Landscapes, maps and territories of open education policy … where do we go from here?

As we know, a map is not the same thing as the territory it claims to represent. A landscape whether viewed, photographed or painted again attempts representation, but is a snapshot of a moment, taken from a certain angle. The territory always contains so much more, so much that is unknown.

We have recently been working on the topic of OE policy from the angles of landscape and maps; collecting, curating and reviewing in order to build up a big picture of the current state of policy, and trying to devise pathways towards desired policy destinations. In both cases the territory that concerns us, that we are trying to understand and navigate, is the real world of the lived experience of learning, teaching, creation and collaboration inside and outside of educational organisations, by educators, and of those who seek learning through formal or other channels. This territory is also a research field, within which the limits or remit of OE remain an open question. OE researchers increasingly consider interrelationships between open content, practices, and educators, and between the practices engaged in and the reasons for doing so.

In this session we propose to discuss findings from our review of the makeup of the current landscape of OE policy, to highlight the current direction of travel. Furthermore, we will argue that in seeking pathways towards open futures, we may need to recalibrate our instruments to better reflect the rich and complex territory of actual practices.