About the Playbook

Open Culture and Course Design equips HBCU educators and instructional designers with practical strategies to create culturally affirming, inclusive curricula through open educational practices. This playbook serves as a practical guide for faculty, instructional designers, and academic staff to embed open education principles into curriculum development, making learning more relevant, engaging, and reflective of students’ diverse identities. By leveraging open educational resources, collaborative course design, and innovative pedagogical approaches, educators can create learning experiences that foster both academic success and a strong sense of belonging.

This playbook addresses the urgent need to align curricula with the lived experiences, identities, and aspirations of students by integrating culturally affirming pedagogies and leveraging open educational resources (OER). Through actionable, staged approaches (Design, Enhance, Optimize) and reflective roadmaps, educators can incrementally implement meaningful, scalable change to foster equity, collaboration, and engagement across their institutions.