Open Pedagogy as Open Course Design
“What If We Were To Go?”: Undergraduates Simulate the Building of an NGO From Theory To Practice
Kimberly Davies Hoffman; Rose-Marie Chierici; and Amanda Spence
Authors
- Kimberly Davies Hoffman, University of Rochester
- Rose-Marie Chierici, Ph.D., SUNY Geneseo
- Amanda Spence, SUNY Geneseo
Project Overview
Institution: SUNY Geneseo
Institution Type: public, liberal arts, undergraduate, postgraduate
Project Discipline: Anthropology
Project Outcome: mock non-governmental organizations (NGOs), student-built websites
Tools Used: WordPress, Weebly, ArcMap
Resources Included in Chapter:
- Course Syllabus
- Course Schedule
- Student Work Examples
- Videos
2020 Preface
“It smells good around here!!! What pretty flowers and colors!!!
It looks like I’m about to resume Immunotherapy infusion tomorrow. Back on track …
Keep me posted about the book though.”
– R.M. Chierici (personal communication, June 30, 2020)
These were our dear friend’s last words to her co-authors on the eve of this chapter’s release. Amanda and I knew that Rose-Marie was struggling again to combat her cancer and we wanted to send her something of beauty that would make her days a little brighter.
The irony is not lost on us that the 2014 instance of the course as documented below was Rose-Marie’s last full run of the course. In Fall 2015, with a new librarian partner, Rose-Marie was diagnosed with cancer and could only be intermittently involved with ANTH 307. In all truth, the original inspiration for Open Pedagogy Approaches: Faculty, Library, and Student Collaborations came from the desire to publicly share the ANTH 307 course design that the instructors and students found to be life-changing. As I sat in the Robin De Rosa workshop back in April 2018, it was through this teaching partnership with Rose-Marie that I connected Robin’s words and that sparked the idea of highlighting faculty and library collaborations toward the empowering nature of student learning through open pedagogical practices.
In the weeks following the announcement of Rose-Marie’s passing, Facebook posts from students who had long since graduated from SUNY Geneseo shared stories of this incredible humanitarian. They mentioned how her openness and guidance shaped who they became as human beings, adults, and scholars. They provided examples of her shared journey in applied and medical anthropology that incited passion and empathy within them. Their views on the world were forever changed. Their direction in life pivoted after learning from Rose-Marie.
As a woman who adored her husband, Alec, and their four children, Rose-Marie left an indelible mark on them, modeling a persistence to follow their passions and to be kind to and caring of others. She shared her strength with them, and they always provided support, stability, and encouragement to her. Her loving husband shares that Rose-Marie “hardly suffered. She fell asleep on August 13th and did not wake up on the 14th. A beaut