Start Date
24-10-2025 10:00 AM
End Date
24-10-2025 10:45 AM
Presentation Type
Presentation
Primary Theme
Professional Development
Secondary Theme
Pedagogy, Andragogy, and Designs
Description
Open Networked Learning (ONL) is a decade-long collaborative professional development initiative that harnesses the principles of openness, networked learning, and problem-based pedagogy to support higher education staff around the world. Unlike localized programs, ONL functions as both a course and a global community of practice—participants from many countries engage in small facilitated groups, share resources openly, and often transition into facilitator or co-design roles in later iterations. Over 17 cycles, ONL has refined a scalable structure that balances institutional participation with open access to external learners.
ONL is especially relevant to the OER community because it models how equity and open access can operate in staff development itself. By offering participation beyond institutional borders, supporting diverse digital literacies, and adhering to layered openness, ONL reduces traditional barriers to professional development. Participants report profound shifts in digital competences, reflective teaching practices, and confidence to experiment with open pedagogies in their own contexts. In effect, ONL is transformational—educators become innovators rather than consumers of open materials.
But the model is not without challenges: ensuring institutional buy-in, managing participant diversity (in language, access, experience), and demonstrating recognized value within formal reward structures remain persistent issues. ONL addresses these via distributed facilitation, continuous evaluation, adaptive course design, and embedding alumni engagement for sustainability. Key lessons include: (1) community drives continuity; (2) openness must be intentional and scaffolded; (3) transformation emanates from experience, not just theory; and (4) sustainability depends on replenishing leadership and renewing partnerships.
For the OER community, ONL offers a replicable, equity-aligned blueprint—not merely for open educational resources, but for open staff development itself.
Recommended Citation
Pareigis, Jörg; Wirth, Alexandra; Levälahti, Filip; and Fischer, Miriam, "Open Networked Learning (ONL): A Global, Scalable, Transformative Model for Equity-Focused Staff Development" (2025). Open Educational Resources Conference. 1.
https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/oer_conference/2025/24th/1
Open Networked Learning (ONL): A Global, Scalable, Transformative Model for Equity-Focused Staff Development
Open Networked Learning (ONL) is a decade-long collaborative professional development initiative that harnesses the principles of openness, networked learning, and problem-based pedagogy to support higher education staff around the world. Unlike localized programs, ONL functions as both a course and a global community of practice—participants from many countries engage in small facilitated groups, share resources openly, and often transition into facilitator or co-design roles in later iterations. Over 17 cycles, ONL has refined a scalable structure that balances institutional participation with open access to external learners.
ONL is especially relevant to the OER community because it models how equity and open access can operate in staff development itself. By offering participation beyond institutional borders, supporting diverse digital literacies, and adhering to layered openness, ONL reduces traditional barriers to professional development. Participants report profound shifts in digital competences, reflective teaching practices, and confidence to experiment with open pedagogies in their own contexts. In effect, ONL is transformational—educators become innovators rather than consumers of open materials.
But the model is not without challenges: ensuring institutional buy-in, managing participant diversity (in language, access, experience), and demonstrating recognized value within formal reward structures remain persistent issues. ONL addresses these via distributed facilitation, continuous evaluation, adaptive course design, and embedding alumni engagement for sustainability. Key lessons include: (1) community drives continuity; (2) openness must be intentional and scaffolded; (3) transformation emanates from experience, not just theory; and (4) sustainability depends on replenishing leadership and renewing partnerships.
For the OER community, ONL offers a replicable, equity-aligned blueprint—not merely for open educational resources, but for open staff development itself.