19 Examples of Open Practice
RMIT University
The RMIT University Library through its Open Textbook Initiative [1] has created the ‘textbook hero’. The idea emulates several American universities where academic staff are highlighted for adopting or creating an open textbook and have demonstrated impact on student learning. Professor James Harland is RMIT’s first textbook hero for replacing his course’s prescribed textbook with an OER textbook. There have been numerous others who have adopted an OER textbook at RMIT University in their teaching practice and over the course of several years have cumulatively saved student’s over $250,000.
Access the RMIT Inclusive teaching website[2] for educators for guidance and resources to effectively integrate an inclusive teaching approach into your practice. The inclusive teaching guide provides a framework from which to plan and reflect on your practice. It includes pedagogical approaches that support the notion of inclusive practices, principles and strategies for inclusive teaching and resources from the inclusive conversation series. [3]
Access the Library guide on inclusive teaching[4] for practical resources to support educators to implement inclusive teaching approaches and links to other materials.
Australian and international universities
For more inspiration, have a look at what is happening elsewhere in Australian and international institutions.
Examples
Charles Darwin University: Cultural Knowledges and Work Integrated Learning: Student Authored Works
Dr Johanna Funk of Charles Darwin University delivers a Cultural Capability subject. In 2020, Dr Funk worked with students to openly publish four assessed case studies.[5] The resource continues to be iteratively compiled with case studies from first- and second-year students from the course taught by the College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society. The case studies introduce Indigenous narratives to raise cultural awareness and intelligence.
University of Southern Queensland: Academic Success – Australian edition.
University of Southern Queensland has remixed an original work created by OpenStax entitled College Success[6] ensuring that it reflects an Australian student experience with especially reworded content. It focuses on areas such as English language foundations, working with information, and writing assignments. Academic Success Australian Edition.[7]
Every chapter throughout the book concludes with a summary of key points as a quick reminder of what you have learnt. In addition, there are short quotes from past and current students from diverse backgrounds, reflecting on their personal experiences at university.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada: Business Writing for Everyone
This is a remixed work by Kwantlen Polytechnic University. This work is based on original content and adaptations from other open textbooks. The adaptation statement at the beginning of the text indicates the origins of each chapter. This book reflects Canadian content and language. It also changes names within the text to reflect the classroom composition, intentionally uses gender-neutral language, and includes narratives connected to topics within the text that depict First Nations representation and recognition.[8]
Other examples:
Refer to the Travis Wall article [9]on student-lead OER for further examples.
- RMIT University Library. (2018). Open Textbook Initiative. https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/oer/ CC BY 4.0 ↵
- RMIT University. (2021) Inclusive Teaching https://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/teaching-supporting-students/teaching-at-rmit/program-design-and-delivery/teaching-guides/inclusive-teaching ↵
- RMIT University. (2021) Inclusive Teaching https://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/teaching-supporting-students/teaching-at-rmit/program-design-and-delivery/teaching-guides/inclusive-teaching ↵
- RMIT University Library. (2021) Inclusive Teaching Resources. https://rmit.libguides.com/inclusive_teaching_practice ↵
- Charles Darwin University. Cultural Knowledges and Work Integrated Learning: Student Authored Works. Charles Darwin University. https://cduebooks.pressbooks.pub/cuc107/ CC-BY-NC-ND ↵
- Baldwin, A. (2020). College Success. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/college-success CC BY 4.0 ↵
- Bartlett, C. Cawthray, T. Clark, L. Derrington, K. Devi, A. Frederiks, A. Hargreaves, W. Howarth, D. Irvine, S. Lovric, K. McGregor, R. Pickstone, L. Retallick, B. Sahay, A. Thangavelu, A. & Tweedale R. (2021). Academic Success https://usq.pressbooks.pub/academicsuccess/ CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ↵
- Cruthers, A. (2020). Business writing for everyone. Kwantlen Polytechnic University. https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/businesswriting/ CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ↵
- Pressbooks. (2022). Student-led OER to Inspire and Engage Your Class. https://pressbooks.com/open-education/student-led-oer-to-inspire-and-engage-your-class/ ↵
An openly licensed and free to access textbook; an OER meant to be used as a textbook for a course. ("The OER Starter Kit " by Abbey Elder is licensed under CC BY 4.0)
