Project Design Template

Here is the link to make a copy of the Project Design Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PMHsNq-kwYqoqfNtejJSIrP4p6SyRCYAqHneBaTwI58/edit?usp=sharing

Directions for completing the Project Design Template

For each phase of the program, you will work through the iterative process of developing your open pedagogy project or assignment. Under the sub-headings, we have provided content for you to fill in and prompts to keep you moving forward. You can format those sections in any way that makes sense for you as long as your content responds to the provided prompts.

Phase 1, Session 3: Identifying Needs for Designing Open Projects

Course context:

1. Course title, level, modality, and schedule
2. Course learning outcomes (eg. What will the students be able to know, do, or value at the end of the course?)
3. What’s the role of open? (This is meant to  be broad; open content to open pedagogical practices)
4. How do you perceive the connection between the content, design, and experience of the course with social justice?

Learner Analysis:

1. Who are the learners? What experiences and characteristics support their engagement and/or challenge their learning during the course?
2. What experience, if any do they have with open resources and open pedagogy? How will you determine this?
3. Do students see themselves as content creators? Why or why not? Has this been discussed and how will you approach this? (consider the resources around information literacy and the ACRL framework here as you are articulating how students may see themselves).

Pedagogical Analysis:

1. How are you defining and sharing your perspective about your role in the classroom/course?
2. How will you articulate the purpose of open in your course? Why now? What’s the purpose? How does this purpose of “open” align with and support the course outcomes?
3. When and how do you communicate your teaching philosophy with students (eg. syllabus statements, language in assignment descriptions, conversations, and other design decisions).
4. How are you articulating the connection between the content, design, and experience of the course with social justice?

Curriculum & Assessment Analysis:

1. What kinds of sources are included in your course? What voices are represented and what voices are missing?
2. What are the assessments used in your course to evidence student learning? Are the assessments scaffolded toward the achievement of the student learning outcomes?
3. What changes are you considering in your curriculum and assessments to make space for an open pedagogy project/assignment?

Faculty Analysis:

1. Based on your own identity and experiences what do you need as a teacher to be able to implement an open project in the course?
2. What will success look and feel like for you at the end of this course? What will success look like and feel like for your students at the end of this course?

Program Goal:

After working through your analysis section, what are you identifying as your goal for the rest of this Fellowship and what are the steps to get there?

Phase 2: Designing open projects within your course context

Course Learning Objectives (CLOs):

[numbered list of objectives here]

Open Project/Assignment(s) Title:

Open Project/Assignment Learning Objectives:

[numbered list of objectives here; refer to Bloom’s taxonomy for measurable verbs]

Using units to organize and scaffold your project:

Once you have a sense of the project/assignment (or assignments) that you are developing, consider your course context and structure. One way to support the scaffolding process for your project/assignments is to think through the way we organize and chunk our courses. When we work with faculty, one suggestion for organizing content and assignments is to think about larger units and how these can build on each other to realize the course learning outcomes. We do want to note that this isn’t the only way to organize a course, and you are fully encouraged to make the table and content below useful for you and your design process. Just be sure to include what you do in this document so we can easily offer feedback.

The units would be the “larger chunks” of content that are evidenced through various assessments throughout the course (there’s no right or wrong number of units, that is determined by course needs analysis content). Unit objectives can be created by you to begin breaking down how learning and achievement of course objectives is scaffolded through the course. These objectives are assessed by key assessment activities in the course (often your more summative assessments or the formative assessments that lead up to the summative assessment).

Crafting your pitch for the Open project/assignment

Now that you have begun to solidify the learning objectives, purpose, and context for the project/assignment, start brainstorming or drafting how you will introduce this work to your students. This could be a syllabus statement, or letter to your students, or a script for lecture content. For now, it’s just a brainstorm!

Phase 2, Session 6 | Scaffolding the Open Project

Through the rest of Phase 2, you will be creating a first draft of your scaffolded project/assignment. In the table below we have provided an italicized example for one deliverable of process within a semester-long open pedagogy assignment. In our example, the students are creating an open textbook, and each group is responsible for one chapter.

As you plan for the process of the deliverable (column 4), consider the following questions:

• Is this individual work or group work?
• Will there be peer feedback or faculty feedback?
• How is feedback built into the timeline?
• Will there be class time set aside for working on the project?)

Identifying next steps

1. Now that you are seeing the whole project, go back to your units or other course outlines and identify the curricular materials, and assessments of pedagogical strategies that may need to change, evolve, or be added to the course to make room for this project.
2. What tools or platforms are you considering? How can these tools support the social justice and open pedagogy values of the project?