ENCORE within your institution
What could be the best institutional strategy to support the integration of ENCORE in your institution?
If you have asked yourself this question at least once during this process, here are some examples of approaches to start thinking about how to introduce and enhance ENCORE in your institutional and professional life.
An excellent starting point could be asking oneself some questions to open up the issue of the Open approach and the possibilities associated with it. Questions such as:
Why do you think using OER is useful/important/significant/effective?
What do you think are the "principles" "rules" for using OER effectively?
What actions should your organisation, or similar to yours, take to encourage/stimulate the use of OER?
How do you think the a) design, b) implementation of training-learning, teaching/learning activities would change with the use of OER?
These questions could initiate an initial brainstorming session and frame the level at which one can and wants to work in order to design and integrate OERs and ENCORE.
From here, the discussion can be expanded, triangulating these initial reflections with the institutional level where efforts can be made to embrace open education. Below are some reflection points for a multi-layered approach supporting educational reflection and transformation.
> If there is an institutional group focused on the use of AI in the professional area:
- Engage the group to explore ENCORE’s potential in integrating open educational resources (OER) and supporting learning design.
- Organize meetings or workshops to introduce ENCORE and discuss possible applications.
- Establish a dedicated subgroup to experiment with ENCORE in different disciplines.
> If one has to interface with a faculty development unit:
- Propose ENCORE as a tool to support instructional design and structured learning pathways.
- Integrate ENCORE into ongoing professional development programs for faculty and academic staff.
- Develop tutorial resources or guides to facilitate autonomous adoption of the platform.
> Whether it is a departmental working group or a professional development centre for the integration of educational technology:
- Pilot ENCORE within a course or training module to assess its impact.
- Share case studies and best practices to encourage broader adoption among colleagues.
- Collaborate with other departments to explore interdisciplinary applications.
> If there are no organised groups and you want to support the creation of a community of practice or the adoption of ENCORE in a core teaching curriculum:
- Initiate an informal network of educators and researchers interested in using ENCORE.
- Advocate for ENCORE’s inclusion in faculty training for new hires or professional development programs.
- Work with institutional leadership to incorporate ENCORE into the institution’s digital education strategies.
Which approach did you prefer? And why?
Think about which of these strategies would be the most effective in your context and how you could adapt it to maximize ENCORE’s impact. Open a new post on the General Forum and write your response about it.
To deepen the strategies to engage teachers/trainers/educators and learners in the usage of OERs, see Strategies to integrate ENCORE in your institution of The ENCORE Approach (Raffaghelli et al., 2023)