I was first introduced to the concept of open education studying with the OU. SInce that initial introduction regarding the concept and some of the theory behind it, it's become something I'm very much interested in and drives a great deal of my engagement with the MAODE's materials.
I very much respond to the democritization of education, the tearing down of barriers to learning that have been in place for so long based on culture, financial considerations, even nepotism. The freedom for all to engage in education, I think, could be one of the greatest paradigm shifts in how we as a species might move forward in the future.
However, I do also have reservations as to how content is made available and how, without scrutiny of subject matter and delivery, many people may end up lost in a sea of material that has no structure, resulting in learners that find it difficult to as Siemens (2004) discusses in his theory of Connectivism. identify what information is important and learn the core skill of being able 'to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts'.
Outside of the framework of the OU and as directed by it, I've taken advantage of a great deal of open educational materials. I particularly like how in this field of study that a lot of the authorities in it make their work freely accessible like Martin Weller (2014) whose book 'The Digital Scholar' is available online via Bloomsbury Open Access under a Creative Commons licence.
I've also signed up to a few different MOOCs, primarily to see how they are run and structured with EdX and Coursera. Though I've never completed any of them, I feel that once I've completed the MAODE later this year, I'll continue my learning through making use of them.
I'm even in the process of setting up a MOOC for English language learners who want to take the English standardized IELTS test. We're using LearnDash LMS as it integrates with the Wordpress theme we've bought though we started with Moodle and as a result I took part in a Moodle MOOC as well and will possibly be using Moodle further in my 9-5 work later this year.
We're making our course a MOOC as opposed to a paid course to see if we can't take advantage of this possible new trend in the way education is provided and undertaken with advertising being the source of revenue in the business model. However, we'll need a good product to engender that potential revenue which is why, even though it's free, we're working hard to make it a pedagogically sound, engaging, and user-friendly learning experience.