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Open Pedagogy

Are you a JMU faculty member interested in collaborating with students as co-creators of educational and scholarly materials? Open pedagogy invites students to participate in authentic, meaningful work that contributes to the world beyond the classroom.

Learn more about open pedagogical approaches and how JMU Libraries can support your teaching on this page. 

What is Open Pedagogy?

“Open pedagogy is a set of teaching practices built on the foundation of the open education community’s shared values, including but not limited to student agency, sharing, diversity and inclusion, peer learning, renewable assignments, co-creation/collaboration, and active/experiential learning. Though there is a lack of consensus around the definition of open pedagogy, it most often refers to student involvement in the development of course content in the form of renewable assignments or the creation or adaptation of open educational resources (OER). The practice of open pedagogy may result in or overlap with OER-enabled pedagogy and open educational practices.” (Casey et al 2022)

Our Approach to Open Pedagogy

As you consider incorporating open pedagogy into your teaching, we encourage you to begin by exploring the values for open pedagogy (Jhangiani, 2019). Reflecting on these values can help you develop a values-based framework for your teaching and assignments that you can share with your students as part of the learning experience.

When you work with JMU Libraries to develop an open pedagogy project, we will often refer to these values to guide our conversations and decision making.

The open education movement includes a wide range of practices, organizations, and ways of sharing information. Open pedagogy is one accessible entry point to the open education movement for faculty who are interested in evolving their teaching practices. Many instructors discover that assignments they already use can become open pedagogy projects with thoughtful revisions and support from JMU Libraries.

While many open pedagogy projects involve students creating or adapting textbooks, there are other ways to engage students as collaborators in the creation of meaningful, publicly valuable work. Students might create podcasts, digital exhibits, research resources, instructional materials, or other openly shared projects that benefit audiences beyond the course.

A central principle of open pedagogy is student agency. At JMU Libraries, we seek to support faculty in designing learning experiences that position students as active contributors and co-creators of knowledge.

Examples of Open Pedagogy Projects

To see examples in practice, explore projects from institutions across higher education through the Open Pedagogy Portal, which features a wide variety of student-created work and assignment ideas.

Get Started

Whether you’re exploring open pedagogy for the first time or refining an existing assignment, JMU Libraries is here to help. You can:

Schedule a Consultation 

Request a consultation with an instructional designer to discuss how you might transform an existing assignment—or design a new one—using open pedagogical approaches.

Partner with Your Liaison Librarian 

Open pedagogy frequently intersects with information literacy. If your project includes research, information creation, or student publishing, your liaison librarian can collaborate with you to develop instruction and learning activities that support your goals.

Review Existing Resources

Explore these resources to continue learning about open pedagogy: