Welcome to the OpenLab, City Tech’s open online community platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration.
More than a thousand City Tech faculty members have signed up with the OpenLab since its launch in Fall 2011, creating over 3,000 courses on the platform.
Until Spring 2020 most OpenLab Courses were used to enhance an in-person or hybrid classroom experience. The world has changed, and as we transition to distance education, our teaching practices are changing too.
Fortunately, the OpenLab is a community space and none of us needs face this challenge alone.
Teaching with the OpenLab draws on the experience of OpenLab members to provide advice and guidance designed to help you use the OpenLab effectively whether you’re teaching online, in hybrid mode, or in person.
This self-paced training is informed by a set of common-sense Best Practices, compiled from established sources at City Tech and beyond. These recommendations drive the design of the OpenLab Course Template and the Model Courses we introduce here and will help you to teach your course on the OpenLab.
Before you begin, we recommend that you consult some of the many resources that have been created by others to help you navigate the transition to online learning, such as:
- The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) Online Teaching Toolkit and Inclusive Teaching Practices Toolkit
- Baruch College Center for Teaching and Learning’s Online Course Prep Guide, especially their advice on:
- Assignment Design for Teaching Online
- Teaching with Zoom at Baruch College (contains important considerations that are applicable for all video conferencing platforms)
- Attendance and Participation in Online Courses
- Assessment in the Online Classroom
- (Re)humanizing the Online Classroom
- and their Last-minute Course Prep Checklist.
The OpenLab also has a group dedicated to discussions of Open Pedagogy on the OpenLab – join the conversation!
