It’s not a novelty for me sharing the resources and discussions I have with my students in my classes. I have already been doing that since the beginner of my academical trajectory in 2009, adopting this formidable tool for sharing knowledge, named blog. I’m not sure about how much I have committed hits and misses, but I have not doubt that this is an extraordinary way to motivate students to participating in the process of sharing information and learn and teaching together. There is a great resistance to digital formats of education as a component to enhance the performance of students and teachers when we are thinking in traditional academical courses, and maybe in some ways it is really dangerous to be totally open, considering the necessity of practical environment when the discipline requires this position. Another important thing to think about is copyright, ethical aspects and even personal preferences.
Perhaps one critical step to be successful is the indication for students using adequate tools, as flipped classroom method for example. Unfortunately, students can be more conservatives than many of our colleagues when you are looking for change from an education centered in teachers to an education centered in learners. We have a good statement about this in the words of Alastair Creelman: “Tradition and attitudes are a much bigger barrier than technology and very hard to break down. We need to realize that students are not always as digital as we think they are and that many are very comfortable with being passive information consumers”. So important as the discussion above is the feeling of lose control, and I think this is one of the most critical factors to many of our colleagues doesn’t adopt openness in their classes. In relation to that for me losing control is associated with lack of planning and risk assessment. When you don’t planner something sufficient well because of absence of time, knowledge, support or everything necessary to do that well, you have not control, but it is almost impossible to be comfortably save that you have control of everything, so risk assessment and resilience are good concepts to think when you are worried about control.
Anyway, I have to say I really appreciate to learning and teaching using openness in my classes, but I can understand when my colleagues become worried about the quality of courses and how much prepared is the professional after taking these courses. My opinion is that some of them are really good and others are not so good yet. “ONL191” is a good example of a course that is worth doing. No wonder it’s already working for so many times. Perhaps, this is the best way to evaluate the quality of a course, something with quality usually remains, while something precarious succumbs.
References:
Chicoteixeira's Blog 
Hi again, interesting to hear that you have been sharing for so long and blogging since 2009! You reason very insightful in the topic, and you see risks as well as possibilities in sharing. You also see a big resistance to this development, and you talk about losing control as a teacher. You mention that maybe we must rethink the whole concept of higher education, but there can also be resistance from the students. Culture is hard to change. At the bottom you have an interesting reflection about quality in education: Is it what lasts? Or can there be more perspectives?… Thanks for your insights!
Hello Lotta! Thank your for your reply! For sure we can consider more perspectives. There are a great complexity to evaluate the quality of one online course and one important thing to consider is the goal of the student too.