LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Open Pedagogy

Open Pedagogy

Open pedagogy is a teaching approach that emphasizes openness, collaboration, and student agency to create a more inclusive and effective educational environment. Also known as open educational practices, open education pedagogy, and OER-enabled pedagogy, it broadly describes teaching and learning techniques made possible through open licensing. It might be considered the next phase beyond the adoption of open educational resources (OER) and toward transformative learning.

Key Aspects:

Student Agency: Students are not just passive consumers of knowledge but active creators. They interact with OER when creating content and choosing a license.
Renewable/Public-facing Assignments: Students create artifacts that have value beyond only their learning and the course, are made public, and are encouraged to be openly licensed.
Use of OER: Open pedagogy often uses freely accessible resources like OER to support learning and teaching practices to improve education at all levels. It can use OER as a starting point for remaking courses so they become platforms for learning, collaboration, and engagement.
Social Justice: Access is fundamental, and agency broadens access. Open pedagogy cares about equity and aims to make education more accessible for all.
Eight Attributes: These include participatory technologies, openness/trust, innovation and creativity, sharing ideas and resources, connected community, learner-generated content, reflective practice, and peer review.
Learning Theories: Open pedagogy draws from various educational theories, including constructivism, connectivism, structuration, and critical pedagogy. It aligns with the belief that openness can enhance learning experiences and empower learners.

As members of the OEN, PALNI faculty can participate in:

Open Pedagogy Community of Practice
This group is a safe and informal space for open pedagogy practitioners at OEN member institutions to come together and share wins, challenges, opportunities, and hot topics related to open pedagogy. Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Wednesday of the Month at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The Open Pedagogy Learning Circle Curriculum
A collaborative, resource-rich learning environment, including seven synchronous, virtual one-hour sessions every semester for seven weeks. Join the interest list to be emailed details the next time the Open Pedagogy Learning Circle is offered.
Certificate in Open Educational Practices
In this year-long program, instructors will introduce open educational practices and help you create a personalized action plan. You’ll work in pairs, one librarian and one faculty member, collaborating to make education more equitable and sustainable through innovative pedagogy. Join the interest list to be emailed details the next time the certificate program is offered. The curriculum is also available openly.

Consider your tools. You don't have to use a snazzy tool or technology to make open pedagogy work. One of the most common renewable assignments is adding citations to Wikipedia articles.
Scaffold learning. Not all students will be familiar with technology or able to engage with OER as quickly as others. It's important that you scaffold technology support into your teaching so all students can participate equally.
Educate students about copyright. It's important that students who are creating items that might be published and shared openly understand what that means. University librarians can visit your class to make this process easier.
Allow for opt-out. Some students will be energized by the idea that their homework can be seen, used, or even improved upon by future students in the class. Others may feel uncomfortable with this level of openness. Allow students to opt out of making their materials public and/or give them the option to remove their name from public documents.

OEN Open Pedagogy Portal
The portal features case studies, student work product, and teaching and learning resources related to and in support of open pedagogy.
The Open Pedagogy Student Toolkit
This toolkit is intended as a guide for students who are engaging in open pedagogy. The toolkit defines open pedagogy, the benefits of open pedagogy, and the rights and responsibilities that come with being a student creator. Instructors may wish to use this toolkit as a resource to scaffold conversations about open pedagogy with their students and to appropriately prepare them for working in the open.

A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students
A handbook for faculty interested in practicing open pedagogy by involving students in the making of open textbooks, ancillary materials, or other Open Educational Resources.
Wiki Education Foundation
work with students to flesh out, update, or create a new online book that can be used as an introduction to a topic covered in your course. This is a great exercise for students interested in science communication, teaching, or research.
Ditching the “Disposable assignment” in favor of open pedagogy
Most course assignments are “disposable” in the sense that they will only ever be seen by the
instructor. Moreover, students often see little point in them and rarely revisit them. But what if we redesigned our course assignments to empower our students as creators of resources for the commons? Whether creating videos, editing wiki articles, or writing op eds, open pedagogy might be the best way for us to “give psychology away.”
Google Docs
have students collaborate with one another to create documents, presentations, or class projects.
Hypothes.is
annotate websites and online readings with your students. Let them engage with the material and each other in a more interactive way than discussion boards might allow.

PALNI invites you to apply for a $400 PALSave Open Pedagogy Assignment Grant. This pilot grant serves as an incentive for you to create (or redesign) and share an open pedagogy-focused assignment for your course, providing a foundation for future students and educators to learn from and build upon.

Note: Applicants will be notified on a rolling basis starting in mid-September, 2024. Please add amanda@palni.edu and patti@palni.edu to your email contacts to prevent important information regarding your grant application from going to spam.

Open pedagogy assignments, also called renewable or public-facing assignments, include student-generated content such as:

Ancillaries (test banks, slides, learning objects)
Blog posts
Crowdsourced content
Multimedia projects
Open review and annotation
Portfolios
Textbooks
Videos
Websites
Wikipedia articles
Other examples from the Open Pedagogy Portal

If selected, PALNI will provide:

A learning guide on open pedagogy and related assignments
PALSave Open Pedagogy Discussion Space where you can connect with other faculty
Support for the assignment design process through email consultation and/or web office hours
A $400 stipend

To receive the stipend, participants will be expected to:

Review the Open Pedagogy Learning Guide and Discussion Space
Submit the completed assignment
Agree to share the assignment with an open license so it can be added to the Open Pedagogy Portal
Implement the assignment in your course
Agree to provide evaluative data about the program via:
- Student Perception Survey
- Faculty Evaluation Survey

To apply, please fill out the application at this link. The application will ask about the related course, current knowledge level, and interest in open pedagogy. If you have any questions, please direct them to Amanda Hurford.

Attribution: “Open Dialogues: How to engage and support students in open pedagogies” by Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia is licensed CC BY 3.0.