This week’s reading, Defining OER-enabled pedagogy from Wiley and Hilton, is an interesting article showing several examples of teaching practices that would fall under OER-enabled pedagogy. The article also encourages the audience to consider further research on the efficacy of this type of practice. Wiley and Hilton “propose criteria used to evaluate whether a form of teaching constitutes OER-enabled pedagogy”. The criteria is a four step test with the following questions:
1. Are students asked to create new artifacts (essays, poems, videos, songs, etc.) or revise / remix existing OER?
2. Does the new artifact have value beyond supporting the learning of its author?
3. Are students invited to publicly share their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?
4. Are students invited to openly license their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?
In my post, I will reflect on my experience and teaching practice by answering the questions below.
What do you think of the test?
I think the test could be a good way to increase engagement with the content and boost motivation of the students. If teachers explain the purpose of a project and why each step is important then students will have a better understanding of the learning process. It’s also crucial to spend the time explaining why creating assignments this way would make learning more meaningful for them.
Do you have examples from your education that would pass all four parts?
I believe that this course, EDCI 339 – Distributed and Open Learning, would pass all four parts of the test for OER-enabled pedagogy. I have some other courses from the past that probably could pass at least three parts, but not all four and it would have been interesting to see if the last step was considered by the instructor. From my experience as a teacher, I have plenty of assignments that would perhaps pass some of the steps; and one of them I would like to explain in detail. During my Spanish classes, I use a lot of OER’s and encourage my students to do the same when working on a project. In this assignment, students have to create a presentation in Spanish on a chosen singer or band, and introduce it to the class with a feature song of the singer. The songs were chosen previously by me to ensure that only clean lyrics are listened to in the classroom. Students got adequate time during class time to work on their projects and were encouraged to ask for help and feedback from peers and from me. Once they incorporate the feedback given, students present their projects as a part of the Music Mania Competition. The Music Mania (Locura de marzo) is a world-wide competition used by Spanish teachers from various countries who all connect and share ideas with each other through social media platforms. It’s amazing and powerful to see how one project can bring students, educators and the public together as an online learning community. Due to the privacy of students, I didn’t consider openly licensing their work so far so I wonder if in the K-12 level we are even allowed to do so.
If you are planning to become a teacher, will you aim to design tasks that pass all four parts? Why or why not?
After analyzing my previous projects, I think there definitely could be a way to design them including the fourth part; however, students’ privacy needs to come first. As I see it, if students are aware from the beginning of the project that their work will be publicly accessible, they might be encouraged to put more effort in them and to explore options on reusing, revising and remixing content.
Do any of the proposed research questions catch your attention?
Considering the proposed research questions, I think the attitude of the students for the subject and for the specific assignment are important when measuring the efficacy of Open Education Resources. Formative assessment, specifically peer and self-assessment should be a huge part of the learning process which would provide students and teachers feedback on the outcomes of the process. As OER-enabled pedagogy might be successful with some students, it simply might not work for others, or only with modifications.
Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).
August 23, 2021 at 9:29 pm
Livaktiv,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the subject of OER’s and the criteria for defining OER-Enabled Pedagogy.
I connected with what you wrote, “Considering the proposed research questions, I think the attitude of the students for the subject and for the specific assignment are important when measuring the efficacy of Open Education Resources.” This highlights the importance of soliciting student feedback and perspectives when designing assignments and projects with the intention of sharing them with the public. You are right to acknowledge situations in which this might not be appealing to students, as not everyone might agree to the extent their work will be shared or distributed to the public or stored online. In addition to privacy concerns, it is important for teachers to consider the ways in which work can be shared and give students options on how to proceed with creating and using OERs. I feel a good way to start with this process is to educate students on the nature of what OERs are, how they can be created, and how they may be shared amongst select groups. In this way, students will begin to see where and when it might be appropriate or even fun to engage with the learning community in this way.
August 24, 2021 at 6:32 pm
Hi Klaudia, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!
I also find this week’s reading very interesting! this is actually the first time that I heard about OER-enabled pedagogy, and the four questions to determine wether a course is a OER-enabled pedagogy. The four questions of OER-enabled pedagogy also brought my attention, I find these four questions very effective in determining the OER-enabled pedagogy. I agree that EDCI 339 is a OER-enabled pedagogy course which means it fits all the four questions. Also I believe the courses that were taught in this way will increase the interest of the student therefore engage the students to learn.
August 24, 2021 at 7:15 pm
sorry about the wrong spelling for “whether,” sometimes I tap so fast and my computer help me to change the wrong spellings, I really should check everything next time before I post anything.
August 24, 2021 at 7:45 pm
Hello,
Thank you so much for providing your thoughts on the OER-Enabled Pedagogy. I found your post to be very helpful in further understanding the content presented in this week’s reading. Specifically, I absolutely love that you provide the example of your Spanish class project with the singers and music. I do think it definitely fits the OER-Enabled Pedagogy as students are creating their own artifacts, they can go beyond their own learning in that their classmates can learn from the presentation, it is likely available for sharing through the competition, and finally, students could openly licence their work and likely be able to remix/alter existing works. I must say, I am incredibly inspired by this project example as it shows me how teachers can actually use an OER-Enabled Pedagogy in practice. Finally, you also mention the importance of the students’ privacy and that they be made aware that their work could be publicly available if they choose to go through with the project.
Thanks again for your post!
August 25, 2021 at 8:02 pm
Hi Lleist,
The project called Locura de marzo and it’s really a fun and engaging project. I usually teach multi-level classes which is quite challenging when it comes to languages. Therefore differentiation in the classroom is a must and with this project students are able to show their learning according to their level and be assessed accordingly. Without online networking and lots of research, I wouldn’t be able to invent a project like this, so I encourage beginner teachers to research with an open mind and look at your experiences as a learning opportunity.