Today I worked from home with Aurelio and had fun with the occasional interruption. Tonight we watched the Open Ed 2021 session “The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN): Research Showcase, Collaboration & Consultation” with several panelists. Beck Pitt, a research fellow from The Open University introduced the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) and the network’s goal of supporting graduate education research. Each presenter had five minutes to present their research.
Verena Roberts, an instructional designer and adjunct instructor at Thompson Rivers University. Roberts shared their dissertation and a SoTL research grant and project. They integrated several open practices by co-designing a Pressbook with students about educational technology ethics. Roberts also facilitated open learning sessions as webinars open to the public. They hosted open learning lightning talks featuring students! Roberts also co-wrote a picture book to share open learning with children in multiple languages. The Open Podcast Project is all about using podcasting in education. I have to look into this! Roberts mentioned that their graduate student is working on integrating elements of the educational technology ethics course into the Open Podcast Project.
Marjon Baas from Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Baas is a graduate student and as part of their dissertation has four projects. In the study they described they focused on the inter-institutional OER communities of nursing. Fifteen out of the seventeen universities with nursing participated in the study. They applied the activity theory framework and worked with the brokers who fostered learning with the institutes. The study was qualitative/descriptive and identified perceived contradictions by the broker.
Cynthia Mari Orozco from UCLA Information Studies presented on the intersections of OER and community colleges. Orozco is a graduate student and a librarian at a community college. Orozco worked with archives from a community college and an oral history project. Orozco described this as an open pedagogy project and an archival process. Orozco also identified themes of open access and the five Rs in this and thought about the potential of derivative projects. I had not thought about the importance of archival works at community colleges!
Sarah Hutton is the interim Dean of University Libraries at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Hutton has collected data and connected with OSKB and the international Open Ed discussion groups. Hutton’s research is on the impact and perception of open on students. Hutton was recently appointed interim Dean and charged with writing a vision for the Libraries. Hutton is also amplifying the voices and ideas of those doing open work. I appreciate how Hutton talked about growing into the position and learning!
Jessica O’Reilly is a doctoral candidate at Athabasca University and teaches at a “diploma-granting institution.” O’Reilly teaches a course on “Truth and Reconciliation” and designed a capstone project to invite learners to select a call from the Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. Learners can post their work to a website and decide their privacy settings. O’Reilly wants to connect learners from different institutions, and their dissertation work has resulted in student interviews of the OER-enabled pedagogy they used.
Danielle Dubien is now an instructional designer at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. Dubien is working with their former mentor to evaluate open educational practices. They have helped with micro courses and content delivered with a next-generation digital learning environment (NGDLE). I didn’t know about this! Students used a variety of tools like Hypothes.is, Mastodon for microblogs, Semantic Scuttle for social bookmarking… Dubien provided recommendations like providing a variety of activities, designing asynchronous activities with generous timelines, and offering private spaces for communication. This was really interesting, and I learned about a couple of tools like Semantic Scuttle.
Rob Farrow, a senior research fellow at The Open University and coordinator of GO-GN, then explained the goals of GO-GN. They mentioned that Go-GN produced a handbook. The volumes include Research Methods, Research Review, an Annual Review, and Conceptual Frameworks. They also explained that there will be future issues with the goal of increasing contributions. The idea is that network members are co-authors and the resources help support new GO-GN members. Pitt mentioned that GO-GN has a friends category for non-graduate students that I will explore.
