Open Education: Ownership, Access, & the Place of Pedagogy

Robin DeRosa@actualham

Presentation CCBY Robin DeRosaImages CC0 Alan Levine

Book Costs Move Off the Charts

• 56% of students pay more than $300 per semester

• 20% pay more than $500 per semester

• Students worry more about paying for books than they worry about paying for college

Muhlenberg Financial Aid Stats

Source: US News & World Report

Muhlenberg 2014 Graduation Rate

Source: College Scorecard

86%

Effects of Textbook Prices• 67% did not purchase

a required textbook• 38% earned a poor grade• 20% failed a course• 48% occasionally or

frequently took fewer courses

• 26% dropped a course• 21% withdrew from a course

2016 Survey of 22,000 students, Florida Virtual Campus, comprised of the

12 universities and 28 colleges in the Florida state system.

Creative C

omm

ons

OE

ROpenStax Books

Student Success“students who use OER perform significantly better on the course throughput rate than their peers who use traditional textbooks, in both face-to-face and online courses that use OER.” (2016)

Throughput Ratean aggregate of:drop rates, withdrawal rates, C or better rates.

Tidewater Community College

Quality“The classes with traditional published textbooks I study and memorize to pass tests. In this class I have a greater appreciation for the things I learned because I actually experienced the material and lesson as opposed to simply passing a test. This knowledge will last a lifetime.”

Tidewater Community College (2015 Report)

OER Open Pedagogy

Tidewater Community College (2015 Report)

Where I Began

Collaboratively Built: Alums, Incoming Students, Professor

Constantly

Evolving:

Students &

Teachers Add,

Improve, Share

Multim

edia C

ontributions

Interactive and Public Annotation

An Open “Textbook”Can Be:• Interactive• Collaborative• Dialogic• Dynamic• Empowering• Contributory• Current• Accessible• Multimedia• Public• (Free)

Open Pedagogy•Improves access to education.

•Treats education as a learner-driven process.

•Stresses community and collaboration over content.

•Connects the college to the wider public.

CCBY Jonathan Brodsky https://flic.kr/p/37z2C2

Access, broadly writ.digital divide & redlining, accessibility, online safety & harassment,

privacy & surveillance

Student-Centered Learner-Driven

Content ≠ King• Rhizomes• Networks• Communities• Collaborations

PublicFind Your Publics

• @gardnercampbell

• @anrikard• @audreywatter

s

Domain of One’s Own (#DoOO)

• Drag ’n Drop → Design

• Digital consumer → Digital creator

• Data mining → Data control

• Audience of 1 → Public impact

• Web as broadcast station → Web as open lab

• Work attached to course → Work attached to student

• ePortfolio → ePort

http://kayleighbennett.com/

Open Your Syllabus: Beyond OER• Class-source outcomes• Co-create policies• Empower students to build their

own LMS• Iterate open textbooks• Class-source curated content• Use student-designed assignments

and assessments• Publish student writing and projects

and data (with open licenses if desired!)

• Explore grading options

Pedagogy Drives Tools, Tools Change

My Toolbox• Hypothes.is• Twitter/Tweetdeck• Domain of One’s

Own• PressBooks/Rebus• GoogleDocs &

Sheets• Wiki Education

Foundation• Appear.In

OPEN IN APREtrumpPOSTERA• What kind of data does your

university collect on students and how has it pledged to protect it?

• Are your domains protected? Can students work anonymously?

• How do you prepare students to handle trolling and online harassment?

• What access issues (hardware, broadband, accessibility, redlining, literacy) challenge your good intentions?

• How does your open pedagogy reinscribe unequal power dynamics?

• How is academic labor made visible & compensated in the production of OER?

Advocating for privacy is part of the open ethos; it is not contrary to it.

to OPEN (vb.)

• Challenge barriers to access. Be honest and critical.

• Center learners. Be radical and real.

• Facilitate connection. Be a sticky node, not a gate.

• Share your practice. Be generous and just.