The Equity & Open Education professional development course was created by library faculty member Jen Klaudinyi at Portland Community College. The course explores how open educational practices and culturally responsive teaching approaches can improve curricular materials and remove barriers to student success.
The core of the course is a four-week exploration in small groups to build learning communities that can dive into innovative ideas together. Optionally, participants may continue the course for another four weeks to implement their learning by revising or creating a professional development resource, OER and equity plan, or other relevant materials related to next-steps.
A study by RMC Research, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, found that nearly all faculty reported that the EOE cohort model helped them make high-impact changes in their teaching practices. Students who took courses taught by faculty who completed the EOE cohort reported increased engagement, motivation, and sense of belonging.
Read more about the impact in Spoiler Alert: Equity and Open Education Training Helps Faculty Make High-Impact Changes.
Facilitation Handoff
After four years of collaboration to facilitate the statewide course, Jen was ready to take a step back – and give others the opportunity to step forward. Now the course facilitator role will be filled by a different person each time the course is offered. Tori Stanek, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning Foundations and Director of Library and Learning Commons at Columbia Gorge Community College is facilitating the faculty cohort that is running right now. Jenny Ceciliano, doctoral student at Portland State University, will facilitate the teaching and learning staff cohort coming up in April.
Here is what Tori says about her experience as course facilitator so far:
I took over from Jen as facilitator this year, and the amount of forethought she put into the course made it a breeze! I reviewed the course and made a few updates, but the content and format have such a solid foundation that the course itself required very little work to prepare for the next round of faculty participants. That said, the real differences come from the participants themselves. I’ve now experienced Equity and Open Ed from the participant, discussion facilitator, and course facilitator perspectives and I learn something new every time. The participants always bring fresh ideas to their discussion forums and–while I have yet to see what the current group will produce for their deliverables–I can say that I’ve seen the impact at my institution. Both our First Year Experience and Research Writing Courses now have no external-to-enrollment cost to students since our faculty completed the Equity & Open Ed training.
Presentations About Our Work
- Challenging White Supremacy with Open Education & Cultural Responsiveness, presented by Michelle Huss, Katri Laukkanen, Rachel Thwing, and Taryn Oakley at AAC&U’s 2023 Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success.
- DEI Implementation Through Innovative Instructional Design, presented by Tianhong Shi at AAC&U’s 2023 Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success.
- Justice and Equity to Criminal Justice Courses: A Content Analysis and Student Survey on Oregon’s OER Development with an EDI Lens, presented by Mari Sakiyama and Miyuki Arimoto at AAC&U’s 2023 Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success.
- Anti-racist Professional Development: A solution oriented model to overcoming backlash and barriers, presented by Marie LeJeune, Mandy Olsen, Jaclyn Caires-Hurley, Micah Walker, and Jessica Dougherty at the 35th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE 2023).
- “Short Stories from the Outer Circle”: A new open educational resource (OER) for advanced ESOL students, presented by Davida Jordan & Tim Krause at International Association of World Englishes 2023.
- Equity and Open Education Student Impact Research, presented by Phoebe Daurio, Amy Hofer, Jen Klaudinyi, Chandra Lewis, and Caroline Qureshi at Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association 2023 Retention and Completion Conference.
