Communications in Information Literacy - Issue 1 - Article 5 - Scaffolding the Open: Transforming an International Studies Course using Open Pedagogy

Oct 15, 2026

This case study describes how two librarians redesigned an international information literacy course by building a scaffolded open pedagogy experience. The approach focuses on helping students develop transferable skills while investigating how information is produced, disseminated, and interpreted worldwide through open educational practices. Using Pressbooks, students created multimedia content on topics such as global news media, censorship, misinformation, and digital divides. Students then either openly licensed, publicly shared with retained copyright, or kept work private, supported by social annotation with Hypothesis.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background: From OER to open pedagogy

Course context (INTSTDS 4850)

Redesign approach and key definitions

OEP definition from Cronin and MacLaren

Open pedagogy definition from DeRosa and Jhangiani

Communications in Information Literacy | Volume 17 Issue 1 | Article 5 | | --- | --- | | 6-15-2023
Scaffolding the Open: Transforming an International Studies Course using Open Pedagogy
Hilary Bussell
The Ohio State University, [bussell.21@osu.edu](bussell.21@osu.edu)
Amanda Larson
The Ohio State University, [larson.581@osu.edu](larson.581@osu.edu)
Follow this and additional works at: [https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit](https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit)
Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Information Literacy Commons
Let us know how access to this document benefits you. | | Recommended Citation Bussell, H., & Larson, A. (2023) . Scaffolding the Open: Transforming an International Studies Course using Open Pedagogy. Communications in Information Literacy, 17 (1), 279–298 . [https://doi.org/10.15760/](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[comminfolit.2023.17.1.5](comminfolit.2023.17.1.5) This open access Innovative Practice is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4 .0) . All documents in PDXScholar should meet accessibility standards. If we can make this document more accessible to you, contact our team. Scaffolding the Open: Transforming an International Studies Course using Open Pedagogy Hilary Bussell, The Ohio State University Amanda Larson, The Ohio State University Abstract This case study describes how two librarians transformed an international information literacy course by creating a scaffolded open pedagogy experience for students to build transferable skills while exploring how information is produced, disseminated, and interpreted across the world. The authors discuss how we collaborated on the project to incorporate open pedagogy, tools, and strategies to enhance learning. The result was ascaffolded course using open pedagogy to help students engage with global information issues. Using Pressbooks, students published multimedia content exploring topics including global news media, censorship, misinformation, and digital divides. Then students chose to either openly license their work, share it publicly while retaining their copyright, or hide it from public view. Additionally, students used Hypothesis to socially annotate reading assignments outside of class. We reflect on our experience revising this course, what worked and what did not, and how we will adapt the course in the future. Keywords: open pedagogy, information literacy, international studies, credit-bearing instruction Special issue exploring the intersections between information literacy and open educational practices Innovative Practices edited by Andrea Baer, Carolyn Gamtso, and Merinda McLure Bussell, H., & Larson, A. (2023). Scaffolding the open: Transforming an international studies course using open pedagogy. Communications in Information Literacy, 17(1), 279–298. Scaffolding the Open: Transforming an International Studies Course using Open Pedagogy Once a course has migrated to using open educational resources (OER), instructors often take the next step in engaging students in the classroom by using open pedagogy or open educational practices (OEP) . This article recounts two librarians’experiences redesigning a global information literacy course using an open pedagogy approach. International Studies (INTSTDS) 4850: Understanding the Global Information Society is a three-credit, upperdivision undergraduate course offered at The Ohio State University. Originally developed in the early 2000s (Espinosa de los Monteros & Black, 2021), it is a requirement for international studies majors with a globalization studies specialty and counts as an elective course for others. A unique feature of INTSTDS 4850 is that, while housed within an academic department, librarians have taught the course ever since its creation. In its iterations over the years,

FAQs

What change do the authors make to the international information literacy course?

They transform the course using a scaffolded open pedagogy experience so students can build transferable skills while applying information literacy concepts to global information issues.

How do students create and publish their course projects?

Students use Pressbooks to produce multimedia content addressing areas such as global news media, censorship, misinformation, and digital divides.

What options do students have for sharing their work?

Students can openly license their work, share it publicly while retaining copyright, or hide it from public view.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by WPS_1790064749