What is Open Pedagogy?
Accessible pdf of this toolkit
Open pedagogy can be surprisingly difficult to define. Across the literature, scholars have used the term to describe a wide range of educational practices, including the use of open educational resources (OER), student-created learning materials, public scholarship, collaborative knowledge creation, learner agency, community engagement, and educational justice.
Rather than coalescing around a single rigid definition, it is often more useful to think of open pedagogy as a multidimensional concept. Different projects, assignments, and teaching approaches may emphasize different forms of openness. One instructor may focus on reducing textbook costs through OER. Another may invite students to create resources for future learners. Others may emphasize collaboration, student voice, public engagement, or shared decision-making.
Rather than just asking whether a practice is or is not open pedagogy, we might ask: How is openness being enacted in this learning experience?
Several dimensions of openness appear repeatedly across the literature on OER, Open Educational Practices (OEP), and open pedagogy. This emerged from my literature review and represents one possible way to synthesize these trends.
|
Dimension |
Central Question |
Example |
|
Access |
Who can participate? |
Replacing a costly textbook with OER so all students have access to course materials from the first day of class. |
|
Permissions |
What can participants legally and technically do? |
Students revise, remix, or contribute to openly licensed materials. |
|
Participation |
How do learners contribute and collaborate? |
Students create a shared timeline, study guide, or other learning resource. |
|
Power |
Who shapes learning and whose knowledge counts? |
Students help determine project topics, contribute diverse perspectives, or participate in course decisions. |
|
Legibility |
Can participants understand and influence the systems they inhabit? |
Students examine how knowledge is created, organized, validated, and shared within a discipline. |
This toolkit produced June 2026 by CTE Assistant Director Phil Smith in collaboration with generative AI tools including ChatGPT and Claude.