As The Open University celebrates its 50th anniversary and its mission of openness, Martin Weller,\u00a0Professor of Educational Technology at the OU, will examine what the term \u2018open\u2019 means and consider what an \u2018Open University\u2019 would look like if we were to invent it now.<\/p>\n
When the OU was founded 50 years ago, it established a model of \u2018open education\u2019 that went on to be successfully replicated in many countries.<\/p>\n
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The \u2018open\u2019 in \u2018Open University\u2019 referred to open access to education, and the model was developed to enable that, and allowed the OU to take the lead in resources such as\u00a0OpenLearn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Open Textbooks<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the ensuing 50 years, open has taken on other interpretations in education: open source software, open educational resources, open access publishing, massive open online courses, open licenses, open science and open pedagogy. In fact, the term \u2018open\u2019 can be added to almost any academic pursuit now and a community can be found supporting that approach.<\/p>\n In his talk, he will examine these different aspects of open, consider what they have in common, what separates them and what they can learn from each other. It seeks to answer the question, if you were to invent an \u2018Open University\u2019 now, what would it look like?<\/p>\n Can’t join in person? Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to watch online (link will be available before the lecture<\/em>)\u00a0or\u00a0watch via Facebook and post your questions during the Talk. Please do take the opportunity to have your questions answered by our speakers LIVE during the event by emailing\u00a0Comms-Inaugural-Lectures@open.ac.uk<\/a>;<\/p>\n