Open Education Day of Dialogue
The recent Open Education Day of Dialogue enlisted expertise from across the University to consider future directions for open education at Deakin. Since April 2021, Deakin has conducted two rounds of Open Educational Resources (OER) grants with participation by academics from across the faculties, with the second round of OER grants announced earlier this year. While the OER grants focus on the use and creation of open resources, the next level of open educational practice can be taken further when partnered with open pedagogical principles.
The aim of the Day of Dialogue
The aim of the Day of Dialogue was to develop a shared understanding of open educational practices and to commence articulating a plan for future practice. To set the scene by establishing current practices, a panel session with recipient of last year’s grants discussed their experience in open education with an overview of the projects and the impact on students and their teaching practice.
The discussion format
The remainder of the event required attendee participation in discussions designed in line with Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle of why, what and how. The ‘why’ conversation commenced the discussions covering the benefits to students, pedagogical transformation, incorporating indigenous knowledge and making students the centre of their learning, laying the groundwork for the more directional discussions to follow.
The following round of discussions was conducted in the style of a world cafe. Participants moved between the conversations at 20-minute intervals, mixing up the groups each time. The conversations included how we should enable Open Education to be business as usual, what we need to do to encourage Open Education at Deakin and larger blue-sky ideas.
Ongoing analysis
The conversations were energetic and insightful, including diverse points of view from participants from a range of perspectives. The main themes of the conversation are being analysed to inform future directions and include ideas from adjustments to current processes to establishing supports for practice and capacity building.
The open discussion inspired many ideas and set the scope for ambitious future plans. This type of event relies on the enthusiastic participation of the those attending, and we want to thank all those who came along for your input, ideas and imagination!