the glue that can bind them all.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has implemented open education projects and research since 2007. More recently, since 2018, the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative that has explored the role of open textbooks for social justice at UCT. This work was driven by an imperative to remedy economic, cultural and political injustices in Higher Education through addressing issues related to access, cultural recognition and representation of marginalized voices in textbooks and other teaching materials.

In an effort to form a community of South African open educators a symposium, ‘Future of open education in higher education in South Africa’ was hosted at UCT and included key contributions from UNESCO Chairs in Open Education in South Africa (June 2024). The symposium also included short inputs from UNESCO Chairs (France, Tunisia & Lebanon), members of the newly formed UNITWIN Network on Open Education (UNOE). A crucial part of day’s events was a ‘Futures workshop’ facilitated by a UNESCO chair in Futures thinking from the University of Stellenbosch.

In addition, the DOT4D initiative launched a ‘student fellowship’ program to include students in the organisation, participation and development of outputs from the event (Funded by the Hewlett foundation and GOGN). Students were encouraged to reflect individually and in focus groups on their different roles in the co-creation of this event.

Drawing on the results of the futures planning workshop and reflections of students from the symposium event this presentation will discuss aspirations for the future of open education is South Africa and it will explore ways through which student-staff partnerships can address injustice in the classroom and injustice in learning materials. It also addresses institutional realities and provides recommendations for student, staff and higher education institutions wanting to engage in or support of open education.



Included in [Session 6B]: Global Access and Equity

Author Keywords
Student partnerships, Social justice, Futures planning, Community

Injustice within education shuts out critical voices and creates an environment that encourages false or biased narratives. This is seen through the phenomenon of colonization of education. The growing commercialization of education is part of this puzzle, but financial barriers are only one piece of the problem. Further aspects of colonization in education include an overemphasis on rule-following and punishments, overextended faculty, BIPOC faculty leaving at high rates, and performative diversity and inclusion efforts (Lehman, 2020).

Many working in education have seen at least one of these common afflictions within the workplace. Other processes include higher education institutions giving recognition to faculty only when publishing with traditional publishers, many institutions still acting under an authoritative system that ignores the voices of students, staff, and faculty, and short-term hiring of staff or educators that prevents long-term mentoring of students. Injustice within education allows these harmful practices and others to reinforce biased historical narratives and research, limiting the success and impact of many students and faculty, especially those who are not white, male, and heterosexual individuals. In addition, colonized education causes the most harm on Indigenous and Black students, consequences can include a loss of identity, a limited sense of the past, as well as disassociation with heritage (Nwanosike & Onyije, 2011).

International Open Access Week has chosen the theme “Community over Commercialization” for the past two years, matching one of the crucial goals of decolonization in education. Open educational practices can help break down many current barriers including financial, diversity of materials and authors, as well as the prioritization of community. But while a step in the right direction, open educational practices alone are not enough to create scholarly equity. Crissinger (2015), Meagher (2021), Dutta, et al. (2021), and Berger (2021) have all highlighted the areas where open educational practices fail to move past colonization systems.

This presentation will discuss recent literature on decolonizing education as well as the literature that discusses how open educational practices are also in need of decolonization. Open educational practices are at an important moment in history where education is undergoing turbulent times. For open practices to advance and become more widespread, they must first divorce from colonization practices which prevent scholarly equity. Educators cannot work on decolonizing education and then be introduced to practices that must go through the process again. As open advocates, we must have these discussions and chart the path to decolonization.



Included in [Session 6B]: Global Access and Equity

References
Asher, N. (2009). Chapter 5: Decolonization and education: Locating pedagogy and self at the interstices in global times. Counterpoints, 369, 67-77. Berger, M. (2021). Bibliodiversity at the Centre: Decolonizing open access. Development and Change, 52(2), 383-404. Crissinger, S. (2015, October 21). A critical take on OER practices: Interrogating commercialization, colonialism, and content. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/a-critical-take-on-oer-practices-interrogating-commercialization-colonialism-and-content/ Dutta, M., Ramasubramanian, S., Barrett, M., Elers, C., Sarwatay, D., Raghunath, P., ... & Zapata, D. (2021). Decolonizing open science: Southern interventions. Journal of communication, 71(5), 803-826. Farrow, R., Coughlan, T., Goshtasbpour, F., & Pitt, B. (2023). Supported Open Learning and Decoloniality: Critical Reflections on Three Case Studies. Education Sciences, 13(11), 1115. Lehman, R. (2020, June 26). Ten ways to identify colonized education practices. Academe Blog. https://academeblog.org/2020/06/26/ten-ways-to-identify-colonized-education-practices/ Meagher, K. (2021). Introduction: the politics of open access—decolonizing research or corporate capture?. Development and Change, 52(2), 340-358. Melanie Reyes & Elizabeth A Segal (2019) Globalization or Colonization in Online Education: Opportunity or Oppression?, Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 39:4-5, 374-386, DOI: 10.1080/08841233.2019.1637991 Nikki Luke & Nik Heynen (2021) Abolishing the frontier: (De)colonizing ‘public’ education, Social & Cultural Geography, 22:3, 403-424, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2019.1593492 Nwanosike, O. F., & Onyije, L. E. (2011). Colonialism and education. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2(4), 41-47.

Author Keywords
Education injustices, colonization, open commercialization

James Cook University (JCU) Library serves a vast geographic area in regional and remote North and Far North Queensland, Australia. This area includes the main Townsville and Cairns campuses, six satellite study centres and external staff and students. A JCU strategic priority is transformative education, with an aim of widening participation in higher education for regional, remote, Indigenous, and first-in-family students. However, financial pressures pose a significant challenge for these students, affecting their enrolment, retention, and successful completion of university studies (Devlin & McKay, 2017; Zając & Tomaszewski, 2023). A desire to respond to the financial difficulties faced by many JCU students underpins the University’s strong commitment to open education and textbook affordability.

Academic libraries working to improve student textbook affordability is not new. North American efforts are growing in maturity, leading to an increasing number of courses publicly marked as open and affordable for students (Johnson et al., 2023). The University of South Australia Library provides recent inspiration for textbook affordability projects within the Australian higher education landscape (Gillespie, 2023). At JCU, the Library recognises that ‘open is everyone’s business’, and that subject textbook costs can be reduced. Accordingly, the Library has launched a Textbook Affordability Project (TAP), 2024-2025, targeting student-paid prescribed textbooks in first-year core subjects.

The need for TAP is apparent given 2023 Library data estimates that first-year students could have paid approximately $2,194,238 for their prescribed textbooks for core subjects. As a result, the initiative has the support of JCU’s Education Division and the Academy. The Library has invited collaboration from academic stakeholders to identify and implement free-for-student paid textbook alternatives. While the project is ongoing, interim analysis has identified several factors that have contributed to project success so far:

• JCU Library leadership has invested considerable time and demonstrated strong support for the project.
• Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) grant funding was secured for:
  
  
  • two short-term staff positions to ensure successful project coordination 
  • CU internal grants targeting academic stakeholders to maximise ongoing benefits for the JCU community.
• The whole-of-Library project status means the team can draw upon expertise from all Library staff.
• The core project team is drawn from four geographic locations bringing together complementary skills to meet differing facets of project requirements.
• A subscription to Airtable, a cloud-based relational database tool, facilitates management of the project’s complex relationships, data analysis and reporting.
• The TAP team has been able to leverage results from the highly successful JCU Open eBooks program.

At the end of the project, the aim is for this work to be business as usual for the Library and academic stakeholders, with an ongoing commitment to provide JCU students with as many zero textbook cost (ZTC) study options as possible.



Included in [Session 6B]: Global Access and Equity

References
Devlin, M., & McKay, J. (2017). Facilitating success for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds at regional universities. Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success. https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/project/facilitating-success-students-low-socioeconomic-status-backgrounds-regional-universities-2/ Gillespie, K. (2023). Minimising ‘cost to student’ course materials project final report. University of South Australia Library. https://www.library.unisa.edu.au/siteassets/files/memoreportassqctextbookminimisationfeb2023.pdf Johnson, G., Parks, J., Many, A., and Diaz, L. (2023). Findings of the OER course marking landscape analysis survey. Midwestern Higher Education Compact. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED645370.pdf Zając, T. & Tomaszewski, W. (2023). Relative influence of different markers of socioeconomic status on university participation. In Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (Ed.), Australia’s welfare 2023: Data insights. (pp. 193-214). https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/australias-welfare-2023-data-insights/contents/uni-participation

Author Keywords
equity, social justice, textbook affordability, regional and remote students, project management

One third of the world lacks internet access (ITU 2023), with greater disparity in poor countries. Even in developed regions such as British Columbia, areas north of population centers include significant numbers of people unable to connect online to the BCcampus Open Collection.

While print-based versions of their Pressbooks published open textbooks provide most of the content that can be accessed anywhere,, any interactive exercise or embedded media is rendered as a text box with a web address, that is of no use without internet connectivity.

This workshop will share a direct experience with a current project to make more than 80 open textbooks not only available in Learning Equality’s offline-first open source teaching and learning system, Kolibri (Learning Equality, 2024).

A number of solutions exist for offline-access to online content (Offline Internet Consortium, 2024), ranging from internet-in-a-box approaches to more advanced capabilities using local servers with near range wireless transmitters to run even learning management systems (e.g. MoodleBox). Kolibri is an important solution as it is one that does not require advanced technical expertises to operate. It also provides advanced features of syncing learner progress from remote devices or even between locations.

For BCcampus, Kolibri offers more than a content delivery platform, but a means to make content available without connectivity, including interactive H5P practice exercises, video, and audio. Kolibri also includes support tools for custom content organization, learner cohorts, and basic performance tracking.

We have presented the project concept (Friedman and Levine, 2024) but the purpose of this workshop is to allow participants to directly experience BCcampus content delivered from a local, offline device, and appreciate that challenges remain to provide the potential of the fully online learning materials.

We seek suggestions for other scenarios of application and strategies for implementing in different settings.

This is everybody’s business to make as much of the rich experience of online learning materials available to that one third of the world left out.



Included in [Session 7D]: Global Access and Equity (workshop)

References
International Telecommunications Union (2023), “Facts and Figures 2023”, accessed online (May 14, 2024) https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/facts-figures-2023/

Offline Internet Consortium (2024), accessed online (May 12, 2024) https://www.offline-internet.org/

Learning Equality (2024), “Kolibri” accessed online (May 14, 2024) https://learningequality.org/kolibri/

Friedman, Harper and Levine, Alan (2024), “An Online Presentation About Online OER: The BCcampus Open Collection Meets Kolibri”, presentation for the 2024 Open Education Conference https://bit.ly/bccampus-kolibri-opened24

Author Keywords
offline learning, open source, accessibility