Openness at the OU

Martin Weller & Patrick McAndrew

By mag3737 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mag3737/1914076277/

The OU

The Open University is open to people, places, methods and ideas.

We got lucky!

By psd http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/3717444865/

If you were starting an OU now…• Open source• Open educational

resources• Open teaching/courses• Open research• Open systems• Open technology

8m visitors since launch

Canada

Some traps of openness

The legacy trap

Search

The search trap

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pulpolux/151695072

Metadata Trap

Build it and they will come trap

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk

The system is everything trap

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p://www.flickr.com/photos/marcemarc/2385399277/

The one stop shop trap

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcemarc/2385399277/

The perfectionist trap

(inspired by Chris Pegler – built by Christopher McAndrew) First used in slides in 2004.

The Holy Grail trap

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiritual_marketplace/2207966935

Openness isn’t just content

http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/729822/

An ecology of openness

Openness is a state of mind…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/2837128711/