Hi @oct22-b-cohort, thanks for the great session yesterday! I hope the beginning of our session was helpful to you all for how to navigate the Rebus Community forum. If you need any more assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out! Below you’ll find the key links to our session, along with a session recap, and your homework checklist.
Key Links:
- Slide Deck: Storytelling and Communications
- Handout: Storytelling and Communications
- Storytelling & Communications Template
Recap:
Session 3: Storytelling and Communication focused on continuing 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. We also 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).
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?
Looking forward to seeing you all next week - don’t forget to vote! 
-Kaitlin
