How do you get from a single WordPress blog to building pages with students across a school or institution? Or how do you empower students on the open web using tools like OpenLab?
This case charts the success story of the OpenLab at the University of New Haven, which started as a small passion project and has grown significantly with grant funding from the Davis Educational Foundation. Find out what has happened since and how this initiative has benefited students and faculty in Higher Ed.
One of the ingredients for success for this project was to start with a single site in 2019, designed to support an experimental course called the Digital Humanities Lab (or DH Lab). This one-credit course was taught collaboratively by six faculty members, and the presentations were published on the website. This made the work in the classroom visible to a wider community.
Everything changed in 2020 during the pandemic, when OpenLab was used to support a course offered to all incoming students at the university called Pandemic as Social Mirror. As the number of students enrolled in the course grew, new faculty were added as collaborators on the site, which fostered online engagement during a time of social distancing. Truly interactive models of learning and teaching helped empower students across different disciplines. WordPress became a foundational tool for both students and faculty, and the pioneering templates developed for the OpenLab site lowered the bar to entry.
Inspired by the potential of OpenLab and similar Open Educational tools, a successful grant funding application supported faculty in transforming courses through Open Pedagogy. The site for the Open Pedagogy Project showcases this innovative approach, resulting in transformative and inclusive learning in partnership with students.
Mary Isbell tells the story :
Curious to learn more about how CBOX OpenLab is used at the University of New Haven? Here’s Mary Isbell, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Student Recruitment and Retention, sharing her perspective on getting institutional buy-in and winning the hearts and minds of colleagues along the way:
Find out more
We are proud that our Managed Hosting service supports projects like the CBOX OpenLab at the University of New Haven. Managed Hosting covers a range of projects, large and small, for your organization or community, including WordPress Multisite, ReclaimEDU and Managed cPanel Hosting all made possible thanks to our world-class support and dedicated cloud infrastructure.
Putting CBOX Openlab to the test
OpenLab at the University of New Haven
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Our case studies offer quick insights into practice and products, helping you make the most of open tools and infrastructure. With practical examples and take aways to help you navigate your own projects, these case studies offer a way to share practice, celebrate impact and contribute to the community.