Tool: How OERs Support Anti-Racist Pedagogy & Resources at KPU
This resource explains how Open Educational Resources (OERs) can support anti-racism and provides links to KPU resources on how to adopt or create OERs.
Reflective Pause
Reflect on your current experiences as it relates to this topic.
Consider what you are looking forward to learning more of, or hope to be able to do more of, as you work towards developing anti-racist practices.
Goals
- Understand how OERs can support anti-racism and anti-oppressive teaching practices.
- Building awareness around Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s sources of additional tools to adopt, adapt and create OERs.
Description
Open Educational Resources, or OERs, are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing, as well as for research purposes. They encompass a variety of formats, including textbooks, curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video, and animation. The goal of OERs is to increase access to education and promote knowledge sharing.
Context & Background
OERs can support anti-racism, decolonialization, and inclusion in many aspects, including:
- Reducing Economic Inequity:
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- OERs provide cost-free materials for learners, making resources affordable and more accessible. As OERs exist in a variety of formats, instructors and students can find alternatives to more costly materials or those blocked behind a paywall
- Many KPU learners do not purchase textbooks due to cost, and racialized students are among those affected by this affordability barrier. Learn more about the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) initiative.
- Promoting Social Justice and Representation:
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- OERs allow the adoption and customization of materials to suit learners. These materials can often be drawn from a large pool of resources that include works by racialized authors. As such, learners can see themselves represented in the material in various ways such as in images, case studies, and geographical contexts, among others
- It is more than just being “aware” of racism, it is actively and intentionally working to support anti-racist practices. For example, students can develop confidence in themselves and engage in collaborative and reciprocal learning environments that privilege all perspectives
- This provides a great advantage over traditional published materials that tend to have a generalized, colonized, and western representation. Learn more about Open Licensing (Creative Commons) here!
- Empowering Co-Creation of Knowledge:
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- OERs can empower all learners to be creators, not just consumers of educational materials. This helps learners to feel more agency in their learning and see themselves reflected in their own work. The instructor also has greater agency in selecting or co-selecting course learning materials that are more representative of a diverse student population
- Using OERs also shifts the power dynamic when the instructor becomes a collaborator/facilitator with the students, which in turn promotes greater equity in the classroom
A cautionary note: In our selection and application of OERs, we should be mindful to check for authors’ bias and ensure the use of representative reading lists and resources (including those produced by members of racialized, underrepresented groups) to avoid reproducing racism and coloniality during learning. Related, the intention is not to “check boxes” for diversity, but rather to authentically incorporate perspectives, experiences, and materials into the course and learning environments that promotes a plurality of ways of learning and understanding – especially from authors that belong to groups who have been historically, and currently, marginalized and oppressed.
Considerations for Implementation
How do I choose OERs for my classroom?
Check out the OER Libguide: Open Educational Resources
KPU Library: OPUS – KPU’s Open Publishing Suite. Visit this page for more information on the services and tools available through KPU’s library for assistance for both faculty and students with Pressbooks, publishing, and OERs.
Want more information on Open Education, Open Pedagogy, and OERs at KPU? See the Engaging in Open Education Practices WordPress site, and/or email the Open Education Strategist, Amanda Grey: open@kpu.ca
Reflective Action Point
Reflect on your learning as you approach the end of this tool.
- What changes to your practice do you hope to implement?
- How can this tool support your anti-racist practice?
Instructor Resources
TOOL: From Detecting an Author’s Bias to Writing Bias Free
Tech Tool: https://www.smartie.dev/ – Strategic Module Assistant for Rubrics, Tasks, and Inclusive Education (SMARTIE) – help educators create course components with a strong emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism. It offers features like generating EDIA-aware learning activities, recommending rubric redesigns, and diversifying course readings. These elements aim to support underrepresented and marginalized groups, fostering an inclusive and equitable educational environment.
OER Pressbook: Designing Learning Experiences for Inclusivity and Diversity: Advice for Learning Designers – this textbook serves as a thorough guide for postgraduate students on creating accessible, equitable, and inclusive learning experiences. It offers advice, principles, and practical strategies to help learning designers foster an environment that celebrates diversity and promotes equitable learning outcomes.
OER Pressbook: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers – this practical guide for student fact-checkers enhances generic information literacy with specific web-based techniques to quickly find the truth online. It covers using date filters to trace viral content, assessing scientific journal reputations, verifying tweets, finding deleted pages, identifying website sponsors, and matching weather in viral videos. It also teaches checking Wikipedia for vandalism, searching printed books for quotes, parsing URLs, and avoiding confirmation bias in searches. In essence, it provides web literacy skills to navigate the unique challenges of online truth-seeking.
OER Pressbook: Opening Eyes onto Inclusion and Diversity – this open textbook aims to improve inclusive practices in education and society, addressing the need for educators to better recognize and appreciate diversity. Featuring embedded audio-visual components, it enhances the reader’s experience by exploring key concepts of inclusion and diversity. Readers are prompted to reflect on culture, special learning needs, educational contexts, and gender diversity. The main goal is to help readers understand and apply these concepts in their own contexts.
OER Pressbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning – this open textbook covers a wide range of content on UDL, including a practical guide to understanding the concept and its components, strategies for blended and online learning, and assessment design with perspectives and examples that are informed by UDL.
Website: Finding and Using OERS
OER Pressbook: Understand. Dismantle. Act: A Snapshot of Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Resources Within BC’s Post-Secondary System – This environmental scan offers an overview of resources, tools, and training available at 25 BC post-secondary institutions and 4 BC-based organizations focused on social justice, equity, anti-racism, and anti-hate work. It encourages individuals to use these resources to start or deepen their journey in anti-racism and anti-hate efforts, recognizing it as an ongoing process of learning and unlearning. The scan includes a framework and reflective questions to help individuals move from awareness to intentional action, driving meaningful and systemic change in their roles, departments, and institutions.
References
- Anderson, N. (2022). Enhancing inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) in open educational resources (OER). University of Southern Queensland. https://opentextbooks.uregina.ca/diversityandinclusionforoer/
- Berdahl, L. & Ross, H. (2023, July 17). Why you should start using open educational resources in your teaching. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/the-skills-agenda/be-open-to-using-open-educational-resources-in-your-teaching/
- Elder, A. (2019). Centering Diversity and Inclusion. In The OER Starter Kit. Iowa State University Digital Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31274/isudp.7
Author Information
Written By: Dawn Witherspoon (Manager, Program Development), Rebecca Bock-Freeman (Manager, Academic Strategy)
Review and Edited By: Benjamin Denga (Anti-Racism Advisor, Reimagine Higher Education)
Adapted for the KPU context by: Daniel Benzimra (Education Strategist, Teaching & Learning Commons) and Dr. Nishan Perera (Director, Learning Technologies and Educational Development)
OEIC Reviewed by: Dr. Asma Sayed (Vice President, Equity and Inclusive Communities, Office of Equity & Inclusive Communities)
