Building capacity for open educational practices in Australian higher education

Open education, in particular open educational practices (OEP) has already impacted educational systems around the world. In higher education more specifically, it has benefited learners and educators and influenced current strategic plans and policies. In addition, recent open education has influenced nation- wide research policy and funding. OEP engagement and adoption can vary from institutions to institutions due to many organisational factors, including culture, related policies, infrastructure, willingness and awareness. These organisational factors can enable, but also pose challenges to educational institutions globally. However, many studies have argued that a key strategy to OEP adoption is capacity building. This is probably why capacity building is the predominant activity amongst the universities experimenting with OEP in Australia. This paper explores some of the recent capacity building initiatives for OEP in higher education Australia. It starts with a brief discussion about the role of capacity building and the acknowledgement that it is not a recent approach. It then discusses these initiative in contract with more traditional approaches to capacity building, followed by some recommendations and final considerations.