Memorandum of Understanding
This Memorandum of Understanding outlines communication guidelines for the cohort, as well as the roles and responsibilities of participants, facilitator, and Rebus support staff.
Communication
To streamline our cohort communication and allow for utmost transparency, we request that everybody use the forum to ask questions, share ideas or resources, and update the facilitator and teams in the group on any changes.
Note that your TSP Facilitator and Rebus Community staff will not answer questions sent over email (unless urgent with regards to your personal safety). Instead, we will kindly remind you to post your inquiry to the forum instead.
Please always tag (@alminervini ) the people you wish to receive a response from, i.e. your cohort tag (@july23-cohort), if the message is meant for the entire group, or individual usernames, if you have someone specific in mind.
In the forum, you can expect a timely response from your TSP facilitator or Rebus Community staff during working hours from Monday to Friday.
Role of the Participants
Fulfilling the following responsibilities to their best abilities will enable participants to get the most out of the program:
- contribute to the building and maintaining of a collaborative and supportive cohort
- attend each meeting (some absences excused, as things may crop up both in work and life)
- participate in in-session discussions and activities to ground the work with solid planning and sound reflection
- come prepared with updates and questions on their work and be ready to share their experiences with others in the call
- come prepared to provide campus or institution specific details that may bolster project work or cohort discussions
- be willing to discuss your experiences with participants from other institutions
- share useful examples, resources, and ideas
- complete homework activities
- update the Rebus Community project forum pages to demonstrate project progress
- actively use the cohort forum space to communicate with their team, other cohort members, the facilitator and Rebus staff
- respond to forum posts when able to answer questions or wanting to support everybody in useful ways
- actively engage with team and cohort members to share expertise and contribute to the greater efforts of bringing positive change into educational systems
- establish personal goals for growth and take appropriate action to work towards reaching those goals
- act as community leaders in the sessions and cohort discussion space by modelling behaviour, answering questions, motivating projects, and encouraging public interactions
- communicate program-related feedback in compassionate and honest ways
Role of the Facilitator
The facilitator will:
- guide participants through the program
- foster a welcoming, caring, and supportive learning environment
- model expected behaviour during TSP meetings and in the forum
- build an inclusive and inspiring OER community
- draw on the expertise within the cohort and community
- make appropriate connections between projects and community members who may be able to provide better responses
- foster reflection and change in participants to enable them to create equitable OER and joyful learning experiences
- support participants to create efficient workflows and apply Rebus publishing practices to help projects progress in a timely manner
- encourage participants to build and strengthen institutional capacity for current and future open publishing projects
- allow participants to recognize and grow their open education leadership skills,
- enforce the expectations, guidelines, and if necessary, consequences to violations as outlined in this MOU
Role of the Rebus Support Staff
To make the TSP a rewarding and productive experience for both the participants and the facilitators, Rebus support staff will:
- design and maintain a caring and enriching learning environment, where everybody feels welcome and inspired to participate to their fullest potential
- oversee consistent and transparent communication between grant organisers, facilitators, and cohorts
- provide in-time support to facilitators and cohorts regarding program-related troubleshooting
- optionally attend some Phase 1 sessions to ensure smooth program set-up
- invite and adequately respond to feedback from participants, facilitators, and organizers
- meet with facilitators on a regular basis to check in on cohort progress and discuss areas for support
- schedule meetings with grant organizers as needed to discuss new developments
- be available to discuss confidential matters with participants, facilitators, or organizers if necessary.
Community Guidelines
The sessions and cohort discussion spaces are for everyone in the group. Please read and follow these community guidelines:
- Be nice: “Nice” includes supporting your fellow creators, amplifying your peers’ voices, and assuming value in others’ opinions. “Not nice” includes personal attacks, abusive or offensive language, including profanity or sexually exploitative language insults, threats, and other things that would be considered “not nice.” Don’t use racist, ableist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory language. Be yourself and ensure you help everyone feel welcome with your language and approach.
- Assume value: We are all working together to build a global community around OER publishing. Be sensitive to different methods, different approaches, different cultures. We share an enthusiasm for OER and want everyone to feel comfortable contributing.
- Be on topic: Post things in the right place, look to see if your question has been asked elsewhere, and contact a facilitator if you’re not sure where to post. Keep conversations focused on OER and related themes.
- Silence is golden: During sessions, leave some time between people speaking to allow the more introverted among the cohort to jump in with any thoughts. There’s nothing to be uncomfortable about if no one is talking, so don’t feel pressured to fill in the silence.
- Be mindful: The facilitator will monitor discussions both online and during sessions so everyone can speak their fair share. Consciously leave room for others to chime in, or for the facilitator to ask for a pause so the discussion can be opened more broadly.
- Don’t spam: You can promote your OER projects, but don’t overwhelm or take advantage of the shared space. Keep discussion and links focused on OER and related themes.
- Flag, don’t feed inflammatory posts: Don’t reply to posts that you feel violate the “be nice” policy. Replying usually makes things worse. Flag them for the facilitator.
Reporting
Contact your facilitator, Amy Minervini (@alminervini), by direct message to report a violation of these guidelines.
Consequences
Violating these guidelines might mean a warning, a temporary ban, or a permanent ban at the discretion of the facilitator.
Agreement to MOU
Each participant (including the facilitator) in the July 2023 Cohort is required to reply to this topic and indicate their agreement to follow the expectations and guidelines outlined above.
Please reply to this topic with the following text:
I confirm that I have read the expectations and community guidelines in full, and agree to participate in the program in accordance with them.
Feedback, Comments, or Suggestions
Something missing? Have more suggestions? Everyone’s voice and input matters. Please indicate what you’d like to add, or modify by replying to this topic.