The Open Classroom Project:
Through the Teaching & Learning Scholar program, I have been able to spend the last
year developing the concept of open teaching, a pedagogical extension of the open source
movement. I have enacted the concept, in part, through the offering of an open access
graduate course that is available to registered students through the University with some
components available to casual, non-credit students. The pedagogical approach allows
registered students to develop authentic, personal learning networks (PLNs) that often
remain beyond the time-frame of the course. To date, hundreds of international
participants have engaged with U of R students through the course, and dozens of expert
speakers in the field have offered their time and expertise to the project. Research related
to the project has led to three individual book chapters (in process), one published
scholarly article, dozens of invited presentations (including keynotes), and the
development of similar projects at other Universities. The project has been a tremendous
benefit to my professional career, and I would like to formally thank the TLS program for
their generous support in this scholarly endeavor.
Alec Couros