Page - 11 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

1 Open and FreeAccess toEducation for All 11 • Content-focused OOFAT model • Access-focused OOFAT model • OOFAT formultipleprojects Each of these can be seen as a different, and equally valid, approach to opening access toeducation. To take each in turn: OOFATat thecentre—Thismodelcanbevisualisedasaperfect,ornearperfect, nonagon(withascoringof3orhigheroneachdimension), suggesting thatOOFAT is not implemented for one specific purpose, or market, but as an integral part of the institution’s overall mission. For such institutions, openness is an integral part of every practice, for example, having open enrolment, free access to content, open forms of assessment. An example is the OER University, which is a network of institutionsoffering freeonlinecourses for studentsworldwidewithOERupartners providingaccreditationandcontent.TheOERuhasamissionstatementof‘Towards moreaffordableeducationforallstudentsworldwide’.Thiscanbeseenascombining boththeapproachofthetraditionalopenuniversitiesandtheopenlicensephilosophy of theOER movement, and freecourse approach of MOOCs. OOFAT for organisational flexibility—many OOFAT visualisations emphasised the flexibility dimension of the three components. An example is the College of the Canyons (COC),which is apublic two-yearcommunitycollege in theUS. In terms ofcontent, it is currently shifting fromin-housecontentproduction todecentralised OERcontentproductionandreuse.Fordelivery,studentscanchoosebetweenvarious scheduleformats(16,12,8or5weekterms,oncampus,online,hybrid,etc.).Within theseclasses, themajorityofstudentscanchoosetimeandplaceofassessments,and enrolmentisopenentry.Thisapproachusesflexibilitytoopenupaccesstoeducation. OOFATforaspecificpurpose—regardlessofthevaluesgiventootherdimensions, many providers had at least one clear peak, where flexibility and/or openness was beingimplementedforaveryspecificfunctionormarket.Thismaybetheresultofa particularprojectoraspecificstrategy to targetoneaspectofdelivery.Forexample, theUniversitasTerbuka(UT)isIndonesia’s45thstateuniversityandemploysanopen and distance learning system to widen access to higher education to all Indonesian citizens, including those who live in remote islands. Only recently (since 2017), has the university begun to provide digital learning materials and it now gives free internet access via Wi-Fi to students. Opening access here was being focused for a particular audience. Content-focused OOFAT model—in contrast to the flexibility model which emphasises the flexibility dimension across all aspects of the OOFAT model, other providers concentrate on the component of content specifically. An example is the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) which is a federal open and distance learning institution located in Abuja. NOUN encourages its staff to utilise OERs in their lessonsandcreateOERforpublicationandreuse.Withafocusmainlyonadult learners, support is also flexible and offered when needed in a traditional distance educational model. This combines aspects then of the traditional open education model and OER tomake increase access.