Certificate-of-Open-Studies

Introduction

The Certificate of Open Studies (COS) is a new format offered by the Centre for Continuing and Distance Education of the University of Geneva (https://www.unige.ch/files/3415/8271/1574/Statut-20fevrier2020.pdf, art. 65). A COS in Education in emergency contexts, jointly offered by ERDIE and InZone will be offered in 2023 and this page centralises some resources.
It relies on Openness, Open Education and Open Science, using Open Educational Resources.

Overall framework

• Refugee-learners’ local languages are mainly Haussa, Zarma, Fulfulde and Kanuri and they should be free to produce assignments in those languages.
• Education in emergencies and https://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Open_Education represent the overall context. They can enter in tension at some points and in case this happens, the safety of refugee-learners guides actions.
• Open Educational Resources (OER), Open platforms and open smartphone applications are to be used with regard to infrastructure, e.g. Graasp for OER. Resources and material produced within and for the COS should be OER, i.e. enabling the 5 R, Retain Reuse Revise Remix Redistribute, mainly with CC licences.

Overall design

The COS design, in its first edition, is starting this month of February. It is conceived as a design-based research, with the intent of starting with a first edition that is progressively fine-tuned.

Timeline COS 1st edition design

Basics for course designers’ start: Key pedagogical concepts

Empowering learners

In the Middle Ages, when European universities started, especially in the Bologna model (and we are in the Bologna reform since 1998), learners decided what they wanted to learn and which courses teachers should teach them. In the COS, course designers are invited to take into account participants’ conceptions, interests, knowledge and real needs with regard to a module content. To do so, strategies to prompt participants about their reality, their expectations from this COS, assignments in the form of autobiographic narratives, etc. are to be used regularly. Ideally, and in the longer term, participants should be free to choose a customised path according to their interests and be free to use the language of their choice to complete assignments, especially those oriented towards autobiographic narratives.

E. Wenger, during his conference on 15.02.2023, showed how the learning theories matter and foregrounded two approaches: the "cognitive view" which considers "learning as the transmission of certainty" and the "social view" which considers "learning as the mutual engagement of uncertainty". In the COS, we are certainly more into the second one, which also echoes Freire's educating towards liberation.

A three step design process

Conceiving a learning design can be seen as a 3-steps process: the vision, the design, and making it sustainable. An excellent book is about to be published and some parts of it are already released to show the interdependency between i) key concepts of the course, ii) contextual elements, iii) learning outcomes, iv) content and activity design, v) teaching strategy, vi) assessment strategy and vii) overall scenario : https://designpedagogique.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Design_pediagogique_extrait50.pdf . Course designers are invited to go carefully through these 7 steps that related to the 3-steps overall process and prepare some output for each step. The process is not linear but rather cyclical.

TPACK

Technological, pedagogical and content knowledge. Course designers are asked to watch this 5 minutes video to get introduced to TPACK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMQiHJsePOM and then read this article by Koehler et al. (2013), What Is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)? The Journal of Education, 193(3), 13-19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24636917 . Course designers are then invited to reflect, for their module, which CK, PK, TK and intersecting knowledge is needed. The output can take the form, for example, of a concept map (see p. 71 of https://doi.org/10.3917/raised.021.0061 ).

Didactical double-decker

This is a concept I have discovered at PHZH, during LECU and SINAN projects, that relate to using material, i.e. Lehrplan 21, in teacher training that learners will use in the classroom when they are teachers. This "link" provides a context for how to use a resource both in the positions of the learner (at PHZH) and in the position of the teacher (in classroom). In the COS it is not about using the content in both places but rather about using pedagogical strategies and digital technologies that participants will seamlessly be able to use as educators (e.g. whatsapp similar but open). Course designers are invited to remember this in their design.

Cultures and pedagogies as a mindset

The variety of cultures and pedagogies and what they can leverage is the background framework in terms of values of the COS design. Course designers are invited to make sure that they fully understand the following resources: MOOC Cultures et Pédagogies ; Repenser l’éducation : alternatives pédagogiques du Sud (Akkari & Fuentes, 2021) ; Repenser l’éducation et la pédagogie dans une perspective africaine. Akkari, A., Gandolfi, S., & Sagayar, M. (2022). Globethics.net.

Oral education

Course designers need to be well informed of pedagogies of the Souths and read at least Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the resources mentioned above, in the Cultures and pedagogies as a mindset section.

Connected learning

This concept refers to several connections, well beyond the internet. Basically, it foregrounds a personal interest and multiple connections and supports spreading from this interest to make it grow. Course designers are invited to watch this 18 mn video (specifically from minute 8 onwards) and read some of this resource by Ito, M., & Colleagues. (2020). The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship .

Physical places, connected learning hubs, will be available for refugee-learners to meet, to make connections, to develop a project, to interact and exchange ideas and of course to learn and complete COS activities.

Toolbox

• Identify your learning outcomes. They must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attractive, Realistic, Time-bound). Learning outcomes are action-oriented and student-centred and use active verbs to describe the expected competences. They shoud be formulated in the form of achievements, i.e. at the end of the module, learners will be able to... They are usually defined with the backdrop of the Bloom taxonomy - remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating. Example of verbs in French for each category:
  • Remember: associer, citer, décrire, définir, dupliquer, enregistrer, énumérer, étiqueter, identifier, indiquer, lister, localiser, mémoriser, nommer, ordonner, rappeler, reconnaître,
  • répéter, reproduire, résumer, sélectionner
  • Understand: classer, comparer, convertir, démontrer, différencier, dire dans ses mots, illustrer (à l’aide d’exemples), expliquer, exprimer, faire une analogie, généraliser, interpréter, paraphraser, prédire, reformuler, représenter, résumer
  • Apply: administrer, appliquer, assembler, calculer, catégoriser, colliger, construire, contrôler, découvrir, démontrer, dessiner, déterminer, employer, établir, formuler, fournir, manipuler, mesurer, mettre en pratique, modifier, montrer, opérer, participer, préparer, produire, résoudre, traiter, trouver, utiliser
  • Analyse: analyser, cibler, comparer, contraster, critiquer, découper, déduire, délimiter, différencier, discriminer, disséquer, distinguer, examiner, faire corréler, faire ressortir, inférer, limiter, mettre en priorité, mettre en relation, morceler, organiser, opposer, questionner, séparer, subdiviser
  • Evaluate: apprécier, argumenter, attaquer, choisir, conclure, critiquer, défendre, déterminer, estimer, évaluer, juger, justifier, soutenir
  • Créer: adapter, agencer, anticiper, arranger, assembler, combiner, commenter, composer, concevoir, connecter, construire, créer, développer, écrire, exposer, incorporer, intégrer, mettre en place, organiser, planifier, préparer, produire, proposer, rédiger, structurer, synthétiser.

• Conceptualise your course with a concept map: https://enseigner.unil.ch/ressources/wp-content/uploads/UNIL-CSE_cartes_conceptuelles.pdf . Upfront, this allows course designers to identify key concepts of the course on which for instance they will be making a video or podcast; it also enables them to plan an aligned evaluation - which learning to evaluate, how to get a testimony of this learning, how to interpret this output - see for example https://enseigner.unil.ch/ressources/document/choisir-ses-strategies-devaluation/ .
• Technological tools:

Resources

Objectif Learning Outcomes Numériques, UNIL, https://enseigner.unil.ch/ressources/document/objectif-l-o-n/