Next week I am delighted to be presenting at the OER21xDomains conference, which is being held online on 21-22 April. I have had a paper accepted based on my experiences of running this module for the past 3 years. I will be bringing three former students (Kanan Barot, Ahmed El-Shareif and Hasan Munir) from the most recent cohort to the conference to share some of their experiences. I will also be talking briefly about the research I did in 2019 on staff motivations towards open practice. My session is on Thursday 22md April at 10am.

There isn’t much time in the session, so I am sharing additional content and resources via this blog post for those who are interested in the session. I’ll also share my slides and a recording (if possible) after the event.

Some of the experiences from teaching this module were written up and presented at the Inted 2020 conference in Valenica and so I recommend starting out by reading my paper from the conference entitled Understanding the Role of Technology in Academic Practice through the Lens of Openness. Here I presented some of the findings from the study I did interviewing academic staff about digital literacies, open practice and their experiences of being supported in these areas.

You may also want to refer to the conference session I ran at OER19 in Galway, Reflecting on Teaching in the Open where I was joined by three of my webinar presenters: Chris Morrison, Lorna Campbell and Dave White. Here my webinar presenters reflected on the value of being part of this module and what it meant to their own practice.

Finally, I have been given permission to share some of the video assignments from my past students, who created videos about aspects of digital literacy or open practice as part of the module. These were highly individual and reflect interests that they developed during their time studying the module. Some of the research suggests that existing pedagogic practices are amplified through learning about openness. My research suggests there is a very close relationship between digital literacies and open practices but there is a huge variation in experience. Peers are also tremendously important in supporting staff and helping them develop their confidence to be more open. The pandemic has undoubtedly had an impact on staff attitudes in both these areas and I think we are really at the start of seeing whether an ideological shift towards greater openness and the willingness to share, ends up being one of the lasting changes.

I hope to see you at OER21, I am looking forward to presenting there next week.