Open Education and Global Competence: Advancing Glocalized Practices

Abstract

In response to the educational demands of the 21st century, integrating open education into global competence development has evolved into a necessary consideration for educators and administrators. A comprehensive learning framework proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2019 refines competence with focus on a cyclical process of anticipation, action, and reflection. By adopting glocalized strategies that address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through local perspectives, an undergraduate general education program utilizes open resources and massive open online courses as access to understanding global issues, meanwhile engaging students in self-initiated actions towards relevant local challenges. Under structured guidance in stages, students explore target issues on social networking sites, probe further with MOOCs, and share action plans using new media platforms. A mixed-methods approach combines quantitative data from students’ summative self-assessment and qualitative insights from forum posts collected throughout one semester. Preliminary findings reflect the positive impact of open educational practices in cycles on growing globally competent learners who confidently anticipate and act with openness, though expanded reflective opportunities are necessary to ensure meaningful learning support and to drive continuous improvements in impactful local actions on global issues.