JMU Instructional Designers Contribute to Award-Winning Book

Posted December 10, 2025 in Instructional Design News, JMU Libraries News, Open Education News

image of the book, Pedagogy Opened: Innovative Theory and Practice

Nicole Wilson and Elaine Kaye, instructional designers in JMU Libraries, recently received international recognition for their work. They co-authored a chapter in a book that has earned an award for excellence in open education.

The book, Pedagogy Opened: Innovative Theory and Practice, received an Open Education Award for Excellence in the “Open Practices” category from Open Education Global, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing open education worldwide.

The chapter Elaine and Nicole co-authored, “Creating Learning Spaces for Social Justice Projects: Applying the Values of Critical Digital Pedagogy and Open Pedagogy,” explains how “a values-based framework was applied to various layers of open pedagogy work, such as creating space for interdisciplinary faculty, staff, and student teams; supporting faculty decisions for teaching and learning; and supporting student engagement in open pedagogy.” The chapter also includes contributions from JMU faculty and staff in JMU’s College of Arts and Letters, College of Education, Libraries—as well as JMU students. These contributors provided original writing and reflection about their open pedagogy work.

According to the person who nominated the book for the award, this volume is an “openly licensed, peer reviewed collection that brings together educators, practitioners, and students to explore the philosophies and applications of open pedagogy in contemporary education.” It presents “seven thought-provoking discussions of research, theory, and practice in and around open pedagogy, each contributing a different set of ideas to spark further conversations. The contributing authors offer concrete, adaptable strategies for teaching that prioritize student agency and community impact.”

Read the book online: Pedagogy Opened: Innovative Theory and Practice

Learn more about Open Education at JMU.

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