It’s been a very productive summer for me as an Open Pedagogy Fellow. After a few months of meetings, readings, and exchanging inspirational ideas with my colleagues, I’ve finally managed to craft a syllabus that looks unlike anything I’ve ever produced. The course is “Music of Texas”, and Fall 2021 will mark the first time that I’ve taught it. My work this summer with Open Pedagogy has deeply informed the design of “Music of Texas”, from assessment to assignments and even the nature of our time together in the classroom.
The first day of class was scarier-than-usual for me, as I had to get students excited about a new course and on board with an experimental new course-format. I shared my carefully-written syllabus, explained exactly why I was doing things differently than they were used to, and acknowledged that they were each going to have to be willing to experiment alongside me. I reminded students that “new styles of teaching” (for me) will also mean “new styles of learning” (for them). So far, my “Music of Texas” students seemed to buy in to the idea of Open Pedagogy as I’ve explained it — no one has complained yet!
I had originally imagined that I would ask students to work towards creating a publicly-available podcast as a summative semester-ending project. But after a few meetings with my Open Pedagogy “course-development group” (CDG), I realized that a student-developed website would be a perfect repository of the work that we do in class over the semester — and equally easy to share with the general public when the semester is over. A website obviously allows students to generate work in a variety of multimedia formats, which — in this course — will include written texts, but might also include embedded audio (student-created podcasts, original songs, samples of classic Texas music), video (existing YouTube videos about Texas history, culture, or music or student-created “explainer videos”), and archival/primary-source images related to the themes of the course.
I’ve worked to design assignments that strike an appropriate balance between structure and freedom — I want to provide guidance for my students (so they know what the larger task is), but I also want to leave room for them to experiment and discover. I want students to be comfortable to “go with the flow” if their research changes direction midway through their process, and to celebrate their own curiosity. That might mean following their muse, rather than a strictly-worded assignment prompt. My work with Open Pedagogy has stimulated this kind of flexible approach, and encouraged me to think about centering assignments around students (and their interests) rather than around some particular specific “content” that I’d like to make sure that students learn. Instead of designing this course around lectures or readings, I’ve designed it around a series of assignments that use a “jigsaw” strategy: each student studies a different topic (one they can opt to select on their own), and then—in class—we can learn from each other’s research.
I’ve spent so many months with versions of this course in my head — it’s exciting (and scary!) to see it as a real thing, out in the real world. I’m eager to see how the course will continue to develop now that it’s a shared classroom experience, one that is no longer 100% under my control. And, of course, I’m grateful to the Open Pedagogy Fellowship (and to my fellow Fellows) for helping me get more and more comfortable with this sharing of control.
