Current developments around open education in Irish higher education

This paper explores open educational practice in the context of the recommendations by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Digital Roadmap around open education (National Forum, 2015); and a subsequent focused research project which aimed to explore the use of learning resources and open access in Higher Education institutions in Ireland (Risquez et al, 2015). In addition, the author explores the recognition of structured non-accredited opportunities as a valid professional development activity by the National Forum through its recent digital badges initiative. In order to open the debate, the author goes on to discuss her recent personal experience in relation to open structured non-accredited education opportunities for continuous professional development. This offers a contrast between open education models that focus on scalability (as MOOCs) versus those that focus on community and connections.