These instructions are part of the reusable pack of "Thinking About Open" workshop content that was developed by Beck Pitt and Bea de los Arcos as part of the Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project. "Thinking About Open is a half-day workshop exploring what openness and open educational practices are. The workshop aims to help instigate discussion at your organisation on how openness could make a difference to your own practices whilst acting as a springboard for further discussion on the practicalities of open practice. The workshop utilises a range of case studies and examples of openness to help facilitate discussion. This workshop is aimed at anyone with an interest in finding out more about openness and how it can make a difference to their own practice." (Reference: https://oepscotland.org/events/workshops/)

1. This w orkwas created as part of the Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project
(https://oepscotland.org)and unless otherwise stated is licensed CC-BY 4.0 International license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Thinking about Open
This openly licensed pack of resources and accompanying Powerpoint slide deck
was created from the Thinking about Open workshops run at a variety of Scottish
colleges and Higher Education institutions during 2015 and 2016 as part of the
Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project. The workshop was
developed by the research team, OER Hub researchers Beck Pitt and Bea de los
Arcos.
The workshop was conceived and developed to enable colleagues from across
organisations and institutions to begin thinking about openness within their own
context, creating space for discussion and enabling reflection regarding next steps.
We have designed and used the workshop activities with both small (5 persons) and
large (20 persons) groups. We are releasing the slide deck, activities, open practice
example cards and other material associated with the workshop to enable you to:
 Facilitate your own Thinking about Open workshop at with colleagues;
 Review the content and adapt for your own context and needs;
 Pick and choose activities and materials;
 … Anyway you want to use it! The joy of open!
We would love to hear how you use this content, whether you develop it further and
any outcomes (positive or negative). Email us if you would like to share: Beck.Pitt [at
] open.ac.uk
The following document contains the workshop description, an overview of the
workshop itself and the workshop activities. You will find a guide to the content of the
non-activity slides in the slide deck below.
An easy to use version of the slide deck is available here:
http://www.slideshare.net/OEPScotland/thinking-about-open-slidedeck
The case studies are available here:
http://www.slideshare.net/OEPScotland/thinking-about-open-what-is-open
The list of ‘challenges’ is available here:
http://www.slideshare.net/OEPScotland/challenges-most-frequently-faced-when-
using-oer
You can also review examples of specific Thinking about Open workshops by
browsing the OEPS slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/OEPScotland
Original workshop description
“Thinking About Open is a half-day workshop exploring what openness and open
educational practices are. The workshop aims to help instigate discussion at your
organisation on how openness could make a difference to your own practices whilst
acting as a springboard for further discussion on the practicalities of open practice.
The workshop utilises a range of case studies and examples of openness to help
facilitate discussion.
This workshop is aimed at anyone with an interest in finding out more about
openness and how it can make a difference to their own practice.”1
1 Source: https://oepscotland.org/events/workshops/

2. This w orkwas created as part of the Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project
(https://oepscotland.org)and unless otherwise stated is licensed CC-BY 4.0 International license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Workshop activities
Activity 1: What does openness mean to you?
Slide No: 4
Aim of activity: Stimulate and document initial discussions around openness
Materials: Large pieces of paper/Flipchart paper, pens or can be done
with sticky notes then grouped together
Allocated time: 30-45 minutes depending on the number of participants
Activity description:
Let’s get this workshop started! Either in small groups or if fewer people as one
group, ask people to brainstorm ideas/responses to the question: “What does
openness mean to you?” for 15-20 minutes. Groups can brainstorm their responses
on flip chart paper/sticky notes. If you have more than one small group, bring the
individual discussions together by facilitating a workshop wide discussion at the end
of the allocated time (10-15 minutes). As part of this round up you might want to
highlight key ideas mentioned by participants, synergies or introduce your own
thoughts.
Take it further:
The results of this activity can be referred to later in the workshop. Getting people to
write down their thoughts and ideas also act as a record of people’s initial thoughts
about openness in their context. With participant permission you could perhaps
gather together outputs such as these from the workshop and reuse them as part of
a future workshop.
Activity 2: What example resonates best with you?
Slide No:
Case studies: http://bit.ly/2bcuPyL
Aim of activity: Understanding different aspects of openness through real life
examples
Materials: Laminated copies of the case studies available for print out on
the URL above (depending on group sizes you will need a
couple of sets of these)
Allocated time: 40 minutes
Activity description:
After getting everyone to think more closely about what openness means within their
context, this workshop activity focuses on exploring different types of open practice
and ideas about openness. Using the 10 case studies and using Slide 6 ask
participants to talk more about “Which example resonates best with you?” We
recommend circulating the URL to the case studies to participants prior to the
workshop so people can read the examples. The length of the pre-discussion part of
this session is in part dependent on whether participants have reviewed the case
studies – in either instance allow 10 minutes for refreshing people’s memories or
have people choose one card, read it and share what it is with the group. Participants
can then discuss which of the case studies resonates best with their own context and
share these thoughts collectively. At the end of the allocated group discussion time
the facilitator should then ask for individual contributions and thoughts about the
examples given.

3. This w orkwas created as part of the Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project
(https://oepscotland.org)and unless otherwise stated is licensed CC-BY 4.0 International license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Take it further:
Develop your own examples and share them so we can help build the collection!
Activity 3: Barriers to Open
Slide No:
Challenges: http://bit.ly/2bh8q2o
Aim of activity: Understanding possible challenges and solutions to being
open
Materials: You will need to create sets of the cards showing individual
challenges. These can be laminated for longevity if needed.
Allocated time: 45 minutes
Activity description:
Before revealing the slide with OER Hub research data on what educators find the
biggest challenge on using OER, distribute one set of the cards to each group. These
sets of cards have a list of all the challenges listed as possible barriers to using open
educational resources that the OER Hub used in their survey work. Ask participants
to look at the cards, stating that these show challenges when using OER.
Participants should choose and discuss the challenges, selecting the top three
challenges that they think are the most pressing (in their particular context or in
general for the adoption of OER). After the allotted time the groups come together to
talk about their chosen three before the results of the Hub research are revealed.
Take it further:
If you are interested in exploring the OER Hub survey questions further and utilising
them for your own purposes, you can view them here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fL_yf-O70ZjvH67Ue8LlfidjEXwtDQ5T0TBe-
Z1GYaI/edit#gid=0
Where are you? Using, Creating, Sharing
The blog post re: workshop B at the March 2016 OEPS forum (see:
https://oepscotland.org/2016/04/08/oep-best-practice-at-oepsforum4/) has a
description of another activity we use, which was adapted from Catherine Cronin and
gets people to think about where they are in terms of sharing, creating and using
OER. For the Forum we extended this to get people to share solutions and crowd
source ideas and this extension might also work well for the workshops…
ORIOLE Reuse Cards
We’ve also used the ORIOLE reuse cards
(http://orioleproject.blogspot.co.uk/p/shop.html); there are clear explanations on how
to use them on the webpage.