Session 3: Storytelling and Communications (May 2024 B Cohort)

Textbook Success Program May 2024 B Cohort
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Hello @may24b-cohort,

Thanks for another great session this week! Here’s the chat transcript from this week’s session. See below for Key Links, the session Recap, and the Homework Checklist.

Key Links

Recap

This week’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 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 — 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 emphasized 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 Activities

Prior to our next session, please complete the Session 3 Homework activities in your session handout. These include a mix of individual and team-based activities:

  1. Share your personal story by writing a bio (we’ll review this next week)
  2. Work as a team to identify marketing avenues to share your project’s story
  3. Post these pieces to your project-specific foci.

There was a request during this week’s session to see examples of the Storytelling & Communications Template. Below are a few you can take a look at for inspiration. Remember, there isn’t a “right” way to complete these. Your individual stories and you team’s story will be different than those of other individuals and teams.

Next week, our focus will be on establishing team roles and effective collaboration to support your project’s success. Let me know if you have any questions.

See you all next week!