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"This issue of Open Praxis focuses on the concept of openness and its growth and use in higher education. Table of Contents Editorial Openness in higher education HTML PDF Inés Gil-Jaurena "

"Abstract The last five years have witnessed a hype about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) presaging a revolution in higher education. Although all MOOCs have in common their scale and free access, they have already bifurcated in two very distinct types of courses when compared in terms of their underpinning theory, format and structure, known as c-MOOCs and x-MOOCs. The concept of openness behind each of the formats is also very different. Previous studies have shown that c-and x-MOOCs share some common features but that they clearly differ on the learning theory and pedagogical model on which they stand. In this paper we extend earlier findings and concentrate on the concept of "openness" behind each format showing important differences. Keywords Distance Education; Massive Open Online Course; MOOC; Open Course; Open Learning; Openness"

"Antonio Fini, Andreas Formiconi, Alessandro Giorni, Nuccia Silvana Pirruccello, Elisa Spadavecchia, Emanuela Zibordi Abstract In Fall 2007 David Wiley, professor at Utah State University held a course about Open Education. That time, however, Dr Wiley's course was followed by a rather unusual group of students. The Fall 2007 edition, in fact, was available to anybody, free of charge, all over the world. The only requisite required was the possession of a blog for the completion of the weekly assignments. The present paper, whose authors attended the course completing it successfully, is an account of the experience they had. It can be considered an innovating experience from many different viewpoints and can be regarded as an example of how the world of the formal education can meet the demands of the informal one, in the broader landscape of professional training and lifelong learning. Keywords OER; Open Education; online community; informal learning Full Text: PDF This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License."