OE Global 2019

At CUNY we have chosen to focus on the development of CUNY-based free open source software platforms that can serve open materials and enable open pedagogy. We propose a presentation will demonstrate and describe the development and use of these software platforms.The platforms we will discuss are Commons In A Box, https://commonsinabox.org/, and Manifold Scholarship, https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/. Both platforms build on successful local implementations at CUNY campuses that were later abstracted, through grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to create robust software that any institution can use. Together, they offer vibrant spaces to build collaborative communities of practice around teaching, learning, and research, and to publish OER work in multimodal, interactive formats.

“Open” should denote not only the learning materials that faculty and students create and use, but also the underlying platforms. When we ask ourselves, “Why Open?” “Open for whom?” and “Whose interests are served?” the answers should center both students and faculty. By supporting free open source software, non-proprietary platforms, we can build our work in conversation with student and faculty communities, and help other educational communities adopt similar approaches in their own work.