2024 Open Education Conference

My poster will demonstrate an assignment given to the students in my course titled “Phenomenon of Kpop and How It Is Changing the World”. The main assignment was writing fanfiction, to do that first - we read about how fanfiction, specifically slash fanfiction (queer fanfiction) is a way for women to challenge heteronormativity, explore their desires and show their creative side. Next, we learned about the main aspects of fanfiction and held a workshop on writing fanfiction. After the workshop, students were divided into groups and had to peer review each other’s fanfictions. And finally students had to share their experiences of writing and reading each other’s fanfictions. This exercise in itself is already a feminist act, as Virginia Wolf once said in one of her most famous essays “A Room of One’s Own” if only women had more access to education and maybe just a separate place to write, there would have been so many more great writers.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Learn new ways of engaging students
• Learn about the experiences from the Central Asian region in teaching
• How your classroom can be a place for creative writing and emancipating women
• How to make your assignments feminist
• Learn at least one subculture that is female dominated and provides girls with resources for achieving their subjectivity

In this session we share the results from a research study that reflects on the lived experiences of young refugees located in Pakistan and Rwanda when interacting with OpenEd during and following displacement. We offer a decolonial commentary on issues related to the design and development of OpenEd for refugees, noting some of the prevalent historical trends. We are guided by critical questions such as: Who designs the products? Where are they designed? How are they designed? And, which power dynamics are at play during the design process? From this, we draw on qualitative data where we explore young refugees’ experiences. We present results of a creative element which invited research participants to imagine what a liberatory OpenEd practice would look like. We recommend and open a discussion around a set of justice-centred design principles for developers of OpenEd in refugee contexts.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Critically engage with (add to, critique and analyse) a set of justice-centered design principles for OpenEd, especially in refugee contexts.
• Reflect on one's own work in OpenEd and how it adheres to justice-centered design principles.
• Identify elements of coloniality in OpenEd designs for refugees.

At MSU, we have been developing OER textbooks such as Basic Hindi, Basic Urdu, Basic Persian, Basic Khmer, and Basic Vietnamese. After the success of these OER textbooks, we proposed a project to the IRS at the U.S. Department of Education. Our project received funding, and the objectives of this project are to develop, publish, and disseminate specialized instruction materials in the form of OER language textbooks. The proposed activities include: (i) developing OER content for multiple languages and levels textbooks for Asian LCTLs over a three-year period, for a total of 12 volumes.; (ii) convening workshops for groups of OER textbook authors to plan and initiate textbook creation; and (iii) publishing and promoting OER textbooks development in collaboration with MSU language faculty members affiliated with COTSEAL, SALTA, SEALC, SASLI, and SEASSI. These textbooks also undergo copy editing and accessibility tests to ensure these OER books follow all the accessibility guidelines.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Learn about developing LCTL OER materials and pedagogical design behind it.
• Use the pressbook and H5P tools to develop interactive and digitally active teaching and learning materials for LCTLs.

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, It is therefore “about time” we transformed legal education to ensure the next generation of lawyers is provided training to be ‘climate conscious’ legal practitioners. Climate conscious pedagogy will require challenging conventional boundaries and ways of doing things. The development of open educational resources is crucial for equipping students to navigate a fast-paced and rapidly changing legal environment. Drawing on a survey of subject coordinators and teachers from across all Australian law schools, this presentation will shine a light on the extent to which climate change is currently being incorporated into the teaching of both compulsory law subjects and electives. The presentation will identify opportunities for developing responsive and open-access pedagogical materials and teaching practices to prepare students for their professional lives in light of the global challenge of climate change.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Understand the current barriers to and opportunities for open-access legal education
• Appreciate of the intersection between open-access legal education and climate justice
• Articulate the role of responsive and accessible pedagogical materials and teaching practices in preparing students for their professional lives in light of the global challenge of climate change