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This paper reports on the pilot of an open pedagogy assignment in an undergraduate, developmental and educational psychology module. This module is part of the DCU Connected Psychology Major programme, which is the only open access, online, undergraduate psychology programme delivered by an Irish higher education institution, and is the first programme of its type to be accredited by the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI). Following the open pedagogy principle of empowering students to create and share useful information (DeRosa and Robison, 2017), the module team enhanced the assessment design such that its final assignment changed from being an applied assignment in which students produced a ‘mock’ report for schools that was marked but not shared outside of the module, to one where they produce a communication to the public that was openly shared through a blog. Students are asked to first write a literature review on youth mental health and well-being in the context of post-primary education. Secondly, students are asked to create a communication, in the form of a digital information pamphlet or an infographic, that can be shared with the public, advising schools and educators on how to improve adolescent mental health and well-being. At the point of submission, students had the option to grant permission for the team to publicly share these communications.
A qualitative case study grounded in the constructivist paradigm was designed, with this research question: What are students’ perceptions of producing knowledge that is shared openly? Data was collected in a recorded, online focus group with two members of staff (the named researchers) and two students (one male, one female) who completed this assignment and shared their work. Data was transcribed, prepared, and analysed in NVivo using a data-led analytical approach following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis, which involve a number of iterative steps: coding; generating candidate themes; reviewing and refining themes; assessing for internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity; and generating an overall thematic structure.
Our findings indicate that the new assignment was viewed as a good idea, as ‘more real’, while also being viewed as challenging in terms of: the skills needed to produce a digital pamphlet or infographic; and the way in which the assignment made them stop and ask ‘who is the public’ to whom this information will go? The prospect of openly sharing their work had an impact on how the participants thought about how they produced the information in their work, and in how they thought about their responsibility for it once it was shared with the public.
Braun, V., and Clarke, V. (2006). ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), pp. 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
DeRosa, R. and Robison S. (2017). From OER to Open Pedagogy: Harnessing the Power of Open. In: Jhangiani, R S and Biswas-Diener, R. (eds.) Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science. London: Ubiquity Press, pp. 115–124. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.i. License: CC-BY 4.0. Available at https://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/10.5334/bbc/ [accessed 05-12-19]
References
Braun, V., and Clarke, V. (2006). ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), pp. 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
DeRosa, R. and Robison S. (2017). From OER to Open Pedagogy: Harnessing the Power of Open. In: Jhangiani, R S and Biswas-Diener, R. (eds.) Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science. London: Ubiquity Press, pp. 115–124. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.i. License: CC-BY 4.0
