Module 8: Open Pedagogy

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the module, you should be able to do the following:

  • Identify several ways to use open pedagogy in your course
  • Identify several ways to use Wikipedia in your course
  • Work with students to create an OER by curating or adapting existing OER
  • Involve students in curating, revising, adapting, proofreading, and creating authentic learning resources
  • Develop renewable assignments

What is Open Pedagogy?

Open pedagogy is the practice of engaging with students as creators of information rather than simply consumers of it. It’s a form of experiential learning in which students demonstrate understanding through the act of creation.

Traditional education may view students as vessels to be filled with knowledge, but open pedagogy envisions them as active participants in the learning process. This is possible, in part, thanks to the use of OER. Open educational resources allow educators to devise assignments and redesign courses in ways unavailable to them when using traditionally copyrighted resources. Not only do instructors gain the ability to edit and improve upon the texts they assign, customizing them to perfectly suit the needs of the course, but students can interact with the texts in new ways as well.

For instance, exemplary student work from each semester can be added to new editions of the text which will be used by future classes. Students can help improve the quality of materials by suggesting new examples, or keeping facts up to date. 

Watch this SPARC leadership video with Robin DeRosa to learn more:

Renewable Assignments

While traditional assignments are sometimes viewed as hoops for students to jump through, a renewable assignment is designed for students to learn and to contribute to the field of study at the same time. Instead of ending up in the recycle bin, renewable assignments give students opportunities to add value to the world and provide a foundation for future students to learn from and build upon.

To be considered renewable, the teacher invites the students to openly license and publicly share their work with the global community.  Renewable assignments can take the form of student-created learning guides, infographics illustrating textbook content, critical introductions to readings, or open access books that faculty and students collaboratively write, revise, or edit.

Here are some examples of how open pedagogy can be used in the classroom: 

  • Adapt or remix OER with your students
  • Build OER with your students
  • Teach your students how to write Wikipedia articles
  • Have your students help write test questions
  • Facilitate student-created and student-controlled learning environments in your LMS
  • Build course policies, outcomes, assignments, rubrics, schedules of work collaboratively with students

Here are a few readings that will provide you with more depth on the topic: 

Attributions

This module was adapted from the following resources: 

Module 6: Open Pedagogy, The CCNY OER Workshop by the City College of New York, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

Module 5: How Do I Use Open in my Classroom, WLAC OER Training by Cyrus Helf, Los Angeles Community College District, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

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