Ethics, Openness and the Future of Learning

Ethics, openness & the
future of education
Dr. Rob Farrow
The Open University, UK
#opened2014

OER Research Hub
ethics and educational research
traditional and ‘guerrilla’ approaches
open ethics: future perspectives
ethics of the OER movement
advice & guidance

OER Research Hub
developing an ecology of sharing

OER Research Hub
• Research project at The Open University (UK)
• Funded by William & Flora Hewlett Foundation for two years
• Tasked with building the most comprehensive picture of OER impact
• Organised by eleven research hypotheses
• Collaboration model works across different educational sectors
• Global reach but with a USA focus
• Openness in practice: methods, data, dissemination
oerresearchhub.org
#oerrhub

OER Impact Map
http://oermap.org

OER Evidence Report
http://tin2y0u14rl.com/o
erevidence

ethics and educational research
perspectives

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lemasney/5211610431/

The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves
systematizing, defending, and recommending
concepts of right and wrong behavior.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD-YCDE_5yw
Post World War II, war crimes
trials produces Nuremberg
Code (1947) for research
involving human subjects
Belmont Report (1979) sets
out the principles of ethical
research & still acts as basis
for experimental research
Criticised by Shore (2006) for
failure to recognize difference
(gender, ethnicity, culture,
geography, etc)

Principles of Ethical Research
• Exercise control over research process
• Ethical research design, sampling, data collection
• Respect for the autonomy and self-determination of research participants
• Informed (and freely given) consent
• Privacy & confidentiality (including data management)
• Fairness, impartiality & transparency
• Non-maleficence (do no harm)
• Beneficence (maximise benefits of research)

Ethics in OER Research Hub (1/2)
Considerations in line with ‘traditional’ research:
• Compliance with UK Data Protection Act (1998) and the USA’s Protection of
Human Subjects (45 CFR 46)
• Risk assessment
• Free recruitment of research participants
• Institutional approvals (IRB) as needed
• Informed consent
• Data collection / storage in compliance with policy of The Open University (UK)

Ethics in OER Research Hub (2/2)
New dimensions resulting from greater openness:
• collaborative research design; agile working in partnership needs to maintain
epistemological integrity
• third-party data; respecting the consent provided at the time
• open release of research data; issues around privacy and security of data;
obligations to participants; wording of consent form
• open licensing of research instruments; responsibility to set standards for
research excellence
• open dissemination: blogging, open access publication, School of Open course,
duty to share findings widely

‘guerrilla’ research
research in the open

Open Research
When you make
research open,
novel and
interesting things
happen to the
research process

Open Research: Process
“Open research is research conducted in the spirit of free and open source
software. Much like open source schemes that are built around a source
code that is made public, the central theme of open research is to make
clear accounts of the methodology freely available via the internet, along
with any data or results extracted or derived from them. This permits a
massively distributed collaboration, and one in which anyone may
participate at any level of the project.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_research

Guerrilla Research
Weller (2013) describes open research as ‘guerrilla’ research:
• No permissions needed (open access, open licensing, open data)
• Quick set up, no business case (or funding) required
• Allows for creativity, interdisciplinarity unconstrained by tradition
• Using free tools and social media
• Combination of existing open data
• Alternative funding models (e.g. Kickstarter / enterprise)

http://blog.ouseful.info/2009/04/02/visualising-mps-expenses-using-scatter-plots-charts-and-maps/
In 2009 Tony Hirst produced a map of
British MP expense claims which was
picked up and used by The Guardian
newspaper
This was produced quickly using open
technologies and led to further maps and
other ways of exploring data stories through
openness

Coal Run (Ohio) Map Mashup
Mapping mash-up overlaid city
boundaries, water supply lines,
and house occupancy by race
Showed almost all the white
households in Coal Run have
water service, while all but a
few black homes do not
$11m in damages from the city
of Zanesville and Muskingum
County (2008)
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/02/16/bittersweet-water.html

The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Research, Education, Libraries and
Archives) Regulations 2014 (UK) provides new rights for data mining of
copyrighted content
• Non-commercial use only
• Likely to need to even more complex use cases because data need not
be licensed openly
Similar legislation elsewhere…?

Guerrilla Research: Ethical Issues
Open licensing allows a ‘DIY’ approach to content creation – can the same be done
for research? Unconventional research activities are not always institutionally
recognised, giving rise to a number of issues:
• Ownership of intellectual property
• Lack of institutional guidance
• Institutional recognition of professional / scholarly activity
• Risk of losing connection with the original context that produced the data
• Lack of clarity about whether consent can be assumed for public data
• Ethics of big / open data

open ethics
future perspectives

Ethics, Openness and the Future of Learning

• Education is increasingly data-driven (nb.
learning analytics)
• By definition, many data sets too large /
complex to process using traditional methods
and require teams of specialists
• Potentially laden with ethical significance
(e.g. open health data for diagnostics has the
potential to relieve human suffering)
• Implications for privacy, informed consent,
autonomy
• Grey areas around public-private: social
networks; MOOC
• Will anonymity cease to exist?

Open Education: Heaven
• Minimising the cost of high-quality education
• Affordable access worldwide
• Open access publication
• Freedom over the use of intellectual property
• Open data
• Predictive analytics
• Fully integrated with online life
• Individualized instruction
• Accurate personalized feedback
• Social justice
• Techno-utopianism

José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Open Education: HeLL
• Normalization of surveillance
• Risk of identity theft, fraud or other data abuse
• Enforced culture of transparency
• Audit culture
• Loss of freedom
• Lack of informed consent
• Decontextualized judgments about learner performance
• Abuse of educator / learner IP
• Commericalization of open data
• Predetermining the chances of student success
• Loss of intersubjective human relationships
• Cultural monism
• Techno-centrism

To find out whether the psychological states of
its users can be manipulated Facebook ran a
study which involved showing users either only
‘positive’ or ‘negative’ status updates and seeing
whether this would affect their mood (it did).
Expert opinion is divided over the acceptability of
Facebook’s actions.
• What are our expectations of use of online
information?
• Can we reasonably consent to our own harm?
• What role is technology playing in the
pedagogical situation; of what should we be
aware?
• Mirror with ethical responsibilities around
distance learning
Facebook: ‘Emotional Contagion’ Study

the OER movement
is fundamentally ethical

the OER movement
is fundamentally ethical
… right?

http://vivrolfe.com/uncategorized/opened14-socio-ethical-stances-of-moocs/

Philosophers usually distinguish…
• Meta-ethics (the meaning and use of ethical language)
• Normative Ethics (principles/standards that regulate conduct)
Deontological ethics (duties, rules & obligations)
Consequentialist ethics (consequences, outcomes)
Virtue ethics (development; personal excellence)
• Applied Ethics (analysis of specific moral controversies)
Wikimedia Commons / NotFromUtrecht

Duties
the right rules & obligations
Consequences
desirable / defensible outcomes
Virtues
development; personal excellence; achieving potential

Duties
the right rules & obligations

Morality and open education
“When educational materials can be electronically copied and transferred around
the world at almost no cost, we have a greater ethical obligation than ever before
to increase the reach of opportunity. When people can connect with others nearby
or in distant lands at almost no cost to ask questions, give answers, and exchange
ideas, the moral imperative to meaningfully enable these opportunities weighs
profoundly. We cannot in good conscience allow this poverty of educational
opportunity to continue when educational provisions are so plentiful, and when
their duplication and distribution costs so little.”
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/469/1001
Caswell, Henson, Jensen & Wiley (2008)

Paris Declaration on OER (2012) builds on the previous ten years of OER
advocacy as well as article 26 of the Universal declaration on human rights
(UDHR, 1948) and article 13.1 of The International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (UN, 1966) in recognition of “the right of everyone to
education”
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/469/1001

“Publicly funded resources should be openly licensed resources”

Consequences
desirable / defensible outcomes

We tend to advocate for OER and open education by referring to the consequences
and outcomes of adoption:
• Reducing marginal cost of resources
• Efficacy
• Improve access
• Institutional reputation
• Building networks

Virtues
development; personal excellence; achieving potential

https://paradigm.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=215136

Openness in education
The digital nature of OER and the particular methods of producing and using them
represent a considerable challenge to existing practice in education:
• Implications for proprietary methods of publication, dissemination
• Evolving pedagogical roles & responsibilities
• Relation to academic career development
• Correct use (and attribution) of intellectual property
• Blurring boundaries between private and ‘connected’ life
• Building consensus and influencing policymakers

• Are we morally obliged to release OER? For its own sake? For the sake of
improving access to education as a moral good?
• Are we morally obliged to release data openly? Can there be adequate
safeguards? Is the risk too great?
• Education as common good supported indirectly by OER, open data, etc.
• The moral significance of inaction

advice and guidance
being ethical

OERRH Ethics Manual: Guidance
It’s not possible to anticipate every possible effect of openness, in unmonitored spaces:
• Understanding the potential for collected information to be personally, professionally
or commercially sensitive
• Policies should make it clear when data can be shared with others and under what
conditions, licence, etc.
• Though open, dissemination strategies should respect existing agreements with
those who have been recorded or provided data
• Openly available third party materials should be used fairly.
• Data mined from social networks may need to be treated with caution

Summary of Guidance
• Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that it is ethical
• Check terms & conditions thoroughly if you’re at all unsure on legal side
• Think about the control you exercise over the process and how to use
influence.
• CC-BY-NC/ND license options may give more control over data, but are
arguably less open – is there a balance to be struck?
Open versions of familiar principles:
• Minimize harm
• Ensure that consent is as informed as it reasonably can be
• Respect for privacy and personhood

ethical, practical reason developed through reflective experience
phronēsis
phronēsis
aristotle
MacIntyre (1985) argues that the unpredictability of human being
necessitates focus on practical experience

https://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/2892270262/

Thanks for listening!
oerresearchhub.org
oermap.org
rob.farrow@open.ac.uk
@philosopher1978

Join us in building understanding of open education
School of Open
course on
#openresearch
OERRH Evidence Report
OERRH Ethics Manual
Contribute to OER
Impact Map

Ethics, Openness and the Future of Learning

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