Module A2: Scoping Your Capacity

Module A2: Scoping Your Capacity Worksheet

Overview

Open pedagogy projects may be one-time stand-alone assignments constrained to a single course or much more complex multi-year undertakings that involve multiple stakeholders in various capacities. Regardless of the scope though, revising or creating new assignments takes time and doing an honest assessment of your time is crucial. Before determining the scope of your project it’s essential for its success that you scope your own capacity and the capacity of your collaborators if you have them.

The affordances of open education and the rights that come with openly licensed resources, however, mean that you do not always need to start from scratch. Perhaps you found some projects that you could revise or build off of in the case studies section or you know of existing projects in your discipline that are openly licensed. Likewise, you may discover potential collaborators, possible mentors as you research open pedagogy examples, or you might even discover colleagues working on similar projects in your departments, institutions, or by putting out a call on social media or Twitter.

Activity

How much time can you dedicate to developing this open pedagogy project? How many hours per week/month can you dedicate to developing, running, and assessing?
Can you reuse, revise, or remix another’s work and not reinvent the wheel? Look back at the case studies, the Open Textbook Library, in MLA Commons, or in the Open Pedagogy Notebook. You might also want to look at any digital web-based sources you currently use — do they have a Creative Commons license?
Would your project benefit from collaborators? If so, write down some potential names or identify people you want to reach out to. These could be within your department/institution or your broader disciplinary communities. You might even send out a call on Twitter to see if you can find colleagues who are doing similar work.

***If your project involves a specific existing open resource, you may want to reach out to the creator(s). Many people working in the open education community are willing to share resources and advice that they’ve developed from their experiences.