(Maybe) Not As Nefarious As It Sounds...

What isn't necessarily explicit in a given course's competencies but is often implied (if not basically necessary), is the skill of critical thinking. Getting your students involved in synthesizing information from a variety of sources is good critical thinking practice. If I give my first-year composition students a writing textbook, for example, they will find one explanation of how to write a thesis. However, if I give them links to several open resources about writing and ask them to review them all with a particular goal in mind, they may come out of it with a richer understanding of the concept of "Thesis Statement."

Of course, this may not apply equally to all courses. Some courses may ostensibly require one and only one extant resource, in which case this aspect of openness may not be of much help (but don't worry, there are other aspects that might, and we'll get to those).

Byte: With digital openly-licensed resources, well-documented practices that involve student-mediated learning and peer teaching can be used in the classroom to engage students in more intense inquiry and engagement.

"Shadow Modules" at Work

A 2014 study published in the Journal of Anatomy entitled "Building an open academic environment – a new approach to empowering students in their learning of anatomy through ‘Shadow Modules’" (Scott, Moxham, and Rutherford) outlines a way of structuring course modules so that the traditional content is accompanied by open spaces that facilitate student learning groups, content curation, and peer teaching through the use of web technologies and open educational resources. The researchers describe several case studies of "shadow modules" built into various anatomy courses at the University of Cardiff in the United Kingdom.

Takeaways about "shadow modules" from the study:

They should be as student-led as possible, perhaps by a near-peer student (who is perhaps a semester ahead).
Faculty should support the student-created modules by providing feedback and, if necessary, assistance in finding resources.
Student work in the modules is primarily collaborative; they share and remix each other's learning tools, working toward mastery in the process.
The developed resources should be made available to future student groups, who will work at adapting and improving the resources.

One of the key characteristics of these case studies is that the "shadow modules" do not replace the formal, traditional instructor-designed content but operate instead as effective supplementary study activities. At this time, I am not aware of any study that discusses a completely-open equivalent practice, but with the increasing abundance of high-quality open educational resources, it isn't difficult to imagine going a step further and giving students even more control over designing their own learning pathways. This wouldn't mean throwing up our hands as educators and telling students simply to "figure it out." On the contrary, the role of the instructor would remain vital as a guide, supporter, and, eventually, assessor. What might happen if an instructor simply started out a module (or even a course) by outlining the competencies / learning objectives, providing an overview of the process and the basics of open licensing and a few examples of resources and activities, and then set students to the task of using their digital literacy, critical thinking, and unique personal skills to design the course for themselves?

I must admit that, sometimes, when I talk about this stuff, I think that I can actually hear the intense eye-rolling happening on the faces of educators everywhere. Quite legitimately, there are many concerns about guaranteeing quality of content and instruction. I encourage you to seek out the study described above, because they include a number of design considerations that help to offset most of these fears. Even after that, though, many of us may still be wondering what kinds of things we might actually suggest that our students do if they're not reading the textbook and completing the practice exercises we've assigned. A few ideas are going to follow immediately, so click "next" and let's get to it...