This week, the facilitation team for the topic of exploring OEP and its impact on the role of the online facilitation assigned us into groups for collaborative annotation and discussion on curated articles about OEP. This blog reflection is part of their facilitation week activities.

I found this experience interesting because the annotation app Hypothes.is allows multiple collaborators to annotate and reply to one another on the same article PDF. I think this is a tool with a lot of potential for collaborative and open learning. However, it also poses challenges when it comes technical proficiency and compatibility expected in the learner cohort.

For facilitators to include openness in their practice and also employ a new tool to encourage openness, three key questions I would ask before using is:

• What are my goals and intentions for learning or facilitating using this method? Did I communicate to the learners how I envision openness in this experience?
• Are the learners ready for openness or do we need some more time and engagement to prepare them?
• Does this tool or technology make or break the experience? What other ways are easily accessible and available for consideration?