Innovations in Open and Flexible Education

Dr Kam Cheong Li, Director of Research at the Open University of Hong Kong, has been extensively involved in open education for more than two decades. He has served as a course developer/coordinator and program leader in a broad range of programs for distance learning, adult learning, e-learning and blended learning. He is the former Secretary-General of the Asian Association of Open Universities, and an active supporter of professionalism and good practices in open and flexible education. In addition, he has written more than 100 publications, including refereed journal papers, book chapters, monographs and textbooks. His research interests include open education, pedagogical innovations and academic analytics.Dr Kin Sun Yuen is the former Director of Educational Technology and Publishing at the Open University of Hong Kong. He has solid expertise in open and distance education, and is highly experienced in the design, development and delivery of distance and open learning courses, as well as the introduction of a quality assurance system to produce distance learning materials.Dr Billy Tak Ming Wong, Research Coordinator at the Open University of Hong Kong, has widely published in the areas of open education, technology-enhanced learning and research capacity development. His research areas include open and flexible education, mobile learning, blended learning, open educational resources, and academic analytics.

• Open/flexible curriculum and pedagogy.- 1 Revisiting the definitions and implementation of flexible learning.- 2 Planning for better instruction: Learner interviews for flexible education in a Japanese tertiary curriculum.- 3 Budgetary planning for self-financing open and flexible education.- 4 A needs assessment study to support academic research: The experiences of the Open University of Hong Kong.- 5 In search of an effective model of 'Flipped classroom' in Japan.- 6 Open and distance learning in Asia: Status and strengths.- 7 Embedding MOOCs in academic programmes as a part of curriculum transformation: A pilot case study.- Mobile and ubiquitous learning.- 8 Using mobile and flexible technologies to enhance workplace learning in vocational education and training (VET).- 9 Preference and readiness of nursing students for mobile learning.- 10 Mobile learning support to distance learners: Using WhatsApp Messenger.- 11 Designing smart apps to enhance learners' engagement in online learning.- 12 The impact of mobile technology on the learning of management science, and the development of problem-solving skills.- Digitised media and open educational resources.- 13 An explorative study on the pedagogical potential of gamification.- 14 A comparative study of the teaching effect of 'flipped' MOOC class and conventional class.- 15 Formative evaluation of Hong Kong's first open textbooks.- 16 How to incorporate Open Educational Resources (OER) into the infrastructure and pedagogy for promoting ubiquitous learning.- 17 Using videos in blended learning: Pitfalls and success factors.- 18 Factors affecting media literacy of young students.- Tracking and analysis of student learning.- 19 Instruction in college physics experiments in the context of big data.- 20 A study of the relationship between Instant Messaging communication and student assessment results.- 21 using the xAPI to track learning.- 22 Modelling the process of learning analytics using a reinforcement learning framework.- 23 A study of high school students doing physics experiments with Arduino and other data logging devices.

“Innovations in Open and Flexible Education is a timely collection of research which examines various aspects of open and flexible education in the global community’s changing landscape of teaching and learning. The book is written for professors, academics, researchers, students, educational practitioners, and administrators to learn the latest empirical research in regard to open and flexible education. … The organization and structure of the book is not only informative but is enjoyable to read.” (Elizabeth Yomantas, The Wabash Center Journal On Teaching, Vol. 1 (2), 2020)