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Markus Deimann (FernUniversitaet in Hagen, Germany) and Robert Farrow (The Open University UK). Abstract
Despite the recent increases of interest in open education, notably in massive open online courses (MOOCs) (Fini, 2009), it has been continuously asserted that this form of social knowledge production lacks a philosophical or theoretical foundation (Vandenberg, 1975). Similar accusations have been made with respect to distance education, such as being slow to engage with critical debates in theory and research (Evans & Nation, 1992). In a similar vein, Danaher, Wyer, and Bartlett (1998) claim that researchers in open and distance learning tend to draw on too narrow a range of theoretical resources in their research. Given the considerable rise of open education over recent years, these critical appraisals urge us to expand theoretical approaches and refine our understanding of evolving pedagogical and technological relations (cf. Bell, 2011). In this paper, we contribute to debates surrounding open education and open educational resources by introducing the concept of Bildung (self-cultivation, self-realization) as a powerful reflective tool and framework for approaching open education. We will elaborate on the potentials of Bildung by reviewing the history of the concept and exploring the extent to which Bildung can provide open education with a theoretical framework. Our focus is not exclusively on open educational resources (OER): We follow other commentators (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011, p. 62; cf. Weller, 2011) who argue that ‘openness’ in education necessarily shifts the focus from content (OER) to practices (OEP) that are necessary for the use of that content. Read more...

By Frances Elizabeth. Last week I signed up for my first ever MOOC – massive open online course – through the amazing online learning website Coursera. For anyone looking for something to keep them occupied over the summer, I would highly recommend checking it out. I spent my first few minutes on the website just marvelling at the idea of being able to learn whatever I wanted, from whatever university I wanted, all from the comfort of my own bed (surely that is most university students’ dream!). Read more...

By Jonathan Marks. In a recent Minding the Campus essay, Benjamin Ginsberg, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins, worries about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Ginsberg is no softy about higher education. He has written a hard-hitting book on “administrative bloat,” the result of colleges and universities putting resources into management at the expense of instruction and research. But he is worried about MOOCs, which permit “one professor [to] lecture to tens or even hundreds of thousands of students with whom he or she has no interaction.”
In case you haven’t heard, MOOCs are online courses that enroll, typically free of charge, students who listen to lectures, do interactive, graded exercises, and engage in discussion forums. MOOCs are hailed as disruptors of a self-satisfied, overpriced higher education system and denounced as overhyped, poor substitutes for genuine education, which requires face-to-face teaching, mentoring, and discussion. Read more...

By Colleen Goko. STUDENT debt is exploding amid revelations that South African university students can legally acquire credit cards as long as they can prove that they receive a steady income of as little as R200 a month from a parent or a guardian.
A recent youth spending report by Student Village and Unisa found that student debt has more than doubled in the past three years, with 43% of students admitting to owning a credit card in the 2012 survey, compared to 9.5% in 2010. Read more...

By Justin Pope and Didi Tang. Determined to learn their way out of the Great Recession — or eager to rise above the deprivation of developing lands — unprecedented millions of people have enrolled in colleges and universities around the world in the past five years. What they’re finding is an educational landscape turning upside down. In the United States — where top schools have long championed a liberal style of learning and broad education before specialization — higher education’s focus is shifting to getting students that first job in a still-shaky economy. Tuition is so high and the lingering economic distress so great that an education not directly tied to an occupation is increasingly seen as a luxury. Read more...