Browse some examples of open pedagogy on the Open Pedagogy Notebook, posted by colleagues in the summer 2020 and summer 2021 seminars, and in the resources section of this site.
In the comments below, write a paragraph about an open pedagogy assignment that you might create. You can adapt one of the examples you read about or sketch out an idea for something new.
As I listened to the video and read the text, it became clearer to me that some students can’t afford the textbooks we require them to purchase and if exams are drawn from the textbook they are likely to fail. This means that textbook requirement is an equity and social justice issue while OER Open pedagogy can be a good way to empower students and promote learning. So open pedagogy is about access, and seeing the education from a learner-driven perspective.An open pedagogy assignment I might create would be to write a number of questions on a given topic and ask students to make their entries on each question and in the end I put students in groups to edit the entries into an essay.
My previous experiences with the OER opportunities at BMCC have shown me how beneficial using OER sources can be, especially when compared to standard text books. I have been using OER sources in my classes for awhile now, and I find that it allows me to have greater control over the texts and materials my students are studying. I have been experimenting with different approaches to assignments in my classes and in the last two semesters I have had my students take the research that they complete for the final research paper and transfer the information into new modalities such as infographics, comics, Tik Tok videos, pamphlets, Power Points, poetry booklets, etc. These projects can help other students better understand ways to apporach the assignment, review previous student research, and consider how the writing and research skills that they learn can be applied to real world settings, projects, and scenarios outside of the undergraduate classroom.
While there is a tremendous amount of information in the video that is both useful and directly related to the work of increasing student success and engagement, I have reservations about a couple of the contentions made in the video:
1. Encouraging the legitimacy of Wikipedia as an academic source. To me, this is completely non-negotiable. As an academic and educator, my job is to move my students toward correct, independent research. Frankly, the fact that the presenter put forth this idea undermined his credibility with me immediately.
2. The idea of redoing textbooks using student work on research paper is a brilliant idea. It does, however, bring up many questions, primarily, that student synthesis and analysis is essential, how can we ensure academic rigor in the construction of a student-built/centered anthology textbook? It’s a fact that often an anthology or textbook uses expert testimony to give specific and deep insight into an otherwise obscure and impenetrable texts, ideas, and processes.Are we removing the role of the expert? Giving student scholarship primary place in a text is fraught with many traps —- but well worth exploring.
Not everything posited in the video was controversial to me. I could get behind the following completely at this phase of my understanding:
1. That food and housing insecurity are now our job to combat as educators. Love how the video makes that clear in no uncertain terms.
2. The financial argument about the cost of textbooks shows the complete necessity of building OER materials. As Professor Naaeke articulates so clearly above, this creation process is a matter of social justice and equity. As educators at a community college that serves such a wide range of students from around the world, it’s incumbent upon us to make access to learning equitable and open.
3. I very much like the idea of the students helping to create tests.
I use OER material already for my art history class. There is an excellent art history website called Smarthistory with tons of information on art from all over the world. Two potential assignments I envision is having students create a presentation or report in the same style as Smarthistory but on art that Smarthistory has not covered. The object should be from the student’s own culture. A second activity is having students write Jeopardy questions based on the objects we study in class. Their source of information would be Smarthistory. In connection to that, I guess they can create multiple choice questions based on Smarthistory as well, though I personally think Jeopardy questions might be more interesting.
Currently, my class users a major publishing company for 95% off the assignments, test, and projects. This makes it difficult to modify its connect. The only assignments available will be the discussion board in Blackboards. I what to find ways to increase class participation. I will like to see what is available to make it more appealing for students to participate.