My first experience of open education was with the Open University, when I completed my BA (hons) degree in Modern Foreign Language. This lasted for three years, and involved a lot material such as books, CD's, DVD's and some face-to-face tutorials. It also included some live discussion using Illuminate, and some on-line oral exams for German and French, Spanish was done in traditional exam. conditions in the OU branch in Bristol.
Overall, the experience was very good, and I not only made new friends, but was also able to move on to a post-graduate PGCE Secondary MFL qualification at Master's level from the UWE.
My other experience of open learning was when I completed my Certificate and then Diploma in Forensic Linguistics. This course was completely online, including the certification. It was an extremely interesting course, building on my knowledge of languages, and I use this knowledge to improve my language analysis for determination of origin, and also helps with translations, avoiding the literal translation and fitting the target language translated to the local culture.
Now, I am involved in open education from the other side, giving distance tutorials in Spanish and Arabic to students worldwide.