(Missed a week? Check out our archive here)

We are sending you a recap of the week in all things teaching and learning. These notes will share timely teaching tips, recent pedagogical scholarship, teaching events on and off campus, and Hub blog posts. Use this form to unsubscribe.

Open Education Week may have officially wrapped up on March 6th, but the open education community deliberately extends the celebration throughout the month of March and beyond. So consider this your invitation to explore what open education has to offer your teaching.

At its core, open education is about removing barriers — financial, legal, and technical — that stand between learners and high-quality course materials. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely available and openly licensed, meaning instructors can not only use them but adapt, remix, and share them. Think open textbooks, lecture videos, interactive modules, and more.

But open education goes beyond swapping out a textbook. Open pedagogy takes things a step further by inviting students to be co-creators of knowledge rather than just consumers of it. Renewable assignments — where students produce something of genuine value beyond the classroom — are one powerful example of this in action.

Here are a few places to start exploring:

OER Commons — A searchable digital library of freely available teaching and learning materials across disciplines. You can find, adapt, and even publish resources here.

Open Textbook Library — A peer-reviewed collection of open textbooks. Faculty can also earn a small stipend for writing a review, which helps the whole community.

Open Pedagogy Notebook — Browse real examples of open pedagogy assignments from faculty across higher education, ranging from small experiments to full course redesigns.

SPARC Open Education 101 — A free four-part series covering the foundations of open education — a great starting point if you're new to the topic or want a refresher.

If you're curious about how open education might fit your courses, or want to explore whether there are open alternatives to your current required textbook consider coming to the Open Education Committee's OER Working Meeting - details are listed below. 

Wednesday, March 18th from 11am - 12 pm, virtual, Registration

GenAI has been widely available to faculty, and to our students, for more than 3 years. What has that meant for teaching and what will it mean in the future for student learning?

Now is a good time to stop and consider what's next. This major disruption to teaching and learning requires conversation among faculty to get at the heart of what matters and what needs to change.

This group of your colleagues has been meeting in our program: What’s Next for GenAI in Teaching and Learning to research and discuss the latest developments in GenAI. The final session is an opportunity for them to share their insights. Come to hear what they have learned and to ask questions you may have. 

Panelists

Maya Barak, Criminal Justice
Sofia Calzada-Orihuela, Hispanic Studies and Spanish
Anwar Ghammam, Computer and Information Science
Yi Maggie Guo, Information Systems Management
Shelly Jarenski, English Literature
Lisa Martin, Women’s and Gender Studies and Health & Human Services
Ahmet Tuncez,  Accounting and Finance

Are you interested in finding OER for your class, but intimidated by how to use and create these materials?

The Open Education Committee would like to invite you to a 60-minute working session where you will discover how to make small changes to your own materials to convert those to full OER. There will be a brief introduction to Open Education, types of CC licenses and where to publish OER followed by time to work on your own materials with committee members including librarians, teaching faculty, and instructional designers.

Bring your questions for the OE committee.

DATE: Wednesday, March 25 11:00 am - 12:00 noon

Zoom link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/94817514856

(Password not required)

The following is a special message from Jessica Riviere, instructional designer in The Hub:

We're excited to try a new kind of group for teachers this semester! 

Grateful Gatherings are monthly conversations with purpose, designed by Grateful Living and hosted by people like me (Jessica) who have completed their host training program. Each month we’ll be exploring the transformative practice of living gratefully, using the resources provided by Grateful Living. Our monthly topics will include things like: Say Yes to Joy, Welcome Imperfection, Navigate Grief, Reimagine Rest, Awaken to Awe, and Act with Courage.

You can learn more about Grateful Gatherings on their website 

Something that appealed to me about Grateful Living is that it rejects the toxic positivity that can come up with a hint of "Well you should just be grateful that..." My desire is to have a space where we can name what is hard about being in this moment, and also name things we are grateful for. As Belen's excellent blog post described, practicing gratitude is a recurring theme in stress management advice. I hope you'll consider joining me for a conversation on zoom where we follow the suggested topics from the Grateful Gatherings curriculum. 

If you know you are interested, go ahead and register for my group here with Grateful Living. (You will be giving Grateful Living, a non-profit not affiliated with the university, your email address so that you can receive the materials for each month's topic. There is no cost to participate.) 

Need to think about it? No problem. The first two meetings you can attend without fully "enrolling" to see what it's all about and whether you want to continue.  Questions? Concerns? Drop Jessica an email at rivierej@umich.edu 

Thursday April 9, 10:00 AM : "Living Gratefully is a Daily Practice."

Troy Murphy, Lara Rusch, and the rest of the planning committee are so pleased to invite your students to an afternoon of in-person, student-led conversation about topics that matter to our campus. Inspired and guided by the model of deliberation put forward by the National Issues Forums Institute, students will be hosting small group discussions on three topics that student researchers identified as concerning for other students on our campuses and our local community: mental health, campus engagement, and immigration. This is a great opportunity for students to connect with each other, share what they are learning in their coursework related to these topics, and practice the skills of civil discourse.  We are also excited to welcome Maureen Linker as the keynote speaker! 

Here are two flyers to share with your students. If your students have the chance to earn extra credit in your classes, consider this as one opportunity where they are practicing communication skills and critical thinking.

We recognize that accessibility checker tools can sometimes behave unpredictably. To help reduce instructor anxiety and concerns, we are committed to keep communication transparent regarding the digital accessibility policy and any known Yuja Panorama issues.

If YuJa Panorama flags an issue incorrectly or does not process a file as expected, please first try using the “Reprocess Course” option in the Reports section of the side navigation bar. If the issue persists, please contact the Office of Digital Education for further assistance at umdearborn-de-accessibility@umich.edu. 

Questions or comments? Contact Autumm Caines acaines@umich.edu for comments or questions about this newsletter

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