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Open Day

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Open Day Logo
Open Day Logo

At Cambrian College, we decided to “open up” the conversation about Open Education by hosting a full-day event to introduce various stakeholders to the what, why, and how of Open culture. Our goal was to address common misconceptions, demonstrate possibilities, and share resources to help our faculty move into the Open. We hosted a variety of talks and workshops, including presentations from Creative Commons and eCampus Ontario representatives. Here you will find the elements that made this event a success, lessons learned, and tips on how to plan an event to start the Open conversation at your institution. You’ll find our planning documents, schedule, and other openly licensed materials for you to use at your own event.

Our Resources are Open

All of the resources provided below are available to you through Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.5 CA unless otherwise indicated (for example: some of the presentations have separate CC licenses).

To use these materials, please make a copy in your own Google Drive or download them in your preferred format before editing.

Photos & Tweets from Open Day

Contents

Open Day Invitation
Open Day Invitation

Why Open Day?

  • Faculty were expressing interest in the topic
  • Uncertainty existed around what was possible
  • A core group of advocates for Open Education formed
  • Solutions were needed for students who were not purchasing books
  • Students and student council were looking for solutions
  • Library reserve usage remains high

We were responding to the needs of faculty. Laura’s and Jess’ fellowship with eCampus Ontario empowered us to respond effectively.

Planning Open Day

  • Started by identifying our stakeholders and determined what information would be valuable for each stakeholder group
  • Discussed potential sessions that would be in alignment with the desired outcomes and which presenters and stakeholder groups would be appropriate to have in attendance
  • Reached out to guest speakers and nailed down dates
  • Planned session flow to purposefully scaffold the information being presented

Open Day Planning Document

Communications & Logistics

Pre-Open Day Communications

Day-Of Communications

Post-Open Day Communications

Feedback & Reflections

9

Sessions

166

Attendees

Feedback

We gathered feedback from our participants in three ways: informal discussions, an online survey and a paper-based survey. The paper survey worked best!

Here were some comments we received from participants:

I definitely think Open Education would be beneficial to my students. As an English professor, I know that my students would benefit from more reading and writing, but they don’t always have the means to access these materials. Demonstrating ways for students and educators to gain access to these resources would provide us with an ability to assist in their learning.

The facts of how many students do not buy the textbooks for their courses because they can’t afford them was very eye-opening

The personal stories the presenters gave demonstrated the concept of how we as educators can assist in our own students’ learning process in a more beneficial way and reminded us that we have the ability to make a difference.

I felt most engaged in the session when the presenters were discussing the various uses of Open Education and how it can benefit the students. I found I could relate well to the experiences of purchasing textbooks and rarely using them and I remember how expensive they were!

Intimidated a bit by the technology

Learned about references, examples and resources

Exciting to hear about new resources and the potential to quickly build current content

Learned the definition of Open Education

Lessons Learned

What went well:

  • Involvement of multiple key stakeholders in the planning process
  • Marketing and communications planning started early
  • Having a kick-off film screening and a post-session resource grab
  • Careful consideration of what and when to record (Mythbusting was not recorded)
  • Attendance was high
  • Feedback was sought in multiple ways
  • Virtual options to connect synchronously and asynchronously

If we were to hold another Open Day in the future, we would:

  • Provide breaks between sessions and spread them out over more days. An Open Week or two-day event may work better than one Open Day.
  • Maintain a flexible style where participants are encouraged to move freely in and out of sessions
  • Coordinate better session timing by working collaboratively with other departments
  • Design a social media / virtual experience that integrates with on-site participation (ex: live Tweet chat)
  • Include a hashtag in the up-front planning process
  • Speed up the processing of video recordings to post online
  • Add an incentive for providing feedback (ex: free book, Tim Horton’s gift card) 

Our Next Steps

  • Facilitating biweekly “Open discussions” with a small group
  • Responding to drop-in requests for support  
  • Planning resource grabs at key times in the semester
  • Advocating for clarity and support
Drawing: "How Can We Open Up?" by Sarah Wendorf from an open discussion with faculty and staff
Drawing: "How Can We Open Up?" by Sarah Wendorf from an open discussion with faculty and staff

Presentations

View the presentation recordings on our Open Resources page

Jessica O'Reilly
Instructional Developer

 

(705) 566-8101 x 6395

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Laura Killam
Innovation Champion

 

(705) 566-8101 x 6252

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Sarah Wendorf
Instructional Designer

 

(705) 566-8101 x 7923

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Marnie Seal
Faculty Librarian

 

(705) 566-8101 x 7651

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