OERs as innovative teaching and assessment activities during the pandemic

Abstract

This article discusses the Online Educational Resources (OERs) Movement and why OERs are so highly recommended by international collaborative organizations for the attainment of an inclusive, learner-centered and development-centered open education. The second part recounts how the creation of an OER served as a viable alternative teaching learning and assessment strategy for achieving course outcomes during (but not limited to) pandemic times. It showcases the outputs of students of the Doctor of Health Professions (DrHPEd) program taking a course on Quantitative Data Analysis (HPEd 391) during the first semester of AY 2021-2022. The process of making an OER was challenging. At times, the students felt that they were doing things beyond the scope of a course in quantitative data analysis. But everyone agreed that because of the degree of student engagement involved, the sense of fulfillment at the end was intense. The creation of an OER was a realistic, context-based and relevant final output which most of the students intend to use for their real-life advocacies. It was truly an exercise which demanded integration of all dimensions of technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) and yielded a personal and unique output which exhibited the highest order of learning outcomes - at the level of synthesis. And what may have appeared 'extra-curricular' at first was actually simply a more authentic assessment.