Open Educational Resources at SUNY ESF: Open Courses

Welcome to this new free course produced by The Open University. If you enroll and complete the course you can gain a digital badge and a Statement of Participation as a record of your achievement. Digital badges are a new way of demonstrating online that you have gained a skill. Schools, colleges and universities are working with employers and other organisations to develop open badges that help learners gain recognition for their skills, and support employers to identify the right candidate for a job.

Learning in the 21st century is undergoing both subtle and radical transformation as a result of the impact of digital, networked technologies. Open learning gives unprecedented access to information and education and provides support to learners across the globe. However, it is not the technologies themselves that represent the biggest change, but the opportunities for openness that flow from their thoughtful application, in the form of availability of, and access to, formal and informal learning. Without research the changes in learning may exclude the very people who most stand to benefit from them. For example, those likely to complete free, online courses tend to be qualified to degree level already. Ironically, the revolution in open learning is in danger of increasing the digital divide by privileging those with the appropriate digital and learning skills to best take advantage of it. It is this issue that the Open World Learning (OWL) programme will address, which over a period 2015-2020 will consist of 15 Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarships funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and 3 funded by the Open University.