Openness and MOOC

Many people have striven for higher educational openness for a long time. We can see many countries have increased their school enrollment for a large degree in these years. In china, there are just two or three students out of near 30 students can enter colleges twenty years ago; but now more than 90% high school students can go to colleges. The is a result of advocating openness in higher education. Obviously, this is one meaning of openness of higher education. Openness here means relatively open enrollment. It of course can't be completely open, we need to screen out some unqualified students, to some extent. Openness here provides more students opportunities to receive higher education, which shows the respects to individuals' rights. Meanwhile, it is also a way to improve the whole quality of society.

The second meaning of openness in higher education just like mentioned by many people (e.g.In Shadow Of MOOCs, Open Education Makes Progress), it is the open access to educational resources. Library system is a very important part of colleges which like the heart. Many colleges and universities strive to expand their library systems continuously, in order to provide more resources for their students and teachers, and also to show their educational strength. Because of high price of books, the open resources definitely give students a broader way to knowledge. Students won't have no opportunity to reading many nutritious materials just because of no money.

Openness in my view also means open for all kinds of opinions. It doesn't only mean that we won't punish or reject people who hold different or strange opinions, it means we should really welcome and respect different opinions. In higher education, students' opinions should not be bounded with or limited by politics or religions. Only when higher education break these boundaries, it can be called real openness.If we just focus on the enrollment or resources, it is only the appearance of openness.

Further more, base on the third meaning of openness, openness in higher education should provide a open platform for students who come from different cultures and different countries. There is one old saying that you can't know your shallow until you go out of your culture. Different cultures bring different spontaneous concepts, which is not like scientific learning. These culturally based concepts is the nutrition of creativity. The open platform also plays a role in eliminating prejudice, and broaden mind and insight.

MOOC, a new way of learning, should bring these meanings of openness into itself. Open in enrollment is definitely a characteristic of MOOC. As to the open resources, Baraniuk said that "open" on MOOC just means open enrollment, not open content(In Shadow Of MOOCs, Open Education Makes Progress). Some resources on MOOC are not free, but cheaper to get. A cheaper way to get these resources also can be seen as a relatively openness. Meanwhile, the students on MOOC come from different countries, and resources on MOOC actually provide them many materials which they can't get normally. Furthermore, MOOC can partly realize the third and the forth meanings of openness because of its open platform. However, teachers' speech can be limited to some extent, also because the open platform and recorded lectures. All in all, MOOC should try to practice the "open" appropriately on the premise of its normally operation.