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Table of Contents

Advantages

Knowledge Quiz

Examples

Introduction

Objectives

Available Formats

From student and faculty perspectives

Let's review what you learned in Modules 1 and 2

Three renewable assignments

What is the purpose of this module

What are the learning objectives of this module

This presentation is available in different formats

Click on the underlined text to go to that section

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Table of Contents

Appendices

List of references for module 3

What we learned in module 3

Multiple-choice questions for module 3

From student and faculty perspectives

List of available resources

Appendices are included as speaker notes

Click on the underlined text to go to that section

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Available Formats

The content of this presentation is available in different formats

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The Content of this Presentation is Available in Different Formats

You can view the content of this presentation in the following formats:

Please refer to our website to download a different format.

Thank you!

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Introduction

What is the purpose of this module

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Introduction

The purpose of this module is for learners to:

Consider how they can incorporate renewable assignments into their curriculum
Be aware of the advantages and challenges associated with renewable assignments

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Objectives

What are the learning objectives of this module

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Objectives

Objective 1

Objective 2

Review examples of renewable assignments

Discuss advantages & challenges of adopting renewable assignments

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Knowledge Quiz

Let's review what you learned in Modules 1 and 2

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Knowledge Quiz

Question 1: What are the key components to a renewable assignment?

A. Has value to the greater community, is openly licensed, is public, is newly created or something existing is revised/remixed.

B. Has value to the student creator, is openly licensed, is public, something existing is revised/remixed.

C. Allows students to participate in the 5R activities, has value to the greater community, is public, is newly created.

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Knowledge Quiz

Question 1: Answer

A. Correct. These are the four key components of a renewable assignment.

B. Not correct. Has value beyond the student creator and it can also be newly created.

C. Not correct. In addition to newly created, it can also be revise/remix something existing.

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Knowledge Quiz

Question 2: Which of the following is a benefit for faculty in using OER?

A. Attracts new students to the university.

B. Enhances student engagement.

C. Saves on textbook costs.

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Knowledge Quiz

Question 2: Answer

A. Not correct. This is a benefit for the institution.

B. Correct. This is a pedagogical benefit for faculty.

C. Not correct. This is a benefit for students.

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Knowledge Quiz

Question 3: Which of the following definitions best describes OER?

A. Any digital material that is used for teaching, learning and research in any medium residing in the public domain and under an open license can be freely accessed, reused, modified, and shared by others with no or limited restrictions.

B. Any digital or printable material that is used for teaching, learning and research in any medium residing in the public domain and under an open license can be freely accessed, reused, modified, and shared by others with no or limited restrictions.

C. Any digital or printable material that is used for teaching, learning and research in any medium residing in the public domain and under an open license can be freely accessed, reused, and modified and shared by others with no restrictions.

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Knowledge Quiz

Question 3: Answer

A. Not correct. OER material can be digital or printable.

B. Correct. This response contains all the key components of OER.

C. Not correct. OER can also be shared with limited restrictions.

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Examples

Three renewable assignments

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Let’s Consider the Following Scenario

Karman Schad is a professor in the department of Health and Applied Physiology at Concordia University. She has taught at Concordia for many years. Although she would like to improve her pedagogy and design a better course assignment, she never finds the time to start. She also does not know quite where to start. In her time as a student, Karman only experienced traditional assignments like an essay or a presentation. She does not know what else she could get her students to do for an assignment.

She is also concerned about the amount of time a more engaging new assignment might take to grade. Karman struggles to do the bare minimum each semester as she must juggle too many competing priorities in her schedule. Karman finds it frustrating that her students are not more engaged with the course material. She is concerned that her students do not find the course material interesting or useful, but she is not sure how she can connect the course theories to more real-world examples.

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How Could Karman Incorporate a Renewable Assignment?

Read the three assignments presented on the next slide
While reading consider this:
Does the assignment meet the criteria of a renewable assignment?

Refer to this slide for a reminder of the four-part test

How does the assignment benefit the students?

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How Could Karman Incorporate a Renewable Assignment?

Students Creating a Shared Annotated Bibliography

An Ecological Approach to Obesity and Eating Disorders

Why have students answer questions when they can write them?

Read about this assignment

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Summary of Each Assignment and How it Benefited the Students

	Students Creating a Shared Annotated Bibliography	An Ecological Approach to Obesity and Eating Disorders	Why have students answer questions when they can write them?
Course	Integrated Thinking and Writing	Obesity and Eating Disorders	Social Psychology
Goal	Learn about immigration	Develop an information guide for the general public	Achieve a deeper level of understanding
Assignment	Add entries to Zotero bibliography and a shared Google Doc	Write chapters for the information guide	Write multiple-choice questions for an open textbook

Outcome	Not mentioned	Students’ feedback was very positive	Students were motivated to have their question included on the exam

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Scenario Wrap-Up

After reviewing the examples of renewable assignments, karman feels more confident that she can include one in her course. She realizes that it doesn’t have to be very complicated.

She could start by having them create an annotated bibliography for a particular topic. She feels this could help her students be more engaged creating work that matters to them and the world around them. She also feels that rather than throwing away a student's work, like an essay, after the course is finished, an annotated bibliography will benefit future students in the course.

She decides to modify a current renewable assignment, such as the annotated bibliography, as her first assignment. This way she can slowly start to introduce renewable assignments without feeling overwhelmed.

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Advantages

From student and faculty perspectives

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Provides Opportunity to Contribute

Engage in meaningful work that adds value to the world
Create new knowledge and fill a gap in understanding
Address a pressing issue
Serve a community in need
Establish a foundation for future students to learn from and build upon
Transcend the traditional student-teacher relationship
Connect with their peers, university community, and global learning community

Future students can pick up the work that has been done on a renewable assignment (RA) and continue to develop it (Seraphin et al., 2019). This can be done not only by students who take the course in the future, but also by other students from around the world. Knowing that their work may help future students or the broader public may encourage students to engage with the course material more and help them to understand it better. Students may also find it easier to convey course material in a way that other students will be able to understand.

The openness of RAs can not only shape learning within the cohort of student creators, but it can also impact learners around the world (Seraphin et al., 2019). For example, a RA in which students create a YouTube video has the potential to reach learners all across the world (Seraphin et al., 2019). This helps to level the playing field for students from disadvantaged groups (Seraphin et al., 2019).

White’s (2019) example demonstrates how a RA can serve many different students at different points in time. White’s (2019) class created a ‘living document’ in the form of a Zotero bibliography and annotated bibliography. These bibliographies will be used by White’s (2019) future students and, due to their public nature, they can be reviewed by anyone on the Internet. This allows for continual contribution for these documents. As time goes on, they will continue to improve and serve as valuable resources for future students and people around the world.

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Increases Quality of Assignment Submissions

	Disposable Assignment (DA)	Renewable Assignment (RA)
Time (reach)	Limited reach, DA learning objects contained within term/semester	Greater reach, RA learning objects can cross course term/semester. With creation of web-based resources, RAs could last for a theoretically infinite period
Space (range)	Limited range, DA learning objects contained within course boundary	Greater range, RA learning objects can cross course boundary and extend beyond the usual margins separating those inside/outside classroom, institution, community, and nation
Gravity (impact)	Can have significant gravity in terms of immediate learning outcomes but impact of student work is fleeting and contained within the course	Provides opportunity for longer-lasting impact on students and wider community. Potential to serve as globally shared learning objects with impact on innumerable learners.

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Supports Faculty Research and Career Development

Deepen your own understanding of the course material (Katz & van Allen, n.d.)
Reassess the goals for your course and realign the course material according to those goals (Katz & van Allen, n.d.)
Develop greater awareness of your pedagogical practices (Katz & van Allen, n.d.)
Align your research activities with your teaching activities (Veletsianos, 2017)
Save time, effort, and money in creating instructional material for your courses

A RA can be designed to address both the course’s learning objectives and your research agenda (Veletsianos, 2017). Designing a RA may be an especially helpful exercise when you inherit a course from another faculty member (Katz & van Allen, n.d.). In the process of designing a RA, you can reflect on the effectiveness of the course and envision new possibilities for the course assignments (Katz & van Allen, n.d.).

With an RA, you can work with your students to produce scholarship that addresses the goals of your research agenda while adding value to your field and your community (Veletsianos, 2017). By overlapping your research, teaching, and service activities, you can maximize the impact you and your students have in the field (Veletsianos, 2017). This can also showcase your productivity in your field and aid in your career development.

As RAs are published publicly it becomes something others can see, review, critique, and value. Making work accessible has been shown to increase chances for collaboration (Scheliga & Friesike, 2014). Publishing your course’s RA publicly gives you an opportunity to network and collaborate with peers in your field (Elder, 2019). It may even be possible to create RAs with a team of your peers (Elder, 2019).

You can freely adapt RAs that are open educational resources (OER) according to your instructional needs (Elder, 2019). You are free to edit, reorder, and remix OER materials as they are openly licensed (Elder, 2019). This can save you valuable time that you would have spent developing new resources for a course from scratch. Instead, you can adapt and revise OER that have already been created to fit your course (Elder, 2019). This is a much easier and simpler process which can also lead to better course resources as they have been continually worked on by instructors from around the world.

The process of recycling an assignment can help you reflect on your course goals, an assignment’s purpose, and the learning outcomes you would like your students to achieve (Katz & van Allen, n.d.). This may be especially helpful to new teaching candidates who are still developing their pedagogical approach (Katz & van Allen, n.d.).

Introducing a RA can help demonstrate that you care about the success of your students and the impact of their work. It can also demonstrate that you are cognizant of your pedagogical approach and responsive to course evaluations. As RAs are published publicly, it can make your efforts to design meaningful activities for your students more visible than if you were to assign a disposable assignment (DA) that just gets thrown out at the end of the course.

Some examples collected from faculty members on how RAs can provide opportunities for authentic mentorship and improved collaboration with students:

“Beyond the personal benefits that students might accrue by engaging in RAs, I found it immensely rewarding to see my students’ work being published and hear them describe that they felt empowered and supported.” (Veletsianos, 2017)

“The assignment gave me an opportunity to mentor students in an environment in which the end goal was an essay intended for practitioners and researchers. In doing so, we often engaged in conversations about the goal of the project, the audience, and the outcomes that each student wanted for their essay. Such mentorship was personally satisfying and fulfilling.” (Veletsianos, 2017)

“It was much more pleasurable to work with students toward our shared goal. I found that this process eliminated some of the power imbalances and hierarchies in the classroom, enabling us to collaborate more effectively” (Veletsianos, 2017)

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Increases Student Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

	Disposable assignment (DA)	Renewable Assignment (RA)
	Students work on an assignment for the main purpose of obtaining a good grade	Students work on an assignment for the purpose of bringing long-lasting value to the world around them
Intrinsic motivation = perceived enjoyment	Process of completing a DA can be predictable, boring, isolating, and stressful as students work alone to get a good grade	Process of completing a RA can foster creativity, collaboration, connection, and a sense of accomplishment as students work together to address a common need
Extrinsic motivation = perceived usefulness	Difficult to find purpose and invest effort in completing DA as learning objects do not produce any meaningful value outside course	Effort more easily invested in RAs as learning objects are more meaningful, valuable, and long-lasting

The aim of a RA is to develop student capacities according to the course objectives while also contributing to the social good beyond the walls of the classroom (Ashworth, 2016). This ensures that all of the time and effort you and your students invest in an assignment has a real, tangible impact even after the course ends. This is exemplified by Wiley (2016) who said that

“In many ways, I think the most powerful part of renewable assignments is the idea that everyone wants their work to matter. No one wants to struggle for hours or days on something they know will be thrown away almost as soon as it is finished. Given the opportunity, people want to contribute something, to give something back, to pay it forward, to make the world a better place, to make a difference. Few right thinking people will invest their heart and soul in work that is academic in the way that non-faculty use the term – ‘not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest. The debate has been largely academic.’”

Incorporating a RA in a course can boost student satisfaction and engagement in the course material (Axe, Childs, DeVries, & Webster, 2020; Gaines, 2018). DAs push students to spend their time on something that they know will be thrown away almost as soon as they finish it. Students are more fulfilled after completing an RA as they know they have produced a piece of work that is supposed to serve a real-world need (Ashworth, 2016). Students tend to invest more effort in completing RAs because the products of their efforts will not be thrown away but will, instead, endure long after the class has finished (Northeastern University, n.d.).

In the example provided in the first unit, Tugman’s (2021) class found working on a RA “to be rewarding and a refreshing alternative to traditional lecture-based formats” (Tugman, 2021). This demonstrates how working on a RA can foster active learning. Research in cognitive science “suggests the need to have learners actively involved in their own learning” (van Leusen, Cunningham, & Johnson, 2020, p. 4).

In a meta-analysis on educational research studies, active learning was found to be more effective than passive learning (van Leusen, Cunningham, & Johnson, 2020). In the case of Tugman’s (2021) class, the RA helped students get actively involved in their own learning, rather than passively listening to a lecture.

Through working on a RA, students not only think the task is useful, but they feel more useful. Students’ well-being and self-efficacy can be enhanced through work on a RA as they reinforce their belief in their ability to successfully complete a task (Seraphin et al., 2019). As RAs are published openly, students can receive feedback on their work, which further improves their self-efficacy (Seraphin et al., 2019). RAs also have the potential to foster student creativity which, in turn, can spark innovation and produce diverse and heterogeneous learning objects (Seraphin et al., 2019).

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Empowers Students with Opportunity to View Themselves as Experts

Disposable Assignment (DA)	Renewable Assignment (RA)
Tends to follow ‘banking approach’ in which knowledge is deposited into passive recipients without critical questioning (Magee & Pherali, 2019)	Breaks the traditional student-teacher relationship to allow for active learning where students are active contributors and co-investigators (Katz & van Allen, n.d.)

Incorporating a renewable assignment in your course can empower students as it gives them the opportunity to create, curate, and share knowledge publicly (Katz & Van Allen, n.d.).

Incorporating a RA in your course can empower students as it gives them the opportunity to create, curate, and share knowledge publicly (Katz & Van Allen, n.d.). Furthermore, the process of sharing knowledge publicly empowers students as public contributors of ideas (Katz & Van Allen, n.d.).

Working on a RA can serve as an opportunity for students to view themselves as experts (Katz & van Allen, n.d.). In Jhangiani’s (2018) example, students were asked to prepare a question bank to be used to test students’ understanding of the course material. Not only did this serve a pragmatic purpose as the instructor did not have a ready-made question bank, the exercise of drafting questions helped students achieve a deeper level of understanding of the course material (Jhangiani, 2018). Students also found the task of drafting questions to be motivating as they were placed in the role of expert (Jhangiani, 2018). This reversed the traditional student-teacher dyad so that students had the chance to think of the course material from the perspective of the teacher.

This exercise in reversing the student-teacher dyad can not only benefit students, but also produce instructional material of superior quality. Seraphin et al. (2019) found student-generated instructional materials to be “some of the best examples of culturally rich and effective learning objects” (p. 94). This serves as an example of the effect students can have when they are allowed to take the lead.

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Imparts Important Knowledge and Skills

Maximize learning outcomes by addressing course content while also developing students’ broader disciplinary literacy skills (Katz & van Allen, n.d.)
Fulfill the aims of critical pedagogical approaches that identify the relationships between people and the systems they exist in (Seraphin et al., 2019)
Facilitate experiential learning as students engage in an iterative process of tinkering and experimentation (Northeastern University, n.d.)
Provide an opportunity for students to observe the nuances and details involved in solving real-world problems (Northeastern University, n.d.)
Help students develop media literacy skills that are increasingly becoming critical to their academic and professional achievement (Seraphin et al., 2019)

As RAs are shared openly, students can engage with content before, during and after the course (Elder, 2019). This allows prospective students to read up on the course material ahead of time to ensure that they are interested in the material and ready to take the course (Elder, 2019).

Most importantly, the content that students create for the RA in your course will not evaporate at the end of the course (Elder, 2019). This means that they can continue to review the course material for years to come (Elder, 2019). This way students can keep the knowledge and skills they gained working on the RA fresh and ready to be applied in their professional life.

With the online publishing of RAs, students can gain valuable digital literacy skills which “can support their learning beyond the classroom” (Katz & van Allen, n.d.). In Tugman’s (2021) example of a RA, students gained important knowledge related to their discipline, but along the way, they also learned

About the publication process
How to find images and videos that are available to be used for a published piece of work
How to design and edit a book

This experiential learning can serve these students in their future courses and professional work. Completing a RA can also help students connect their course material to the bigger picture of real-world issues (Katz & van Allen, n.d.). RAs can go even farther than this as they involve students in projects with a ‘real world’ impact. With a focus on praxis, RAs can help students conceptualize issues of human cultural differences and social inequalities in more radical terms than DAs (Seraphin et al., 2019). Community-based, collaborative RAs encourage students and faculty to examine their own identities while interacting with members of marginalized groups (Seraphin et al., 2019).

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Allows Students to Engage with Content Before, After, and During Course

RAs prepare students in ways that DAs cannot
Before	During	After
Read up on course material to ensure they are interested and ready to take the course	Gain valuable digital literacy and publishing skills	Review course material, keeping it fresh and ready to be applied in their professional life

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Challenges

From student and faculty perspectives

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Time Constraints

Finding an existing renewable assignment (RA) that could be used for your course or designing an entirely new RA is a very time-consuming process.

Publishing student work publicly and openly is not a straightforward process (Scheliga & Friesike, 2014). Extra time may be needed to deal with

Sensitive data that needs to be anonymised before publishing
Data that will not be easily understood by somebody who was not involved in the data collection process
Lack of standards for sharing research materials publicly and openly, competing standards can impede interoperability
Lack of clarity as to what complies with the laws, rules, and regulations when sharing data publicly in different jurisdictions

Designing renewable assignments (RAs) and making their content public can be a very time-consuming process. It takes time and effort to find a RA that might work for your course (Elder, 2019). If you want to create an entirely new RA and publish new resources, it will take exponentially more time (Elder, 2019). With this being said, instructors who want to try something new in their course will usually always have to deal with time constraints (Elder, 2019).

To put the idea of open science into practice, researchers need to invest extra time and effort (Scheliga & Friesike, 2014). Usually, course assignments are completed without the intention of them being accessed by a wide audience. To share the products of RAs, you might need to invest extra time in cleaning up the dataset or adding descriptions so that the data can be easily understood by someone who was not involved in the project, for example (Scheliga & Friesike, 2014).

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Resource & Other Constraints

Resource constraints to consider when implementing RA

Costs associated with publishing and maintaining content in an open format
Technical expertise needed to publicly publish course content
Lack of availability and accessibility of existing RAs to revise/remix

Some additional constraints include

Difficulty introducing RA into rigid fields or departmental cultures
Lack of connections to communities or knowledge of real-world issues that students could feasibly address for RA
Poor quality student work that cannot be published publicly due to plagiarism, privacy breaches, or copyright issues

In addition to time constraints, you may not have the necessary resources to invest in maintaining the life of past assignments and the involvement of students in the assignment once the course is finished. This goes both ways, as you might not have the tools or expertise required to pick up an already established RA and continue working on it with your students. The availability of RA examples can vary greatly from subject area to subject area (Elder, 2019). Some faculty members have struggled to find quality RA resources tailored to their subject area (Bleichmar, 2018). This can limit how you choose what type of RA to incorporate in your course.

Faculty members can face difficulty adapting to the technology necessary for open publishing. Platforms used to publish content publicly may lack a user-friendly design and faculty members may lack the technical skills that are necessary to publish their students’ work publicly. More effort is needed to make it easier for faculty members to curate and maintain RAs. Teaching guides could be developed explaining how to create an RA and how to publish it publicly. These guides should consider faculty member’s

Access to Editing Tools

Is the open content published in a format that can be revised or remixed using tools that are freely available and run on all major platforms, or can it only be revised or remixed using tools that are extremely expensive?

Level of Expertise Required

Is the open content published in a format that requires a significant amount of technical expertise to revise or remix?

Financial aspects of Openness

Is there a cost involved in publishing and maintaining the content in an open format? Is there free or more affordable publishing infrastructure available?

Faculty members may also face additional difficulty when attempting to introduce RAs into rigid fields or departmental cultures. In disciplines where openness is not the cultural norm, it may be difficult for faculty members to embrace openness and implement RAs.

In addition, faculty members may lack connections to communities or knowledge of real-world issues that students could feasibly address or get involved with. If students are not properly prepared to do the work required for a RA, they could end up doing more harm than good. For example, engaging with a community for a RA without proper preparation could make the community more vulnerable and lead to community resentment (Seraphin et al., 2019).

Faculty members may be hesitant to publicly publish student work that is of poor quality as it may reflect poorly on the institution, be detrimental to both the student’s and the faculty member’s reputation, and lead to community resentment. Students may also be implicated in plagiarism, privacy breaches, or copyright issues.

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Public Sharing Constraints

Will I share openly?

Students need to decide whether to share openly

Who will I share with?

Friends, classmates, the instructor, colleagues, the public

Who will I share as?

Digital identity: as myself or as a pseudonym

Will I share this?

Students need to decide if this particular work will be shared openly

"This work "Discussion Flow" is a derivative of a figure taken from Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education by Catherine Cronin, used under the CC BY 4.0 International License. "Discussion Flow" is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 International License by Gabrielle Adam.

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Public Sharing Constraints

Students may not want to publish their work publicly due to privacy concerns, among other reasons (Katz & van Allen, n.d.). Alternatives for students who are reluctant to publish their work publicly:

Publishing with a pseudonym
Publishing in a way that only other people in their class can see their work
Submitting the assignment only to the instructor or T.A.
DA alternative

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Summary

What we learned in module 3

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Summary for the Examples

This lesson explained how three renewable assignments took three different approaches: creating an annotated bibliography, writing chapters for an information guide and creating multiple-choice questions for an open textbook. Students were positive about the projects and felt motivated creating questions that could possibly be included in their exams. All three assignments answered ‘Yes’ to the four-part test criteria. They are authentic material, they provide value beyond the classroom, they are shared publicly and are openly licensed.

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Summary for the Advantages & Disadvantages

Renewable assignments foster greater student participation, engagement, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation. Compared to disposable assignments, renewable assignments have the potential to add long-lasting value to the world outside of the classroom. By implementing renewable assignments, faculty members can improve their collaboration with students, pedagogical practices, understanding of course material, course design, and alignment with research activities. Faculty members might face time, resource, and public sharing constraints when attempting to implement a renewable assignment.

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Assessment

10 multiple-choice questions

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Assessment

Question 1: With what type of license was the renewable assignment “An Ecological Approach to Obesity and Eating Disorders” openly licensed?

It was openly licensed with the Creative Commons License CC-BY
It was openly licensed with the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC
It was openly licensed with the Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA

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Assessment

Question 1 Answer:

Not correct. This license is missing NC which means only noncommercial use of this work is permitted
Correct. This is the correct license and means that credit must be given to the creator and only noncommercial use of this work is permitted
Not correct. NC is missing and SA which means that adaptations must be shared under the same terms should not be included

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Assessment

Question 2: For which renewable assignment did the students feel motivated and why?

For the assignment “An Ecological Approach to Obesity and Eating Disorders” because they were creating something that would help people understand weight issues
For the assignment “Students Creating a Shared Annotated Bibliography” because they were sharing their work openly
For the assignment “Why have students answer questions when they can write them?” because the best questions would be included on the course exams

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Assessment

Question 2 Answer:

Not correct. Students were very positive when giving feedback but it doesn’t specify motivation
Not correct. There is no mention of how the students felt while completing the assignment
Correct. Students were motivated to potentially have their questions included on the course exams

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Assessment

Question 3: Which assignment used a shared google doc to publicly share their work?

The assignment “An Ecological Approach to Obesity and Eating Disorders”
The assignment “Students Creating a Shared Annotated Bibliography”
The assignment “Why have students answer questions when they can write them?”

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Assessment

Question 3 Answer:

Not correct. The students shared their work publicly as part of an information guide
Correct. The students shared their work publicly in a google doc
Not correct. The students’ questions would be included in an open textbook for the course

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Assessment

Question 4: When discussing options for sharing publicly with students, what four questions should be considered?

Will I share openly, who will I share with, who will I share as, where will I share this
Will I share openly, who will I share with, who will I share as, why will I share this
Will I share openly, who will I share with, who will I share as, will I share this

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Assessment

Question 4 Answer:

Not correct. The fourth question to consider is “Will I share this” not “Where will I share this”
Not correct. The fourth question to consider is “Will I share this” not “Why will I share this”
Correct. These are the four questions to discuss concerning publicly sharing options

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Assessment

Question 5: What should the main purpose of a renewable assignment be?

The purpose of a renewable assignment is to engage students in sustainability issues and to come up ways how they can reduce, reuse, and recycle more
The purpose of a renewable assignment is to create a piece of work that demonstrates a student’s skills and can be used by them for many years, i.e. something they could attach on their resume or portfolio
The purpose of a renewable assignment is engage in meaningful work that adds value to the world

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Assessment

Question 5 Answer:

Not correct. Although a renewable assignment could engage students in sustainability issues, this is not what the main purpose of renewable assignments should be.
Not correct. Although this is an important element of renewable assignments, this is not what the main purpose of renewable assignments should be.
Correct. Although different renewable assignments can serve different purposes, at the core of all renewable assignments is the purpose to engage in meaningful work that adds value to the world.

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Assessment

Question 6: Choose the correct statement about renewable assignments.

Renewable assignments follow the banking approach to teaching
Renewable assignments can help students transcend the traditional student-teacher relationship
Renewable assignments are intrinsically motivating, whereas disposable assignments are more extrinsically motivating

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Assessment

Question 6 Answer:

Not correct. Disposable assignments follow the ‘banking approach’ in which knowledge is deposited into passive recipients without critical questioning.
Correct. Renewable assignment can break the traditional student-teacher relationship to allow for active learning where students assume the role of co-investigators, contributing alongside their teachers.
Not correct. Students have been shown to be more intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to complete a renewable assignment compared to a disposable assignment.

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Assessment

Question 7: When designing renewable assignments, what must you always do?

You must adopt an entirely new pedagogical approach to implement a renewable assignment
You must publish all student work in a public, open format
You must give full advanced disclosure of the ultimate uses of student work

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Assessment

Question 7 Answer:

Not correct. Although designing a renewable assignment can help you improve your pedagogy, it is not necessary to adopt an entirely new pedagogical approach to implement a renewable assignment.
Not correct. Students may not want to share their work openly or publicly; so, alternatives should be provided to them. Students should be invited to share their work openly instead of being mandated or directed to do so.
Correct. It is essential to always give students advanced disclosure of how you plan to use their work on a renewable assignment. This ensures that they are aware about the risks associated with sharing work publicly before their work is published.

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Assessment

Question 8: Choose the statement that accurately reflects the benefits of renewable assignment

Implementing a renewable assignment allows you to align your research activities with your teaching activities
You will always save time in course development when you use renewable assignments
It does not cost any money to design a renewable assignment and publish student work

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Assessment

Question 8 Answer:

Correct. By designing a renewable assignment, you can work with your students to produce a scholarship that addresses the goals of your research, the course objectives, and the renewable assignment’s core goal of adding value to the world.
Not correct. The amount of time you save in designing a renewable assignment instead of a disposable assignment depends on if you are going to create a new renewable assignment and, if not, how available renewable assignments are in your field.
Not correct. Depending on how you choose to publish renewable assignments, there may be a cost involved in publishing renewable assignments and maintaining their open status.

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Assessment

Question 9: What do students NOT need to consider when deciding whether to share their work on a renewable assignment publicly?

Students need to consider how choosing not to publish their work publicly will affect their course grade
Students need to decide whether to publish their work under their name or a pseudonym
Students need to consider how choosing not to publish their work publicly will affect their teacher

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Assessment

Question 9 Answer:

Not correct. Student grades should never be made to depend on the publishing of work publicly. If a student decides to not publish their work publicly, their course grade should not be negatively affected in any way.
Correct. Students who are concerned about their digital identity may want to consider publishing their work under a pseudonym. This option should always be made available to students.
Not correct. Students should never feel pressured by their teachers to publish their work. They should be invited to publish their work publicly, not mandated or directed to do so.

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Assessment

Question 10: What do students always need to have before starting a renewable assignment?

Students should have all the necessary digital media and publishing skills before starting a renewable assignment
Students need to be prepared to continue work on the renewable assignment after the course ends
Students should have an understanding of the implications of creative common licenses

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Assessment

Question 10 Answer:

Not correct. Having digital media and publishing skills do not always have to be a prerequisite for working on a renewable assignment. For example, you can help your students develop digital media and publishing skills during the course while they work on the renewable assignment.
Not correct. Although in some cases, there may be an opportunity for students to continue working on a renewable assignment after their course ends, they should not be mandated or directed to do so.
Correct. Before starting a renewable assignment, students need to be made aware of what Creative Commons licenses are and the implications of publishing their work under one of these licenses. As renewable assignments are supposed to empower students as creators, students need agency in making the decision to share their work openly and, if they choose to share openly, determining how they will share their work under a Creative Commons license.

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Resources

List of available resources

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Four-Part Test

Criteria for distinguishing a renewable assignment:

Are students asked to create new artifacts (essays, poems, videos, songs, etc.) or revise / remix existing OER?
Does the new artifact have value beyond supporting the learning of its author?
Are students invited to publicly share their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?
Are students invited to openly license their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?

"Four-part test" is taken from Defining OER-Enable Pedagogy by David Wiley and published freely under the CC BY 4.0 International License

Back to the renewable assignment examples

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Four-Part Test

	Student creates an artifact	The artifact has value beyond supporting its creator’s learning	The artifact is made public	The artifact is openly licensed
Disposable assignments	x
Authentic assignments	x	x
Constructionist assignments	x	x	x
Renewable assignments	x	x	x	x

"Four-part test" is taken from Defining OER-Enable Pedagogy by David Wiley and published freely under the CC BY 4.0 International License

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References

List of the references used in module 3

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References

Ashworth, J. (2016). A call to end single use, throw-away assignments. University Affairs. Retrieved from: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/throw-away-assignments/

Axe, J., Childs, E., DeVries, I., & Webster, K. (2020). Student experiences of open educational practices: A systematic literature review. Journal of E-Learning and Knowledge Society, 16(4), 67-75. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135340

Bleichmar, F. (2018). Opening the door to OER. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/02/07/open-educational-resources-offer-exciting-possibilities-though

Elder, A. (2019). Introduction to Open Educational Resources. University of Regina. Retrieved from: https://opentextbooks.uregina.ca/oerstarterkit/chapter/introduction/

Gaines, A. (2018). Capitalism and the cost of textbooks: The possibilities of open source materials. In Teaching Economic Inequality and Capitalism in Contemporary America (pp. 257–266). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71141-6_2 2

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References

Jhangiani, R. (2018, March 16). Why have students answer questions when they can write them? Open Pedagogy Notebook. Retrieved from: https://openpedagogy.org/assignment/why-have-students-answer-questions-when-they-can-write-them-by-rajiv-jhangiani/

Katz, S. & Van Allen, J. (n.d.). Evolving into the open: A framework for collaborative design of renewable assignments. Milne Library. Retrieved from: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/openpedagogyapproaches/chapter/evolving-into-the-open-a-framework-for-collaborative-design-of-renewable-assignments/

Macdonald, M. (2021). Embracing development, sustainably. University Affairs. Retrieved from: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/embracing-development-sustainably/

Magee, A. & Pherali, T. (2019). Freirean Critical Consciousness in a Refugee Context: a Case Study of Syrian Refugees in Jordan. Compare, 49(2), 266-82.

Northeastern University. (n.d.). Students as makers: Renewable assignments. Northeastern University. Retrieved from: https://learning.northeastern.edu/students-as-makers-renewable-assignments/

Scheliga, K., & Friesike, S. (2014). Putting open science into practice: A social dilemma?. First Monday, 19(9).

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References

Seraphin, S. B., Grizzell, J. A., Kerr-German, A., Perkins, M. A., Grzanka, P. R., & Hardin, E. E. (2019). A conceptual framework for non-disposable assignments: Inspiring implementation, innovation, and research. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 18(1), 84-97. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1475725718811711

Tugman, B. (2020, August 20). An Ecological Approach to Obesity and Eating Disorders. Open Pedagogy Notebook. Retrieved from: https://openpedagogy.org/course-level/an-ecological-approach-to-obesity-and-eating-disorders/

Van Leusen, P., Cunningham, J., & Johnson, D. P. (2020). Designing and teaching adaptive + active learning effectively. Current Issues in Emerging eLearning, 7(2), 1-18.

Veletsianos, G. (2017). How do faculty benefit from renewable assignments? BCcampus. Retrieved from: https://bccampus.ca/2017/12/12/how-do-faculty-benefit-from-renewable-assignments/

White, D. (2019, December 12). Students Creating a Shared Annotated Bibliography. Open Pedagogy Notebook. Retrieved from: https://openpedagogy.org/assignment/students-creating-a-shared-annotated-bibliography/

Wiley, D. (2016). Toward Renewable Assessments. Improving Learning. Retrieved from: https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4691

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