KEYNOTE ADDRESS – Opening Doors with Open Pedagogy: Access, Imagination, and Student Engagement

“Open” doesn’t end with access to materials and education, but rather should clear the way for deep, imaginative, and critical student engagement with learning. In this keynote presentation, Sean Michael Morris will explore the critical roots of open pedagogy, and will discuss the ways in which imagination—an intellectual activity that allows us to see things as they might be otherwise—unlocks new avenues for student engagement and success. The classroom is a place of intersecting priorities, assumptions, power dynamics, and possibilities, and an open pedagogy starts first by acknowledging these intersections and the need to create environments where agency, comprehension, and change are active.

Sean Michael Morris, Course Hero VP

As Vice President, Academics, Sean leads Course Hero’s educator team and initiatives including partnerships with faculty, development of Course Hero’s educator platform and the creation of educator-focused content, events and workshops. Sean brings 20 years of experience in academia to Course Hero and is an expert in student-centered learning and critical digital pedagogy.

Prior to joining Course Hero, Sean was a Senior Instructor in Learning, Design, and Technology at the University of Colorado Denver. He also co-founded Digital Pedagogy Lab, an international professional development gathering for educators committed to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, critical digital pedagogy, and imagining a new future for education. Sean co-authored An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy, and has co-edited and contributed to a number of other written works and examinations. He regularly speaks at industry-leading events on the topics of critical pedagogy, digital community, progressive education, social justice, and the role of imagination in learning and teaching. Sean’s work has been featured on National Public Radio, The Guardian, Times Higher Ed, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and numerous other publications and podcasts. He received his M.A. in English from the University of Colorado Boulder.