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Editorial: the breadth of Open Learning

Welcome to this third and final Edition of Open Learning for 2016. In writing this brief editorial, I note that in this issue the journal offers a tremendous, provocative and challenging span of content. This reminds me that Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and E Learning remains a comparatively young and expanding domain of enquiry and often the resulting diversity is very evident in the journal content. Our previous, special edition was focused on one specific aspect of distance learning – assessment. In this issue, we revert to our much more expansive format. Prior to the main content of articles, there is our ongoing review of the thoughts of leaders of European Institutions which focus on open and distance learning. Volume 31, Issue 3 begins, as with the previous two editions with an interview. Working with colleagues from distance learning institutes in Spain, Portugal and Germany we are attempting to gain the bigger picture of the attitude of Higher Education institutes’ thinking regarding some of the key issues facing the sector, including sustainability. Following on from my interview with the UK Open University’s Vice Chancellor, Peter Horrocks in Vol. 31, No. 1 and Rosa Martin-Aranda’s with Alejandro Tiana of UNED Spain in Vol. 31, No. 2, in this issue we publish the interview of Daniel Otto with Ada Pellert – Rector of FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany. In our next Edition, we will have our final interview from Portugal and following this, in issue 2 of 2017, we will set out an overview of common themes arising – but that is for the future. Following Daniel’s interview we have our articles and, as already noted, they demonstrate the range and breadth of the distance learning field. The value and self-valuing of distance qualification is reviewed in the intriguingly titled: ‘No “self” left behind? Part-time distance learning university graduates: social class, graduate identity and employability’ by Lorraine Delaney and Margaret Farren. The authors look at our valuing of qualifications gained by distance learning and suggest that, in the case of distance graduates, in addition to convincing others of their achievement and its merits, graduates must also convince themselves. This is turn means that transition to employment, and developing what the authors refer to as a graduate identity, can be a slow, internal and external process. In ‘Science-based laboratory comprehension: an examination of elective practices within traditional, online, and blended learning environments’ Jennifer Hall Rivera looks at how new advances in virtual education can be argued to provide promising examples of enhancing the online classroom laboratory in scientific disciplines. At a more theoretical level, but with profound practical consequences, David Harris assesses ‘Rhizomatic education and Deleuzian theory’. I personally found this a very challenging article – mainly because of my unfamiliarity with the work of Deleuze – but one which repays effort. Taking his personal experience of discussing rhizomatic education during engagement in a massive online course built around connectivity (cMOOCs), David applies and evidences consequences of Deleuzian thinking to education. Following this, in ‘Learning Design – creative design to visualise learning activities’, Lisette Toetenel and Bart Rienties note that by visualising initial decisions and working in collaborative workshops, educators can create more student-centred and creative designs aimed to develop a range of skills which support students in both their studies and the workplace. The authors note that this needs further assessment and that ‘further studies are needed to establish whether these pedagogic decisions have an impact on