Open Learning News and Updates

Student Spotlight: Mohammad Sanan, OER Assistant

In their own words, here is what one of our OER Assistants has to say about their term in Open Learning.

Mohammad Sanan

Please introduce yourself.

I am Mohammad Sanan, a 3^rd year student in Bachelor of Public Relations at Conestoga. I love exploring new things and learning from others.

How does this placement relate to your program?

In my program, I engage in a lot of writing, research, and event planning. This placement allowed me to organize an event to raise awareness about OER. Additionally, the program equipped me with the essential skills needed for success in the workplace.

What’s one thing that you’ve learned about open education so far?

One thing that I think is useful is that anyone can contribute to OER and help others through their own knowledge no matter how small it may be. And I think that is a very great thing to have. If I am proud of my work, I can put an open license on it to help others learn from it.

Is there anything about open education that surprises you?

To me the surprising thing is how the Open Learning team collaborates with different authors to create the OER. I think the entire process is very iterative and a lot of back-and-forth revisions are required between the instructional designers and authors.

And for such a small team to be able to do many OERs at once, I think that’s amazing.

You’ve been working on a wide range of projects with the Instructional Designers on our team. Can you tell us about one of these projects and what interests you about it?

One of the projects I worked on involved creating multiple H5P activities for an Open Educational Resource (OER). My role was to develop around 20 H5Ps based on the provided texts. After completing the activities, the instructional designer would have the author review them, and I would make any necessary adjustments based on their feedback.

This project required a lot of independent problem-solving. For instance, there were times when the provided content wasn’t suitable for a specific H5P type, so I had to evaluate and decide which format would work best.

As a student, can you share your thoughts on one of the open projects our team has worked on and why you think students could benefit from it?

I believe open projects related to the medical field are highly beneficial for students, as healthcare textbooks are often very expensive.

From personal experience, my brother, who is in medical school, frequently purchases costly books to learn more about specific topics that his school textbooks either don’t cover in detail or fail to explain in an easily understandable way. He supplements his studies with these additional resources. OERs in healthcare could provide significant benefits by offering accessible and high-quality materials, especially since healthcare textbooks tend to be both expensive and require specialized expertise.

What else have you been excited about during this placement?

Another aspect I’ve been excited about is meeting new people. Through this placement, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with many talented individuals, including my coworkers, supervisors, and even people I’ve encountered during meetings and events. I’m genuinely eager to learn more about others and discover what they are passionate about.

Sanan has been a helpful addition to Open Learning this term, having organized the multi-campus student awareness event to great success. His confidence and ability to work collaboratively continue to strengthen the team.