After reading the resources in topic 3, I have a deeper understanding of Open Pedagogy. As is described in “A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students”, autonomy and interdependence; freedom and responsibility; democracy and participation are three sets of fundamental values of Open Pedagogy. Open Pedagogy not only enables students to learn freely, but also invites them to participate in the designing of their learning. In the book, the authors mentioned “disposable assignment”, which refers to the assignments done by students during the course and  are discarded when the course is finished. The authors regard it as a waste of knowledge. They suggest that the assignments of students can be saved in a blog they create so that these resources can be accessible to them in the future. This idea is exactly what we are doing in EDCI 335 and 339. We create a blog during the course, and we record what we have learned in the course by publishing posts. Also, our assignments are all posted in the blog, too. These resources may be useful to us in the future and maybe useful to other students.

Furthermore, the students can engage in the development of the courses such as the policies, assignments, outcomes and so on. This idea reflects the essence of Open Pedagogy, which is a learner-centered kind of pedagogy. Under this circumstance, the students can collaborate with teachers to design the course together to meet their needs to the best. This idea shocked me when I was reading the book. It is a totally new kind of course that the authors describe. In the fifteen years of my study, I always followed the syllabus of the course and the instruction of the teachers. I did not know why I had to learn these courses and what I would learn from them. What I needed to do was following the requirements and getting a good grade. In fact, the courses should be adjusted to meet the needs of different students to that they can be more suitable in the process of learning and achieve what they expect.

The idea of “Open” is what I can apply to my work in the course. Each student is an unique individual. We have to consider the situations of a specific student when we design a course for him(or her).  For example, if the person has a job in weekdays, we should deliver the course in weekends; or if the person is an English language learner, we should provide him(or her) with language support.