Jennryn Wetzler (Niger) wins Catalyst Award

This award is presented to an individual actively engaged in promoting the creation and implementation of OER and application Open Practices. A Catalyst is someone other than a professor/teacher that supports the ideals of the Open Education movement through their own practices and who creates engagement in Openness within an organization or community. Examples might include but are not limited to librarians, researchers, instructional designers, policymakers, or administrators.

Jennryn Wetzler (Niger 2004-06)

Jennryn Wetzler (Niger 2004-06)

Jennryn Wetzler is the Director of Learning and Training at Creative Commons. She runs the Creative Commons Certificate program, a training in open licensing, copyright, and the ethos of our global, shared commons. She focuses on projects to increase collaboration and support for open education, globally. Prior to Creative Commons, Jennryn worked on open policy and open educational resources (OER) at the U.S. Department of State. She has also enjoyed gaining a different perspective on education through international development work in Thailand and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger.

The ten week online Creative Commons Certificate course provides an-in depth study of Creative Commons licenses and open practices, developing participants’ open licensing proficiency and understanding of the broader context for open advocacy. Courses are composed of readings, quizzes, discussions, and practical exercises to develop learners’ open skills. Personalized engagement with expert facilitators and copyright lawyers in the field is provided.

Based on feedback Jennryn has ensured the Certificate program covers 100% of CC’s cost of delivery, including paying all community instructors who teach, technology and content maintenance, and program expansion and updates, including reaching new audiences and new languages. To ensure the Certificate is inclusive of colleagues less able to pay, especially those in the Global South, Jennryn has created a scholarship fund subsidizing CC Certificates to as many participants as possible.

There is more community demand for the Certificate training than CC can currently accommodate. To address this, Jennryn has led the creation of a CC Certificate Facilitator Training. In addition she has supported translations of Certificate content which is now available in eight languages: Arabic, Burmese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, and Yoruba. Certificate course materials have been adapted to include more local case studies about copyright law and open licensing in different countries.

In addition to the CC Certificate program Jennryn is responsible for the Creative Commons Open Education Platform which is part of Creative Commons Global Network, a community of advocates, activists, scholars, artists, and users working to strengthen the Commons worldwide. The Creative Commons Open Education Platform is a space for open education advocates and practitioners to identify, plan and coordinate multi-national open education content, practices and policy activities to foster better sharing of knowledge.