5.5 Over to you …
Throughout this course, you’ve explored many facets of open practice whilst also looking in more detail at the practicalities of open licensing within the context of OER. So what’s next? Here are some resources for activities you might want to try and some examples of sharing best practice to start you thinking about next steps you could take to make your own practice more open. Feel free to add your own examples and thoughts in the OEPS forum [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Get started ...
- Join a community! Ask questions and share ideas about open practice. Start by looking at the OEPS Hub.
- Look at and contribute to mapping OER practice or contribute to and explore OER impact evidence and policy.
- Can you incorporate OER into your own work? Could you make a resource using openly licensed material and share it with others?
- Commit to sharing a percentage of your own material in the open.
Try something different ...
- Share your own experiences by blogging. Read ‘Blogging as reflection’.
- DS106 (Digital Storytelling 106) has a Daily Create where people share their own makes/responses to a fun task that’s posted each day. See also the Daily Create as a P2PU Challenge.
- Create an open course using a platform such as OpenLearn Works or Peer 2 Peer University’s Course in a Box (P2PU).
Remember if you make something, to share or publicise it so that others can use it too.
Spread the word ...
- Discuss OER with colleagues or get together to explore the potential of OER at your institution or organisation.
- Work with colleagues or students to repurpose or create materials. Good examples of different types of practice can be found via Siyavula and BCcampus (see Section 4.5) and Byron High’s creation of their Statistics Course and the University of Dundee’s Medical School.
- As well as talking with colleagues about using OER, you can also talk with students or clients about the types of resources you are using. What makes them different from resources you previously used, why are you using them and what impact (if any) does it have on your students? For more ideas, check out P2PU’s course Teach Someone Something with Open Content.
Activity 5B
Throughout the course you’ve reflected on different types of ‘open’ practice and considered different ways openness might impact on everyday practices. Review your reflective journal and consider the following questions:
- In what ways could you incorporate OER and/or more open practices into your own context?
- What could you do in the next 24 hours? The next week? The next month?
- What kind of impact might these changes have?
- Have you got any suggestions or ideas for ‘going open’ that are not included above? Share your ideas on the OEPS Hub Forum and let others know how you get on with planning your own ‘open journey’.
Write down your responses and ideas in your reflective log. Is there a colleague or friend with whom you can share your ambitions or ideas?
Now try the end-of-course quiz to consolidate your knowledge and understanding from this section. Completing the quizzes is part of gaining the statement of participation and/or the digital badge, as explained in the Course and badge information. Help make the course better by telling us what you think.
5.4 Measuring impact