Overview
The impact of open textbooks in higher ed is well documented, most commonly in the form of textbook cost savings to students and student persistence. But faculty and students are also engaging in a range of open pedagogy and open education practices across our sector and measuring the impact of open education practices in our institutions is more challenging. As we gain momentum with open education practices (OEP) in our institutions, how do we begin to measure and narrate the impact our efforts are having at our institutions? What should we care about? What are the important stories we should be telling and how do we do that? How can OEP efforts open education practices can be monitored and measured in conjunction with our respective institutional priorities and plans?
BCcampus would like to bring together a range of people who are leading OEP initiatives or Open Working Groups in their institutions to collaboratively brainstorm the ways in which OEP can be measured and shared. The goal is to articulate how OEP impact is currently being measured, ideas for creative ways of sharing impact, and ways to build capacity in this area across BCPSE.
Definition: For the purposes of this advisory group, we will adopt Cronin’s (2017) definition of OEP: “Open educational practices (OEP) is a broad descriptor of practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER) as well as open pedagogies and open sharing of teaching practices” (p.2).
This Advisory Group will assist in answering questions such as:
- What kinds of OEP activities are taking place in BCPSE?
- How is impact of OEP currently being measured?
- How can BCPSE be guided in measuring impact?
- How can stories and promising practices be shared?
The outcome of this working group will be to:
- Explore ways impact can be measured and reported
- Document how OEP impact is currently being measured
- Develop tools for identifying, measuring, and reporting impact
- Generate creative ways for sharing impact
Terms
To participate in the Advisory Group, you should have practical experience in leading or facilitating an OEP initiative or Open Working Group in your institution. This could include an open program, and OER or open textbook initiative, or open teaching and learning activities. You should also have a good idea about the range of OEP happening in your institution.
Term of the appointment is from February 2020 to September 2021 (8 months).
Over the course of eight months, you can expect to participate in:
- 7 virtual meetings (approx. 1/month, 60-90 minutes.)
- A community discussion in a platform TBD (such as Slack, Mattermost or Microsoft Teams)
Total estimated participation is 2-3 days.
Preliminary Schedule
| Month | Tasks |
| Week of April 6 | 1. Introduction and discussion of terms of reference
2. Overview of the ways OEP impact is currently measured in research, gaps and opportunities Prep for next meeting: What kinds of OEP activities are taking place at your institution? How is OEP impact currently being measured in your institution? Share in collaborative space: Padlet/Etherpad/Mattermost |
| May | 1. Review of current impact measuring activity (possibly invite Lauri A to talk about the behind the scenes work she does)
2. Discussion about where current activity falls short and what alternatives could look like. E.g. focus impact to align with how is meeting an institutional strategy such as Indigenization. |
| June | 1. Brainstorm/discuss OEP impact strategies and tools. Cluster according to easy to implement vs more challenging to implement |
| July/August (depending on holiday schedules | Topic TBD depending on how far we get with previous discussions |
| September | 1. Discussion: what would a province wide, or multi-institutional research study or agenda that examined OEP impact look like? Could this be achieved in 2020-2021? |
| October | 1. Wrap up and next steps |
References
Cronin, C. (2017). Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096