| Title | 10. CanadARThistories |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Collaboratively designing an open-access course |
| Contributor | Johanna Amos (author) |
| Alena Buis (author) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0462.10 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0462/chapters/10.11647/obp.0462.10 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Johanna Amo; Alena Buis; |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-07-02 |
| Long abstract | This chapter outlines the development of CanadARThistories, an open-access undergraduate course on Canadian art history, highlighting its innovative approach compared to traditional art history survey courses. It details how digital and communication technologies facilitated collaboration among the course team, enabling a shared labour model and the integration of diverse perspectives. The chapter reflects on the benefits and challenges of collaborative course design for educators, including enhanced creativity and workload distribution. It also explores the advantages of an open-access, collaboratively designed course for student learners, promoting accessibility and diverse viewpoints. Ultimately, the chapter proposes collaboratively designed courses as a powerful model for reimagining humanities education, fostering inclusivity, and enriching both the teaching and the learning experience. In essence, it offers a vision of education that is not only equitable but also collaborative, forward-thinking, and profoundly human-centred. |
| Page range | pp. 125–134 |
| Print length | 10 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Johanna Amos, PhD, works as Outreach Manager at Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University (Canada) where she supports undergraduate and graduate students in the development of learning strategies and academic English skills. She has also taught art, textile, and fashion history at various universities in Canada and researches the material and visual culture of nineteenth-century imperial Britain, with a particular emphasis on women producers, textile labour, and acts of self-fashioning. She is co-editor (with Lisa Binkley) of Stitching the Self: Identity and the Needle Arts (Bloomsbury, Visual Arts, 2021). Johanna is also a committed educator with a deep interest in alternative pedagogies, anti-racist instructional approaches, and linguistic justice in Higher Education. She is a founding member of Open Art Histories, a working group committed to developing and sharing pedagogical strategies for inclusive art histories.
Alena Buis, PhD, is an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Surrey, Canada). Her recent publications on pedagogy include a chapter on open educational practices in The Teaching the Ancient World Handbook (Archaeopress, 2020), a post for Art History Teaching Resources Weekly (2020), and an article in the Special Issue of the Sixteenth Century Journal (“Teaching the Early Modern in the Era of COVID-19”, 2020). Buis is also one of the founders of Open Art Histories (OAH), a SSHRC-funded collective, committed to building a generative and supportive national network for teaching Canadian art or art history in Canada and addressing pressing pedagogical challenges, including globalising art history, decolonising the discipline, and using OER/OEP to advance accessibility and inclusion.