Authors: Ellis Schriefer, Farah Bazzi, Nelson Shuchmacher, Dave Dillon
Institutions: Stanford University, Grossmont College
Country: United States
Topic: Global Collaboration, Strategies, & Policies in Open Education
Sector: Higher Education
UNESCO Area of Focus: Inclusive OER
Session Format: Presentation
Abstract
Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is a Digital Humanities initiative sponsored by the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) at Stanford University. Launched in March 2020 by three doctoral students, it is an open, online historical archive that documents how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the lives of people from all walks of life around the globe. With the engagement of a diverse group of undergraduate students, the team created an archive that houses personal written accounts in a wide range of languages from various countries (currently, the submission form is offered in 13 languages). The website is designed as an open education resource for students, educators, governments, organizations, and businesses to promote cultural solidarity and global interconnectedness. Public participation is at the core of this project; the personal stories are published voluntarily and anonymously to protect the contributors’ privacy and encourage greater freedom of expression. Therefore, Life in Quarantine is a platform that crowdsources materials from the public that educators then use to produce pedagogical content. The broad scope of this project built on international collaboration permits educators to enrich their curriculum to more effectively illustrate the diversity of global experience in this historic moment. As Lindsey Gumb, a leading OER advocate, and many others have highlighted, the pandemic has further intensified an already existent, critical problem concerning students’ access to educational resources. This project recognizes these existent obstacles to student learning during this pandemic and has therefore paired up with the OER textbook, Blueprint for Success in College and Career, which won an OE Global award in 2019. This textbook now features a selection of stories from Life in Quarantine and this material will be available to over 20 higher education institutions and thousands of students across the United States and Canada each year. This partnership paves the way for further collaboration opportunities between Digital Humanities initiatives and the OER community.Keywords
Global Archive, Pandemic, Digital Humanities, Collaboration, Pedagogy, OER Textbook
