Ascertaining impacts of capacity building in open educational practices

Interest in the adoption of open educational practices (OEP) is growing, and the strongest arguments in its favor are that the adoption of such practices has the best chances of making education affordable and accessible to all. However, engagement with such practices requires the adoption of a fundamentally different set of beliefs and value systems about the role of education and educational resources in the development of societies. The development of these beliefs and values are achievable through a combination of strategies. These include appropriate policies, as well as capacity building through sustained engagement in carefully designed learning experiences, which involves people reflecting on authentic problems and situations around the adoption of OEP. The impacts of such capacity building are difficult to ascertain because they are an outcome of a combination of factors involving the practitioners themselves, their educational context, as well as their views about intellectual property, its ownership, and role in educational development. This article discusses our approach to shifting the mindsets of practitioners around OEP and ascertaining its impacts on them.