What is Open Education Research?
Open education research is research conducted on,
- the cost, outcomes, usage, or perceptions (COUP) of open educational resources, or
- the impact and outcomes of open pedagogy, or
- other aspects of open educational practices.
KPU Open supports open education research through the Open Education Research Fellowship, which is jointly funded by Open Education and the Office of Research Services.
Why do Open Education Research?
As open education initiatives mature, it is imperative to investigate their impacts, whether it be to advocate for institutional support or to iterate, innovate and further advance the goal of equitable access. Research into open education practices strengthens and deepens our understanding of the ways that open impacts students, faculty, and staff. This allows us, and the entire open community, to reflect on our practices and whether or not they are effective at making the changes that we want to make. Open education research is becoming an important facet within a healthy and thriving open ecosystem.
Examples of research done at KPU include,
- Student perceptions, use, and performance from open textbooks vs. commercial textbooks and digital vs. print formats (Jhangiani, Dastur, Le Grand, & Penner, 2018),
- Patterns of open textbook adoption (Barker, Jeffrey, Jhangiani, & Veletsianos, 2018),
- Impact on student outcomes (Jhangiani, & Jhangiani, 2017),
- Faculty use of OER (Jhangiani, Pitt, Hendricks, Key, Lalonde, 2016), and
- Different approaches to open textbook development (Jhangiani, Green, & Belshaw, 2016).
Other open education publications authored at KPU include a discussion paper of the how open educational practices support institutional strategic excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarship (Carey, Davis, Ferreras, & Porter, 2015), a discussion of tensions within the open education movement (Jhangiani, 2017), and an edited volume about open education, open science, and open access (Jhangiani & Biswas-Diener, 2017).
This content has been adapted from The range of B.C. research on open by Tannis Morgan, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
Open Research vs Open Education Research
While open education research is research on open education practices, open research refers to the practice of making research openly available. Open research is often tied to the practice of open science. This is most commonly done through
- publishing research as open access, or
- using open data.
For more information and support on publishing research as open access, contact Karen Meijer-Kline, Scholarly Communications Librarian.
FAQs about Open Education Research
Where do I find open education research?
Here are a few resources that focus specifically on research into open education:
- International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL) [Journal]
- Open Education Research Hub [Website]
- Open Praxis [Journal]
Find research published at by KPU faculty in KORA.
Interested in doing some research into open education but not sure how to get started? Email us at open@kpu.ca and we would be delighted to help.