Course Syllabus

Syllabus

Below you will find:

• an overview of the course
• a description of how this course will work depending on whether you registered through the GMCTL or are taking this as an open course
• the course learning outcomes
• a brief bit about your guide for this course
• a schedule for the course, including due dates for assignments 
• a list of the CUTL competencies that align with this course

Overview

The benefits of open educational practices (OEP) are many, including cost savings for students / schools, the ability to shape learning materials to meet local needs, share your practice with other educators, and provide students with more authentic assessments. This course will take participants through the elements of OEP including open licensing, finding and evaluating existing open materials, adapting existing or creating new materials, integrating open pedagogy (those authentic assessments), and sharing your open teaching practices with others.

As I said on the Home page, I'm Heather Ross and I'll be your guide through this course (more about me later). This is not your typical course. It's an open course, which means anyone can go through it, but if you're an instructor or graduate student at USask you may have registered for it through the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL). 

This is the second open course offered through the GMCTL (the first, Introduction to Learning Technologies was several years ago). At USask, we've always called our open courses TOOCs for Truly Open Only Courses. All materials in this course are openly licensed so you can use them, modify them, and share them with others.

How This Course Works

This course is designed to be appropriate for post-secondary and K-12 educators from any discipline from Art Theory to Zoology .

While I recommend that you go through the modules in order:

• If you're registered for the course through the GMCTL registration system (instructors and grad students from USask) then you need to go through it in order
• If you're taking this as an open course, feel free to go down whatever path you want (but I still recommend you do it in order)

You will be creating a blog to share your work and reflections on your assignments. The assignments are all listed further down the page.

Those registered through the GMCTL will also have semi-weekly virtual meetings (more on that later).

Learning Outcomes

1. Use existing OER in alignment with the conditions indicated in resource licenses
2. Apply a Creative Commons license to their own work
3. Evaluate an open educational resource (OER) appropriate for use in their teaching
4. Adapt or create a new OER
5. Create a plan for an open pedagogy activity that aligns with at least one course learning outcome and represents an authentic activity within the discipline.
6. Justify instructional decisions based on their own personal open philosophy

Your Guide

As I said previously, I'm Heather Ross and I'll be your guide through this course. While I'm very well versed in open educational practices (OEP), I know that I'll be learning a lot from all of you, including new ways of looking at all aspects of OEP and gaining some great ideas through the examples you'll be sharing. 

My views on teaching and learning are in alignment with what you'll be learning and practicing in this course. I believe it should be available to anyone who wants to learn. I believe that students should be able to see themselves in their learning materials. I believe that assessments should be good methods of measuring learning outcomes in a way that actively engages students. I believe that we all have a lot to learn from each other.

If you need to reach me, you can email me at heather.ross@usask.ca. Please note, that I don't respond to emails outside of normal work hours.

Schedule and Assignments

The following table includes the schedule for this course for those who are registered through the GMCTL. If you're taking this as an open course, you can follow the same assignment schedule, which will allow you to receive regular feedback.

The assignment titles link to the assignments.

Certificate in University Teaching and Learning (CUTL)

Completion of this course should provide you with the evidence needed to meet the following indicators for CUTL at USask.

• 1.1.1 I model finding, evaluating, and using content that is current, valid, and relevant to my discipline, including Indigenous content and providing appropriate credit 
• 3.1.1 I select assessment strategies, both formative and summative, aligned to an outcome 
• 3.2.3 I design assessment tasks that require students to apply disciplinary learning under authentic, or close to authentic as possible, circumstances.  
• 4.1.1 I articulate personal beliefs and assumptions about “good teaching”