This handbook, produced by OpenGame project with the support of the Erasmus+ programme, aims to contribute to the adoption of open teaching practices among educators in the Higher Education area. In order to do so, the document presents 24 real-life open teaching practices that respond to eight main challenges that educators face today and that can be tackled through open approaches. These challenges are: Broaden access to learning for enrolled students, Broaden access to learning for non-enrolled learners, Improve quality of teaching resources, Improve course design, Increase students motivation, Increase students engagement, Assess students in a useful way for their future career, Use the learning potential of students’ online life. For each of these challenges, we present three open teaching practices, detailing their potential for transferability and the competences needed to put them in place, ultimately aiming at inspiring educators to try out these methods to make their teaching more inclusive and innovative. Also, the document presents an original Open Education Competences Framework, structured around one transversal attitude, two competences areas (open resources and open pedagogies) and a number of detailed skills.
This resource captures key insights from a full-day workshop held on 8 May 2025, hosted by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and led by internationally recognised expert Dr Alison Cook-Sather. The event focused on the transformative potential of authentic student-staff partnerships as a strategic approach to advancing student engagement, success, and institutional effectiveness.
Attended by academic staff, institutional leaders, student success professionals, and sector partners from across Ireland, the workshop featured a combination of keynote presentations, lightning talks, and interactive sessions. Through real-world examples and hands-on activities, participants explored how to build meaningful, inclusive, and sustainable collaboration between students and staff.
For the full event schedule and a complete list of lightning talk contributors to this slide deck, visit the workshop schedule.