Today we worked together virtually on troubleshooting metagenomic analyses! It was fun… and we filled the forums with questions, snapshots, and code. Tonight, I watched another Open Ed 2021 short session (25 min) on “OER-Enabled Pedagogy: Student Examples of Renewable Assignments” with Kate Williamson and Todd LaMarr from American River College. Williamson is a librarian and spoke about OPEN and different definitions. Williamson used Wiley and Hilton’s work to describe OER-enabled pedagogy and the 5Rs: retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute works. Williamson said: “OER-enabled pedagogy cannot occur without the 5Rs.” LaMarr is a faculty member and spoke about the switch from disposable to renewable assignments. LaMarr described a series of examples of renewable assignments. The first one was a “dialogic reading project” in which students read and explained books in videos that were shared. Some students remixed works into their native languages. Could we encourage students to translate metagenomics video tutorials to Spanish and other languages? In another example, a student provided an enthusiastic narrative that accompanied a carefully edited video. Some students read stories with siblings or younger children. In one case, a ten-page book became a 20+ minute video with children running. LaMarr also displayed another assignment in which students explained recipes for students and analyzed nutritional requirements/guidelines for children. The diversity of recipes was “unexpected” according to LaMarr, and I loved the graphics they created. The third OER-enabled pedagogy student example was authoring children’s books. The illustrations for one book were incredible! The student also did the voice-over, sound effects, and video transitions! Another book had fantastic illustrations and was read in the student’s native language. The examples of OER-enabled pedagogy were beautiful, engaging, and inspiring. While we don’t teach child education… I wonder if we could create renewable resources that can be appreciated by and useful to educate kids? I also wish I knew more about how LaMarr and Williamson shared guidelines for the assignments and sharing publicly with students. In 25 minutes they shared so many inspiring examples!
