Through our activities in the Open Education Working Group, we know that there are faculty working on many different open education (OE) initiatives. Some with support. Some in isolation. Going forward we would like to build Communities of Practice to support and build on the open education initiatives of faculty here at TRU.
To start this process, we’ve organized four OE groups with the following leaders.
- Open Pedagogy – Brenna Clarke Gray, Crystal Huscroft
- Open Research – Verena Roberts, Ken Monroe
- Open Publishing – Brenda Smith
- Open Educational Resources – Christine Miller, Marie Bartlett
Here’s a brief introduction to each electron of the OE Atom
There’s a lot to this topic. Starting with the What is Open Pedagogy page on this site.
There are a number of TRU examples of open pedagogical practices. There’s the Kamloops Foodloops site which maps food related activities in the city. There’s the Dog Files which documents the work done in the Animals and Law class. There’s the whole EDDL program. So there’s lot of ways to do open pedagogy: with individual assignments, ongoing assignments and/or course reflections to full programs. And it’s all up to you.
Connect with Brenna or Crystal to explore this topic, share tools and tactics of working in the open and connect with others.
Open Research can include any combination of using open methodologies, conducting research with free and open-source software, making data collection open and publicly accessible for others and/or considering the ethics of open learning when completing any kind of research.
Across campus, some examples of open research are Dr. Michelle Harrison’s research on the role of instructional designers (IDs) and inherent or needed shift when considering open educational practices, Dr. Verena Roberts’ #GO-GN Fellowship research on integrating podcasting into Higher Education courses.
A recent publication that describes methodological approaches considered in open research is:
Farrow, R., Iniesto, F., Weller, M. & Pitt., R. (2020). The GO-GN Research Methods Handbook. Open Education Research Hub. The Open University, UK. CC-BY 4.0. http://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/research-methods-handbook/
Considering connecting with Verena Roberts or Ken Monroe if you are interested in any of the possibilities open research can afford.
References:
Research Spotlight: Instructional Designers and Open Educational Practices
In journals this means your work is not behind a pay wall for others to read. There are many examples of open journals in many different areas. IRRODL is one focused on online and distance education. Ask Brenda Smith about possibilities in your field. TRU has a Digital Commons site that can be used to create and manage a journal or be used as an open repository for events or courses. Open publishing can be academically rigourous and peer reviewed as any other paid publication. Open publishing can also apply to student works.
Open textbooks is another form of open publishing. BC Campus has a growing repository of open texts of which a number have been created by TRU faculty members. Open Stax is a larger US based open text publisher. There are many instances where Canadians have adapted an Open Stax text to a Canadian context while retaining theoretical and other common information.
So if you are interested in this area, email Brenda .
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Welcome to the Open Educational Resources Community of Practice (OER COP)
Are you using or interested in using OER in your classroom? Are you considering creating an OER?
Are you completely new to the concept? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this group welcomes you!
We are an enthusiastic, fun, and collegial community of practice that love anything to do with Open in education.
What do we do?
- We want to grow this community through informal social gatherings that nurture existing and create new relationships and collaborations.
- Create a growing resource of supports for people adapting and creating OER
- Raise awareness of the value of OER for both students and educators
If you are interested in joining this wonderful community, please contact Marie Bartlett (mbartlett@tru.ca) or Christine Miller (cmiller@tru.ca)
Let’s Get Started!
Meetings are occuring. Email a group leader for more details!