Overview
Open Pedagogy Definitions Topics
Below are some definitions from the academic literature, and some further readings setting open pedagogy within a deeper, and sometimes ignored, historical context.
Definitions
"[Open pedagogy is]...projects or assignments which have the characteristics of: engaging with students as creators of information rather than simply consumers of it; experiential learning in which students demonstrate understanding through the act of creation; inviting students to be part of the teaching process/participating in the co-creation of knowledge; moving away from single-use assignments in favor of situated, collaborative, and renewable ones; Student agency in deciding if and how their work is shared."
Christina Riehman-Murphy and Bryan McGeary from "The Open Pedagogy Project Roadmap"
"Open pedagogy is that set of teaching and learning practices only possible in the context of the free access and 4R permissions characteristic of open educational resources."
David Wiley from "What is Open Pedagogy?" on the Open Content blog (along the way 4Rs became 5Rs)
“'Open Pedagogy,' as we engage with it, is a site of praxis, a place where theories about learning, teaching, technology, and social justice enter into a conversation with each other and inform the development of educational practices and structures. This site is dynamic, contested, constantly under revision, and resists static definitional claims."
Robin DeRosa & Rajiv Jhangiani from the chapter "Open Pedagogy" in A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students (2017)
"Open Education is the development of free digitally enabled learning materials and experiences primarily by and for the benefit and empowerment of non-privileged learners who may be under-represented in education systems or marginalised in their global context. Success of social justice aligned programs can be measured not by any particular technical feature or format, but instead by the extent to which they enact redistributive justice, recognitive justice and/or representational justice."
Sarah R. Lambert from "Changing our (Dis)Course: A Distinctive Social Justice Aligned Definition of Open Education" (2018)
"Open pedagogy is any pedagogy informed by the practitioners’ conscious identification with the open movement, open access, and OER. In effect, open pedagogy describes the interaction between the open movement and pedagogy, where OEP and OER-enabled pedagogy describe the actual practices arising from that pedagogical approach."
Alan Witt from "Toward a Working Definition of Open Pedagogy" (2020)
Further Reading
"The Black Feminist Pedagogical Origins of Open Education" article by Jasmine Roberts-Crews from Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, no. 23 (2023)
"It’s Not (Just) About the Cost: Academic Libraries and Intentionally Engaged OER for Social Justice" article by Marco Seiferle-Valencia from Library Trends, 69(2), 469–487, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2020.0042
"An Open Athenaeum: Creating an Institutional Home for Open Pedagogy," book chapter by Rajiv S. Jhangiani & Arthur G. Green from OER: A Field Guide for Academic Librarians | Editor's Cut, (2018)
"Towards a Working Definition of Open Pedagogy" article by Alan Witt from The International Journal of Open Educational Resources 3 (2), (2020)
The Open Pedagogy Notebook is "designed to serve as a resource for educators interested in learning more" and contains examples and ideas to demonstrate open pedagogy.