Think about these open pedagogy considerations and the following list of elements of an open pedagogy assignment (created by past participants from DeRosa & Jhangiani reading) and :
- Addresses broader audience than instructor (e.g., peers, future students, public)
- Positions students as knowledge creators in some way
- Shares power with students
- Social justice oriented (see CSP-UDL cross-pollination)
- incorporates other asset-based pedagogies (CSP, UDL, trauma informed)
- Centers learners and learner experiences
- Choice
- Access, no-cost and different media for material
- Safe/brave space where students can share their learning and ideas freely
- May involve creating OER for future students
- Often involves publicly performing knowledge (e.g., blog posts, videos, audio/podcasts, zines)
In the comments below, reflect on:
- Which of the above considerations and elements might you include in your open pedagogy assignment?
- Would you change or add anything to the two lists?
- Which of the considerations and elements might cause challenges or discomfort for your students? How could you address those challenges/discomforts?
10 thoughts on “Elements of an Open Pedagogy Assignment”
I’m particulalry interested in the seocnd bullet about adding something to the list. I’ve been thinking about how to use and discuss the use of primary and secondary sources and I think OER is a great way to do this that also gets away from tertiary source textbooks…. or can as long as an online textbook isn’t used. However, does digitasization take away from the primary source ‘realism’?
Re. the third bullet, I think the biggest challenge can be access to the internet although since the pandemic this isn’t as hard as it used to be.
This was a very thought-provoking reading. I am very much into gaining feedback from my students on what works, why, and how to improve. Therefore, I am very interested in practices involving the students helping with suggestions for improving assignments, examples, and handouts for the future students of my course. I also allow my students to role-play, to imagine they are The Professor, and to grade a work I share with them. They elaborate on why they will give A, B, and C to the student’s work. I always ask for permission to use students’ work in my future classes, is there anything else I can do to improve this aspect?
Recently I keep circling back to “May involve creating OER for future students.” I’ve written e-learning curricula in the past, and I’m starting to think that what I’m moving toward is writing full courses from scratch with examples and built-in activities called from and geared toward our students.
Podcast assignments, if soliciting the sounds and voices of the city could be incorporated into future class materials. Any thoughts on sourcing the class from the previous classes’ student work? I think this could diminish some of the discomfort as well if they can model on previous students.
Another thought/question I have would be how AI can help to break up power in productive ways. I’ve had a lot of success demystifying tech with students, and encountering tech affordances as empowerment is certainly something I’d like them to experience as long as done in an engaged, critical, and iterative way. If, for instance, it could grow them each “a creative team” then I think some of the hazards of group work could be diminished!
I’m excited about seeing students become content creators on larger platforms. I want to help my students to feel confident about sharing their ideas and creativity outside of the classroom. This might lead to them contributing to future teaching materials.
Over the past years, I’ve found that writing research papers, and–in particular–using CUNY libraries has been an area of frustration for most of my students. I want to add a journaling element to the research project, preferably audio-visual, to show that we can create content even in the midst of frustration, and that we can do meaningful research, even when the content appears inaccessible.
1) Position students as a knowledge creators and share powers with the students of my class
2) Access different media and safe space for the students, where they an share their thoughts and ideas
3) involve videos and audio podcasts
4) No changes yet to the list
5) No challenges as I see for now
I am most interested in integrating elements in my assignment that 1) emphasize students’ agency and 2) through this emphasis, encourage them to become active knowledge creators. For example, I am keen on designing a group project where students collaborate with each other for creating a resource that addresses a specific topic within the course. This could be a wiki, a digital presentation, or a collaborative document. Allowing students to choose the topic or theme of their project within the broader course context guided by specific learning objectives is a step toward that direction. This would in fact encourage them to take ownership of their learning by allowing them to decide how to approach and/or present the content. Then, students would operate from a position of authorship, which is highly gratifying, while sharing a feeling of producing knowledge, not simply receiving it.
I think any challenges that might arise – such as insecurity or a fear of the unfamiliar – would vary depending on the context, the subject matter, classroom environment, or specific student needs. Maybe some students would feel lost within this unfamiliar process. In this case, I would try to break down complex concepts, provide supplementary materials, and offer additional support if needed.
I love the idea of students being “knowledge creators.” Introduce marketing to students under the pretext that, as everyday consumers, we are all already “marketers” in our own right. Providing students with choices and elements of centering learning, I believe, makes the classroom more engaging and also builds students’ confidence in seeing themselves in the marketing profession.
I think confidence, or lack thereof, might be intimidating to students who have never expressed themselves in an open forum and may set some students back. However, scaffolding techniques such as creating or sharing tutorials and guides can help students overcome their fears.
Build interpersonal and social / business skills. Students will visit local businesses, or organizations around campus or in their neighborhoods to speak with business owners about their business or marketing plans by providing the opportunity to hone student academic experience/stance and developing course content where they can have an ownership of their creativity or contributions.
Since most of my courses are planned with the student in mind, I ensure that I remain flexible with due dates, and have a “break” now and then to check in on students’ mental health and every other thing happening or will happen during and after the course. I offer students the opportunity to be creative and make presentations either by the use of a ppt, podcast, or poster.
In African American history courses, social justice objectives are always woven into lessons. Students are always encouraged vis a vis their assignments to think of ways in which historical events continue to manifest in contemporary times. I find the lists fulfilling as they currently stand. Encouraging students to speak their private ideas aloud has often been challenging. For many are afraid of pushback from others and may even shy away if they find the conversations too controversial. I often let those students remain silent since my goal is to not make them feel uncomfortable.
1) i might include : positions students as knowledge creators /and / social justice oriented
2) i think no changes to provide
3) Discomfort may appear by using publicly presented knowledge // to avoid I should combine with broadcast information