United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship
This global award-winning fellowship provides faculty with the opportunity to work with colleagues and students worldwide to impact change through open pedagogy and community engagement.
This fellowship is designed to support faculty with creating renewable assignments (all of which will carry a Creative Commons license) that help students become agents of change in their own communities and to build champions of open education within institutions of higher education.
The fellowship's conceptual framework is based on open pedagogy and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which is a set of 17 goals that address a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues, such as poverty, inequality, climate change and peace and justice. The SDGs are designed to achieve and maintain social justice and a sustainable future, with a target of the year 2030 set for the attainment of each goal.
Participating Institutions
The following institutions are committed to supporting social justice through this international partnership in which faculty can work across disciplines and institutions to maximize global impact.
- Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland, USA)
- Montgomery College (Maryland, USA)
- Pima Community College (Tucson, AZ)
- Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona, USA)
- Langara College in British Columbia (Canada)
- Thompson Rivers University (British Columbia, Canada)
- Kwantlen Polytechnic University (British Columbia, Canada)
- ULACIT Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia Y Tecnología (Costa Rica)
- Nova Scotia Community College (Canada)
- Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara (Indonesia)
- BINUS University (Jakarta, Indonesia)
- Douglas College (British Columbia, Canada)
About the Fellowship
Each fellowship team will design three renewable assignments during the Summer semester. A minimum of two renewable assignments will be deployed in the classes of each fellowship team during the subsequent academic year.
Fellows will develop a plan to share and influence pedagogy in their departments or at the College as a whole, becoming champions of open education and sustainability in teaching and learning.
About Open Pedagogy
Open pedagogy is an access-oriented commitment to learner-driven education. An increasingly popular form of open pedagogy involves the design and use of renewable assignments. Renewable assignments (also known as non-disposable assignments) are those that add value to a student's world, live outside of the boundaries and beyond the duration of the course, and are likely to have a lasting impact (Seraphin et al., 2019; Wiley, 2013).
About Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. The creation, adaptation, and adoption of OER supports equitable access to education.
How to Apply
The application for 2025 UN SDG Open Pedagogy Fellowship will be open until April 14, 2025.
Pima faculty interested in becoming a UN SDG Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellow are welcome to discuss their interest with Chelsea James, PCC OER Director and Point-of-Contact for the program, at cjames2@pima.edu.
2025 Fellowship Requirements
Each fellowship team will design three renewable assignments in Summer 2025. A minimum of two renewable assignments will be deployed in the classes of each fellowship team during Fall 2025. Faculty will be expected to present on their proposed assignments prior to their deployment.
Fellowship teams will include 2 to 3 instructors from different disciplines and different institutions so as to maximize student impact. Each PCC faculty fellow will be compensated $1,000 in two installments in 2025.
The table below lists the requirements of the fellowship:
| Deliverable | Deadline |
| 4 Virtual Meetings, 10:00-1:00 p.m. MST |
June 4, 2025 June 11, 2025 July 18, 2025 August 6, 2025 |
| 3 Creative Commons Licensed Renewable Assignments | August 15, 2025 |
| Course Data Request Form | October 31, 2025 |
| Faculty Reflection | December 20, 2025 |
| 3-Minute Student Video | December 20, 2025 |
| Share out and create impact in PCC Dept | Spring 2026 |
| Faculty/Student Showcase Presentation | Spring 2026 |
Note: All meetings are held remotely.