Open educational resources and open education in the age of generative AI

Abstract

Open education (OE), understood as a combination of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP), promotes the creation, adaptation, and dissemination of content under an open license, while supporting collaborative and inclusive teaching approaches. The recent rise of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) calls into question the very existence of OE. It facilitates the production and customization of OER, while raising ethical, pedagogical, and societal issues. In the many French-speaking contexts, where research remains limited, contributions from practitioners are proving useful in initiating a movement in this direction. We therefore felt it was relevant to share scientific and experiential knowledge in order to encourage critical reflection on EO in the age of GAI. This special issue brings together sixteen contributions: two knowledge synthesis articles, two research articles, six practitioner accounts, three discussion and debate articles, and three interviews. The syntheses open the issue by examining the conditions for a profound transformation of knowledge and practices, whether in cognitive justice in EO or self-management in health supported by GAI. The research articles examine the uses of OER and open tools in higher education, revealing both their potential and the continuing need for training. The contributions from practitioners offer a variety of feedback: resource sharing, collaborative teaching methods, and instructional design based on certain models. Discussion articles explore the tensions between openness, capabilities, accessibility, and quality, while interviews reveal institutional, national, and Francophone perspectives on sharing policies and cultures. These texts form a multidimensional Francophone overview of open education in the age of GAI.