Accessing Open

Last week, my university held its annual professional development event–historically a long, two days of administrator addresses and faculty-focused workshops. This was my sixth or seventh time attending and to my delight, the teeth-gritting energy that has accompanied this event (due to a few years of uncertainty about our institutional health) was replaced with something more calm and even a sweet hint of optimism. I speak for my community when I say we needed this, and I commend the organizers for leading us back to our shared purpose: supporting students. I am hopeful that a small part of this atmosphere of renewal is the result of the work that seventy…

Students. That is the simple answer, unlikely to be contested by all of us who are engaged in learning about and practicing Open Pedagogy, and exploring Open Educational Resources. We are invested in this labor for the sake of giving students MORE: more access, more affordability, more agency. But all this labor, all this giving more of ourselves, our time, our cognitive resources, has costs, and the impact of those costs on individual instructors varies according to institutional status. The Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community engaged in meaningful and vibrant collaboration today to further our work in Open. The conversations touched on many areas of excitement, concern, and contemplation, but the…

I am fresh off Day 2 of ATI 2019, and as is common after a day of learning and networking, my brain is fatigued, my introvert batteries are seriously drained, and I forgot to eat dinner. BUT, I can’t emphasize enough how much today’s revelations are worth a little discomfort. My decade-old career in higher education has provided consistent opportunities to attend workshops and conferences and while I always leave with at least a little something new to think about, I am often frustrated by their structure and underwhelmed by their content. But not today. I spent my entire day with an elevated heart rate and a constant wiggle in…

I’ve had a night’s rest at home to let all the delicious brain food from the Northeast OER Summit digest, and wow, what a nourishing two days I spent connecting with other Open Education enthusiasts! The conference began with a keynote conversation between OERockstars, Robin DeRosa and Rajiv Jhangiani. I have heard these two present before, but this format felt so authentic to the spirit of Open–rather than lecture, Drs. DeRosa and Jhangiani modeled dynamic exchange of ideas, while demonstrating their commitment to revolutionizing the way we teach and learn. Unlike traditional keynotes, the audience was central to the experience and much of what they shared was driven by the…

My Why: At Plymouth State University, approximately 600 undergraduate students have a documented physical, psychiatric, or learning disability, or often, a combination of the three.  This number represents approximately 15 percent of our population, which is consistent with national trends.  Students with disabilities face significant barriers to a successful and meaningful college experience and the intersection of disability and income inequality complicate this problem (half of all students with disabilities at Plymouth State University also come from families with limited income, based on twice the federal poverty line, (50,000 for a family of four). In order to retain these students and help them persist to graduation, we must make cultural…