Oregon’s Equity & Open Education Faculty Cohort Model

Open Oregon Educational Resources has exciting news to share about the statewide Equity & Open Education Faculty Cohort Model. This professional development course was created by library faculty member Jen Klaudinyi at Portland Community College. The core of the course is a four-week exploration in small groups in order to build learning communities that can dive into innovative ideas together. Optionally, faculty may continue the course for another four weeks and redesign a course component, incorporating open and equitable materials and/or pedagogy.

Faculty often assume that their course is more equitable when they adopt affordable materials, and it is true that affordable materials remove a significant barrier to success. However, an open license does not ensure that the course materials or course design are inclusive of the diverse students in our classrooms. The Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort professional development course seeks to transform curriculum by asking faculty to consider open educational practices with an equity lens, including universal design, cultural relevance, and diverse perspectives.

New funding for this course has been provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Their support enables Open Oregon Educational Resources to:

• Offer the Equity & Open Education course statewide to four faculty cohorts: one already enrolled for Summer 20, and upcoming groups in Winter 21, Summer 21, and Winter 22.
• Seek proposals by July 31, 2020, from researchers familiar with both open education and EDI research to design and carry out an impact study on this model.
• Seek advisory board members to provide feedback on the course curriculum and the research study design and reporting.

We are excited to start our first faculty cohort next month and grateful for the Hewlett Foundation’s support of this work!