Online Open Education and Social Justice

This chapter discusses six short cases of how online Open Education can be considered progress towards the human rights of marginalized cohorts and those typically excluded from higher education. It uses three principles of social justice to show how the design and delivery of online courses enabled and empowered diverse global learners. Social justice is a handy and specific framework to think about the inclusiveness of education programs in any global context. It allows us to consider who needs to be enabled, and which kind of rights are lacking and need addressing. The six cases discuss economic or redistributive justice for regional learners in low-resource contexts with fewer educational and employment opportunities than their more privileged big-city peers. All cases come from regional higher education institutions with commitments to redressing the balance of educational opportunities in their regions: Europe, Chile, South Africa, Australia, USA, India, and South America. All cases also address recognitive and representational justice for women, and four additionally address multi-lingual learners – a form of recognitive and representational justice for speakers of non-English or non-dominant languages.