Activating and Nurturing the Investment of Heutagogical Resources for Equity and Quality in Self-Determined, Open, Online and Distance Learning

Abstract

Expansion of access to higher education and learning opportunities is often inhibited by the lack of teachers, limited physical facilities, the shortage of financial resources and limited technological infrastructure. Due to the rivalrous nature of these resources, many of them are accessed in a way that inhibits the same access privilege to others, especially when the need is higher than the supply. This paper discusses a framework for collaborative investment in opening up higher education on the basis of a combination of rivalrous and non-rivalrous resources. Then, selected transformative outcomes from a PhD study that had a transformative design and other results of studies on self-determined learning are presented and discussed: 1) from secondary education graduation in teacher-training to successful completions of a) undergraduate education in Physics and b) a master’s degree program in Applied Mathematics, 2) from a pass grade to a first class and 3) from intention to drop out to completion of an online master’s degree program in a British university with distinction. Strategies for academics, institutions and policy makers to activate and nurture the investment of heutagogical resources in selfdetermined, open, online and distance learning are discussed. This presentation may benefit educators, institutions and policy makers who are interested in expansion of higher education opportunities to underprivileged learners through open and distance learning without undermining the learning quality. // Paper ID 213