The hidden curriculum of open education: Towards a theory of educative commonals, based on an empirical analysis of Open Education websites

Over the last years, a variety of initiatives have globally proliferated that offer Open Education(OE). OE provides both freely distributed information as well as freely distributed (open) courses to educators and students, in view of eliminating institutional and economical barriers to education. Although some research on OE has already emerged, what is equally required in the research field is an educational theory to understand the precise role and meaning of OE, and thattakes, more especially, the websites (including design, software, code) that are a constitutive component of OE practices into account. Coming to such an empirically informed theory constitutes the central research interest of this project. More particularly, this project aims to study the operations and mechanisms of OE websites in order to come to an understanding of their official, and particularly, their hidden curriculum. To that effect, and building upon expertise generated in the PhD, the project deploys innovative research methods that combine a quantitative with a qualitative approach, and that are specifically developed to analyze digital practices. The analysis of the official and hidden curriculum will allow to understand in more detail what openness in education means, and to engage with the societal and scholarly debate on the educational commons.

Keywords:Open Education websites, educative commonals, open education, curriculum