As Instructional Designers and Administrators are turning to Open Course Ware (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) for both fiscal and quality reasons, there is a developing need to review pedagogy in light of the use of these materials and the opportunity they present. It is our belief that only an Open Pedagogy model will best leverage these resources and provide most opportunity to students and instructors.
The basic tenets of Open Pedagogy are:
- OCW / OER are used
- The course has a delineated area for the enrolled class providing the forum for student support and grading but it should support open, collaborative learning by allowing un-enrolled students to participate and encouraging “drive-by-assignments”
- In addition to the school’s prescribed (in-the-syllabus) Learning Outcomes, Students must have input in their learning outcomes – what are they? / what will they need to learn for this course to be a success?
- Besides academic learning outcomes, institutions will factor in real world needed skills and outcomes – at undergrad level this would extend to General Education outcomes but should also include needed skills as prescribed by the Institute of the Future (see appendices)
- Students will have serious input into the format of their deliverables – e-Portfolio, blog, YouTube channel, posted through social media (with the caveat of the next bullet)
- Uses Knowledge maps and other visual representations of the knowledge field to help students understand what they need to learn.
- Competencies are melded in the course development – Learning Outcomes for the course, General Education tenets, Real-world/life skills – as outlined by the Institute of the Future
- Assessment will be embedded in course activities, students will demonstrate competence through their study not independently of it (traditional assessment) and will be assessed by an independent grader
- All deliverables must be Open and submitted under a CC license.
Many of the newer models for teaching and learning require a greater degree of self-sufficiency and are competency-based. We believe that there are pressures compelling higher education to make sure that outcomes are relevant and not merely theoretical. As downward pressure on pricing places pressure on institutions to consider alternatives to traditional textbooks and courses with texts central to the course, we realize that there are many, rich resources that speak to different learning styles that can actually raise the quality of the learning experience. With organizations like Saylor, Lumina and Open Course Library making these resources accessible and attesting to their quality, it seems to us that it will limit the student experience to demarcate only one or two resources when many would benefit from utilizing other resources.
By allowing the students this flexibility, we will encourage self-determined, truly student-centric learning and students will be able to self-select as many or as few resources as they need to meet the learning outcomes of the course.
Embedded assessment will hopefully stimulate autotelic study: a student in the FLOW delivering work that is relevant, stimulating and creative – a.k.a. the DEATH of busy work.
Will require flexibility of grading but.
It will be awesome.