Open Education Week 2024

Did you know McMaster has single-sign on to Pressbooks, an easy-to-use open content publishing platform for creating (or adapting) online resources such as textbooks, guidebooks, modules, lab manuals, student-generated assignments, and more? This session will provide an overview of Pressbooks and the dynamic features that are natively baked in – including H5P interactivity, Hypothes.is annotation and embedded multimedia. If you’re looking to self-publish content of any length, and want a simple tool that enables customization, flexibility and accessible, varied publishing formats with web-hosting options, Pressbooks may be right for you. We’ll look at examples of instructor-created and student-created content and get you started on using Pressbooks for your teaching and learning.

This event features McMaster faculty and instructors who are incorporating open education into their teaching. Hear from some of the 2023-2024 OER Grantees as they update us on their awarded projects. Learn about the open resources being created for McMaster courses and hear about the grantees' experiences in creating open and accessible content. Gather ideas for possible OER projects of your own. Find out more about the McMaster OER Grant which will be offered again in Spring 2024. 

Presenters and Projects: 

• Anthony Chibba and Sharonna Greenberg, assistant professors, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology 
  • Open Content Creation: Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology for the Students by the Students 
• Miranda Schmidt, assistant professor; Sara Cormier, instructional assistant, and Kari Dalnoki-Veress, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy 
  • Open Content Creation: Manual for Introductory Physics Hybrid Labs 
• Erica Speakman, assistant professor, Social Psychology  
  • Open Content Creation: Exploring Social Psychological Theory 
• Christine Swintak, assistant professor, Integrated Arts Program 
  • Open Content Creation: The AI for Artists Workbook 

Approximately 2.2 million learners were enrolled in post-secondary institutions in Canada in the 2021/22 academic year (Statistics Canada, 2023). That number is likely relatively similar for 2023/24. If each of those learners were enrolled in 3 courses per semester, and each course required one hour of homework and assignment time per week (over 15 weeks) that’s a total of 90 million hours of potential learner co-creation of knowledge. Just in Canada, just in one semester. Using David Wiley’s idea of reducing “throw away assignments” (Wiley, 2013), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a fantastic opportunity to create globally relevant and experiential projects as part of post-secondary learning experiences. 

The purpose of this interactive workshop is for participants to learn about the SDGs (if they have not yet heard of them) or refresh their knowledge (UNESCO, n.d.), and explore with each other and the facilitator how to use the topics, targets, and indicators to develop an open assignment and rubric for learners. The exploration and design of assessments should highlight use of open educational resources (OER), focus on real-world examples, be relevant to your discipline, and include conversations with colleagues for inspiration and feedback. 

The output of the workshop will be a participant-designed assessment (assignment details and a rubric if needed) based on one or more of the SDGs that may be explored in partnership with students in an upcoming course. 

Boxed lunches will be provided for in-person registrants.

About the facilitator: Dr. Jenni Hayman is an experienced and active higher education administrator, researcher, and faculty member at Royal Roads University in Canada. Her expertise is in the design and delivery of online and hybrid post-secondary programs, including partnership with faculty on the use of open educational resources, technology in their teaching practice, and scholarly research (scholarship of teaching and learning). Recent roles include Associate Faculty at Royal Roads; Chair, School of Business, Online at Conestoga College; and Dean, Academic Excellence and Innovation at Cambrian College. Jenni provides guidance and support for faculty and administrators on emerging regional, national, and global education practices related to open education, quality assurance, program review and development, and evidence-based teaching models. Her current research and explorations focus on the use of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a foundation for post-secondary curriculum.

This hybrid workshop will introduce participants to H5P – an easy-entry interactive open content creation platform. We will familiarize ourselves with H5P Studio – a free collaborative space supported by eCampusOntario – a jumping off point for Ontario educators and learners to connect, find, create and share content. Come prepared to create your first interactive content for use in your teaching and learning – and beyond! 

Boxed lunches will be provided for in-person registrants.

One of the biggest barriers to OER adoption and use is finding the right resource. In this session, we will look at some McMaster-specific resources that will help you in your search (including McMaster’s OER by Discipline Guide version 2.0), explore some OER repositories, and consider some strategies to fine tune your results. We will also look at how you can evaluate the OER you’ve found for possible inclusion in your teaching.

Are you curious about open pedagogy and eager to explore what it is, and how you can implement it in your teaching practice? Will you be interested in experimenting various types of H5P? If yes, then join eCampus OER Rangers on March 8th to start your journey. 

Dr. Shelir Ebrahimi and Dr. Zhen He, participants in the OER Rangers Program of eCampus Ontario, will share their insights and experiences gained during the program on open pedagogy and H5P. During the session, you will discover valuable information on: 

• Open pedagogy 
• Practical ways to integrate OER into your teaching and learning practices 
• Various types of H5P content you can create and include in your teaching

Refreshments will be provided. 

Location: MacPherson Institute Classroom – 5th (MI) floor of the Mills library.

Register Here by March 6th, 2024.

Note: We will be creating some Pressbook and H5P samples. We highly recommend you bring a laptop or tablet to participate in these hands-on activities. 

About the facilitators

Dr. Shelir Ebrahimi 

Shelir is an assistant professor of teaching at Chemical engineering department and Experiential learning office. She was one of the recipients of Virtual Learning Strategy (VLS) 1 in 2021, and the only McMaster recipient of VLS 2 in 2022; projects funded by eCampus Ontario to support instructors in creating online course resources. As a result of these projects, Shelir and her team created four Pressbooks to support the teaching and learning experience of engineering students. She is now an eCampus OER Ranger and is excited to advocate for OER within the McMaster community. 

Dr. Zhen He 

Zhen is an Assistant Professor teaching track in the Economics Department at McMaster University. She was an early winner of the McMaster OER grant and serves on the McMaster OER Committee for the 2023-2024 academic year. Zhen is dedicated to promoting open education. She adopted an open pedagogy and engaged students in creating open educational resources. Zhen has been selected as an OER Ranger, actively participating in eCampusOntario's OER Rangers Program.