The Open Faculty Patchbook is a community ‘patchwork’ of teaching skills and experiences. Each ‘patch’ has been written by a professor in higher education and is focused on one particular pedagogical skill. Together, these patches create a how-to-teach manual for higher education that is openly licensed and available to anyone. As mentioned, each chapter covers one pedagogical skill. We began our search for pedagogical skills to cover with the University of Michigan’s High Leverage Practices, but the scope of the patchwork does not end there. It is dictated by those who want to contribute their skill.

The faculty member who authors a chapter offers their take on it. They describe their learners and learning environment and how they deploy or use the skill in that space. It includes instruction on how to use the skill situated in a real example. There is a suggested template, but faculty members who sign up to co-author the book can take it from there.

In August 2017, the first manual was published, focused mostly on in-class instructional skills. Many of the patches, however, or transferable to online teaching. We are now ready to focus on other things like digital pedagogy as well as an entire separate patchbook focussing on the stories of how learners learn. In this session, we will showcase the work already done and solicit the help of the participants in creating the next iterations of The Patchbook, including The Open Learner Patchbook.

This whole idea has been inspired by an amazing project by Robin DeRosa: The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature and the benefits of open educational practices.

If you’d like to add to one of the Patchbooks, we’d love to have it! Send a tweet @greeneterry for details.