Hi @oct22-d-cohort, thanks for the productive session today. We spent the first several minutes reviewing how to access important information on the Rebus website. We also focused on the two key documents for the first few sessions: the Project Summary and Storytelling and Communications Templates. These documents serve as the benchmarks for each group to make sure you’re making progress towards your Strategic Vision for your OER project. The homework items up to this point (including Session 3) have been focusing on those items. One more thing about the templates: these documents are intended to help save you time later! The more research and deliberation you’re able to dedicate to the Strategic Vision and your Operations, the more efficient your OER development will be in a few months. If you run into any issues while working on the homework items, please do reach out to me (you can simply respond to this thread). We’re here to help you succeed.
The homework checklist is at the bottom of the recap, below. I’ve tried to include all important links so you don’t need to click around very much.
Here’s the chat transcript from today.
Key Links:
- Slide Deck: Storytelling and Communications
- Handout: Storytelling and Communications
- Storytelling & Communications Template
Recap
Today’s session was designed to continue the scoping work from last week and we returned to look more closely at those parts that relate to the storytelling in your OER, namely the motivators, the audience, and the course materials.
Storytelling allows you to situate your role in the work, describe the story of your project, both within your team, but also more broadly as you market your OER. We used a template [link above] to guide your teams in the process of creating your project storywork plan.
Review the quote from late Ojibway author Richard Wagamese in our slides [link above] — and you’ll see how central narrative and story is to the work of OER creation. We discussed the transformative power of education and how storytelling can play a role in making inclusive content with equitable processes.
We emphasised acknowledging and validating different types of knowledge and expertise — and how you all play an integral part in this work by reflecting on the content of your OER (approach, vision for the discipline, knowledge, research, text, media, contributors, students, pedagogy). Jo-ann Archibald’s Indigenous Framework for Storytelling offers a guide to help you articulate the work you will be doing on your OER projects, both internally to inform decision-making on your OER but also externally to the broader open education community.
Thinking deeply about the storywork you want to do as content creators and team support members, may sound like a lot of effort, but we know from experience with past cohorts how well those efforts play out in the longer term. Having a clear understanding of the storywork for your resource - both its purpose and content - is critical throughout the publishing process to ensure you create an equitably and culturally sustainable resource.
Homework Checklist
I know why and how to use storytelling as part of our OER project.
I have listened to the individual motivators of my team, and understand the expertise they bring to this work.
In our teams, we have discussed specific aspects of storytelling in our OER to guide our equitable work [based on Part 2 in the Storytelling and Communications (S&C) template]. Note: Feel free to use your discussion results to update aspects of your Project Summary!
Deliverable: Individually, I have written a short bio for our team to use going forward based on [Part 1 in the S&C template]. Note: Since you’ve already introduced yourselves to the cohort, you can view this new bio as an update, in light of the Session 3 storytelling principles. Updated bios should go in the “Meet and Greet” thread of your team’s Project Homepage.
Deliverable (from Week 2): If your team hasn’t yet posted a Project Summary to your homepage’s Project Summary thread, try to do that now. You can just link to your team’s shared document until everything is finalized. Treat it as a work in progress!
Deliverable: Before Session 4, respond to the Session 3 main thread and let us know: What parts of this homework checklist were you able to successfully complete? What parts of Week 3 did you find most useful? What challenges did you face while attempting the checklist? When peaking at the outcomes listed in Session 4: Managing and Growing Teams, what are you eager to learn and what questions do you currently have related to those areas?
