In this presentation, Robin DeRosa, Executive Director of the Open Education Network, will explore the theory of change that undergirds the OEN. In a community that focuses its activities on the grassroots work of educators (including faculty, librarians, instructional designers, technologists, and other support staff), the OEN’s membership structure centers around institutions and consortia. What is the relationship between individuals who engage with open practices and the systems that contain, support, and sometimes thwart them? How can organizations that leverage open education to make change respond to the needs of learners and teachers while building support from the surrounding educational systems that don’t always center those needs? Hear about the rationales, hopes, and tensions that animate the OEN’s model, and the current ways we are envisioning our role in advancing open education and building a more equitable future for higher education.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Reflect on the tensions and synergies between individual practice and systemic support in the open education movement.
- Articulate reasons why both grassroots practice and institutional commitment are key sustainable and impactful open education progress.
- Understand the approach of the Open Education Network, and how it leverages institutional commitment to make structural change in higher education.
