Critical Considerations for Open Pedagogy

Renewable assignments provide students with opportunities to engage in meaningful work, add value beyond a single class or assignment, and provide a foundation for future students to learn from and build upon. Renewable assignments can be reused each semester by incorporating processes for maintaining, editing, and improving previous student-created work to increase sustainability.

Example(s):

• Learning Objects for Physics 101 by Simon Bates asks students to create learning objects to help future physics students master difficult topics

• History of Science by Lauren Woolsey asks students to create text and an interactive learning object that is added into the LibreTexts course textbook for future students to learn from. 

Accessibility ensures that all people, regardless of ability or need of assistive technologies, can interact with and have equal access to the information or services you provide without the need to provide private information in order to access.

Examples:

• Humans R Social Media – 2024 "Living Book" Edition by Diana Daly, Jacquie Kuru, Nathan Schneider, Alexandria Fripp, and iVoices Media Lab has students ensure their contributions to this open textbook are accessible to all users by providing multiple means of engagement with their included content. 

Students have an active role in their learning through making, creating, doing, sharing, collaborating, and publishing in ways that are meaningful to them and may incorporate choices regarding format, topic, and licensing their work (adapted from Source: Defined Learning).

Examples: 

• Introduction to Hispanic Literary Studies by Julia Baumgardt has students work in groups and choose an OER course text to become “experts” on and then choose what type of supplementary material (voice recordings, multiple choice questions, or short bibliographies) they would like to create.  

• Advocacy Project by Joan Giovannini, has students choose an advocacy topic of their choice based on their course content and choose the way to share their advocacy plan in a way that is meaningful to their community and/or family. 

Teaching and learning activities that have the potential to contribute positively to society. 

Examples: 

• Medically Relevant Physics Problems by Nathan Tompkins has students create medically relevant physics problems and solutions along with writing a brief explanation of the medical relevance of the problem for future students to solve.

• Peer Instruction Guide for Registering in Colleague Self Service by Morgan Felkner has students developing an instruction guide which future students can use to simplify the complex registration process.

Grounding teaching in a way that incorporates students' customs, experiences, and perspective and acknowledges that each student is unique and needs different opportunities and resources to thrive. Creating a learning environment in which students feel included and empowered to recognize and address injustices. 

Examples: 

• Teaching Wikipedia: A Model for Critical Engagement with Open Information by Amanda Koziura, Jennifer M. Starkey, and Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, has students write Wikipedia articles about women in science and technology fields to increase the visibility of women scientists. 

• “And Still We Rise”: Open Pedagogy and Black History at a Rural Comprehensive State College by Joshua F. Beatty, Timothy C. Hartnett, Debra Kimok, and John McMahon has students document and publicize the history of prominent Black visitors to the college (SUNY Plattsburgh), to remind the college community of this tradition and to support calls for a more intentional and sustained pursuit of racial justice on campus.

Through instructional transparency, thoughtful explanations of the why behind open pedagogy as well students’ role in contributing to the learning materials and experience, whole and small-group practice and open discussion, preparing students for the work of open pedagogy. 

Examples:

• Library Support for Scaffolding OER-enabled Pedagogy in a General Education Science Course by Lindsey Gwozdz (Gumb) and Heather Miceli, has students intentionally practicing and learning “open concepts” - defined as foundational topics of working in the open such as intellectual property, copyright and fair use, open licenses, and author’s rights.

• Participatory Publishing: Zines as Open Pedagogy by Erin Fields,  Alexandra Alisauskas, and Jessi Taylor, has students meet with librarians throughout the assignment to learn about tools, choices, and ethics for creating their projects. Librarians created a Zine that illustrates these open concepts for students to continue to use outside of guest lectures.

Students and instructors reflect upon and critically assess their learning process, what they create, and the connections to their personal growth and the broader impact of their work, including implications on marginalized communities.

Examples:

• Leveraging Open Pedagogy to Create an Authentic and Renewable Curriculum by Erin McKenney, Sam Winemiller, Hillary Fox, David Tully, and Will Cross describes how students created an open Applied Ecology book and then participated in focus groups to help maximize the usability of the book’s format and also participated in a Google survey to reflect upon their participation in open pedagogy.

• OER as Assessment: Open Pedagogy in a Theatre History Course by Teresa Focarile uses the TILT framework to enhance transparency for students researching and creating an introduction to a play they have read for class in a way that both analyzes the ways past societies have defined the nature and purpose of theater, defends the students’ own aesthetic judgments about the plays, and provides helpful context for future students.