OpenEd25 Keynote: Colorado Student Panel

Next up, we're thrilled to spotlight the voices of Colorado's own students, the learners who are living the reality of today's classrooms and shaping the future of open education right here in our host state. Guiding today's conversation is our facilitator and board member Pranja who is vice chair of the conference board and manager of the open education lab at Ontario Tech University. Please join me in giving a very very warm welcome to Pronjo and our amazing student panelists from across Colorado. >> Hello. Hello. >> Hello. Can everyone hear me? Fine. >> Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. I just wanted to make sure everyone can hear me. Um, thank you Aisha for such a wonderful welcome. Um, um, and hi everyone. Um, my name is Sandra Saloney. I, um, am coming from, uh, Toronto, Canada. Um, I work at Ontario Tech University, which is located in, uh, Ashawa, Ontario, Canada. and I manage the open education lab. Um, which means that my full-time job is working with our um, Ontario Tech undergraduate students who are every day um, helping us uh, curate, curate, and uh, publish oars for our faculty and our um, uh, students at Ontario Tech. So, as you can tell, I'm very excited to hear uh, from our local Colorado um, students. Um, this panel is a chance to hear directly from students about how open educational resources and practices have influenced their academic journeys within the higher education landscape of today. Their perspectives bring to life the real impact of uh the work we're all here to advance. So, uh, thank you again uh to the three of you for joining. Um, without further ado, let's hear from our amazing panelists themselves. First, I'd like to ask each of them to briefly introduce themselves and share how they they are um involved uh with open education. So, um starting with Sebastian here. >> All right. Hello everyone. My name is Sebastian Beretta. Thank you for having me here, especially these two companions. I am a business student from Colorado Western Community College like it has been mentioned before. Um I am a resident assistant there as well. I am a treasure treasurer in our five ft cup honors society chapter. I'm also a goalkeeper and a team captain for our men's soccer team and how I got involved with open education was through five kappa. I mean that's as as soon as I joined and became u the treasurer I learned how access and affordability impacts every student especially at a community college like ours. Hello everyone. My name is Frankie Nad. I am a graduate student studying applied statistics and research methods at the University of Northern Colorado. I also serve on the affordable and open educational resource committee at UNC. I work as an a graduate assistant with the graduate school and I also serve on the O committee. I am an international student from Ghana and I believe strongly that open education isn't only about free textbooks but also it's about how we students get to bring up our ideas to support the faculty in building open education and I'm so happy to be on the panel today. >> Hi everyone, my name is Antonio. I like to go by and I'm from a couple blocks down at the wonderful CU Denver is where I'm focusing on secondary education in mathematics with an emphasis on applied mathematics and I I'm lucky enough to be here today just to immerse myself with the other panelists and talk about open education because I see u both ends of the spectrum as a learner and as an educator so it's very important to me and I work at the the university as an LA which is an amazing a role for students to immerse themselves into an education role at the university and also devoted my time at the Royal Public School District as a student teacher and yeah, just really happy to be here. Thanks. >> Thank you all. It's so wonderful to see all the wonderful work that the three of you are doing um at such a young age. So um very proud. I'm sure everyone um here um can say the same. Um so now I've got a couple questions for you guys and the first one is um what are some of the pressing current issues uh facing students today and how can um open education help create a path towards uh a more um equitable and sustainable um education system and any um any of you can go first there's no particular order we have to follow. >> All right. Um I think the biggest issue I mean or biggest struggle and recently of what I've heard from my peers is definitely affordability, access and just that and as a community college many people have jobs and many people have families at home and still want to get their higher education. So just having this OEER and open stacks and all this having they don't have to worry about a textbook cost and it's just one barrier that's basically eliminated. >> Thank you. All right, I'll also go next. So I believe um most of the students are facing challenges now concerning the rising prices of living cost and also about mental health issues and the digitalized um I think digitalized challenges. These are some of the challenges we are facing now. And then if we include things like textbook cost is going to be a very big problem. So is here to help us all to be able to cut down these causes and with my university we've realized a lot of improvement and a lot of good things that OE has done for us and we are happy to be part of this whole OE movement. >> Thank you. >> I would say a lot of representation could be like a like a little bit of an issue currently going on and just that's welcoming and a sense of belonging in community or just any type of environment. Doesn't have to be educational, but that's what comes to my mind. It's just a lot as a first generation student, as a person of color. It just I believe that um there's a lot that we could do and we are currently doing, which I find appreciative. And our actions and our decisions, they they matter. And I wouldn't be here today if the educators in my life didn't make an impact for it. But yeah, thank you. >> Thank you. uh for your wonderful uh responses and um I really love the fact that you mentioned uh representation because that's a big one and I think all of some of the challenges that you've mentioned are real world challenges that um you know our students are facing and um it's so nice that um you know not just all of us in the room who've been in in the education field for a while but you students are taking a step forward uh towards that. So thank you again. Um how can the people in this room support students who are um doing this work. Maybe we can switch up the order. Tony, would you like to go first? >> Say it again. >> Can you say the question again? >> Yes, of course. Our la so how can the people in this room best support students who are doing this work? >> I would just say please continue to be authentic. Like a lot of today, we're just more accustomed to like systems or don't get me started on AI, but there's a lot of resources that we like to get comfortable with and the sources similar to AI, they kind of remove that authenticity that us educators bring to the table or to the classroom. And I feel like if we present ourselves in authentic in ways that make our students interested in subjects or just have that passion for education in general, I believe that would make us like or make students like more passionate about being in in education and being in school. >> Thank you. Okay. I think we can everyone here including the librarians the faculty everyone involved we student would like to be part of everything you are creating with oeer so whenever you are creating would like to be on board so that we'll be part of what we are learning secondly I think we can also would also like to be recognized when we get involved in all of these and then lastly I I would say that we want OER to be global with the perspective of coming from Ghana would like OAR to collaborate with other regions so that OAR wouldn't be for only one particular region but for all. Thank you. >> Thank you Frankina. That was um that was great. Um uh both of you mentioned a couple of things that I I do want to talk a little bit more about. Uh but especially you mentioning you know not sticking to one region is a big one. I think um oeers are all about um you know sharing it with the rest of the world. So um thank you again that was a that was a great point. And uh Sebastian >> I would say to add to what both my teammates have said I think the biggest thing is working as a team right? I mean I am involved in sports quite a bit. So you could see the higher education people as a coach and students as players, right? Which I believe both which is a it's a good way to go about it. I say just as a what I think what defines a good coach is being open and being open to what the players, students and feedback is and what they want to see and what they want to shape this into. So yeah, I would say that's the biggest thing as well as I lost my train of thought. Sorry. Um one when students I believe once if we have an input in something and we see that we are making a change or affecting an environment for the better. I think that just is a motivation for us students to keep putting that effort, keep putting that input and keep being involved in stuff like this and just having a voice to be heard. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I love the comparison you've made uh with sports and um and what we do here. Um I think it was Frankina you had also uh mentioned uh I think and you too both of you uh around the lines of you know uh working as a team and uh keeping our perspectives in mind and I think That's such a great point because a lot of times we do such great work um and we do it for our students and sometimes we forget that um student voices also matter. So just keeping that in mind I think um I think um moving forward would be great. Um and um Tony you had also mentioned AI at some point. So I've got one one leading question uh with that. um as students um of course as faculties and librarians we we see AI you know with a different lens but as students how do you how do you think AI uh fits with uh with the OEER movement and um and how can how can we I guess benefit from from AI when it comes to you know um the curation creation and publications of oeers >> I would say AI can be a a funny resource it just depends on how well we're using it and just the intentions behind it. I wouldn't necessarily try to rely too much on AI just because that there's like issues with accuracy, there's data, there's the privacy, security reasons. Um but with the free source like we look at Gemini chat, GBT, other um resources that are free, they do offer a little bit of help for students that I would say is beneficial for either studying, getting like note cards really quickly, plan, something really quick and simple, but we also don't want to steer away from that too much in my opinion because it just kind of hurts. It doesn't necessarily benefit them in the long run. >> Yeah, I love that. Thank you. >> Obviously, in my opinion, this AI and whole situation like he has mentioned, it's a very very new thing, right? And it can be used for pretty good stuff. I mean learning and creativity wise it can be pretty pretty impactful but at the same in the same way and if you look at the other end it's just so to an extent so easy to use and some students do feel like it's just pretty easy to use so they just go ahead and kind of become lazy with it but in the end it's just like any other source if trying to if you're trying to find a primary or secondary source you have to put a lot a pretty good amount of time and research into just to make sure it is pretty credible. >> Yeah, I think that's a that's a great point. Thank you. So, when it comes to AI, it has its good parts and then it has its bad part. So, mostly with the good part, we all enjoying what tragicity and other resources are providing for us. The issue that I think when it comes to AI that I particularly have is that where they are getting their resources from it tends to be biased sometimes because of how the information are being or the algorithm try to get the information and also with how it works. I think I believe trying to remember something with CH GP with all the information that it gives us. We would want to also know where the information is coming from. When we compare that with open educational resources which is free that we are getting all these information we know who and how how these resources are being made. would also like to be involved in how these resources are being generated so that it doesn't tend to be bias or any other thing. Thank you. That's wonderful. Um and I think all of you uh brought out a great point that AI is there. It exists. You know, we can't really get rid of it. Um so why not utilize it in for our benefits and not um you know, just be smart about it. Um, I'd like to take some time to um um uh call in our virtual participants to see if they've got any questions for um the students. All right. So, we have a couple questions online in Zoom. So, one question we have is from Amanda Gray, who said, "It's wonderful how active you guys all are, but how do we reach students who are disengaged or focused on their studies, busy with school, working, or are just overwhelmed?" I find that question interesting because I kind of put myself in that situation. I'm not going to lie. Um, I'm currently doing a lot at the moment, even though I'm only enrolled in three classes as in as an undergraduate at CU Denver. Um, however, I feel like I have little to no time to kind of explore or go to events. However, I'm here today. Like, I still had time for this and I'm very thankful. But if there's one thing that I realized that helped me be here today was make connections with those that have like the same passion as you. If it weren't for my passion for education and as well as mathematics, I wouldn't have the opportunity to talk about OEER and discuss it with my one of my professors, the tenure professors at CU Denver. And he elaborated on how it doesn't have to be a full devotion. It can be it can be a hobby for some, but it could just be a little thing, just a couple couple hours a week or maybe a month, but as long as you stay devoted to at least one thing, then you can carry that out. And I'm I would just like to emphasize how much connections can get you. >> I love that answer. Thank you. Would you Is there anything you'd like to add on a bit? And obviously as students, yeah, we tend to be pretty busy and all this and that, but I feel like motivation is something that is very interpersonal, right? It's hard to motivate someone else. But I think what everybody does enjoy is just hobbies. Everybody has hobbies. Everybody has passion for something. And if you able to find that out and find what they're passionate for, I think it's pretty easy to get someone to enroll, right? Especially for many people as they tend to be open-minded about topics, they will they will get out there and make connections, network, and I think it's just get the right passion and they'll they'll reach out. All right. So, as all of my colleagues have said about passion and then being dedicated to something, I would also add that you'd have to also learn how to manage your time and then know how to draw your schedules to be able to fit in other things. If you are not passionate about it, you probably wouldn't want to do anything about it. And then don't put that on yourself. Just follow what you are passionate about and then create time for it and I believe you'll be able to do it. >> Awesome. I love that. I think um yeah, you're all right. I think at the end of the day for if for passionate about something, you're going to find the time for it, right? So amazing. I I believe we had a couple more uh questions uh from our virtual audience. Next question we have is how can we better include the students perspective in student voices as we create OEER ZTC content. And one thing I would say is obviously I think this is one thing that would be very collegewise I believe obviously you have a lot of student government in plenty of colleges you have a lot of honor society as well. So I think the best thing to do is have those students who do want to be involved and do want to reach out and make an impact and have an impact in these sort of things reach out to their honor society, their student government and as they pitch out ideas, put um stuff out there. I think the higherups within that community college that university can then put a pretty good idea to open stacks OEER and higher education as well. >> Thank you. So I would say that with that most I have a professor who would ask for feedback with their open resources then the feedback we give back to them they are able to work around it around what we have given them. So whatever they are providing for us is what we are happy to learn from and then we see ourselves in what we are learning. So I think that is a way the feedback is a very good way that you can get the voices of the students in open air too. >> Yeah, I like what you said because a lot that goes into it is what are our peers or our higherups thinking of ourselves like in the sense of enriching their voices. I think that's very import for us as educators, as faculty, as librarians, as as adults in general. We should be able to encourage uh students, children, and all types of people to en encourage them to branch out and have their voices heard and kind of be passionate about something so important such as education or if it's government or if it's other resources that or topics that they find interesting. I feel like that's very important. And yeah, just making sure we're an advocate for our stu students so they can be advocates for us. I would love that. >> Yeah, I love that. Um I think uh again, you guys do such great job and you know, even if um we take a little part of what you do and incorporate that into our oeers, it can it can um you know, it can bring a great impact. At Otarot Tech, we use uh uh we take student assignments, we create them into orers um and that's worked really well for us as well. Um We have more virtual questions. If not, then maybe we can get to some inerson questions. >> So, we are at time, but I do have one last takeaway question. If there is one thing you want the audience to walk away with from this conversation, what would it be? >> I would say my biggest thing and I apply this very personally is Authenticity is the biggest thing. So staying true to yourself, staying true to your values, who you are, I think is my biggest thing. I believe if you do stay true to who you are, what you want to represent, everything else is just going to fall into place just like that. So yeah, >> that's great. >> So one thing that I would like everyone to take away with during this conversation is that We student really want to get involved in OEER and then we would want the faculty to collaborate more with us when they are doing their OAR and also would I would also like that we also collaborate with other regions to make OAR not to only one particular region. like that is that's a good she took it from me. Um I would just like to reiterate how much uh or how thankful I am for everybody here for and for those that couldn't attend or just educators throughout. I'm very thankful for what we're doing. Although it's a tight subject to just be an educator, just be an advocate for our students, it's very it's a challenging one and I want to commend all of you that are so much mature than me and I know just starting out in my journey, but um just I want to recognize how much you're doing and you're making an impact because we're all here today because we've all had an impact from an educator just like you. So to keep being passionate and just stay strong. I know it's hard. I know it's hard barely. I know but I I just I'm very thankful for educators. >> All right. Well, thank you everyone. Thank you again. Um that's all the time we have for today. Um can we again get a a round of applause for these fantastic students.