OpenEd20

The KQED Media Academy is a set of openly licensed instructor-led and self-paced professional development courses for educators. Courses are designed to support the growth of both the educator's own skills to effectively read, write and share media and the knowledge and confidence they need to teach these skills to their own students.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, American classrooms already operated within varying technology contexts including a wide range of equipment manufacturers and types of computers and other devices, varied operating systems and access to software, and large differences in access to these tools by the students themselves from 1:1 programs to classrooms with little student technology or limited access to the internet. The pandemic and resulting remote learning conditions have made this situation even more varied and chaotic while also putting increased pressure on teachers of all skill levels to integrate media-based instruction rapidly and effectively.

In this environment, it is essential to consider the ways that otherwise open content can effectively close itself off to the people most in need of it. To counteract this, the KQED Media Academy was created to be open both in terms of the license it is shared with and by ensuring that the content serves the widest range of educators and the learning contexts from which they are coming to us.

In this session, KQED instructional designers will discuss the process they employ to make courses open in all the ways they need to be for the real people who will use them, the advantages and trade-offs required by this approach, and the value they see in thinking about open resources as more than a license.

Learning Outcomes: Attendees will be learn about the process KQED instructional designers employ to ensure that open course content is accessible to all educators regardless of experience or what platforms, devices, and software are available to them.