Adopting OER and open educational principles for your course also opens the door to the world of Open Pedagogy.
What is Open Pedagogy?
To define open pedagogy, we need to break it down to its two components, open and pedagogy:
Open, in this instance, refers to open educational resources (OER) – defined by UNESCO as “any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license.”
Pedagogy is the practice and method of teaching; how we teach, rather than what we teach.
Open pedagogy, also known as open educational practices (OEP), is the use of open educational resources (OER) to support learning, or the open sharing of teaching practices with a goal of improving education and training at the institutional, professional, and individual level.
When you use open pedagogy in your classroom, you are inviting your students to be part of the teaching process, participating in the co-creation of knowledge.
-- Definition from BCcampus Open Ed
Practicing and incorporating open pedagogy into your curriculum also allows you to diversify and include culturally relevant content for your students. Inclusion of diverse material can help create more engaged and empowered learners.