THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN OPEN TEACHING POLICY IN OPEN EDUCATION IN MAURITIUS

Authors

  • Belle Louis Jinot Academic Affairs Division, Open University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejoe.v6i2.3766

Keywords:

open teaching, implementation, cMOOCs, higher education

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of the implementation of a policy that promotes open teaching in an emerging open university. It describes the benefits and risks associated with such implementation within the context of Mauritius. It emphasises the adoption of cMOOCs which is more student-generated MOOCs that encourages student engagement based on socio-constructivism and heutagogy, instead of behaviourism and cognitivism. The use of open teaching promotes the democratisation of higher education and may help open universities to achieve economies of scale, and therefore making open universities profitable. However, open teaching through the adoption of cMOOCs may lack sustainability due to the political bearing of the open university concerning its governing bodies and the nomination of its head at the management level, the lack of electracy of a large number of contingent teaching staff as well as the lack of safeguard for the intellectual copyrights of MOOCs in Mauritius. It is recommended that open universities should invest massively in technology-enhanced content delivery and in the appointment of a graphic designer to support user-content generation.

Author Biography

  • Belle Louis Jinot, Academic Affairs Division, Open University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius
    Dr. Belle Louis Jinot is an academic at the Open University of Mauritius. He currently serves as a lecturer and Programme Leader in the field of Educational Leadership and Management. He holds a D. Ed in Education Management. He is a Commonwealth scholar (MA Online and Distance Education from the Institute of Technology Education, The Open University, UK) and he is currently an Association of Commonwealth Universities Fellow in Education at Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. His areas of interest are technology-enhanced education, educational leadership and management, school principalship. He has widely published in the field of educational management.

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Published

2021-06-04

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Articles

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