OE Global 2018

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) is one of 24 colleges comprising the City University of New York (CUNY), the United States' largest urban public higher education institution legislatively mandated as the "vehicle for the upward mobility of the disadvantaged in the City of New York." Fulfilling this mission is vital to the success of City Tech students and requires the provision of easy, consistent access to course materials across digital platforms. Panelists will trace how City Tech has been at the vanguard of transforming teaching and learning through the foundation of two significant open pedagogy initiatives on its campus. In 2011, City Tech launched the OpenLab, an open-source platform where students, faculty, and staff meet to learn and share ideas, providing opportunities for the entire college and the public to connect and collaborate. This can be difficult to achieve at an urban commuter campus. In 2014, City Tech established an OER professional development program to reconceptualize course materials and lower textbook costs for students. These two initiatives are especially noteworthy given their rooting in local needs: both have been conceived and implemented for and by the City Tech community.

Panelists include the Coordinator of the OER professional development program, the Co-Director of the OpenLab, and two faculty fellows in our OER professional development program. We represent distinct disciplines (Library, English, Biology, and Social Sciences) and offer unique interdisciplinary perspectives and approaches to open education. Critical to our institution’s shift to open pedagogy is our commitment to fostering learning communities across the college, including faculty communities of practice not bound by rank, department, or disciplinary silos. Panelists will share how their work, individually and collectively, has strengthened City Tech’s commitment to open pedagogy and has laid the groundwork for significant cultural change across the college.