This book covers original research on the implementation of open educational practices through the use of open educational resources at the university level. The emphasis on open education in this book is on contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning specifically within a South African milieu. The envisaged chapters cover conceptual and review research and empirical work focussing on open educational practices and the use of renewable assessments. The work starts off with an overview of an institutional-wide open education project that prompted the research followed by research on open education in terms of various modules in the health science, music education, law, philosophy, dietetics, anthropology, French language learning, journalism and political science. There is a clear gap in the literature on open education in terms of open educational practices, specifically in terms of contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning in a South African context. Despite the existence of some general works on open education in terms of policy, social justice and open textbooks, this book will be unique in exploring the intersections of openness, specifically with contextualisation, student agency and self-directedness.

"This book offers insightful reflections on academic development practices. The contributors engage the reader painstakingly in the dynamics of professional learning and effective teaching. This volume facilitates the examination of the need for reflection that leads to professional maturity. All educational institutions seek teachers who continuously search for effective strategies in improving student success. The contributors uncover a variety of approaches as they evince proven suggestions. The chapters are refreshing and edifying. This book is essential for all teachers, lecturers and trainers who want to improve their teaching practice immensely". Professor Vuyisile T. Msila Researcher at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, University of South Africa.

This book explores open educational resources and open education through research conducted on this topic globally. This book engages with intersections between open educational resources, social justice and equality, as well as policy in terms of open educational resources. Numerous examples of open praxis are also included, ranging from open educational resources courses to the affordances of artificial intelligence, data-driven learning, and open textbooks in this context. Furthermore, chapters range from providing a broad overview of open educational resources international and regional initiatives in Africa, to cases of work done in the United States, New Zealand, Israel, and Hong Kong. The role of Wikipedia and Wikidata is also prominent. Finally, this book includes unique contributions, focusing on open educational resources and feminist pedagogy, as well as disabled learners’ motivations for participating in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Academics and researchers working in the field of open education and higher education in general will understand the importance of this work.

This edited book not only makes a much-needed contribution to research in arts education but also provides a strong grounding of evidential support for Singapore arts education, in contrast to the current state of affairs in arts education in many parts of the world where severe cuts in funding, lackluster support for the arts and imperialist agendas are pervasive. The case of and for Singapore – presented in this edited book through rich descriptions of the dedicated, contextualized practices of arts educators, artists and researchers – offers readers many valuable lessons and reflections on the continued survival and advancement of arts education.

The present publication arose from the two-day conference “Learning through Sharing: Open Resources, Open Practices, Open Communication” organised jointly by the EUROCALL Teacher Education and Computer Mediated Communication Special Interest Groups at the University of Bologna (Italy) on 29-30 March 2012. The main objective was to showcase the many ways in which practitioners in different settings are engaging with the concepts of open resources and practices, and to provide ideas for language teachers who might want to dip their toes into the Open Educational Resources/Open Educational Practices world, or experiment further.