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In early April, the Open Education Network’s (OEN) Open Pedagogy Project Symposium showcased educational innovation and achievement – examples of fresh, outside-the-box teaching strategies made possible by open pedagogy. The OEN is pleased to highlight the action plans created by teams of dedicated faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and colleagues.
This year participants across the nation demonstrated their understanding of open pedagogy as an experiential, learner-driven approach to education. Throughout the two-day symposium, 19 teams presented open pedagogy action plans to infuse equity, inclusivity, and sustainability into their courses. These plans include:
At the symposium, each team offered a 15-minute overview about the course subject, purpose for revising the course, and strategy for student engagement. Presenters also fielded questions, revisiting some of the learning moments over the past nine weeks that made lasting impressions.
Day One at the symposium welcomed 10 teams, including Berea College’s Karina Christopher, Associate Professor in Child and Family Studies and Maria Taylor, OER Librarian. The two shared their action plan to revise an assignment for the college's Food, Culture, and Society course Karina teaches.
The Berea team’s new plan will require students to reflect individually on their personal food culture and analyze cultures unrelated to their own. Ultimately, they will select recipes from both inside and outside their culture, adding them to the Manifold cookbook project as text, video, or audio deliverables. They will also be free to choose whether they publish under their own name, anonymously, or by pseudonym.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) was one of nine teams presenting on Day Two. Annie Chatterjee, Open Access and Scholarly Communications Librarian, and Canan Eren, Senior Lecturer - Department of Computer Science, discussed their plan to offer an open, renewable assignment for students enrolled in Computer Science 331: Database System Design & Management.
As AI ambassador for the NJIT Library, Annie believes teaching students how to use AI in a constructive way is crucial. She tells students the best way to use AI is as a tutor, or something to bounce ideas off of. She shows them how to format prompts that ask AI to evaluate and suggest – without actually making the suggested changes. For example: “Give me five points where I can improve.” Or, “Tell me why you’re suggesting this?” Prompts must also state, “Do not change it for me.”
The Open Education Network would like to congratulate all of this year’s participating teams, wishing the 2025 cohort of the OEN Certificate in Open Pedagogy continued success.
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In early April, the Open Education Network’s (OEN) Open Pedagogy Project Symposium showcased educational innovation and achievement – examples of fresh, outside-the-box teaching strategies made possible by open pedagogy. The OEN is pleased to highlight the action plans created by teams of dedicated faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and colleagues.
Learner Driven
This year participants across the nation demonstrated their understanding of open pedagogy as an experiential, learner-driven approach to education. Throughout the two-day symposium, 19 teams presented open pedagogy action plans to infuse equity, inclusivity, and sustainability into their courses. These plans include:
- Creating an interdisciplinary “AI for Everyone” class
- Building a database of shareable, updatable research sources by and for students
- Designing an open publishing assignment for students to share knowledge via zines
- Making a renewable assignment to help doctoral students establish teaching philosophy
- Launching a student-created writing guide as a resource for future students
- Creating a shareable, updatable repository of case studies on psychological disorders
Plans build on nine weeks of asynchronous instruction the teams have received participating in the OEN Certificate in Open Pedagogy. Typically, teams comprise an instructor and partner (librarian or instructional designer) from the same school. However, Tanya Grosz, OEN Director of Educational Programs, noted an exception in the 2025 cohort. “It’s the first time we’ve allowed single participants from different schools to team up,” she said. “In this case, they didn’t know each other previously, but it worked great!”
This summer, teams will continue to refine their open pedagogy curriculum. In the fall, they will implement their open pedagogy action plans in their courses. Together, the experience is all part of the certificate process.
The Team Alongside You
At the symposium, each team offered a 15-minute overview about the course subject, purpose for revising the course, and strategy for student engagement. Presenters also fielded questions, revisiting some of the learning moments over the past nine weeks that made lasting impressions.
As one of the 2025 cohort instructors, Tanya encouraged participants to acknowledge aha moments they experienced along the way. While many expressed appreciation for what they were learning, they uniformly praised the team-based approach, finding comfort, inspiration, and support in their partner. Tanya affirms the truth of this: “Understanding more about how open pedagogy can transform curriculum is wonderful and encouraging, but having a partner or team to walk alongside you and help as you implement what you are learning is golden.”
At the Symposium
Day One at the symposium welcomed 10 teams, including Berea College’s Karina Christopher, Associate Professor in Child and Family Studies and Maria Taylor, OER Librarian. The two shared their action plan to revise an assignment for the college's Food, Culture, and Society course Karina teaches.
The current Food, Culture, and Society cookbook recipe assignment has been part of the course curriculum for several years. Karina and Maria said they’ve decided to revise it because they would like the assignment to be renewable. They also see potential for the book to address a lack of current OER focused on food culture.
Serving Fairness and Equity
The Berea team’s new plan will require students to reflect individually on their personal food culture and analyze cultures unrelated to their own. Ultimately, they will select recipes from both inside and outside their culture, adding them to the Manifold cookbook project as text, video, or audio deliverables. They will also be free to choose whether they publish under their own name, anonymously, or by pseudonym.
Karina looks forward to seeing the cookbook reflect a wide array of cultures in subsequent semesters. “The purpose of this project is to explore food culture with fairness and equity, to expand competence in providing care for diverse populations," she said. ”We want this to be open.”
Real-World Application
The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) was one of nine teams presenting on Day Two. Annie Chatterjee, Open Access and Scholarly Communications Librarian, and Canan Eren, Senior Lecturer - Department of Computer Science, discussed their plan to offer an open, renewable assignment for students enrolled in Computer Science 331: Database System Design & Management.
According to the NJIT plan, students will analyze, design, and deploy databases as a phased term project. Using tools like PostgreSQL and GitHub, they will publicly interface and share their databases to promote collaboration, accessibility, and real-world application. These students will also incorporate AI feedback on their database designs.
Bouncing Ideas off AI
As AI ambassador for the NJIT Library, Annie believes teaching students how to use AI in a constructive way is crucial. She tells students the best way to use AI is as a tutor, or something to bounce ideas off of. She shows them how to format prompts that ask AI to evaluate and suggest – without actually making the suggested changes. For example: “Give me five points where I can improve.” Or, “Tell me why you’re suggesting this?” Prompts must also state, “Do not change it for me.”
Annie finds this type of engagement with AI to be enlightening. “In this process it really becomes a learning experience,” she says. “We’re hoping students will use AI this way.”
Congrats and Thanks
The Open Education Network would like to congratulate all of this year’s participating teams, wishing the 2025 cohort of the OEN Certificate in Open Pedagogy continued success.
Our sincere thanks goes out to the 2025 instructors: Heather Miceli, Roger Williams University; David Tully, North Carolina State University; Melissa Williams, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities; and Tanya Grosz, Open Education Network.
Interested in OEN open pedagogy resources and learning opportunities? Visit the OEN Open Pedagogy or OEN Certificate in Open Pedagogy webpages to learn more. Email Tanya Grosz with questions regarding the 2026 cohort.
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