New Resource: Open Education Workbook

OEGlobal Plaza OEGlobal Spotlight
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Hello! I want to share with y’all a resource that we have just published.

A workbook designed for faculty who are uncertain, overwhelmed, or brand new to open education

We know the challenge: Getting faculty to understand what “open education” actually means and why it’s relevant to their teaching, before they dismiss it as another trend or “one more thing.”

We’ve created a resource specifically designed to bridge that gap.

The Open Education Workbook: A Journey Through Accessible, Effective, and Equitable Teaching is a guide designed for faculty who are brand new to open education. It’s self-directed, low-commitment, and modular—faculty can work through it independently, focus only on topics that resonate, and explore at their own pace.

The workbook addresses the real barriers we see faculty facing:

  • “I don’t have time to learn something completely new”

  • “This won’t work in my discipline”

  • “My students aren’t ready for collaborative approaches”

  • “Open sounds nice in theory but what about quality/rigour/my specific case?”

Our approach with this workbook:

  • Starts with WHY — Grounds open education in today’s urgent challenges (affordability crisis, post-pandemic engagement, AI, equity) rather than idealistic principles

  • Reflection-based, not prescriptive — Faculty develop their own approach through structured activities, not following templates

  • Addresses authentic concerns — Each section includes “Common Concerns and Clarifications”

  • Low-barrier entry points — Modular design lets faculty start with what resonates or where they are currently at in their journey

  • Canadian context — Data, examples, and institutional realities relevant to Canadian higher education (but adaptable)

Available formats:

The workbook is freely accessible via Pressbooks and can be exported in multiple formats:

  • PDF (for print or digital distribution)

  • EPUB

  • Common Cartridge (with web links or LTI links for LMS integration)

For institutions that use PebblePad, we have also developed reflective workbooks that integrate the content into PebblePad’s portfolio environment, allowing faculty to complete reflection activities and track their professional development journey within the platform. Learn more about the PebblePad version and how we’ve integrated the ATLAS workspace application: About This Workbook

How you might use this:

  • Recommend to individual faculty exploring OE for the first time

  • Anchor for faculty learning communities

  • Framework for institutional PD programming

  • Adapt sections for your specific context/discipline

  • Use reflection prompts in one-on-one consultations

The structure:

  • Section 1: Open Education Foundations (accessibility, effectiveness, equity)

  • Section 2: Open Educational Resources (finding, evaluating, adapting)

  • Section 3: Open Pedagogy (student agency, renewable assignments, implementation)

  • Appendix: Open Scholarship (currently just open access, more topics will be added)

Each section includes learning objectives, reflective activities, practical strategies, and competency checks.

We welcome your feedback, suggestions, and stories of how you’re using or adapting this resource for your community.

Reach out if you have questions or want to connect!

3 Likes
Open Education Workbook from KPU (New OER!)
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This looks quite valuable Amanda! As I see this is part of a series of such workbooks, how has the reception or use of these been at KPU? I also note the use of the AI Declaration Statement you have developed and shared already here on OEG Connect. I am still hoping we can arm twist you into a demo or overview of this for Open Education Week

This workbook the kind of thing we are asking others share in the weeks leading up to, during and even after Open Education Week this year as sharing open assets– we do not care where you share (we provide 3 suggestions to start) as long as you highlight either a new OER or one that you are using currently/recently worth noting for others.

And you have done all the work in the way we asked, so I will just add a link back here from the OEWeek share area.

As a demo I also added it to OER Commons to our OEWeek26 curated collection - we hope others make use of this route of sharing open assets. This is a call to share any interesting OER/open assets, your own or someone elses!

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@cogdog We just published it, so no faculty uptake yet. We’re planning some serious promotion in Feb to our faculty on this and some other workbooks that are also being published.

Happy to present during Open Education Week! We are going to be giving a lightning talk during the Open Education Talks on Mar 11, but I’m happy to speak more if you’re planning an event.

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Thanks Amanda. I took the liberty of adding the workbook to the OEWeek26 collection at OER Commons (not the association with the collection).

That’s wonderful you are sharing it for the Open Education Talks. I do have to limit my tendency to run too many events! If anything, I would be been to see some kind of hands on practice session with your AI Declaration Statement, maybe something we can aim for more as a workshop than presentation towards the end of March?

I’d like to think there is interest, but there of course are so many things happening everywhere. Anyone interested in this kind of activity? Please see what Amanda has shared on what I think is a compelling concept:

Speak up if this interests you!