Co-Designing OER with Learners: A Replacement to Traditional College Level Assessments

Academic integrity issues in higher education have been reported as increasing as the pandemic and need to learn remotely continues. The use of homework sites like Chegg, that provide learners with answers to tests and assignments increased significantly through 2019 and 2020 (Walsh et al., 2021). Open advocates have been espousing the benefits of open educational resource assignments co-constructed with learners and published in the open prior to the pandemic. These have largely been writing assignments taking the form of blogs with a focus on teaching practices. An example of this phenomenon is the Open Learner Patchbook where learners write blog posts to share in the open (Open Education Global, 2019). A faculty involved in two projects that co-designed Open Education Resources (OER) with learners was curious to know what processes learned could be applied to co-designing OER assignments in their own teaching practice as an alternative to traditional assessments where answers can be found on homework sites. Easton et al. (2019) propose that original assignments encourage learners to complete their own work. This presentation focuses on what was learned in the co-design process with learners and what can be applied to teaching practices in college diploma and certificate courses.