Page - 1 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

Chapter1 OpenandFree Access toEducation for All MartinWeller Abstract Open education has evolved over time and now has different interpreta- tions.Threemainversionsofopeneducationareconsidered,namelyopenuniversi- ties,openeducationalresources(OER)andMOOCs.Theseallaimtoincreaseaccess toeducation,buthavedifferentapproachesforrealisingthisaim.Theopeneducation landscape is explored using a citation analysis method, to reveal that there is little cross-fertilisation between the distinct areas. In order to address this, a conceptual model is proposed, and the result of a global survey used to analyse the manner in which different institutions are exploiting aspects of openness to increase access. The author concludes that the diverse interpretations of open education can be seen asabenefit, if it allowsinstitutions toassembleapproachesfor increasedaccess that are tailored to their context. Keywords OER ·MOOCs ·Open University ·Distance learning ·Open education ·Open access 1.1 Introduction In considering open access to education, it is necessary to review different aspects and interpretationsofopeneducation, and to thenbring these strands together.This involves different approaches and perspectives in open education including open universities, open educational resources (OER), open textbooks and MOOCs. The historicalstartingpoint for thecurrentopeneducationmovement isadifficultoneto pinpoint,as theanswerwillvary,dependingonthe interpretationofopeneducation. This highlights that what we mean by open education is not easily defined. It is probably best viewed not as a single entity but rather as a collection of approaches, intersecting principles and ideas. This section will draw out these principles and ideas, by focusing on the roots of open education. I would suggest that there are three key strands that lead to the current set of open education core concepts: open universities, OER and MOOCs. M. Weller (B) TheOpen University, MiltonKeynes, UK e-mail:martin.weller@open.ac.uk ©TheAuthor(s) 2020 D. Burgos (ed.), Radical Solutions and Open Science,LectureNotes inEducational Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4276-3_1 1