Beyrer teaches asynchronous online history, and in 2023-24 led a cross-disciplinary team of faculty at Cosumnes River College in a special project. This team spent the fall semester taking a class on using open educational resources and open pedagogy to empower students and developed action plans to implement the following spring. The first part of the action plan was to engage in a series of identity-based discussions. These provide a structured way for students to bring their whole selves into their practice as historians. The presenter enjoys observing the strengthened communities in his classes and the deeper connections students have made with their learning. The second part further empowered students by inviting them to edit the textbook, which is possible thanks to its Creative Commons license. Beyrer incorporated his students’ voices directly into a resource that is integral to his teaching. Each semester his current students’ learning is informed by the contributions made by their predecessors. Beyrer will demonstrate how he uses Canvas and Google Docs to implement open pedagogy and create a classroom environment where each student can be fully present in their scholarly work. He will also share how he involved students and the process he uses to assess their perceptions of these projects. These techniques can be adopted by any online instructors.
