International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Open Universities and Open Educational Practices A Content Analysis of Open University Websites

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of how open universities depict their current institutional engagement in open educational practices. In view of the growth of programming for non-traditional students by conventional universities, particularly through online learning and increasing interest in open educational practices, the intention is to gain a better understanding of the unique contributions currently made, or potentially to be made, by open universities in comparison to conventional universities. The study is

From the 1960s onward, open universities used traditional broadcast media (television, radio) and correspondence or print materials to provide increased access to learning. Some of them continue in this tradition, while others combine broadcast media with print-based distance education or fully online learning, or use a variety of hybrid approaches, including blended programming with regional centres for face-to-face contact. Some have moved fully into the use of the internet and mobile technologies to deliver programming, depending largely on available infrastructures nationally or regionally, and accessible by targeted populations. Yet for many open universities, print-based learning materials remain a core or important ancillary technology for the delivery of education. Typically, the courses offered are developed by course teams with supporting faculty or tutors providing content expertise in development and tutorial support during delivery.
Open universities were established to fulfill specific governmental purposes, ranging from social and economic development to promotion of state ideology, with their purposes embedded in the larger economic and political setting (Tait, 2008). In their approach, open universities "embrace openness in terms of open admission, multiple exit points for studies, easy access to learning resources and flexible modes of learning" (Li, Yuen, & Wong, 2018, p. ix). Their novel designs aim to achieve economies of scale, with specialized course teams, media technicians, and learning technologists building courses for delivery to large numbers of learners, usually with the support of distance tutors. They are designed to meet learning needs at a scale that conventional universities have been unable to achieve, owing both to limitations of government funding and to restrictive organizational models (Daniel, Kanwar, & Uvalic-Trumbic, 2009).
Today, discussions about the meaning and challenges of openness are rapidly expanding in the discourses of higher education and open distance learning, more often than not in relation to conventional higher

Openness in Higher Education
"Openness" in higher education is a somewhat amorphous and evolving concept (Peter & Diemann, 2013). to "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge" (Atkins, Brown & Hammond, 2007, p. 4). access publishing, which are seen as helping to reduce the cost barrier of education to students. More recently there has emerged the "omnibus" (Mishra, 2017, p. 376) term "open educational practices" which, by Mishra's definition, includes the following characteristics: • Open access: inclusive and equal access to educational opportunities without barriers such as entry qualifications and ability to pay.
• Open learning: the ability to study and learn at anytime, anywhere, and at any pace.
• Open scholarship: comprises releasing educational resources under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others (p. 376). Cronin (2017) further describes open educational practices as involving "collaborative practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of OER, as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies and social networks for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners" (p. Nevertheless, in addition to the work of conventional universities, there continues to be a need at the global level for higher education models that can specialize in the unique requirements of distance education, as well as, in some cases, work at a very large scale where the needs of massive populations remain unmet and the construction of new conventional universities is infeasible (Taylor, 2007;Daniel, Kanwar, & Uvalic-Trumbic, 2009). In some cases, such large-scale institutions are linked to national infrastructure projects to connect remote areas with Internet access as a means of extending opportunities for the delivery of

Methodology
The data-gathering method was content analysis (Stemler, 2001)  universities. The terms selected for searches were "distance education" (including web-based, print packages, broadcast television and radio, mobile, and other remote e-learning methods such as CD ROMs, apps, and/or software programs); "open admission" (minimal/no mandatory entrance requirements); "flexible scheduling" (including non-fixed registration and semester terms); "recognition of prior learning" (including advanced entry or recognition of non-formal credit obtained elsewhere), "OER and open textbooks"; "open access publishing"; "research"; and "innovation." The searches included evidence of any related concepts that would imply the terms selected, wherever they might appear within the website. It is recognized that "distance education" and "online/e-learning" are overlapping terms; where necessary, some items were included in both. While outside the general scope of open educational practices, the presence of research is a factor in the quality of distance education and innovation was included mainly to find any relevant practices not directly captured by the preceding terms and related concepts. Examples of such innovation include interactive virtual classrooms, open science, virtual labs, and simulations.
The search included "any publicly available data including relevant PDF documents linked to the universities' websites" (Hasim et al., 2018, p. 3). Where language difficulties were encountered, the translation feature of the Chrome Web browser was used. Websites that were inaccessible for technical reasons (i.e., that would not load or function in any major western browsers) were excluded from the study

Analysis
Reviewing open university websites is not a simple task. They vary greatly in quality, some loading very slowly or not at all and some designed for a low-bandwidth infrastructure, while others approach the glossy stock-photo-brochure style of many conventional universities. Some have sophisticated navigational structures while others seem outdated and poorly organized. In some cases, the websites are highly operational in nature and designed for practical use, with detailed course schedules and registration forms on the main page. Where strategic plans were present, they provided helpful information about institutional priorities. Results of the search are presented in Figure 3. assessments, and collaborative e-learning. A research focus is evident in slightly over half the institutions (56%), either in academic disciplines or in online and distance education. Research can be seen as an indicator of quality for both course content, and the mindset to review and update delivery methods and course content over time. Surprisingly, references to mobile learning are minimal, given the ubiquity of devices globally. A further item of interest is that there seem to be a number of institutions announcing expansions of central and/or distributed regional campuses.

Discussion
While one of the original purposes of open universities was to address educational needs not met by conventional universities (Tait, 2008;Lane, 2009) This phenomenon is due in no small part to the longer-term trend of shifting student population demographics at many traditional universities from the "conventional" age range to older adult learners (Schuetze & Slowey, 2002;Hanover Research, 2015), and the potential economic advantages to institutions of recruiting from this latter demographic especially if enrolments in certain areas are declining among conventional student populations. These "non-traditional" students are described as "new groups of students who, for a complex range of social, economic and cultural reasons were traditionally excluded from, or under-represented in, higher education, have come to participate in higher education in increasing numbers" (Schuetze & Slowey, 2002, p. 312.). However, as has been learned over time, reaching out to "nontraditional" students, while potentially reaching more learners quantitatively, does not necessarily address other types of unequal access to higher education: For example, older people without traditional entry qualifications for higher education, people from working class backgrounds, those living in remote or rural areas, those from ethnic minority or immigrant groups appear to have done less well. They are all still largely under-represented in higher education because they still face greater barriers than the "traditional" students. Therefore, high participation rates do not automatically imply that the functions of higher education in social selection and social reproduction are obsolete, or issues of inequality or access are features of the past. The evidence from our study strongly suggests that the massification of higher education has not been sufficient to eliminate unequal rates of participation by different social groups (Schuetze & Slowey, 2002, pp. 313-314).
Among such inequalities in South Africa, for example, are persistent social injustices related to colonialism and apartheid, severe socio-economic disparities, ineffective school systems, skill shortages and population health issues (Subotzky & Prinsloo, 2011). Additional efforts need to be made by higher education institutions to address social inequities beyond simply increasing the numbers of "non-traditional" students through various techniques. As noted by Prinsloo and Subotzky (2011)

Conclusion
This review of open university websites reinforces the earlier-noted observation by Shale (1987)