The Failure of Access: Rethinking Open Education

The use of open re-use licenses and Internet technologies have long promised to reduce barriers to education by making it more distributed, equitable, and open. Indeed, the promise of open education can trace its roots to the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations 1948, which states “everyone has a right to education.” However, there is little formal evidence that open education has an impact on increasing access to learning or making education more equitable.

As a collaboration between the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), BCcampus, British Columbia Research Libraries Group (BCRLG) and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), this event will explore the goals, failures, and successes of open education. Join us in exploring such questions as: is open education succeeding in being a transformative movement that makes learning more accessible? What are the criteria and successes that should be used to measure if the open education movement is a success? What more needs to be done?