In Between Hyperboles: Forms and Formations in Open Education

Captured under the umbrella term Open Education, a wide range of educational initiatives has been popping up in the educational landscape. This study aims to offer empirical ground for understanding how Open Education introduces new forms of education. It does so by focusing on one initiative, namely the Interactive Open Online Courses included in the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange. Social topology is taken up as a theoretical vantage point, with a dedicated focus on infrastructuring practices. The empirical accounts show how infrastructures stabilizeformsof practices, while interplays with infrastructuring practices enactformations,i.e., constantly changing practices. The study finally discusses these interplays, labeled as bouncing and enfolding, astypicalto this Open Education initiative. The study concludes by emphasizing how studying this initiative through a social topological lens enabled a positionin betweenpositive and negative hyperboles on Open Education, and how this allowed theorizing this movement in terms of continuity and change.