Open Education has the potential to transform education by increasing access, promoting inclusivity, and fostering equity for all learners. To support this ongoing global movement, LX.lab and UTS Library will be hosting a series of activities during Open Education Week to raise awareness and promote the benefits of open education.
Here’s how you can join us (and the rest of the world!) in this important movement towards a more accessible, equitable, and socially just education for all.
What is Open Education?
Open education refers to a movement that seeks to increase access to educational resources and opportunities by removing barriers such as cost, geography, and other factors that may limit access to education. Open education can take various forms, including open educational resources (OER), open textbooks, massive open online courses (MOOCs), open access journals, and other educational initiatives that aim to provide learning experiences that are accessible, adaptable, and inclusive. The underlying principles of open education include collaboration, sharing, and open access, which can help to promote greater equity and inclusivity in education.
What is Open Education Week?
Open Education Week is an annual event that aims to raise awareness and showcase the impact of open education around the world. It is a global event that typically takes place in the first week of March and involves hundreds of universities, colleges, schools, and organisations from around the world.
Open Education Week is organised by Open Education Global (OEGlobal), a global network of higher education institutions and organisations that are committed to advancing open education and supporting the adoption of open educational practices. OEGlobal also works to promote the development of sustainable models for open education around the world through a range of international initiatives.
What’s happening at UTS during Open Education Week?
During Open Education Week (6-10 March 2023), LX.lab and UTS Library are organising events, workshops, opportunities to share resources and stories, and engage in discussions about the benefits and challenges of open education with national and international speakers. The events are designed to bring together learning and teaching communities at UTS and other Australian educational institutions to collaborate, innovate, and learn from one another.
UTS Open Education Week program – register for events
We will be hosting a series of events that covers five themes; Open Education, Open Licensing, Open Pedagogy, Open Textbooks and Open Content. The program consists of the following:
- 6 March – Open Education: Envisioning the Future of Open Education (Professor Kylie Readman, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education and Students); Sally Schofield, UTS Library; Professor Dr Jill McKeough, Faculty of Law, UTS)
- 7 March – Open Licensing: Creative Commons and the opportunities for learning and teaching (Dr Cable Green, Creative Commons)
- 8 March – Open Pedagogy: Openness, from pedagogy to practice (Professor Maha Bali, Center for Learning and Teaching at The American University in Cairo, AUC)
- 9 March – Open Textbooks: Open Textbooks, Is it the way of the future? (Associate Professor Amanda White, Faculty of Business, UTS)
- 10 March – Open Content: Places you can find UTS resources to reuse, adapt and share (including a crowdsourcing activity) (David Yeats, Dr Mais Fatayer and Dr Andrew Francois, LX.Lab, IML, UTS)
Register via the links provided above, and keep an eye out for further updates on the LX.lab events page.