Open Ed Week: Innovating Assessment and Enhancing Engagement

Today, we’re celebrating Days 3 and 4 of Open Education Week (March 3-7). This global celebration of accessible, inclusive, high-quality education. Open Education empowers learners and educators by removing barriers to knowledge—barriers like cost or lack of accessibility to resources.

Day 3 of Open Ed Week focused on innovating assessment strategies
The theme for Day 3 of Open Ed Week centered on rethinking assessment to foster deeper learning. Open education encourages transparent, student-centered assessments that focus on authentic learning experiences. Check out the Virginia faculty-vetted OER available to you by going to VIVA Open Commons. It’s well worth setting up your free account to save all the great OER materials you find.

We will be keeping the momentum going all month long with our Instructional Design Bootcamp (March 17-21), where we’ll explore strategies for designing assessments that are meaningful, transparent, and aligned with student learning. Day 3 of the Bootcamp (March 19) will focus on Assessment Architects, covering authentic assessments, rubrics and engagement tools like Hypothes.is and Packback to enhance student interaction and success.

Why it matters: Rethinking assessments to be more transparent and authentic empowers students, leading to improved learning outcomes and a more inclusive educational environment.

📅 Wednesday, March 19 | ⏰  9:30-12:30 p.m. | 📍Pender 122  |  Register

Join us to transform your assessment approaches and align with open education practices!

Day 4 focuses on Enhancing Student Engagement
On Day 4 of Open Education Week (March 3-7), we focus on engagement—because learning is most effective when students actively participate. Open education fosters collaboration and accessibility, ensuring all learners can contribute. In asynchronous online courses, tools such as Hypothes.is and Packback help students connect and engage with each other and the material in meaningful and thoughtful ways. Did you know that, as a NOVA faculty member, you have access to Pressbooks? NOVA Open Publishing is Pressbooks for NOVA. This platform helps you create, adapt and share accessible high-quality digital content with ease. Check out the NOVA OER Quick Start Guide for more.  

We’re extending the Open Ed conversation all month long, leading up to our Instructional Design Bootcamp. Day 4 of the Bootcamp (March 20) will focus on Engagement Essentials, where we’ll explore strategies for fostering student interaction, designing dynamic activities and leveraging tools like Hypothes.is and Packback. We’ll also discuss how accessibility and inclusive course design help ensure all students can fully participate.

Why it matters: Active engagement and accessibility are the cornerstones of effective learning. By designing courses with these principles in mind, we create learning environments where every student has a voice.

📅 Thursday, March 20 | ⏰  9:30-12:30 p.m. | 📍Pender 122  |  Register

Let’s work together to create dynamic and inclusive learning experiences!

—Caryn Sever, director of instructional design and development, NOVA Online