OpenEd20

In Spring of 2020 the University of Washington moved all courses to emergency remote. Many struggled, or doubled-down on existing, closed practices. Many further closed their courses through proprietary software, or proctored exams.


We tell a different story. Dr. Jennifer White opened her Endocrinology course to co-constructing an open textbook with students, starting from course materials and notes created by Dr. Moon Draper, the previous teacher of the course. Dr. White made the transition to open pedagogy and open textbooks with very little prior experience. After the Spring Quarter, her course transition was rated by students as being the best rapid transition to online in the UW Biology department.


In the Summer Quarter, Dr. White ran the course again, with Peter Wallis joining her as a researcher. Together we ran several open pedagogy design experiments. Our goal was to develop assignments teachers can use to make a rapid transition to open pedagogy, co-constructing open textbooks with students, in keeping with what we already know about high structure active learning.


We are in the process of writing up our research, drawn from assignment data, focus group feedback, and student surveys. We would like to tell you the story of our course, strengthen the evidence that it’s possible for teachers with little background to rapidly transition to open pedagogical and open educational practices, and share assignment and course designs you can use in your context, to open education to all.

Learning Outcomes:
Together, build a brief guide to rapid open education adoption. To accomplish this:


Review challenges & opportunities moving from in-person teaching to co-constructing an open textbook online in the COVID-19 crisis


Explore the possibility of rapid open education transformation through a real life case study


Analyze assignment designs & review student feedback


Select specific assignment designs participants can use to help students co-create Open Educational Resources