Just published as part of the Unitwin Network on Open Education 23 good reasons… to adopt Open Education
Deal with agency issues by Solenn Gillouard
Open education and the power of agency
Today’s article is written by Dorothy Laubscher
Dorothy Laubscher is an associate professor in the Research Unit Self-Directed Learning at the North-West University, South Africa. She holds the UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and Open Educational Resources at the North-West University. Her research interests include mathematics education, technology-enhanced learning, self-directed learning, open education, open educational resources, and blended and multimodal learning environments to foster self-directed learning.
The promise of open education is inspiring – learning without barriers, resources freely available to all, and a system that fosters collaboration and innovation. By making knowledge accessible beyond traditional institutional constraints, open education has transformed how we teach and learn. Yet, beyond its role in expanding access, open education offers something even more powerful: agency.
In traditional education systems, control often rests with institutions, publishers, and curriculum designers, leaving both facilitators and students with limited flexibility. Open education challenges this model by giving people real choices in how they teach and learn. It not only makes knowledge available but also empowers individuals to shape, adapt, and direct their own educational experiences. In many ways, open education provides a compelling solution to long-standing agency issues in education, allowing for more personalised, flexible, and inclusive learning.
I have experienced how open education can strengthen agency in ways that traditional systems often cannot. Coming from the Global South, I have noted the challenges of working with educational resources that, while freely available, do not always align with local realities. A university lecturer eager to integrate Open Educational Resources (OER) into their teaching may find that the materials are designed for contexts vastly different. The ability to adapt and remix those materials makes all the difference, ensuring that education is not just open, but meaningful. Similarly, students who engage with OER can explore topics at their own pace, following their interests rather than being confined to rigid learning pathways. Open education fosters an environment where facilitators and students are not just passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in creating and shaping it (Heymans et al., 2022).
This shift is particularly important in diverse learning environments. Many widely used textbooks and OER originate from well-resourced regions, meaning that they may not always reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of learners worldwide. As someone from the Global South, I have seen how this creates challenges, not only in terms of accessibility but also in representation. Open education allows for localisation and contextualisation, ensuring that knowledge is inclusive and relevant to different educational and socio-cultural settings. By giving facilitators the freedom to modify materials, open education enables them to create richer, more meaningful learning experiences that resonate with their students’ needs and realities.
For students, open education provides an opportunity to move beyond the constraints of traditional education. Self-directed learning (SDL) thrives in open environments (Tarling & Gunness, 2021), where students can explore subjects in a way that suits their needs, rather than following a pre-set curriculum. Unlike conventional courses that dictate a fixed sequence, OER allow students to engage flexibly, choosing when, how, and what to learn. This freedom of choice is central to student agency, enabling students to take control of their education, make decisions about their learning pathways, and engage with knowledge in ways that are personally meaningful. Open education not only supports access but also fosters essential SDL skills, such as goal-setting, self-motivation, and the ability to critically evaluate and apply knowledge independently.
“Students collaborating (8611243532) ” by college.library is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .
Technology is playing an increasingly significant role in supporting agency within open education. AI-driven tools, for instance, can personalise learning experiences by recommending relevant resources and generating adaptive content. However, technology must be designed to enhance rather than limit agency. If AI-driven platforms begin to dictate learning pathways too rigidly, learners may lose the very flexibility that makes open education so valuable. The key is to use technology as a tool for empowerment, ensuring that learners and educators remain in control of their educational choices. Despite the challenges, open education has already demonstrated its potential to transform access to knowledge into something even greater – ownership over learning. Facilitators can create and customise resources that meet their students’ needs. Institutions can foster collaboration and innovation in knowledge creation. Students can take charge of their learning, engaging with open materials not just as consumers but as co-creators of knowledge (Androsov & Zhang, 2023).
A truly open system is one where knowledge is not just available but adaptable, diverse, and student-centred. As open education continues to evolve, the key question remains: Does this approach give students and facilitators more freedom to shape their own educational experiences? If the answer is yes, then open education is not just providing access, it is providing agency. And in that lies its greatest strength.
References
Androsov, A., & Zhang, B. (2023). Students as Co-Creators: Bringing Culturally Responsive Teaching into a Doctoral Course for International Students in China. Sage Open, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221145914
Heymans, Y., Pool, J., Bisschoff, C., Christmals, C., Ebrahim, B., Koch, R., & Olivier, J. (2022). Second-year health students’ perspectives on developing open educational resources. In J. Olivier, C. du Toit-Brits, B. J. Bunt, & A. Dhakulkar (Eds.), Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning (pp. 157–174). AOSIS Books. Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and Self-Directed Learning | AOSIS Scholarly Books
Tarling, I., & Gunness, S. (2021). Educators’ beliefs, perceptions and practices around self-directed learning, assessment and open education practices. Radical Solutions for Education in Africa: Open Education and Self-directed Learning in the Continent , 187-209.
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Deal with agency issues
” by Dorothy Laubscher is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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