Advancing Equity through OER Creation and Publishing

Concurrent Session 5
Streamed Session

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

OER creation presents an opportunity to innovate with new content, pedagogy, tools, and teams, in favour of student success. This session encourages reflection on equity and success in education, and prompts you to identify ways to leverage collaborative open publishing models to advance equity at the individual, classroom, institution levels.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Apurva Ashok, The Rebus Foundation

Apurva Ashok is the Executive Director of The Rebus Foundation. Apurva has been working in the Open Education field for 7 years and brings a tireless determination for systemic change in education through collaborative partnerships. She brings her wide-ranging experience across publishing, program development, community building, impact-driven strategic planning, and media to help educational institutions build more equitable and responsive teaching & learning spaces. Apurva has created professional development offerings for educators such as the Textbook Success Program, published several OER guides including the OER Starter Kit for Program Managers, and supported the creation and adaptation of over 50 OER. In 2020, Apurva received an Open Education Award for Excellence from Open Education Global in recognition of her contributions to the field. At the core, Apurva champions collaboration, human-centric approaches, and open practices in service of a more equitable future for higher education and global communities.

Extended Abstract

OER offers educators a small chance to regain control over education spaces that are increasingly being subject to external powers and agendas. OER creation and adaptation is one of the easiest entry points into the open education movement. Instructors look to OER as a solution for expensive and outdated course materials, and as an opportunity to design learning experiences that are better suited for their students. However, definitions of student success vary significantly, and there’s no standardized approach to utilize OER to advance these goals.

This session will encourage reflection on our current education landscape and the purpose that drives our work as educators. Who are we trying to serve through our work? How does equity crop up in our roles? The presenter will draw from audience definitions and perspectives to better understand what critical problems and challenges we are trying to solve with OER.

With this framing in place, the presenter will offer an overview of collaborative OER creation models that respond to these challenges. They will highlight examples of equitable OER — identifying a variety of threads that contribute to making an OER inclusive. The presenter will draw on their expertise in OER publishing to share replicable practices and workflows that attendees can apply or adapt in their contexts. Attendees will be encouraged to share their own examples and stories of sustainable OER creation projects. Ample time will be reserved for questions and dialogue from attendees. The session will serve as a space for realignment and community learning. 

The goals of the session are to:

  1. Encourage reflection on the complexity of the current educational landscape and the role of equity in education
  2. Support attendees to explore their positionality and purpose in the field
  3. Offer guidance on ways to leverage OER creation to advance equity-focused goals
  4. Showcase examples of collaborative OER creation models, workflows, and practices