The course EDCI 339 is coming to an end this week. Although it has only been about a month, I have learned a lot from this course, and the activities we did have led to new perspectives and reflections on  what it means to have open education.

At the beginning of the course, my understanding of open education was very much limited. The term was not unfamiliar to me, but I only perceived it to be a type of learning that was conducted outside of traditional classrooms. I did not know its history, evolvement, advocates, implications, and the many topics that rise around it like OERs and digital equity. We also looked at open learning from the perspectives of both the students and the teachers, its benefits and drawbacks, as well as modern tools that facilitate it (like Twitter).

I feel this course is particularly relevant right now because of the Covid situation. Traditional classrooms are being shut down and both the teachers and students are forced to adopt innovative ways of learning that learn more towards the “open” side of education. In times like this, it becomes especially important for students to have equal and easy access to learning material and teachers’ instructions despite physical limitations, and for teachers to have agency and encourage learning initiatives and knowledge sharing while maintain an appropriate level of control and privacy. We have learned that it is a delicate balance that could easily be skewed, and is something that requires a lot of thinking and careful planning.

Overall, this course has been a wonderful experience. What i learned not only led to more thinking, but also can be applied to all of my future learning opportunities. I really enjoyed this course.