Open Education and the Creative Economy: Global Perspectives and Comparative Analysis

This dissertation is to deal the issues of open education, creative economies, higher education. It also compares the performances in these aspects among different countries. The conception of the “creative economy” develops within the context of “global neoliberalism” and “knowledge economy”. These three notions are all concerned with economic development. In addition, the creative economy emphasizes the importance of creativity and cultural commodities in cultural and economical development. Open education adapts the openness concept in education and utilizes information communication technology (ICT) to enhance openness. Open education encourages sharing educational opportunities and providing resources to a greater number of participants. The idea of open knowledge in the creative economy and open education implies the crossing of knowledge boundaries and collective knowledge creation. With its advantageous conditions, higher education can play an important role in the development of open knowledge. From a global perspective, this dissertation adopts a statistical “comparison structure” (also known as a co-plot) to discover the categories and features of the creative economy and open education among countries and regions. Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) data from the World Bank is analyzed and compared internationally. The co-plot shows that there are differences in certain variables among countries and regions. High GDP does not necessarily lead to a highly developed creative economy, but well collective development of some particular variables can contribute to the development of the creative economy in some countries. The conclusion focuses on: (a) open education and its relationship to open knowledge and creative economy, (b) the role and significance of open education, (c) the role of higher education in creative economy and open society, and (d) the results of comparison structure (co-plot) and alternative models. This dissertation makes recommendation concerning the aspects of policy-making and higher education development, as well as future researches.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Tze-Chang

Contributors dc:contributor

• Peters, Michael A.
• Johnston-Parsons, Marilyn A.
• Besley, Athlone Christine

• creative economy
• open education
• open knowledge
• higher education
• global comparison

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Tze-Chang Liu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/29677

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/29677