Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open pedagogy, also known as open educational practices (OEP), is the use of open educational resources (OER) to support learning, or the open sharing of teaching practices. When you use open pedagogy in your classroom, you are inviting your students to be part of the teaching process, participating in the co-creation of knowledge.

Open pedagogy can include working directly with students to create content. You can engage your students to create a set of exercises for a specific chapter in an open textbook, or incorporate student assignments into a collection of OER which could be submitted as part of a future open textbook or used in conjunction with an existing resource. Instead of disposable assignments that offer no value to the student or the instructors, your students - under your direction and supervision - can build a resource designed to improve the learning space for future students.

Adapted from BCcampus (CC BY 4.0)

Examples of open collaboration with students:

• Open Pedagogy Notebook (provides examples and case studies)
• What an Open Pedagogy Class Taught Me About Myself - A Student Testimonial
• Non-Disposable Assignments by Christina Hendricks
• Teaching with Wikipedia: Creating Content as a Living Assignment
• P. O.W.E.R - A Reflective Framework for Students-as-Partners Practices and Processes by BCcampus
• Starting A Conversation About Mental Health: Foundational Training for Students
  Read more about the student authors' experiences with this project: Co-Creating OER: Students Supporting Students

At Red Deer Polytechnic, students own the intellectual property for works they create. We encourage faculty to pursue open pedagogy, and engage students through meaningful content creation. While doing so, it's important to ensure we protect the rights of students.

To openly publish student work in an OER, you must ensure:

1. Students are offered the option to opt-in and openly publish their work
2. Publishing openly is not required and not for marks
3. Students provide consent to openly publish their work

When publishing student work under an open license, you must gather student consent.

This can be done in various ways, such as using a paper form, an online form (e.g., Microsoft Form), or a Blackboard quiz.

We recommend including the following questions:

1. I give permission for my [assignment name] to be published under a [specific license name].
2. I confirm that the resources included in this assignment comply with all copyright requirements and licensing agreements.
3. I acknowledge that my decision to publish this assignment under a [specific license name] cannot be revoked.
4. I acknowledge that my decision to publish this assignment will not affect my grade.