Open Research and Open Learning

This paper describes the authors’ journeys from traditionally closed to open research, and the development of a theoretical framework, and some practical tools and a 3D graphic palette, for designers, teachers and learners to use, to describe the dynamics of learning in the new open learning courses and events, including MOOCs and other interactive learning spaces. Using a narrative approach, the authors draw on their recent research experience to explore the influences on this shift and how it aligns with their increasing work in emergent learning. The shift has itself been an emergent process. Changes in the both open research and open learning are based on ‘social software’, which changes the relationship between public and private space, and formal and informal forms of speech and writing. This creates a new hybrid, or ‘mashup’ between open research and open learning, which goes beyond ‘open scholarship’.