The University of Technology, the Learner Experience Design team adopted a strategy to make Open Educational Practices (OEP) integral to everyone's role by emphasising professional development. In higher education, professional development is described as the process of enhancing the skills and competencies of staff necessary for facilitating and enhancing the student learning experience. According to Havea & Mohanty (2020) professional development contributes to sustainable development by improving the skills and competencies of individuals, which in turn enhances workforce quality and productivity. This is also in alignment with the sustainable development goals under 2030 Development agenda, which underscores the importance of building higher education staff capacity in content, pedagogical and technological knowledge (Mishra and Koehler, 2006). At its core, the UTS strategy of sustainable partnerships fosters a culture of engagement and collaboration within UTS and the external community (n.d, UTS). While the impact of engaging in OEP has primarily been realised through cost-cutting with open textbooks, at UTS, we see that OEP can further enhance the student learning experience. This is achieved not only by reducing costs of textbooks but also by promoting inclusivity, engaging our learning and teaching community, and building capacity in open education. In this presentation, I’ll highlight the efforts made by a learning and teaching central team at UTS to advocate for OEP through professional development. Our efforts were focused on the following six areas: Resources and Blogs: We curated a resource collection where academics can openly share their teaching approaches. Additionally, our blog series dedicated to open education serves as a platform to advocate for OEP
Community Engagement: UTS Learning Design Meetup has been instrumental in starting the conversation on OE. This initiative has inspired various university units and academics to publish OER focusing on Learning Design and Sustainability. Furthermore, we have successfully encouraged academics to create their own open textbooks and apply for open textbook grants. Projects for Scalable Impact (Central Team): We formed specialised squads focusing on Open Education (OE) and H5P OERHub, facilitating collaborative efforts towards impactful outcomes. Moreover, in partnership with the UTS library, we were able to contribute to the development of open-access policy procedures addressing technological infrastructure needs and OEP in learning and teaching. Workshops: Our OEP workshops have been instrumental in raising a culture of sharing educational materials within and outside UTS. Global Events: UTS proudly hosted Open Education Week in both 2023 and 2024, showcasing our institution's global presence and commitment to open education initiatives. Creative Commons Licensing: Two members of our central team completed Creative Commons certificate for educators, contributing to capacity-building efforts within our organsation. The impact of our efforts is clear in how the OEP community at UTS has grown. We made sure that people who used to work alone now work together through partnerships. Keeping OEP going has been hard, but by helping people learn and grow professionally, we brought everyone together, got important people involved, and made UTS a leader in open education.
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[Session 6A]: Practice and Policy in OEReferencesHavea, P. H., & Mohanty, M. (2020). Professional development and sustainable development goals. In Quality Education (pp. 654-665). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)?. Contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60-70.
UTS. (n.d.). Sustainable partnerships. In UTS 2027 strategy. Retrieved May 20, 2024, from
https://www.uts.edu.au/about/uts-2027-strategy/sustainable-partnershipsAuthor KeywordsProfessional development, Open education advocacy, Partnerships, Institutional strategies
