Opening up education & Academic freedom

Shaping academic freedom in the age of the 3D printer

Programme

• Introduction• Theory– Data driven innovation– Trends in online education– Privacy in the context of education– Academic freedom in Dutch regulation

• Cases

Introduction

• My role in university• Why I am interested in academic freedom.– User data in business models of new platforms for

online education– Copyright and incentives for open access

publishing– Freedom to select commodified or open learning

materials (EU opening up education)

Two levels in the discussion on academic freedom

• Academic freedom as an safeguard for the individual scientist, teacher, student

• Academic freedom as an organisational principle for governance of higher education.

3D printer????

Assignment: Discuss with your neighbour: Which characteristics of 3D printing can be relevant for the discussion on present day academic education?Key words: tools for a new generation of users, data driven, personalisation, open source technology, more independence for time and place,for fashion: no model needed just data (measures)

Iris van Herpen: no model needed just data

What is shaping online education?

• MOOCs (U.S. ...venture capital...social media)• EU Opening up education: mix needed of on

campus and distance learning• Bigger automony for the learner• Legal aspects:– Privacy– Quality and certification– Who decides about online availability of learning

materials?

Opening Up Education

• The EU will increasingly require institutions to make their results available for reuse under an open licence.

• At the same time, lecturers will retain their freedom to recommended traditionally published sources or Open Educational Resources.

Some examples

Privacy in the context of Education

• Helen Nissenbaum• Privacy in Context Technology, Policy, and the

Integrity of Social Life, Stanford Law Books, 2010 p. 169

Assignment EdX: INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect information, including Personal Information, when you sign up for a user account, participate in online courses, register for a paid certificate, send us email messages and/or participate in our public forums. We also collect certain usage information about student performance and patterns of learning. In addition, we track information indicating, among other things, which pages of our Site were visited, the order in which they were visited, when they were visited and which hyperlinks and other user interface controls were used.

You want to do a MOOC for which Mein Kampf is required reading online. Discuss with your neighbours: 1. In what way will tools that monitor all use breach entrenched norms of

education?2. Does that affect your perception of academic freedom?

Entrenched norms and academic freedom

• Some reactions:– learning is not exploitation, – can the teacher decide who can go on in his

studies or does the software do that?– Or the institution?– Do open educational resources stay free of

monitoring?– How can an institution verify that someone passed

a test after distance learning?

Academic freedom in Dutch regulation

Dutch Wet op het Hoger Onderwijs en Onderzoek

• Aan de instellingen van wetenschappelijk onderwijs wordt de academische vrijheid in acht genomen.

• Dissertation Paul Zoontjes Vrijheid van wetenschap, juridische beschouwingen over wetenschapsbeleid en hoger onderwijs, Tilburg 1993 p. 81:

• Human right? – Aim is independence of research practice– Works as organizing contectual principle within a

university

The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice 2012

Preamble:3. The Code presumes the administratively autonomous university that safeguards the academic liberty of the scientific practitioners engaged there. It is the university’s responsibility to let this liberty fit into the frameworks of the established education and research programmes.

Cases

Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice Dilemma regarding verifiability

A teacher has written a study book intended for first year students. To increase its readability he has not used source references, offering instead a list of further reading recommendations per chapter. In writing the book, he nevertheless made extensive use of the work of colleagues from all over the world. Should he have made detailed mention of this?

Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice Dilemma regarding impartiality

A teacher is involved in compiling a list of compulsory literature for a course. He proposes a book of his own, for which he receives royalties. If his book is listed, should he be required to transfer the ensuing income?

Dilemma copyright

The university makes a videoregistration of the classes of a professor. The professor wants this video to be available online as Open Course Ware. Is she entitled to decide this herself?

Dilemma user data

A local gas-company collaborates with university to provide a MOOC on sustainable energy. The best students of the MOOC will be invited to apply for a job. Students can decide freely to make use of this option. When they choose for this option, the data about their use of the MOOC will be shared with the gas-company. Will this influence the collaboration amongst students?

• Contact: E.Hoorn@rug.nl• CC-By