OpenEd20

PLEASE NOTE THIS SESSION IS PRE-RECORDED

This session presents the need for open educational resources for simulation educators as the need for more innovative ways of educating future nurses arise. The high cost of training for educators to become competent in the use of simulations in nursing education can be a barrier to the use of such technology in nursing education. There needs to be an initiative and continued advocacy to provide more accessible and affordable education on using simulation for all nurse educators, which, will eventually improve nursing education and quality of patient care. The current pandemic also highlights the reliance of higher education on traditional models of nursing education, specifically clinical education. Alongside the need to keep up with society’s demands for better ways to educate nurses, there is also an urgent need to convert to the use of simulations as the way to provide clinical education due to restrictions imposed by COVID 19. Nurse educators need urgent education on how to teach through simulations, but education may not be readily available, accessible, nor affordable. Furthermore, nurse educators, also need to learn how to facilitate, not just traditional simulations, but virtual simulations as well.

As a response to such urgent need, the authors designed a Virtual Simulations 101 through a simulation consortium. This is an asynchronous on-line course made up of four modules on the basics of simulation with focus on virtual simulations and standards of best practice. The course was pilot tested by clinical educators, and further revised after receiving feedback from learners. Principles and strategies of remote learning and teaching were implemented in designing the course.

This open resource was disseminated to all nursing programs in the state of Maryland. One nursing program required all its faculty to complete the course prior to starting clinical. Four release ESH was provided for their faculty. Over the span of one month, over 60 nursing faculty have enrolled in this course, 30 have successfully completed it.

The course has received positive feedback both from novice and expert simulation educators. Sample feedback includes:

“As we transition into total remote instruction for Fall 2020, the information not only provides necessary tools for facilitating that transition, these modules have encouraged me to be mindful of employing systematic methods that have already been vetted (rather than me just "winging" it!).”



Learning Outcomes:
Discuss relevance of open educational resources for simulation education

Explore designs for open educational resources for simulation educators

Describe the key elements of virtual course design of Virtual Simulations 101

First- and second-year physics and engineering students enrolled in classical mechanics (statics and dynamics) courses have long been burdened with the cost of commercial textbooks and homework systems. Not only has the financial cost to students in North America been astronomical, but both teaching and learning have been impacted. Since classical mechanics has not changed in centuries, open textbooks seem like an obvious solution, however existing options lack enough practice problems of the quality and complexity found in commercial textbooks. Practising problem-solving is essential to learning these topics, so large sets of problems are required (e.g. a typical textbook contains 3000+ unique problems). Creating quality mechanics problems is very time-consuming, however. Students and educators have been forced to pay dearly for commercial textbook problems without the ability to modify or reuse them.

In this session, participants will hear from students and educators taking on the challenge of creating OER to ultimately eliminate the need for commercial textbooks. The presenters will discuss the approach, lessons learned and the important collaboration both cross-institutionally and cross-jurisdictionally.

Since June 2020, more than 400 problems have been developed for the Open Problem Library (OPL) in the open homework system (OHS) WeBWorK (currently being piloted for release in 2021) and integrated into the MechanicsMap open textbook (http://mechanicsmap.psu.edu). The presenters will discuss the rationale behind choosing this OHS.

But did we mention that all of this work has taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic?! With government subsidies to hire co-op students plus funding through BCcampus, six co-op students were hired to develop problems with supervision from two faculty members. This opportunity for students to gain valuable experience, earn an income and work remotely has been pivotal to their education and development during this difficult time. 

The presenters will share the larger goals and next steps of the project and how others can get involved. We hope to demonstrate that, through collaboration, student involvement and creativity, the goal is achievable.

Learning Outcomes:
Participants will be able to consider and appreciate the:
-benefits of student participation in OER creation
-benefits of engagement in cross-institution and cross-jurisdiction collaboration
-use of open source platforms (open homework systems in particular) for OER development and learning
-phased approach that can be taken to accomplish larger goals
-lessons learned in embarking on a large scale, dynamic OER project

Live Q&A info:
On Twitter #mammothOER
Google sheet:  http://bitly.ws/ao8t

Welcome! This will be a pre-recorded presentation but will be "screened" live in Zoom. We'll be available for discussion in Zoom starting at 10:40AM EST! See you soon!

Session Description

At MIT OpenCourseWare, we’re passionate about sharing OER with a global audience. Our newest initiative, the Chalk Radio Podcast, is our latest creative effort to promote awareness of OER at scale and to amplify diverse experiences of creating and sharing OER. We completed our first season with 100K+ downloads on podcast platforms and 110K+ listens on YouTube, so we strongly believe podcasting can be a powerful tool for sharing OER more broadly.

In this session, facilitated by the host of Chalk Radio and MIT OpenCourseWare’s Media Production lead, we share what we’ve learned as newcomers to the podcasting space, provide guidance to other educators initiating or currently working on their own OER-focused podcasts, and get feedback and tips from more experienced participants.

Our session hones in on the five stages of getting a podcast off the ground: 1) defining your focus and audience; 2) making technical decisions about how to record (and how to reimagine these possibilities when recording remotely during Covid-19); 3) preparing interview protocols; 4) post-production editing and accessibility considerations; and 5) outreach and promotion. Through an asynchronous special epsiode of Chalk Radio made especially for our session attendees, we’ll briefly share practical tips in each of these areas and then make ourselves available via zoom to work with participants to apply the suggestions to their own projects. We will use participants’ ideas and experiences to enhance the production and promotion of Chalk Radio, and invite participants to share their own stories of making, using, and sharing OER on our podcast.

Learning Outcomes:
1) Define your OER podcast audience and focus; 2) Get recommendations for recording remotely during Covid-19; 3) Discuss how to develop effective interview protocols; 4) Learn about post-production storytelling strategies; 5) Discuss how to make your podcast more accessible to a diverse audience; 6) Get feedback on outreach strategies and gain access to promotional email templates; 7) Amplify your OER story on Chalk Radio, the MIT OpenCourseWare podcast

Our session is pre-recorded so we won't be with you live - feel free to ask questions using this Google doc or by tweeting us: @hsmiceli and @lindseygumb

Presentation Slides: Science Isn't Really My Thing

In this session, we have invited two former students, who previously participated in the open pedagogy project we employ in a general education science course, to share their and their classmates' perceptions and experiences participating in the project. Non-majors students have very complex emotions and experiences that shape their relationship with science. Many students enter with high anxiety and low confidence in their scientific abilities, usually manifesting in comments like “Just so you know, I’m not good at science.” We’ve noticed that open pedagogy has allowed these students a participatory voice in scientific dialogues that they are often excluded from as non-majors.

The students have previously participated in groups to create, edit, and curate websites that were then used as the “textbook” for future semesters. Students have often responded positively to this project, citing that knowing their work will help future students in this required course gives them more confidence in science, as well as gives them a more solid purpose for completing the project. Because this project is about giving students a voice in spaces they usually don’t have one, these students are excited to engage with the Open Education community to amplify their experiences. After a brief introduction to the project, students will be asked about their feelings upon entering the course, their experiences creating and editing the websites, and their feelings exiting the course, among other questions. The student presenters will also share and respond to quotes from their fellow classmates. Questions from the audience will be welcomed as well.


Learning Outcomes:
Students that enter required, general education science courses can have high anxiety and low confidence, open pedagogy can be a tool used to increase confidence, decrease anxiety, and give students a voice in science. Attendees will hear from students themselves regarding the impact of participating in open pedagogy in their required general education science course.

The article presents and analyzes how health libraries can cooperate in the production, access, and dissemination of open educational resources in their information competence programs, as well as in the training processes of health science students.

As a background, the research calls on Brazilian librarians, showing that they must engage in the open education movement and relate their informational practices to the initiatives and guidelines of the front.

A study from Prudencio, Bernardi, and Biolchini (2020) shows that academic production in Library Sciences, either from Brazil or written in Portuguese, relating library practices and open educational resources is incipient, perhaps scarce. Thus, the present research is justified.

This study, for the purposes and means of investigation, is characterized as exploratory, bibliographic, and field research. We collected the data in our empirical area, that is, public university libraries that offer Medicine and Biomedicine courses in Brazil. We conducted an empirical investigation to expand our understanding of the research object, the domain studied, and its population.

In a second step, we consulted the institutional repositories of the federal higher education institutions (HEIs) from Brazil to check if there was the category “open educational resource” (OER) as a source of information available in their catalogs.

It observes that only 12.5% (15) of the 120 HEIs have OER indications in their catalogs. It notes that, in libraries, OERs operate as sources of information, collection, stock, and repository of information and didactic resources. It points out that health information literacy practices should contribute to a culture of users more aware of issues of licensing, authorship, and cost related to these resources.

Finally, it understands that the librarian must incorporate and encourage the use of OERs in the instructions given to students in health degrees, and also in lifelong educational practices.

OERs are an attractive and sustainable tool, adequate to the financial scarcity of public university libraries in Brazil. This is especially important in Health Sciences, a field with collections that tend to be quite expensive.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Only 12.5% of Brazilian public universities with a Health Sciences program have OER indications in their catalogs.
2. There’s little scientific production assessing intersections between Librarianship, open education, and open educational resources, especially when applying to Health Sciences libraries.
3. Brazilian librarians are hardly engaged in the production, use, or sharing of OERs.
4. This theme is poorly addressed in Brazilian Librarianship programs.

NOTE: This session is pre-recorded. It will be streamed live over zoom with the speaker present to answer questions in the chat and after the presentation.

New and experienced faculty members face many barriers when attempting to incorporate Open Educational Resources (OER) into their courses. Research has shown that awareness, funding, time, and institutional supports are factors in faculty using or not using OER. The purpose of this research was to investigate the barriers that business faculty in Ontario colleges face when using OER within their teaching practices and determine if faculty have recommendations to overcome the barriers to using OER.

Based on a review of the literature on OER and the barriers business faculty experience when using OER, a mixed-method approach was used in this research. Potential participants were business faculty in Ontario. Data was collected via a survey and follow-up interviews. Seventy-two respondents from 12 Ontario colleges responded to the survey. Nine participated in follow-up interviews. Respondents were asked about their experiences using OER, the barriers they faced, and solutions to overcome them.

A thematic and cross tabulation analysis of the responses demonstrated that faculty are introduced to OER in many different ways, and institutions have unique approaches to supporting faculty with OER. Faculty experience barriers to using OER, such as no suitable resources, awareness, knowledge, support, institutional processes, and other reasons. Faculty outlined ways to overcome such barriers, including but not limited to improved professional development, creation of new high-quality content, time to create the resources, and enhanced collaboration and networking efforts.

This talk will review some of the research findings and recommendations that were made as a result of an examination of the faculty barriers and solutions to overcome the barriers to using OER.

Please note: the above session description is adapted from the author's Thesis abstract.


Learning Outcomes:
After attending this session, attendees should have an understanding of:

- Barriers faculty face when attempting to use OER;

- Solutions faculty have used, or they believe could be used to overcome the barriers to using OER; and

- Recommended suggestions for decision-makers to support faculty with OER usage.

WATCH THE VIDEO AND JOIN THE TWITTER CHAT! #Collaboration #OpenEd20

Collaboration across the provincial college system has been limited in practice because it has not been widely encouraged, explored, or supported. When funding models do not support cross-institutional opportunities then colleges miss out the benefits of collaboration. Subsequently, educators tend to gravitate to the familiar, siloed textbook and learning materials creation projects within the walls of their own institutions.

In this presentation we will reflect on what we learned from our project that took a multi-institutional collaborative approach to building open educational resources (OER). This project included students, faculty and support specialists working together to create resources that were meaningful to them. Explore with us this idea of people working collaboratively, building relationships, and influencing change as a way to reimagine and sustain OPEN education

Learning Outcomes:
Hear from two authors who led a team of remote collaborators through the curation, creation, and publishing of an OER during a Pandemic.

Contrast the benefits and challenges of a multi-institutional collaboration approach to building Open Educational Resources (OER).

Discuss the sustainability of this approach to building relationships and influencing change in open education.

This talk highlights the Open Education STEM initiative between Cambodia and US partners. The initiative is helping provide a better future for Cambodian youth, making STEM education more accessible, affordable, equitable, and inclusive. The talk will describe the importance of contributions by diverse voices, including formal and informal educational institutions, international development agencies, businesses, and community groups. Together they contributed to the development and implementation of open education resources that match the Cambodian context, used in both formal and informal settings. Highlights will include:
1. Specific contributions from diverse partners: The Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport; USAID; Carnegie Science Center; the Cambodian science museum, Kids City; University Professors in the USA, Wolfram Research, and Vernier.
2. The design of open education, student-centered, STEM resources for blended instruction in Cambodia. Differentiaton and computation thinking are significant factors in design.
3. The implementation of open education STEM resources, including teacher training and student curriculum.
4. Review of the impact of the open educational resources on skills and knowledge, accessibility, affordability, equity, and inclusivity.

Graduate students enrolled in the University of Calgary’s Masters of Education (MEd) cohort, Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, engaged in a course on the Ethics of Education Technology. The key learning task was to co-design and co-create an open educational resource (OER). Students selected topics of interest relevant to the course, and wrote chapters for an open textbook published online as a Pressbook.

Our session delves into the design of the course, the instructional process, and learner outcomes from delivering a graduate course using an open learning instructional design. With emphasis on both the perspectives of the students who took the course and those of the instructor, this session shares insights on the process of co-designing learning experiences through the development of an OER, and how this approach impacted learning and engagement.

Speaking to the instructor's experience, we address the following topics: Supporting students in an open learning course design; breaking down barriers to disseminating and sharing knowledge in academia; establishing adequate boundaries and constraints to guide students in the creation of their chapter; and balancing open versus structured learning to support students creating and publishing OER for the first time.

Speaking to the student's experience, we address the following topics: How student engagement shifted knowing ideas could be published for a broader audience; how the course design enabled students to learn through contributing to the exchange and creation of knowledge; how the ‘openness’ of the assignment allowed students to weave their unique expertise and professional context into their studies; and challenges experienced by students including pressure/stress of sharing work publicly and learning to work with more ambiguity that can accompany an open learning approach.

We will address lessons learned throughout the project including: Open learning design and OER development can be successfully combined into an impactful teaching and learning experience for graduate students and instructors; OER creation can increase the authenticity of university assignments and increase learner engagement; and that there are logistics to consider when co-creating an open textbook as a course assignment (e.g. copyediting, style sheet, formatting, copyright & licensing, etc.)

Following our session, attendees will be able to:
- Advocate for open educational practices as an opportunity to provide graduate students with enhanced choice and voice in their education;
- Revise and remix a design model for open learning that can be integrated across grade levels and disciplines;
- Communicate the connections between open education and authentic, collaborative learning experiences;
- Anticipate and overcome challenges that can arise with co-designing an OER

Given the current pandemic and the changes it has forced on academia and an entrenched model of instruction, Open Educational Resources are now more important than ever. They are invaluable to higher education and have the ability to change the educational landscape, and now more than ever we need librarians who can advocate for, locate, create, and find these resources.

Although these librarians working the Open space are an indispensable link the chain or OpedEd, very little is known about the needs of these knowledge workers; while the literature of Open Education is heavy with faculty needs assessment (Belikov and Bodily 2016; Bauer, Heaps, and Jung 2017; Hong and Jung 2016), very little research has been done to understand the needs of librarians. As a community, we have been so preoccupied with making our case to faculty, university administrators, state legislators, and students, that we have neglected to ask the people who work on the front lines how they feel or what kinds of support or education they need.

My presentation, based on my research conducted during my SPARC Open Education Leadership Program capstone project, will discuss the formulation of my needs assessment project and how the data I gathered can provide insights into the needs of academic librarians regarding OER, their attitudes to OER, and, finally (in my opinion, most importantly) how we teach librarians about OER and Open Education. My hope is that my needs assessment will influence the curriculum we use to teach information professionals about OER.

In my presentation, I will discuss the context for the project, the project design (including data collection methods), and my top ten key takeaways from the data collected.


Learning Outcomes:
Presentation attendees will be able to:
1. Formulate research questions
2. Match research methods to research questions
3. Design data collection instruments
4. Better understand the needs of librarians working in the OER space
5. Evaluate and reconsider current OER curriculum for librarians

In Summer 2020, Everett Community College received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create shared course shells using Open Educational Resources in several high-enrollment Humanities courses. This big project with a short timeline was the first major partnership between faculty and eLearning focused on using OER. It included several steps: choosing courses, faculty professional development, a focus on accessibility, collaboration with an instructional designer, and communication with other faculty who teach the courses.

In this presentation, EvCC Director of Educational Technology Heather Mayer will outline the project goals and timeline and share lessons learned on the project management side. Instructional Designer Jeff Iannone will discuss his role, and faculty member Kristina Jipson will share her reflections. This session will be useful for anyone working on department or large-scale OER initiatives in a community college environment.

Link to resources doc
Alternative link to recording of presentation


Learning Outcomes:
Strategies for partnerships between eLearning and faculty
Examples of professional development focused on Open Pedagogy/OER
Challenges of department-wide OER initiatives

This talk was pre-recorded. The presenters were available for Q&A afterward via Zoom immediately afterward.

The concept and ideas behind open education can only strive if sustained by a strong community of practitioners, and being continuously introduced to newcomers in a welcoming environment. OERcamps, a series of barcamps for practitioners of Open Education across all sectors and levels of experience provide just that. A strong base is provided for getting to know and sharing experiences on OER and open education. We will discuss our experiences with OER community-building events run in different formats including traditional workshops, unconferences, hackathons, and other alternative formats that have taken place over the past 8 years.

The OERcamps in Germany started in 2012 as an annual unconference. In the last years they have grown to more than 10 events per years, several formats, a book, a collection of CC BY licensed materials created by a community of practitioners.
We are building upon experiences that have been acknowledged by a UNESCO report on OER-related activities in Germany which stated: “Since OER activities are mostly driven bottom-up, there has been a need for sharing questions, experiences and materials between players, who have been isolated in their own institutions. These players found opportunities for sharing in cross-sector events and communities. Especially the barcamp/unconference format turned out to fit tremendously well developing a strong German OER community.” (Orr, Neumann, Muuß-Merholz 2017, 8). Our findings, driven by more than 8 years of experience in the field, show that cross-sectoral dialogue provides sustainability as it shows relevance of concepts such as OER and Creative Commons to a variety of communities.

OERcamps are events with participants from all sectors of education and can be transferred to all sectors. They follow open educational practices by means of participants and hosts creating content under a CC BY license, providing individual learning paths, and sharply reducing hierarchies. We want to share our experiences elaborating on the differences and commonalities of the formats.

We encourage our audience to build upon our experiences by hosting their own barcamps as excellent opportunities to foster peer to peer learning and build sustainable, diverse communities. To further promote this format, we will briefly introduce and invite to improve the translation into English of our openly licensed book and material on “how to barcamp”.

Learning Outcomes:
Attendees will learn how the unconference format barcamp works, in general and adapted for the OERcamps. They will know what learning goals can be supported for individual learners, for communities of learners and for a OE network. Sharing our experiences is meant to be an invitation and encouragement to try and use the format for p2p learning within your own communities. We will also share a book, that is currently available in German and as a draft translation to English (CC BY).