Montgomery College is fully committed to social justice and innovation through its focus on open pedagogy.  Faculty from various disciplines and across campuses at the institution are working in teams to create several renewable assignments (which have a Creative Commons license) for deployment in their courses.  The conceptual framework on which this work is based are the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a set of 17 goals that address an array of issues designed to achieve and maintain social justice in and around the community.  Faculty create assignments that focus on a particular SDG, and students are placed in the community through service learning projects.  This work brings awareness to students of the service learning opportunities available at the institution and within the community.  The interdisciplinary and intercampus requirement of faculty teams is intended to increase the equitable opportunities for students and to maximize student impact across the institution.  This work also increases the networking of faculty who may not otherwise know colleagues in other disciplines or on other campuses.  These open pedagogy assignments can help students become agents of change in their own community through their coursework.  The student learning process becomes more engaging and more collaborative, and ultimately, this open educational practice may increase overall student success.

To read about the Open Pedagogy Fellowship at Montgomery College, click here. To see our sample assignments, click the “MC Assignments” link on that page.