In the 2018-2019 academic year I have worked to introduce an open pedagogy assessment in the online BA in Humanities (Psychology Major) programs. I was inspired by some excellent presentations at the 2018 OE Global conference hosted by TU Delft in beautiful Delft, Holland that gave examples of different possibilities in incorporating open pedagogy assessments into a module.

Following the open pedagogy principle of empowering students to create and share useful information, we sought to enhance the assessment design for an undergraduate developmental and educational psychology module such that its third and final assignment changed from being an applied assignment where students produced a ‘mock’ report for schools that was marked but not shared outside of the module, to one where they produce a communication to the public that will be shared openly/publically. The assignment brief asks students to first write a literature review on mental health and wellbeing in the young in the context of the steps post-primary schools take to protect adolescents from risk and increase wellbeing. Secondly, students are asked to create a communication, in the form of a digital information pamphlet or an infographic, that can be shared with the public, advising schools and educators on how to improve adolescent mental health and wellbeing. At the point of submission students will have the option to grant permission for the team to publically share these digital pamphlets and infographics. We are planning to conduct a follow up research study to evaluate the pilot.