Open Pedagogy Toolkit: Module 6

Studies show that student agency can reduce disengagement and students can be motivated by public recognition of their efforts (Werth & Williams, 2021). Chances are, there will be evidence of student agency and ownership over aspects of the course or your renewable assignment. Your students may be excited, motivated, and proud of their work and the fact that it is publicly available for them and others to engage with after the class has concluded. You may be able to gauge this by asking students to reflect on their efforts and feelings about the work, the ways in which they took responsibility for aspects of the assignment, what went well and what is an area for future improvement. Students may demonstrate the longer-lasting value of the renewable assignment by identifying or students proposing ideas beyond the assignment prompt or reflections, which may serve as a jumping off point for future iterations of a renewable assignment for other students to carry out.

Participation in an authentic learning experience should result in higher-quality, authentic student work (Zachrich et al., 2024). Real-world contributions can help motivate students to do well. This may be reflected in more thoughtful research and writing. The student may be more conscientious about their work because of the real-world audience. 

If learning outcomes are being met and students are more engaged with the material, that’s a strong indicator of success. Having the student reflect on their work is an important aspect of OP. This is because it can reveal what the students actually learned. You may notice that the students reflect on how their experience changed their understanding. You may also see students’ awareness of the collaboration, revision, and knowledge-creation processes, and how they benefited from them.

We talked about how OP can strengthen relationships in your class. Not only the relationship between you and your students, but also the students’ relationship with themselves, and the broader community. You may see this in peer reviews that are more substantive and beneficial to the students. 

One of the major purposes of OP is to contribute to the knowledge commons, so a clear way to assess its success is to examine how the materials are used and reused. This could look like future students improving past students’ work, faculty integrating student work into their classes, and community partners using student work. What are your plans for how you may use student work in the future?

OP in the classroom should feel like a partnership or a community of practice. If it feels like a burden–to you or your students–it might not be working exactly as planned. If you experience this, you may try talking with students to explore the issues, asking specific questions on a mid-semester or end-of-year evaluation, and enlist students to brainstorm ways to improve the renewable assignment for the future. Your and the students’ experience with the class should feel positive and energized. You may recognize that routine aspects of the course, such as grading, that once felt onerous may feel more relational as you develop stronger mentoring relationships with students.