This book is an introduction to Open Education (OE), giving practical guidance on the design
and delivery of OE courses while wrestling with theoretical considerations of this new and
emerging domain. Educators are the main targets, but it will also be relevant to policy makers,
senior education managers and the learning industry as a whole.
The book draws from three sources: first from well-established online learning ecosystems,
including Open Source Software communities; second from existing Open Courses in
traditional formal education and related design models such as the Meta-design framework
(Fischer, 2007); and third from EU funded research and pilot projects: FLOSSCom (2006-
2008), openSE (2009-2011) and openED (2009-2012). This piloting work enabled a thorough
analysis and modification of assumptions that emerged from sources one and two.
The first chapter provides a brief introduction to the OE field, addressing the question: ‘Why
Open Education?’. The second chapter presents cases from the openSE and openED projects
on how OE might look in practice. Sustainability is as important for OE as for traditional
formal education, so before joining any kind of OE venture it is important to have a clear
understanding of how such a venture might be sustained, as discussed in chapter three.
Theoretical considerations and practical guidance for the design and delivery of OE are
presented in chapter four, ahead of concluding remarks and future prospects in the fifth and
final chapter.
This ‘Version 1.0’ of the book is released together with the start of the openED course on
‘Business and Management Competencies in a Web 2.0 world’, whose second edition begins
on 26 April 2011. It is also published in parallel with the re-launch of the openSE website,
which is an OE framework for computer science software engineering.
A ‘Version 2.0’, with more in-depth findings from the openSE and openED projects and
general improvements, is tentatively scheduled for summer 2012. Anyone interested in coauthoring this ‘Version 2.0’, be it with minor improvements or major extensions, are invited
to read the editable version of this book at the following link and to correct minor mistakes
‘on the fly’: www.openEdWorld.net

Keywords

business case · OER definition · policy