This research focuses on how educators are using openly accessible sources of knowledge and open-source tools in ways that impact their pedagogical designs. Using a phenomenological approach with self-identifying open education practitioners, I explore how open educational practices (OEP) are being actualized in formal higher education and impacting learning design. Specifically, I examine how educators are bringing elements of openness into their everyday teaching and learning practice using educational technologies. I draw upon Giddens (1986) structuration theory, further developed for use in technology adoption research most notably by DeSanctis and Poole (1994) and Orlikowski (2000). This approach positions technologies as being continually socially constructed, interpreted, and put into practice. In an organizational context, the use of technology is intrinsically linked with institutional properties, rules and norms, as well as individual perceptions and knowledge. The findings suggest that OEP represents an emerging form of learning design, which draws from existing models of constructivist and networked pedagogy. Open technologies are being used to support and enable active learning experiences, presenting and sharing learners work in real-time, allowing for formative feedback, peer review, and ultimately, promoting community-engaged coursework. By designing learning in this way, faculty offer learners an opportunity to consider and practice developing themselves as public citizens and develop the knowledge and literacies for working with copyright and controlling access to their online contributions, while presenting options for extending some of those rights to others. Inviting learners to share their work widely, demonstrates to them that their work has inherent value beyond the course and can be an opportunity to engage with their community. Dataset available: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/CA77BB / Graduate

Open educational resources (OER) have been heralded for their ability to provide educational equality amongst learners worldwide. While this possibility offers to transform the availability of educational materials with only very specific limitations (devices, bandwidth, and ability to engage), it is seriously noted that the production of OER is typically sourced from the same homogenous sources as traditionally published texts (e.g., white males at elite universities in the U.S.). Additionally, while there are emboldened strides towards equality (equal access to materials), there remains an educational gap providing educational equity (equal opportunity to succeed) in the design as well as the implementation of OER. This study meaningfully explored the lived experiences of diverse and multicultural practitioners who teach from OER to understand their perceptions relating to equity, the perpetuation of predominant values, and the insights that shed light on the weaknesses and opportunities OER provide as they continue to reach an ever-growing and more heterogeneous audience.