1. Student empowerment
to foster deeper learning through intrinsic motivation
Learning philosophy
Authentic, engaging, connected learning experiences
The OpenLearning
March 08, 2020
Educational foundations
The OpenLearning philosophy, which governs the design of the platform is based on the educational foundations of:
2. Authentic, active learning experiences
which go beyond publishing content
3. Community and connectedness
to encourage sharing, build student rapport, and support collaboration
2. Authentic, Active Learning Experiences
Building on the constructivist research of Vygotsky, Piaget, Dewey, Vico, Rorty, Bruner, and others, OpenLearning views learning as a constructive, active process. OpenLearning does not view the online classroom as a place where a teacher’s role is to “pour” expert knowledge into passive students who sit in rows of virtual desks (Dewey, 2004). Instead, OpenLearning encourages students to be actively involved in their own process of learning, through meaningful interactions with both the platform itself and the community of students and teachers that it connects.
A teacher who is an expert in a topic may try to “transfer” their understanding to students via lecture videos, readings, and other forms of learning content published online. While these learning resources are often useful for the motivated student, OpenLearning places greater value on providing interactive community experiences which encourage meaningful reflections. Such reflective experiences help students to build and share their own conceptual models, inspiring them to take a more active role in their own learning process as well as assisting the learning of others. For example, students who learn in order to share their understanding and to teach others are more intrinsically motivated, have higher conceptual learning scores, and perceive themselves to be more actively engaged with the environment when compared to students who learn concepts in order to be examined (Benware & Deci, 1984).
Taking inspiration from Experiential Learning (Kolb, 1984), OpenLearning encourages learning experiences and online activities which help students to become familiar with situations, problems, or scenarios so that they can reflect meaningfully, construct and discuss their own solutions and concepts, and then creatively apply this new knowledge in meaningful ways. Instead of transferring knowledge to students, experiential learning allows students to construct their own meaning by:
- situating learning experiences in an application, problem, or scenario
- providing a meaningful learning experience within this situation, with an opportunity for experimentation
- encouraging reflection on these experiences
- guiding these reflections into meaningful concepts
- promoting the use of these new concepts to make decisions or to solve problems in new contexts and situations.
While it is useful for the teacher to be present in order to clarify and resolve misunderstandings, the teacher’s focus throughout this process is instead one of mentoring the learning community: guiding, and facilitating meaningful learning experiences and discourse.
Constructive, active, experiential teaching methods provide students with increased engagement by adding authenticity to how they learn: a teaching practice which stimulates students to learn in the way that they want to learn, rather than making students face abstract, artificial, or contrived processes. OpenLearning values authenticity in teaching to provide learning experiences which are situated in the same, or an analogous context to that in which the learning is then applied. For example, providing students with situational problems with interesting solutions related to the learning outcomes will add relevance to the learning process. This will furthermore create reflective discussion and promote community participation and student engagement. Rather than assuming that only the reception of factual knowledge is at the core to learning, this Situated Learning approach values the process of learning as participation in a community of practice, a participation which increases gradually in engagement and complexity (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
3. A Focus on Community
At its core OpenLearning is a social platform for building effective educational communities and takes inspiration from current social media practices. As such, OpenLearning provides a social media platform specifically designed for education, producing student networking and sharing tools far beyond the functionality of the standard learning management system (LMS). OpenLearning therefore focuses on a user experience which is familiar to social media users, and designs its tools to fit in with common online habits to provide a contemporary social media workflow.
In both OpenLearning’s experience, and in supporting research (Madge, Meek, Wellens & Hooley, 2009) significant numbers of students value the separation of personal social networking (with friends and family) from the social learning interactions that they have within their educational institution, especially in regard to interactions with teachers and staff. Furthermore OpenLearning is both a meeting place for students with common learning interests (especially in the context of massive open online courses, or MOOCs), as well as an online environment where students can become an engaged member within a community of practice.
Building rapport between both learners and teachers, promoting social appreciation, and encouraging self-expression are core elements in OpenLearning’s dedication to providing a platform that builds effective learning communities. Traditional LMS systems have been reported to give students the feeling of being “very lonely”, with the expectation that peers would not respond. These systems also give the perception of a lack of presence or regular activity (Deng & Tavares, 2013). OpenLearning brings social media inspired feeds, “microinteractions” (such as the “like” button), and ubiquitous commenting facilities into the online learning environment, so students have minimal barriers and maximal encouragement to show appreciation for others and to participate within the community. OpenLearning also extends wiki and blogging features to advance the ways in which knowledge sharing, collaboration, self-expression, and personalisationcan be used to ensure a vibrant and engaged community within courses. OpenLearning builds a platform and encourages activities that are designed to empower a diverse community of learners by providing a safe and welcoming space to have a voice. OpenLearning facilitates this community based on the building blocks of social software, by:
- creating a personal, online identity,
- giving a sense of presence and fellowship,
- promoting a community of sharing,
- facilitating the formation of learning relationships,
- building a user’s reputation within a community,
- fostering collaboration in groups, and
- encouraging meaningful discourse and conversations
Inspired by connectivist approaches which focus on nurturing and maintaining connections (between people, as well as information sources) to facilitate continual learning (Siemens, 2004), community also plays a core role in the interactive design of learning activities on OpenLearning.
OpenLearning encourages course activities to embrace this connectedness and collaboration, to build rapport between students, and to promote dialogue, discovery, exploration, and the sharing of diverse new resources. This makes OpenLearning a communal online space where the student community aggregates resources and personalises their own learning environment. Online learning systems have traditionally entirely relied on submission drop-boxes or quiz-like assessments. More advanced systems have started to introduce isolated interactive experiences with simulations and virtual environments. While this is all possible on OpenLearning, the OpenLearning platform takes an additional step of encouraging teachers to create activities that facilitate community interaction. OpenLearning activities are able to provide interactive collaboration and sharing, mediated by the tools of the OpenLearning platform. It is this focus on community which keeps OpenLearning students the most engaged and immersed in their courses.
