Open Pedagogy with Social Annotation and OER Texts

Annotation improves student focus and comprehension, and social annotation gives students the opportunity to interact with and learn from each other, building class community. The presentation will discuss applying social annotation tools to OER texts and student perceptions of annotation. Participants will learn about Perusall and Google Drive as online social annotation tools towards their OER digital reading. Faculty and students in two-year colleges regularly work with online materials on laptops and tablets (Gierdowski, 2019; Galanek and Gierdowski, 2020). When online materials are OER texts,students have the materials digitally, providing increased access and accessibility. Yet, some students and faculty report a preference for printed materials (Cohn, 2021). Instructors can help students engage with online materials by teaching them effective ways to interact with texts online (Cohn, 2021). Social annotation is one method of effectively interacting with online texts to increase student comprehension and build community in the classroom.