1 of 18

Planting Seeds to Cultivate Open Advocates, Scholars, and Creators

NextGen Open

2 of 18

who are we?

3 of 18

34,000 STUDENTS

STEM FOCUS

NC STATE

4 of 18

NCSU LIBRARIES

5 of 18

Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center

6 of 18

Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center

Publishing & Copyright

7 of 18

Makerspace

LD

The NCSU makerspace program operates across both Hunt and Hill Libraries.
And is organized around two interrelated goals

Providing broad and open access to making tools and methods to all of NC State, and
Supporting the development of new literacies--particularly in areas like technology, critical thinking, and problem solving.

We do this through

informal learning activities like our tinkering table,
hands-on workshops
Collaborations with course instructors, where we develop making-based assignments and lead class sessions in the space
Events organized with and for campus groups

What’s interesting about our space is that it is the only makerspace on campus that the entire NC State community can access.

You don’t have to be part of a particular program, or be part of a particular lab, to have access to tools like 3D printers and scanners, laser cutters, and electronics kits.
As a central service the Library can provide access to everyone. Just like we provide access to books, to journals, to other kinds of high-tech tools, we can provide access to making tools.

As a result we we’ve been able to build a really strong community of practice organized around making. In the two years we’ve been open...

2000 registered users
Collaborated with 30 courses and helped around 1000 students develop making-based assignments
Hosted around 20 public talks and hands-on workshops with high-profile women in making and STEM through our Making Space Series

We are able to reach a lot of people and get really great open hardware and open software tools into their hands, but we weren't doing a lot to contextualize what open means and how it is integral to this kind of work.

8 of 18

Our Collaboration

LD

What spurred the collaboration we established between the Makerspace and the Center for Copyright and Digital Scholarship was Open Access Week, and in particular the theme of “open in action.”

The CDSC was interested in growing the open community on campus; it was hard to reach undergraduate students and other folks who aren’t actively seeking out help with publishing and license
In the Makerspace we had a thriving community of people--in particular undergraduates--who are using open tools, but who didn’t actively engage with the concepts and practices of open
And we saw an opportunity to work together to bring this “open in action” idea to life by embedding open into makerspace workshops, and developing stealth ways of advocating for open practices and cultures in ways that intersect with the motivations, goals, and interests of our students.

9 of 18

The Power of Open

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/open3d

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/openarduino

LD

So we created “The Power of Open” workshop series. We had two workshops one covered 3D printing workshop and the other focused on Arduino. Each workshop had a hands-on component focused on the tools, and a section that discussed open hardware, software, and licensing in the context of those specific tools.

For the 3D printing workshop we discussed

how to find, edit and create 3D models
how to print models on our Lulzbot printers
how to search for 3D models on Thingiverse that were licensed in ways to allow for remixing and reuse
how share files you create to Thingiverse using the appropriate license, and
what it means to use an open hardware printer.

For the Arduino workshop we

provided an intro to coding the Arduino and discussed how to build circuits
we discussed Arduino as open hardware and the fact that many Arduino boards exist because people have been able to remix and reuse design schematics,
we talked about arduino being run on open software and the power of learning one language to code many boards
We also showed everyone the huge sharing community that has coalesced around Arduino and discussed the value of having so many people share their circuits and code online
And talked about how our students could share their projects with others

We also created openly licensed educational resources for each workshops, that includes links to relevant resources and our presentations

10 of 18

After OA Week

DEVELOPING 3D PRINTED PROJECTS

DEVELOPING ARDUINO PROJECTS

LD

Afer open access week we got together to look at our workshop evaluations and reflect on how our collaboration had proceeded. We got a lot of great response from students, who’d write comments like: “licencing, what a refreshing topic” --which really surprised us, but also helped us realize that this method of “stealth open advocacy” provided a great framework to get our students interested in, and excited about, open.

We also realized that we could do a better job of integrating the hands on making components with the information on open hardware and software, and on licensing and sharing. We reformulated the workshops so that we moved away from two parts: the open stuff, and the making stuff--and instead found ways to weave all of that information together.

This iterative work resulted in the reformulation of our standard “Intro to 3D Printing” and “Intro to Arduino” workshops to always include open. On this slide you see how these workshops are promoted to students. They are simply called “Developing 3D Printed Projects” and “Developing Arduino Projects”, and they describe an integrated approach that highlights how to use these tools, as well as the benefits of working in the open.

Structuring workshops in this way highlights open really strongly, but does so in a way that aligns with the interests, goals, and motivations of students. So we end up with students who are just as excited about creative commons licences as they are about the project they’re about to start. And we have students who now ask us: “is that software open source?” when we’re consulting on tools and workflows.

And this is true for students that come into our Library workshops, and for those student who come into Makerspace as part of their courses. Everyone is getting that message that open practices are the foundation of maker practices and maker cultures, and that working openly has huge benefits for them and for the broader community.

11 of 18

Stealth Advocacy Plan

YOUR COMMUNITY

GOALS & PARTNERS

CHARTER

ACTION PLAN

LD

We think that this “stealth advocacy” approach to open is highly transferrable, and that there is great value in finding ways to embed information and excitement about open into the activities your community are already engaged in.

We’ve distilled our learning from our stealth advocacy project into four planning activities that we’d like to lead you through for the workshop portion of this session.

What we’re going to do next is facilitate some quick exercises that we hope will help you develop a stealth advocacy action plan.

We’ve go worksheets and pens for everybody.
We will introduce each section of the worksheet and then give you time to complete each exercise.
There is a mix of solo and group activities.
We are going to time each section so that we stay on track.
Feel free to ask questions at any time.
We’ll have time at the end for sharing and feedback

12 of 18

Your Community

13 of 18

One slide for each section of the worksheet with our filled-in responses

Goals & Partners

LR

Identifying Goals and Partners (10 mins, groups of 2-3)

All of the people in the second box represent opportunities for stealth advocacy. What we’d like you to do is pick one person or group and write them down on the top line.

In our case, we selected undergraduates.

Once you’ve done that, gather into groups of two or three and brainstorm their goals. We want you to put yourself in their shoes and think about what motivates them.

In our case, some of the ideas we came up with were:

Getting good grades
Learn new skills to get jobs/internships
Have fun
Meet new people
Find a career

And then we want you to think about what people or groups they are already in contact with.

In our case, we know that undergraduates work with

Course instructors
Student groups and clubs
The Makerspace
One another

Take 10 mins and brainstorm goals and partners.

[turn on timer]

14 of 18

Stealth Advocacy Charter

LD

Stealth Advocacy Charter 1 (2 mins, solo writing)

All of the people in the “they are working with” section are potential partners for doing your open advocacy work. You may know some of these people, or you may need to get to know them. These are the people you should work on developing relationships with, strike projects with, and get to know better.

We want you to pick one partner, the lowest hanging fruit, to focus on and fill out the Stealth Advocacy Charter.

Our charter looked like this: [flash picture]

You have 2 minutes for this solo writing activity

[turn on timer]

Stealth Advocacy Charter 2 (5min sharing)

Now that you’ve all got project charters, we’d like you to gather into groups and share your plans with your colleagues.

We’ll take 5 minutes to discuss our plans.

[turn on timer]

15 of 18

Action Plan

16 of 18

Assessment

17 of 18

What happened next?

18 of 18

Questions?