What is Open Pedagogy?
Open Pedagogy is a series of practices that involve engaging students in a course by developing, adapting, or using open educational resources.
Open Pedagogy seeks to engage students in creating information rather than simply consuming it. It leverages the "open" nature of Open Educational Resources (ex., revise, remix and/or redistribute) to facilitate learning and emphasizes community and collaboration, sharing resources, ideas, and power through Open Assignments.
Attributes of Open Assignments
- experiment with new technologies and methods of teaching that encourage students to share knowledge
- peers share willingly within a connected, trusting, and collegial community
- students take ownership over educational artifacts that they create and share
- students and teachers interrogate tools and practices that mediate learning, knowledge building, and sharing
Traditional Assignments
the assignment is submitted for the course and not shared beyond the classroom
Open Assignments
the assignment is published online and extends impact beyond the classroom
Examples of Open Assignments
- Students contribute to the creation of an open textbook that is then revised and built upon by students in future courses.
- Students create and/or edit Wikipedia articles to improve content coverage and quality in a subject area.
- Students create openly licensed instructional videos to improve their understanding of course concepts for others in the class.
- Students research and annotate images or texts that are openly licensed or in the public domain.
- Students create and publish a zine to discuss a theory, concept or provide practical guidance on a topic.
Explore more examples from Open Education Group: OER Enabled Pedagogy.
Transform your assignment!
Analyze the learning objectives for your current assignment
Consider the potential OER contribution
Select appropriate tools and repositories
Scaffold your assignment to build skills and incorporate peer review
Ensure students know their rights and responsibilities
Best Practices for Supporting Student Authors
- Participatory Technology: identify tools to create & distribute content
- Community + Connection: build-in scaffolding & peer-review
- Rights + Responsibilities: ensure students know their rights & responsibilities as authors of information
- Equity + Access: foster conversations about barriers that prevent equitable access to education
- Open Pedagogy & Publishing: Student Authored OER
This talk by UC Davis Librarian Sheena Campbell examines a variety of Creative Commons-licensed materials authored by students in their college coursework and explores how the Library’s AggieOpen program can support instructors seeking to collaborate with students in developing openly licensed resources.
Resources for Designing Open Assignments
- Open Pedagogy Approaches: Faculty, Library, and Student Collaborations
Ed. Alexis Clifton and Kimberly Davies Hoffman
Our book aims to shed light on multiple definitions of "open" and how they are applied in a variety of learning experiences. Chapters provide case studies of library-teaching faculty collaborations that explore the intersecting roles and desired outcomes that each partner contributes toward student learning in an open environment. - A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students
Ed. Elizabeth Mays
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. - The Open Pedagogy Student Toolkit
by Jamie Witman
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.