EDSIN-QUBES Open Education Fellows: An Open Education Community

We are excited to announce the launch of the EDSIN-QUBES Open Education Fellows: An Open Education Community leadership program for life science, math biology, statistics, and ecoinformatics educators interested in inclusive data science education. 

Environmental Data Science Inclusion Network (EDSIN) is partnering with QUBES to launch an Open Education Community Leadership program to continue the conversation on building an inclusive undergraduate life science and bio math education community. An Open Education Community (OEC) is an online community freely open to the public online that is a source of support for conversations on education. 

A goal of this Fellows program is to continue the conversations that occurred at the April conference. EDSIN-QUBES Open Education Fellows will develop a space or portal for conversation and resource curation around the EDSIN core vision – integrating conversations in undergraduate life and environmental science education, data science education, and inclusive design. We define these synergistic areas broadly as:

  • Data science education draws on multiple quantitative fields including computer science, mathematics, statistics, and related discipline-based education research communities.
  • Life and environmental science education draws on the many domains which have established informatics and big data aspects such as bioinformatics and geographic information science, as well as more recently emerged and emerging areas such as ecoinformatics. It also includes related discipline-based education research communities.
  • Inclusive design draws from education research and evaluation related to inclusion, such as inclusive pedagogy, universal design for learning, engaging with underserved communities, and social justice.

Our goal is to expand these conversations to be part of shaping a broader open and accessible community around data science education for life and environmental science. Fellows will be integral to the EDSIN Resources Working Group, and may interact with other EDSIN Working Groups and community initiatives to engage the broader public. EDSIN-QUBES Open Education Fellows will serve for 12 months to:

  • Shape the conversation around data science education, inclusion, and life and environmental science education.
  • Attend the QUBES/BioQUEST Summer Workshop focused on Evolution of Data in the Classroom: From Data to Data Science, July 14-19, 2019 in Williamsburg, VA (Speakers here) with full travel and registration expenses paid by EDSIN.
  • Co-design, build, and launch a QUBES Open Education Community space.
  • Participate in bi-weekly online meetings with the other Open Education Fellows to learn about:
    • inclusive design,
    • discipline specific resources and implementation of inclusive design, and
    • building, sustaining and managing online communities.
  • Benefit from peer mentoring support from QUBES Leadership and the EDSIN community.
  • Recruit leadership from within and mentor the next cohort of EDSIN - QUBES Open Education Fellows.

Deliverables

  • While at the QUBES/BioQuest Summer Workshop, Fellows will create a plan of action for using individual strengths and leadership to help meet EDSIN’s vision and goals, and work with fellows to co-design and implement an Open Education Community “portal.” This may be in conjunction with the EDSIN site, as seperate QUBESHub Supergroup pages, or in another format as deemed appropriate by the Fellows.
  • With other Fellows and QUBES representatives, create an ontology for tagging open educational resources with terms to help search and identify resources that include inclusive design, data science, and life and environmental science. This ontology will be implemented in the QUBESHub Resource tagging system to make resources more searchable and useful to OER users.
  • Will work together to grow the OEC and recruit additional OEC leadership and voices.