Page - 55 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

58 S.AffounehandZ.N.Khlaif searchingforawayto learn.SuddenlyIdiscovered thepublic library,whereIcould be amember bypaying low fees. In those days, going to the librarywas not usual forpeoplemyage.Teenagerswent there tomeet theirboyfriendsorgirlfriends,and not to read, so I facedquestionsall the time.Butgoinghomewithbooksconvinced mymomofmypassion for reading. Borrowing books or copying themwas the otherway to own a copy of a book. SometimesI justenjoyedmyownnotesorsummaryofabookand toread it several times.Enrollinginuniversitymademyjourneyin learningeasierdueto thefact that each student needed tohave a library card andhadaccess to all existing resources. The limited resources in the libraryat that timeforcedme tospendhoursandhours there every day, since therewas only one copy ofmany of the resources, and that copywaseither reservedor it couldnotbe takenoutside the library itself.Everyone knew that I would be in the library between classes, reading, studying textbooks and/or searching fornewresources. When I comparemyexperiencewhile doingmy thesis and thoseofmymasters students today, I can feel the differences, and I really feel the blessing of the open resources that are available everywhere and at any time through open databases, libraries andD-space repositories. 4.2 TheEvolutionofOpenEducation 4.2.1 DefinitionofOpenEducation Previous researchers have studied the concept of open education, and have done qualitativeandquantitativeresearchinto thepracticesofdifferentcountriesanduni- versities in that area. Open education refers to practices including the sharing of information and ideas liberally, aswell as the sharing of other platforms ormeth- ods used in the process of learning and teaching through technology (Blessinger &Bliss, 2016). Other researchers have defined open education as the process of making knowledge available to and easily accessible by the public byminimizing geographical, economic and other borders through the enhancement and develop- ment of technology.This is oneof the reasons that, to someextent, people refer to openeducationasdistanceeducation,andwithinhighereducation,thenomenclature of ‘open’ is incorporated in the names of universities such as theOpenUniversity, Indonesia’sUniversitasTerbuka (meaning ‘OpenUniversity’), theOpenUniversity ofHongKong,UniversityofthePhilippinesOpenUniversityandAllamaIqbalOpen University. (Berti, 2018;Mossley,2013). Berti (2018)hasdefinedopeneducationas ‘anemerging trend facilitatedby the confluence of technology and imagination’ (p. 25). The European Commission’s ScienceandKnowledgeServicehasofferedanexplanationthatexpandsonherdefi- nition, framingopeneducationas thatwhichguaranteesdifferentmethodsofformal