Willingness to engage in open educational practices among academics in Rwandan public higher education and responsive actions
| Published | November 2017 |
| Journal | Journal of Learning for Development - JL4D Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 322-337 |
| Publisher | Commonwealth of Learning |
| Country | Rwanda, Africa |
ABSTRACT
Academics’ engagement in Open Educational Practices (OEPs) is critical for opening up higher education. It is in this perspective that the willingness to engage in such practices among academics in Rwandan public higher education was investigated with an agenda to trigger responsive actions. Via convenience/availability and volunteer sampling, 170 academics were invited to participate in the study and 85 of them completed and returned an email self-completion questionnaire. The results revealed that the majority of participants were willing to contribute to Open Educational Resources (OER) by publishing their work under an open licence. Participants were also willing to engage in diverse OEPs including 1) finding OER and evaluating their quality, 2) participating in and evaluating open courses, 3) aggregating OER, 4) adapting OER and open courses, and 5) assessing accomplishment from open learning based on OER and open courses for credit. National and institutional policies were found to be the potentially most important enablers of academics’ engagement in those practices. In the light of the findings, the researcher argues that the inclusion of more learners in the higher education system would make academics more impactful than simply the citation of their work, a stance that was reflected in subsequent responsive actions. This study may benefit institutions and policy makers who are interested in opening up higher education, especially the University of Rwanda that is expected to contribute significantly to the transformation of the country into a middle-income, knowledge-based society.| Keywords | open courses · open educational practices · Open Educational Resources · Opening up Higher Education · Responsiveness · Transformative Research |
| ISSN | 2311-1550 |
| Refereed | Yes |
| Rights | by-sa/4.0 |
| URL | http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/223 |
| Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 222 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.
Click a star to be the first to rate this document
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Validation of non-formal MOOC-based learning: An analysis of assessment and recognition practices in Europe (OpenCred)
Witthaus, Gabi; dos Santos, Andreia Inamorato; Childs, Mark; Tannhauser, Anne-Christin; et al.
This report presents the outcomes of research, conducted between May 2014 and November 2015, into emerging practices in assessment, credentialisation and recognition in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Following ...
Match: nkuyubwatsi, bernard
Position papers for European cooperation on MOOCs
Cooperman, Larry; Dillenbourg, Pierre; van Valkenburg, Willem; Kos, Timo; et al.
An overview of position papers on the opportunities and characteristics for European cooperation as presented during the HOME conference in Porto November 2014
Based on an open call for position papers19 experts ...
Match: nkuyubwatsi, bernard
Cultural translation in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Nkuyubwatsi, Bernard; Ullmo, Pierre-Antoine; Koskinen, Tapio
This paper discusses how courses are made relevant to students in their respective cultural settings. Practices that enable such contextualisation, or cultural translation, are investigated in five Coursera Massive Open ...
Match: nkuyubwatsi, bernard
Quali scenari per le pratiche e-learning nell’università? Gli “Open Educational Path”
Calvani, Antonio; Menichetti, Laura
E-learning for over fifteen years has evolved from a simple instrument for virtual educational interactions (1.0) to an environment capable of promoting wide participatory experiences (2.0). Recently, Open philosophy ...
Match: open educational practices; open educational resources
Positioning extension Massive Open Online Courses (xMOOCs) within the open access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing setting
Nkuyubwatsi, Bernard
Recent reports on xMOOCs indicated that underprivileged learners in need for higher education have minimally been reached by these courses. While the open access agenda is needed to reach such learners, most MOOCs were ...
Match: nkuyubwatsi, bernard
Openness and praxis: Exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education
Cronin, Catherine
Open educational practices (OEP) is a broad descriptor of practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER) as well as open pedagogies and open sharing of teaching practices. As ...
Match: open educational practices; open educational resources
Assessing the potential toward Open Educational Practices in Kyrgyzstan
Walz, Anita; Bekbalaeva, Jyldyz
The study was undertaken to understand the propensity for increased engagement with open educational practices (OEP), to include methods prioritizing student-centered teaching & learning, and awareness, use, and ...
Match: open educational practices; open educational resources
Designing reflective practice in the context of OER-based e-Learning
Karunanayaka, Shironica; Naidu, Som; Rajendra, J C N.; Ratnayake, H U W.
Much is said about the importance of reflective practice especially in the professions. Yet much of what happens as part of reflective practice in the professions such as teaching is most of the time left to chance. ...
Match: open educational practices; open educational resources
A cross-modal analysis of learning experience from a learner’s perspective
Nkuyubwatsi, Bernard
Abstract: Learning experience has been one of the most debated aspects of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Various perceptions on learning experience offered by MOOCs have led to many claims about the quality of ...
Match: nkuyubwatsi, bernard
Lifelong learning and partnerships: rethinking the boundaries of the university in the digital age
Cannell, Pete
Higher education (HE) in Scotland has some very specific characteristics: a relatively small number of HE institutions (HEIs), nineteen at the time of writing; a strong college sector, which makes a significant ...
Match: open educational practices; open educational resources









