Online open education and social justice: progress for regional, multi-lingual and female learners
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An upcoming book chapter, PhD outcome
Sarah Lambert
CRADLE, Deakin University
Online open education
and social justice:
progress for regional,
multi-lingual, and
female learners
Twitter @SarahLambertOz
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• Support and international connections from Global
OER Graduate Network (GO-GN)
• Feedback from experienced and emerging
researchers via Twitter @sarahlambertoz
Acknowledgement
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Where I’m coming from: lived experience of both inclusion and
exclusion
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• Learning designer working in regional uni
• First in family to attend uni
• Mum: ‘get a degree and you’ll be taken seriously’
• Economic challenges: Struggle, juggle, debt
• Identity challenges: gender and work possibilities
• Lived experience of both inclusion and exclusion
• Feel the difference keenly
• Still learning, at OER19 to listen and reflect
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“The demographics of massive open online course
(MOOC) analytics show that the great majority of
learners are highly qualified professionals, and
not, as originally envisaged, the global community
of disadvantaged learners who have no access to
good higher education” (Laurillard, 2016, p. 1)
“… predominantly young males seeking to
advance their careers” (Emanuel, 2013).
Research problem
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• Seven short cases: online open education as social
justice for those typically excluded from higher
education.
• 5 cases from a systematic review 2014-17 (which
found 24 examples reaching 200K disadvantaged
students)
• 2 from my own case studies
Book chapter: evidence of doing it differently
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Open Education is the development of free digitally enabled
learning materials and experiences primarily by and for the
benefit and empowerment of non-privileged learners who
may be under-represented in education systems or
marginalised in their global context.
Success …can be measured not by any particular technical
feature or format, but instead by the extent to which they
enact redistributive justice, recognitive justice and/or
representational justice.
(Lambert, 2018, p. 239) after Fraser and UNESCO
Open Education: a new definition aligned to social justice
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#textbookbroke
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Danny Chang @channydang 10 Jan 2018
Colvard et al 2018 - impact
Of OER on student success
Inc Pell grant students
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‘After completing TAFE in 2005 I
applied for many junior positions
where no experience in sales was
needed – even though I had worked
for two years as a junior sales clerk. I
didn’t receive any calls so I decided to
legally change my name to Gabriella
Hannah. I applied for the same jobs
and got a call 30 minutes later.’
Gabriella Hannah, formerly Ragda Ali, Sydney
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Booth, A. L., Leigh, A., & Varganova, E. (2012). Does ethnic discrimination vary across minority groups?
Evidence from a field experiment. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 74(4), 547–573.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2011.00664.x
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Self-determination of
marginalised people and
groups to speak for
themselves, rather than
having their stories told by
others. Authorship of
learning materials about
learners of colour by
learners of colour, about
women’s experiences by
women, about gay
experiences by gay
identifying people.
Facilitation to ensure quiet
and minority views have
equal air-time in open
online discussions.
Socio-cultural diversity in
the open curriculum.
Inclusion of images, case
studies, and knowledges
of women, First Nations
people and whomever is
marginalised in any
particular national,
regional or learning
context. Recognition of
diverse views and
experiences as legitimate
within open assignments
and feedback.
Free educational
resources, textbooks or
courses to learners who
by circumstance of socio-
cultural position cannot
afford them, particularly
learners who could be
excluded from education
or be more likely to fail
due to lack of access to
learning materials.
Three principles of social justice applied to Open Education
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
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The seven cases –social justice exemplars
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7 Cases Redistrib’ve
Justice with
regional reach
Women
benefit
+others
Recog’tve
Justice
Multi-
lingual
justice
Rep’tnal
Justice
1: EU Multilingual ICT MOOC yes yes yes yes yes
2: Chilean Pre-service Teachers yes yes yes yes yes
3: Sth African multilingual OERtxts* yes yes yes yes yes
4. Australian Dementia care MOOC yes yes yes yes
5. U.S. Human Trafficking MOOC yes yes yes yes
6. AuthorAID MOOC (developing
countries esp Africa, Asia, MidEast)
yes yes yes yes yes
7: Australian uni-prep online
program*
yes yes yes yes
* My recent studies, other 5 examples from my recent systematic review 2014-2017
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Helping to preserve
Europe’s rich cultural,
educational and linguistic
heritage. Teachers discuss
and make meaning of the
MOOC materials and
assessments in their own
language, cultural
contextualisation and
application of the learning.
Learners represent their
own needs in the learning
groups by discussing and
developing their own
lesson plans relevant to
their particular school and
cultural context.
Preferred mother-tongue
used as the “language of
participation” in local
open learning groups
(webinars, facilitator and
peer interaction) to
supplement the English
as the “language of
instruction” (for lesson
materials). Facilitator
teams catered for
Bulgarian, Catalan,
English, French, Greek,
Slovenian and Spanish
learners.
EU funded free course for
school teachers needing
to upskill in use of ICT in
the classroom, part of a
suite of post GFC
economic stimulus
initiatives. Mother-
tongue plus differing
levels of English language
skills, OK reading English
materials, reluctant to
participate in the spoken
live videoconferencing
sessions.
Case 1: Multilingual ICT MOOC for European teachers
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Colas, Sloep, & Garreta-Domingo, 2016)
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Oral presentations in pairs
prior to the program made
the first-in-family students
feel even more intimidated
and less inclined to speak.
The e-readers and study
groups helped the learners
find their voice. Students
also set-up a private
facebook group to be able
to communicate on their
own terms with peers in
the program. Over the 12
months their marks
improved and their
confidence to speak and
contribute in class also
increased.
Recognition of the
intimidation and status
differences that the
young women felt
compared to their more
upper class, better
prepared and resourced
peers led to their
teachers offering the
additional support
program and resources to
22 students at risk of
failing and/or dropping
out
Provided free e-readers
with English language
literature which are
prohibitively expensive in
Chile, out of reach to
most. Students read in
their own time and had
weekly discussion classes
with their regular
teachers to develop
confidence with speaking
in English.
Case 2: e-readers & study groups for Chilean pre-service teachers
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Charbonneau-Gowdy, Paula; Capredoni, Rosana; Gonzalez, Sebastian; Jayo, María José; Raby, 2015)
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Process of collaborative
textbook authorship,
diverse perspectives,
teachers from local and
regional provinces. Face to
face workshops, then
online editing and review.
Online tool acts as a
leveller by hiding the users’
role. High-ranking officials
and lower ranking regional
teachers each have their
say on how the textbook is
being developed.
Textbooks are locally
contextualised using
South African names,
places and examples.
Student workbooks and
teachers guides produced
in both Afrikaans and
English, with some
teachers guides also
being translated into
indigenous languages.
Free educational
textbooks, subsidised
online/mobile maths
tutoring programs for
school children in South
Africa who would
otherwise have
no/insufficient resources.
Local internet providers
zero rate the website ie
no mobile internet data
charges.
Case 3: South African multi-lingual maths and science texts
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Lambert, 2019)
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Siyavula case – collaborative authoring by a community
15 Siyavula’s modified ‘book-sprint’collaborative textbook authoring process CC-BY Sarah Lambert
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Developed by a team that
included patients and
carers. Online facilitation
encouraged
understandings from a
range of carer and cultural
perspectives. Carer’s
experience valued as form
of expertise, as a
complement to scientific
knowledge of dementia.
Developed by the
Wicking Dementia Centre
strong community
partners, recognises the
profile of carers, the skills
and experience of caring
they bring to the course
as well as their lack of
formal academic learning.
Explicit tasks encourage
learners to draw on all
their prior life
experiences to gain
confidence learning and
developing ideas.
Free course for
professional and family
carers of dementia
patients at home or in
aged care facilities. 89%
learners are female, 70%
more than 40 years old,
with low previous
education and no online
learning skills. Context is
regional location with
lowest levels of digital
literacy in the country,
especially for older
women.
Case 4: UTas Understanding Dementia MOOC
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Goldberg et al., 2015; King et al., 2014)
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Discussion forums were set
up as a safe space to share
first hand stories of how
trafficking has impacted
learners, their families, and
communities. Many
women, sex workers and
social workers with first-
hand experience identified
themselves in the forums
and provided diverse views
and accounts.
The learning materials
provided recognition of
the extent and impact of
human trafficking both by
providing statistics and
undercover videos,
documentaries, and
survivor testimonies.
Free course aims to share
ideas and actions to
advance the anti-
trafficking movement
including prevention of
women and girls being
forced into sex-work in
many parts of the world -
75% of human trafficking
victims are women and
girls. Special stream for
social workers.
Case 5: Human Trafficking MOOC (USA)
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Watson,2014)
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The total of 2830 actual
learners came from 95
countries predominantly in
the developing world: a
little over 50% from Africa,
another 40% from Asia,
and most of the remainder
from the Middle East and
Latin America. The MOOC
builds academic writing
skills, getting published
means having a voice in an
academic field
Text-based, low-
bandwidth MOOC, few
short intro videos. Tasks
created opportunities for
discussion, reflection, and
practice. Volume of
learning: three to four
hours of study time per
week, designed for adults
with full-time work and
caring responsibilities.
The AuthorAID program
was developed to bridge
the publishing gap
between the developed
and developing world. A
large-scale MOOC was
run – online pilots had
consistently better
gender balance than face-
to-face evening
workshops. Women were
45-46% of the MOOC
participants and 49-61%
of the MOOC completers
Case 6: AuthorAID MOOC
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Murugesan, Nobes, & Wild, 2017)
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The Study Skills
presentation assessment
gives learners a chance to
speak about their
backgrounds, work
experience and future
selves with pride. Examples
of prior careers include:
electrical technician; nurse;
motel cleaner; organic
farmer; hospitality
manager. Online peers
express interest and value
in students’ diverse careers
and aspirations in ways that
learners find validating.
Facilitators have diverse
backgrounds similar to
the learners, all learners
are made to feel that
they are all capable and
can succeed. They can see
people like them as
facilitators, peers, in the
readings and
assignments.
Government funded (free
to learners) needing skills
and uni entry quals. c70%
of participants are
women, nearly all first-in-
family. Online modules
with optional supporting
face to face campus
classes. Participants face
many challenges:
parenting responsibilities;
mental and physical
health issues; negative
schooling experiences;
juggling study around
shift-work.
Case 7: University Preparation Program (Australia)
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redistributive justice recognitive justice representational justice
(Lambert – in review)
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Free online technologies giving a little more to those
who have less:
Concluding thoughts
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Money Respect Voice
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Social justice in the course and in the process
Concluding thoughts
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Course and
materials
• Providing free resources
• Use diverse images, names, cases and examples
• Multi-lingual participation
• Respect difference in assessment contributions
• Amplify excluded or quiet voices & views in online discussion
Development
• Think about who you invite to collaborate
• Community partnerships not just tech partnerships
• Students as partners
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How can our technologies
amplify redistributive,
recognitive and
representational justice in
your context?
Challenge
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Editors:
Sarah Lambert and Laura Czerniewicz
Abstract 1st June 2019
Papers due 1st December 2019
Publish: March-April 2020 (OER20).
JIME: Open Education
and Social Justice
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https://jime.open.ac.uk/
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• Colas, J.-F., Sloep, P. B., & Garreta-Domingo, M. (2016). The Effect of Multilingual Facilitation on Active Participation in
MOOCs. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(4), 280–314.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i4.2470
• Charbonneau-Gowdy, Paula; Capredoni, Rosana; Gonzalez, Sebastian; Jayo, María José; Raby, P. (2015). Working the Three
T’s: Teacher Education, Technology and Teacher Identities. In Proceedings of the European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL
(pp. 138–146). Academic Conferences Limited. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506200710779521
• Lambert, S. R. (2019). The Siyavula case: Digital, collaborative text-book authoring to address educational disadvantage and
resource shortage in South African schools. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 11(3), 279–290.
Retrieved from https://www.iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/704
• Goldberg, L. R., Bell, E., King, C., O’Mara, C., McInerney, F., Robinson, A., & Vickers, J. (2015). Relationship between
participants’ level of education and engagement in their completion of the Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online
Course. Bmc Medical Education, 15(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-015-0344-z
• Watson, S. L., Loizzo, J., Watson, W. R., Mueller, C., Lim, J., & Ertmer, P. A. (2016). Instructional design, facilitation, and
perceived learning outcomes: an exploratory case study of a human trafficking MOOC for attitudinal change. Educational
Technology Research and Development, 64(6), 1273–1300. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9457-2
• Murugesan, R., Nobes, A., & Wild, J. (2017). A MOOC approach for training researchers in developing countries. Open
Praxis, 9(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.9.1.476
• Lambert’s Australian Tertiary Preparation case submitted to UniSTARS conference (Melbourne July 2019 tbc)
References – seven cases
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• Definitions paper http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/290
• Annotated at https://hyp.is/CU_2Rh-mEem03wPCqpl1lQ/jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/290/334
• Early/short blog version https://go-gn.net/research/where-is-the-social-justice-in-open-education/
• Sys review data https://figshare.com/authors/Sarah_Lambert/4728615
• Early conceptual model
https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/cradle/2018/02/15/free-technology-and-
inequality-my-3-minute-thesis-experience/
References – PhD outputs
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• Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2018). World Inequality Report
2018 Retrieved from https://wir2018.wid.world/files/download/wir2018-summary-
english.pdf
• Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The Impact of Open Educational Resources
on Various Student Success Metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in
Higher Education, 30(2), 262–276. Retrieved from http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/
• Thomas, J., Barraket, J., Wilson, C., Ewing, S., MacDonald, T., Tucker, J., & Rennie, E. (2017).
Measuring Australia’s Digital Divide: The Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2017.
Melbourne.
References – inequality
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Twitter @sarahlambertoz
Sarah.Lambert@deakin.edu.au
PhD candidate, and
Manager, Higher Education Participation
and Partnerships Program (HEPPP),
Diversity and Inclusion,
Deakin University
Stay in touch!
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Hinweis der Redaktion
We need to do more to specifically help Ragda Ali, before we can say we are increasing access, participation and success for all students. I’m advocating for spending some time finding out who your vulnerable students are, who are less represented in your course and in “decent work” after your course. And taking steps to reduce the gap between what is likely to be your men and your women, your public and private school students, your white and your brown students. Once you know who is vulnerable, always track the gap. Ideally, work with your university to change it’s analystics and reporting systems to always get that data. HEPPPP role work to get the data at the bottom of the Evaluate scores reports.