We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from November 1.

Well, well, well.  Can you believe it’s November already?  How did that happen?  I guess time waits for no one.

Anyway, today I want to share with you some reflections on the Open Education conference that took place online a couple of weeks ago.  It was an amazing conference, as usual, with jam packed days of sessions, from a student panel plenary to a multitude of live sessions, recorded sessions, and poster sessions.  I believe many of the recordings will eventually be available openly, but for now let me give you some highlights from my perspective.

First, one theme that stood out for me was around who does Open Education work, or rather, who is privileged to do this work and what kind of value is put on this work by institutions.  Sure, some institutions have OER support resources and offer faculty and staff incentives (like time and money) to created OER and to work on Open Pedagogy and Open course design. But by far the majority of people trying to engage in open work are doing it off the sides of their desk, where the work becomes essentially free labour for the institution.  Why would an institution resource Open Education if people are engaging in its practices for free?  I won’t unpack this more here, but food for thought. 

Second, engagement of students in Open Education. Hearing from students and how they are or how they are not being engaged in Open Education (and the complexity of including all students and developing continuity of knowledge as students come and go) was both inspiring and somewhat heart breaking as it becomes more and more challenging for students to come into post secondary education spaces with rising costs and lack of flexibility for access. 

Third, including diverse voices and supporting inclusivity and equity in Open Education.  This year’s conference theme was “Rise to Action” and many of the conference sessions discussed the interaction of Open Education and Social Justice.  If you have not yet read the UNESCO recommendations around Open Educational Resources, that is a good place to start if you want to learn more about how vital Open Education is to creating equitable educational opportunities globally. 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working on a more thorough reflection on the conference as a whole and some of the sessions which really stood out for me, as well as compiling and organizing some of the resources shared during the sessions. 

On to other things…

Just released is a Special Issue of the Journal for Multicultural Education on The Intersections of Open Educational Practices and Equity Pedagogy. “In this special issue, we sought to further the discussion with a focus on pedagogical considerations and practical applications of equitable OEP, adding to the current dialogue and critical questions posed by scholars around the world.”

Check out the Winners of Open Education Awards for Excellence 2022 – OEGlobal

I am still looking to find out who is using open textbooks and OER in their teaching at Camosun.  If you are using an open textbook in your course(s), or you know someone else who is, and I have not already had a chat with you, please send me an email because I would really love to talk to you more about your experience! 

Share the joy – CETL (Emily) is available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!

That is all for today…take care and keep warm!

Emily