Affordable access to higher education is a major challenge for small Pacific island nations. The University of the South Pacific which is owned and governed by twelve island nations in this region plays a special role in meeting this challenge. In its fiftieth year, a few recent developments at USP provide a useful case study for how this…

Open Educational Resources (OER) have received considerable attention for their potential to provide equitable access to education for all. However, OER creation, use, and adoption among learners, practitioners, and educational circles have remained low. One significant factor leading to this low engagement arises from the language of instruction…

This paper argues for a revaluation of the potential of open education to support more critical forms of pedagogy. Section 1 examines contemporary discourses around open education, offering a commentary on the perception of openness as both a disruptive force in education, and a potential solution to contemporary challenges. Section 2 examines the…

The benefits and facilities of online learning at school level all over the world were not fully realised until the COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions to explore the possibilities of teaching-learning through online measures. During the lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Open Schooling (OS) using online learning as a method of…

Textbooks play a vital role for teaching about different cultures since they present various regions, people, behavior, conventions, religions, values and some other cultural elements of different societies around the world. This study aimed to investigate the cultural content of a self-study textbook which was designed for Open Education Faculty…

Since we are living in the information age and the importance of the need for communication among people of different cultures is increasing day by day in the globalizing world, people need to learn the languages of different cultures, particularly English, which is the common language of this global communication. This need for learning English…

I have previously argued that open education is a liberal project with a focus on the freedom of things rather than the freedom of people (Winn, Joss. 2012. "Open Education: From the Freedom of Things to the Freedom of People." In "Towards Teaching in Public: Reshaping the Modern University", edited by Michael Neary, Howard…

In the conventional system of education, a student can regularly interact with teachers and peers and effectively and smoothly carry on with the learning process. However, in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, students have to learn by themselves with the self-instructional materials and with the minimum guidance received from…

The paper posits the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDAL) as an institution established for the purpose of enhancing Open and Distance Learning in the West African sub-region. The institute has pursued this mandate with an unparalleled vigour since its establishment in 2003--a partnership of the…

This paper is based on a keynote talk delivered at the biennial DEANZ Conference at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, in April 2016. As highlighted in that talk, we have entered Education 3.0--an age of vast resource abundance and extensive opportunities for learner empowerment. During the past decade, we have seen the emergence…

Many African countries have developed policies to reform their education system in order to widen participation in higher education. To achieve this, open, online and distance education based models have been advocated as the most viable delivery tools in expanding access to higher education. However, the policy analysis of Kenya, Rwanda and…

This paper examines how access to, and use of, open online courses may be enhanced for learners of developing countries from a learner perspective. Using analysis of the open education concept, factors that affect access to open educational resources content, and universal standards for delivering online learning, the author demonstrates that the…

Open educational resources (OER) have been promoted as a path to universal education, supporting economic development and intercultural dialogue. However, to realise these benefits requires greater understanding of the factors that influence both OER supply and use. This paper examines an aspect of the supply side of the OER lifecycle--the motives…

This study takes a closer look at French-speaking MOOC participants of diverse levels of countrywide development and draws comparisons on the basis of sociodemographic variables, access conditions, academic antecedents, and satisfaction. Results show some important differences between learners from low-income and emerging developing countries…

This paper presents the successes and challenges faced in implementing the dual-mode strategy in higher education in the context of feminist theory. Worldwide, women's universities have been established by governments and private organisations to involve women more fully in the country's economic, political and social activities. The establishment…