Who Opens Online Distance Education, to Whom, and for What?

Overview & Synopsis

In the previous era of open educational practices (OEP) based around distance teaching, its actors and their target group were clear to define: open universities and disadvantaged learners. In this new era of OEP linked to digitalized open educational resources, there are multiple actors and beneficiaries of OEP. This critical literature review examined numerous scholarly narratives about OEP in online distance education, by asking a simple but important question: "Who opens online distance education, to whom, and for what?". The results suggest that despite the growing importance on the social mission to make Education for All among diverse actors, clear understanding of the actual process of OEP in real-life higher education settings and clarity on how those actors actually serve disadvantaged learners are lacking. This article suggests that we refocus our OEP effort on opening higher education to the disadvantaged and collecting real-life stories of OEP and the disadvantaged.