Abstract
The term “open pedagogy” has been used in a variety of different ways over the past several decades. In recent years, its use has also become associated with Open Educational Resources (OER). The wide range of competing definitions of open pedagogy, together with its semantic overlap with another underspecified term, open educational practices, makes it difficult to conduct research on the topic of open pedagogy. In making this claim we do not mean to cast doubt on the potential effectiveness of the many pedagogical approaches labeled open. In this article, rather than attempting to argue for a canonical definition of open pedagogy, we propose a new term, “OER-enabled pedagogy,” defined as the set of teaching and learning practices that are only possible or practical in the context of the 5R permissions that are characteristic of OER. We propose criteria used to evaluate whether a form of teaching constitutes OER-enabled pedagogy and analyze several examples of OER-enabled pedagogy with these criteria.
Highlights
The term “open pedagogy” has a long history and has been used in many contexts
An Athabasca University white paper written in 2011 associates open pedagogy with learning digital literacies and teaching that is centered on the pedagogy of discovery (Day, Ker, Mackintosh, McGreal, Stacey, & Taylor, 2011)
Rather than attempting to propose a single, canonical definition of open pedagogy, we propose a new term, “Open Educational Resources (OER)-enabled pedagogy.”
Summary
The term “open pedagogy” has a long history and has been used in many contexts. For example, Elliot (1973) describes a tension between “closed” and “open” pedagogies with the former tending to be more focused on didactic discussion and the latter being connected with leading less formal discussions and students cocreating the context of the class. Mai (1978) discusses open pedagogy in the context of creating an “informal classroom where children might be trusted to learn by exploring according to their own interests, instead of being bored, demeaned, and alienated” (p. 231). Dufeu (1992) argues that open pedagogy is a philosophy in which the content of the course, as well as its progression, is determined by the needs and preferences of participants. Daniel (2004) refers to open pedagogy as one “that treats the student as an intellectual equal” (p. 9). Advocates, practitioners, and researchers in the open education movement have worked to prevent the weakening of the term “open” by calling out examples of “openwashing” - attempts by people and organizations to apply the label “open” to contexts in which copyright restrictions prohibit teachers and learners from engaging in the 5R activities (Weller, 2013; Pomerantz & Peek, 2016). Those interested in OER care about the way the word “open” is used in educational contexts. We propose the following four-part test to determine the extent to which a specific teaching and learning practice qualifies as OER-enabled pedagogy, as exemplified by the idea of renewable assignments: 1. Are students asked to create new artifacts (essays, poems, videos, songs, etc.) or revise / remix existing OER?
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