I think the test is a great way to help create a more engaging learning environment as well as provide opportunities for creativity. Although my personal example doesn’t fulfill all four parts, I think the structure of the assignment closely matched OER-enabled pedagogy. For one of my fourth year Economics classes, students had to pick a teacher-approved firm and build a “portfolio” on this firm to present to the class at the end of the semester. How we were expected to build this portfolio was by participating in the weekly discussion posts that consisted of several follow up questions from the lecture. These questions would ask us to connect the material to our personal firm so that we can slowly accumulate more information and gain a stronger understanding of the firm’s business strategies. By the end of the course, students could design a powerpoint and share with the class what they learned throughout the semester. Another example I have that matches OER-enabled pedagogy was an assignment from an English course that asked students to choose any topic from the lectures and create a youtube video that was to be published publicly and accessible by all. Each student was to pick a different topic from the other. This video consists of the student summarizing and teaching what they learned on the topic. As mentioned earlier, I believe both of these examples might be missing one of the parts of the four-part test, but they helped me become more engaged in what I was learning mainly because I was taking “ownership” of my own topic of choice, I was expected to teach what I learned to other students, and there was also an element of creativity in each assignment that made it more fun. If I were to be a teacher in the future, I would create assignments such as these and avoid what the authors described as “disposable assignments,” ones that do not have any longevity or value in the students learning journey.
tsokwa
Hi, Claire
Great job on your reflection!
It’s interesting to see the different examples you highlighted that may pass the 4-part test.
Those kinds of assignments give you agency to explore, create, and ideate which provides a more gratifying learning experience. It is also great to have an opportunity to contribute to a learning commons by making some of our assignments publically accessible. This strongly reduces the number of disposable assignments that we produce during the term.
madelineosgarby
Hi Claire,
I agree with what you said about avoiding designing assignments that qualify in the “disposable” category. I agree that they do not have any longevity or value to students. In high school, I felt like whenever I had an exam it wasn’t testing me on what I had learned but instead on how quickly I could memorize as much as possible. I often forgot what I had crammed the night before in the following days after the exam.
As a future teacher, I plan to only design tasks that qualify at least within the “authentic” category. I am still nervous about letting my students contribute publicly online. I think that if I educate my students first on digital citizenship, they will be more prepared when they see issues like cyberbullying and online hate firsthand.