The OCTOPUS project

I am excited to announce that we are beginning work on the Open Collaboration for Transformative Open Pedagogy to support Undergraduate Open Science Education project (OCTOPUS). That’s a mouthful, but the acronym is fun.

Introduction

Although most scientists agree that transparency and openness in science would strengthen and further scientific knowledge, open science is still not the standard for how science is practiced today, especially in the US. Long-time arguments for making scientific practice more open are usually pitched to established research scientists. Transitioning to open science then has required untraining a large group of people indoctrinated and successful in the current competitive scientific world, which likely explains why Open Science has had little traction. 

Science education often mirrors scientific practice’s competitive focus, where students who are not “good enough” get “weeded out”. We make the case that improving science education and achieving a cultural shift towards universal open, equitable, and socially just scientific practice requires substantial transformation in our undergraduate science education systems.

While there are some undergraduate courses that teach techniques, tools, and methodologies in open data and open science, they are not very common or extensive, and are certainly not the standard for science education. Furthermore, most of these courses fail to critically examine the pitfalls and inequities that many open scientists may face.

Goals and Objectives

In collaboration with the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, the RIOS Institute is working to create new (or transform existing) assignments, courses, and curricula, and to curate existing materials that may eventually constitute a comprehensive undergraduate Open Science education program. These new materials will integrate:

• The use and creation of OER
• Student agency and open pedagogy, with students as creators of openly licensed materials
• Open science education (teaching students how and why to do science openly)
• Critical analysis of open science (addressing inequities in scientific research practice, publication, and recognition)
• Other calls for science education reform (decolonizing science education, sustainability focus, alternative grading practices, active learning, etc.)

The goal of the OCTOPUS project is to create a set of openly licensed materials that can be adopted or adapted in part or whole by faculty, and which may eventually be used to develop a comprehensive undergraduate open science education program.

Faculty and staff collaborators will develop:

• Critically evaluated open science-open pedagogy assignments
• Open science courses (general and discipline-based) taught with an open pedagogy framework and/or which incorporate addressing inequities in science, and/or integrate alternative grading practices.
• Science reform courses (decolonizing science, science for sustainability, etc.) integrated with open science
• An open science curriculum (set of interdisciplinary core courses emphasizing the methodology, tools, and ethics of open science)
• An outline for a comprehensive Open Science program (e.g., a minor in Open Science that includes core and discipline-based courses)

Materials will be published and curated using the QUBES platform in a collaborative group space, “Open Science/ Open Pedagogy”, that supports future expansion, adaptation, and development.

Impact

By educating undergraduates, we aspire to prepare future generations of scientists who may work from less competitive, more open, and inclusive frameworks. Even for those science students who do not become professional scientists later, understanding the value of open science as members of the general public will be greatly impactful. 

With open pedagogy as the driver, resources will be designed to nurture students to create:

• Open Science Projects that serve their local or regional communities
• OER about Open Science
• Open source platforms and tools that promote Open Science
• AI tools that promote Open Science processes 
• Science communication modalities such as podcasts, blog posts, infographics, etc., that incorporate strategies for addressing inequities and other topics in Open Science

Our hope is that future phases of this project will allow us to draw upon these resources to create, pilot and assess comprehensive open science programs at suitable colleges or universities. 

If you have any questions or interest in this work, please contact me, Dr. Karen Cangialosi, at kcangial@keene.edu.

This project is funded by ORCA (Open Research Community Accelerator).