Assignments and Project Ideas

For the past few years I have worked with students on open pedagogy assignments and projects from which I draw my inspiration. Students have contributed to the open textbook through their persuasive writing assignments and have developed content that will serve future students in this course. This collection of assignments and projects reflects my own teaching style and adaptations of other educators who have shared generously and inspired me endlessly.

1. The Op-Ed Writing Template: This simple and paired-down op-ed template provides students with a framework to develop evidence-based persuasive writing techniques while still infusing their own perspectives and lived experiences. This format was used throughout the open textbook as seen in the many student submissions.
2. The Op-Ed Writing Sample: Before embarking on an ambitious persuasive-writing assignment, why not have students critically analyze an op-ed first and identify its key components? This “sampler” provides ideas on how to walk students through an op-ed analysis, and in some cases, this may be enough to satisfy the learning outcomes where writing/creation isn’t required in a course.
3. Persuasive Writing for Peer Review: A shorter version of the op-ed, this framework provides students with a balance of creating & analyzing persuasive writing. The peer review format also allows for more frequent smaller assessments in a course and provides scaffolding for a final or larger submission based on student-revised work.
4. Annotating Learning in an OER: Students can annotate anything using Hypothesis and be invited to summarize their annotations or suggest new/revised content. This is particularly useful for students who may be involved in future OER-authored projected.
5. Cultural Literacy Assignment: Developed during the SDG Open Pedagogy Fellowship at KPU, this assignment is equal parts visual literacy, data literacy, and cultural literacy and gives students an opportunity to critically examine the ongoing relationship between marketing and cultural.
6. Teachable Content Assignment: Learning from peers is at the heart this assignment where students can not only create relevant, meaningful, and relatable teachable content, but also infuse their lived experiences and stories. Students engaged in OER work may wish to bring variability to their creations using H5P and other digital tools (e.g., video, audio, etc.).
7. Teachable Content Student Examples: A host of examples using H5P have been included to provide a sampler of the imagination and creativity students can bring to an OER and to future learners.
8. Chapter Summary Assignments: Diffusing the main ideas of a chapter into a smaller sample size provides students with another way to engage with the open textbook. Using H5P to create chapter summaries allows for greater learner variability and variety.
9. Coronavirus Reflection: This assignment gives voice to students and invites them to share their lived experiences as consumers during the pandemic. Similarly, students could also be invited to share their experiences, perspectives, attitudes, and behaviour (consumption decisions) as consumer activists or in response to social justice campaigns used by businesses and brands.