This article presents an analysis of tracking data collected over eight years on 43,000 users on "Icelandic Online (IOL)," seven open, guided online courses in Icelandic as a second language. The main objective in this study is to (a) map out retention for all the "IOL" courses, (b) compare retention on the same course…

There is growing interest in the adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) in a variety of contexts. Continuing professional development (CPD) among practitioners in the effective adoption of OER and OEP is critical in this scenario. Massive open online courses (MOOCs), which also grew as part of the open…

This article is a literature review on open distance learnings (ODL) in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa (FSSA). The state of research on this question highlights many topics, such as the supporting reasons for the creation of ODL systems and their potentials. Success, difficulties, and issues linked to their implementation also hold a crucial place…

To better understand the impacts of participatory design in English language arts teacher education, this critical case study focuses on the National Writing Project's Connected Learning Massive, Open, Online Collaboration (CLMOOC) that engaged educators in playing with the connected learning framework. The authors draw from 5 years of interaction…

Many initiatives exist to increase the adoption of open educational practices (OEP) within universities, but few initiatives start by exploring the capacity of educators to adopt open approaches. This paper addresses this challenge, suggesting that in order to build OEP capacity, universities should build on the existing skills of local champions…

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…

The intent of our 2014 article titled "Moving Through MOOCs: Understanding the Progression of Users in MOOCs" was to present evidence and to stimulate evidence-based discussion about the progression of users through MOOCs. It is then a pleasure to respond to those who reacted to the article. Most attention in our response is given to the…

What difference does openness make to the ethics of teaching and research? This paper approaches this question both from the perspective of research into the use of open educational resources (OER) in teaching and learning. An outline of the nature and importance of ethics in education research is provided before the basic principles of research…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a new approach to distance education, which originated from the open education resources (OER) movement, are becoming widespread throughout the world. Over time, early versions of cMOOCs have undergone changes in terms of use, name and structure. In their short life, MOOCs have been categorized into different…

As long ago as 1992, Greville Rumble was writing about the "competitive vulnerabilities" of single-mode distance teaching institutions [universities]. In the intervening years the challenges he described have only intensified, especially so as advancing information and communication technologies have enabled increasing numbers of…

This article explores the findings of a qualitative case study of journal entries by 10 final-year English pre-service teachers during their five-week practicum in disadvantaged schools in South Africa's Gauteng province. The study sought to investigate the nature and depth of reflection as well as student teachers' perceptions regarding the…

Analytics as one of the recent fields in technology-based learning offers many benefits to educators, instructors, and administrators to improve the efficiency and quality of alternative educational materials, and learning experience through tracking and storing students' log data on web platforms over an extended period of time. This mixed-method…

Global transformation in higher education over the past two decades has led to the implementation of national policies in order to measure the performance of institutions in South Africa. The Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) adopted the quality assurance (QA) model for the purposes of accountability and governance in South African Higher…

According to the United Nations Human Development Report (2016), poor, marginalized, and vulnerable groups still face substantial barriers to access post-secondary education and employment. These marginalized and vulnerable groups include women, girls, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, the…

Badges have garnered great interest among scholars of digital media and learning. In addition, widespread initiatives such as Mozilla's Open Badge Framework expand the potential of badging into the realm of open education. In this paper, we explicate the concept of open badges. We highlight some of the ways that researchers have examined…