This summer I had the opportunity to start my journey with open pedagogy. The amount of information and content was overwhelming at first. However, with the help of colleagues, I learned how to sift through the information and started to create a “Communication Toolkit” website. This site will house resources (curated and developed by students) of different mediums/content that would help students with their communication skills. As part of the process, I had student reviewers provide feedback on the website and assignments to coincide with the course expectations. Throughout this process I learned many things.
First and foremost, I learned that developing a plan helps to guide my process. At the beginning of the summer, we created a content map to help initiate the planning process. I created a content map that outlined the areas that I wanted my website to cover. I based it initially on my course modules, but as I built the site, I modified it to include the areas that I felt would be most beneficial for my students and their communication skills. In addition to creating a content map, deadlines were developed that helped to ensure we stayed on track for creating our resources. My content map became fluid while I stayed on task with my due dates/deadlines.
I also learned that I often have grandiose ideas that need to be broken down into parts. Manageable chunks of content helped me to make progress instead of getting stuck on having “so much to do”. This aligns with the deadlines as I learned how to make sure I stayed on track and chose manageable tasks that built upon one another. At times, I would get “stuck” on an idea and not know how to begin. This is when I would focus on my goal and backward chain the steps that are needed to get to the end goal.
One of my most beneficial lessons I learned is the value of student feedback. One thing we often take for granted is that we know our scope and have the background knowledge to be able to complete or understand something effectively. Our students, however, don’t have this knowledge. I had 7 student reviewers provide me very valuable feedback and I didn’t realize how much I left ambiguous within my site description and assignments. For example, I used the term “external resources”, but never provide examples or a description of what I meant. I assumed that they will understand that I am looking for additional articles, videos, and other references to support a topic. The student reviewers provided significant insight into my project and assignments that I would not have thought of on my own. I appreciate all of their feedback from the site lacking excitement to concerns about ownership of blog posts. Their involvement is crucial to the success of this process within the classroom and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Overall, this process has been exciting and opened my eyes to the possibilities we have with open pedagogy! One thing that I feel that we could improve upon is helping to have student feedback at the beginning “idea/planning” stage and then further involvement once projects are created. Involving the students at the beginning of our process and throughout, is key to a collaborative environment that will further increase their success.
