ethics, openness & the future of education

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

@philosopher1978

#oerrhub

OER Research Hub

developing an ecology of sharing

• 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

OER Research Hub

oerresearchhub.org

#oerrhub

Project Co-PILOT

OER Impact Map

http://oermap.org

OER Evidence Report

2014http://tinyurl.com/o

erevidence

ethics and educational research

perspectives

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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/

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

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)

This was produced quickly using open

technologies and led to further maps and

other ways of exploring data stories through

openness

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

http://blog.ouseful.info/2009/04/02/visualising-mps-expenses-using-scatter-plots-charts-and-maps/

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

• 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?

• 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

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• 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

Open Education: HeLL

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?

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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)

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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)

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Dutiesthe right rules & obligations

Consequencesdesirable / defensible outcomes

Virtuesdevelopment; personal excellence; achieving potential W

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Dutiesthe right rules & obligations

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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.”

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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”

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“Publicly funded resources should be openly licensed resources”

Consequencesdesirable / defensible outcomes

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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

Virtuesdevelopment; personal excellence; achieving potential

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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

phronēsis

phronēsis

aristotle

ethical, practical reason developed through reflective experience

MacIntyre (1985) argues that the unpredictability of human being

necessitates focus on practical experience

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Thanks for listening!

oerresearchhub.org

oermap.org

[email protected]

@philosopher1978

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