OEGlobal Voices 92: OEAwardee Melody Chin === Intro Music and Highlight Quote --- [00:00:05] Melody Chin: Definitely I think librarians are key advocates in OER. We've come a long way from the times we were seen as gatekeepers of printed books when everything was physical. And now that information is readily available online and the self-generated content, I feel like librarian roles have evolved beyond finding information, to imparting skills to students and the community that they should critically evaluate and assess the information that they find. [00:00:36] Being in the space of education, librarians have developed quite close relationships with our faculty instructors. And we are seen as trusted partners in recommending sources, which includes, OER as well, and in starting the conversation on OER with them. Librarians, we also do have some expertise in making resources discoverable and there's definitely more potential in making OER visible to our own communities as well. Welcome to OE Global Voices Podcast --- [00:01:10] Alan Levine: Welcome to the OE Global Voices Podcast Studio, where we take you around the world for conversations with open educators. Today is August 11th, 2025, and we're visiting with Melody Chin from the Singapore Management University. Meet Melody Chin: Award-Winning Open Educator --- [00:01:23] Alan Levine: For her efforts there and broader in the region, Melody was recognized in 2024 with an Open Education Award for Excellence, an individual award as a Catalyst. You're gonna get to understand what that catalyst means when you get to hear from Melody. And actually it's been 10 months, so I'm a little bit late in doing this since we announced Melody as a winner of this award. [00:01:44] But I like to think it gives us time to, to learn even more from our winners, following their award. Some time has passed and maybe some things have developed for her, and we get to learn some new things. But also, right now we're in the process of reviewing the nominations for the 2025 awards. [00:02:00] And we have close to 200 nominations in this year, and it's really exciting to see who's gonna be the next wave of award winners. [00:02:08] I'm your host from OE Global Alan Levine, and I'm just joyful to let you get to know more about Melody and you'll get a firsthand understanding of why she was given this award. [00:02:18] But let's get to the conversation because I've been talking way too much and we wanna hear more from Melody and less of mine. hello Melody, how are you today? [00:02:27] Melody Chin: Hi, I am good today. Thank you, Alan. How are you? [00:02:30] Alan Levine: I'm very good. Melody's Background and Journey --- [00:02:31] Alan Levine: We have to start with an introduction. I did a little bit of that and I ask people to let us know where in the world you're from and you'll give me like a map location likely. But because our podcast audience is listening, if you can describe the room or the environment that you're sitting in right now. [00:02:50] Melody Chin: Sure. I am living in Singapore right now where it's warm all year round and not many seasons throughout the year. I am sitting at my desk where I work from home. My lamp is on because it's 10:00 PM here now at night. Yeah, not much outside the window. Some high rises with lights on given the late hour. [00:03:16] Alan Levine: And Singapore is a very densely populated city. I have been there myself once. Are you right in a busy urban area? [00:03:23] Melody Chin: I am! There is quite a lot of residential high rises and close to shopping as well, which is really nice. And in Singapore, everywhere is close to everything anyway, because it's such a small country. [00:03:34] Alan Levine: Let us know where did you grow up? What part of the world were you raised as a child? And, what did you think of school in your, early education years? What kind of student were you? [00:03:46] Melody Chin: Ah, okay. I was, raised here in Singapore for my primary school years. And as for what kind of student I am, I think I was very quiet, definitely very shy. More of a sponge, I'd say, absorbing information but not really contributing much. And I don't think I did well academically, so I wasn't really included in extracurricular activities and things like that. [00:04:13] So it's nice that now the education system here has evolved to call it "Co-Curricular Activities" because it goes together with the education rather than being extra, as something on top. [00:04:26] Then for my secondary school years, I actually moved to Sydney, Australia, where it was really great because that was when I started to come out of my shell, spoke a little bit more, I guess probably due to the different values they have there in education. [00:04:43] So yeah, then I stayed on there for university for my master's as well and never really quite came back until, yeah, 10 years ago now I moved back to Singapore. [00:04:54] Alan Levine: Oh, how wonderful to come back to where you were raised. Did you always have an interest in the world of libraries and being a librarian? What were your academic interests in those first years of higher ed. [00:05:06] Melody Chin: Oh, it changed a lot. I did double majors. I studied, Psychology, Economics and Human Resources. That really interested me, Psychology being the micro level and then the organizational level and the broader, economics and political level. I wanted to work in HR so I had a brief stint in that, after finishing my bachelor degrees at Sydney University. [00:05:32] But yeah, I don't think I really felt the passion there. And in the end, I did a graduate diploma in Information Studies. followed by a master of information studies. That was really great because most of the library degrees are online, which makes it very accessible for those of us already working in libraries or wanting to get into libraries. [00:05:53] And yeah, from then on, never looked back, stayed in libraries ever since. [00:05:58] Alan Levine: Wonderful. And, can you tell us a little bit more about, Singapore Management University? I know it's a public university. What kind of programs they offer and how is it seen as a educational opportunity in Singapore and beyond? [00:06:12] Melody Chin: Oh, so Singapore Management University, even though in the name it says management, it's much more than a management school. We cover a broad range of subjects including computing and information systems, the social sciences, and business of course. Really, broad coverage of subjects there as well. [00:06:32] And students and graduates are well known for good graduate, employment outcomes. Students are really sought after at banks and other employers here in Singapore as well. It may not be as big as some other universities with the sciences. We don't have the medicine and hard sciences. Discovering Open Educational Resources (OER) --- [00:06:52] Alan Levine: And so when did you first hear about Open Education and what did you think of it? Why did you get interested in it? [00:07:00] Melody Chin: Oh, that's interesting. So previously my role at SMU, I'm still at SMU, but in a different role now, was as a librarian for Economics. And after a while we just realized that students weren't buying textbooks at all, given the price, $200 Singapore dollars each or more. [00:07:22] And we weren't surprised. They just weren't buying it. [00:07:27] We even did focus groups and we asked them, " Do you buy your textbooks?" And almost all of them basically said, no, not unless they explicitly had to. They basically relied on the library's reserves. And the reserve section of our library was always very much demand. [00:07:43] There was never enough to go around. if you think of huge sections of courses, two, three sections, several hundred students, and only a few textbooks. So we started to realize that we needed different solution. And the then head of collections and the university librarians started to consider open educational resources. [00:08:04] So it was more them that introduced it to me and they thought I was the right person to lead that. And my name came up for that, seeing as I was already the liaison working with the Center for Teaching Excellence. Yeah, that was how it started and was very fortunate to be given that role. [00:08:26] Alan Levine: And so people count you to be the expert in everything OER?. Challenges and Strategies in OER Adoption --- [00:08:30] Melody Chin: Yes, I started off as the one sole person there, so I had to learn, self-learn a lot. So building a community has definitely been helpful to learn together. [00:08:43] Alan Levine: Right. and what is the perspective of it? Are the students aware of it and also like from the higher levels in the organization? Is there good support for it across the board? [00:08:57] Melody Chin: I would say it's not an easy start. We started a bit with awareness, mainly with the senior management, things like that. And it didn't come to much at first. We went to one of the councils for undergraduate education to share about textbook affordability crisis. But we didn't hear much from that. [00:09:22] But now that it's been a few years, I think there's definitely more traction from instructors particularly. We realize going directly to the instructors has really helped a lot 'cause they're the ones seeing that students don't necessarily have access to their course readings or course textbooks. [00:09:40] And, yeah, we've gotten good support for them from them. A workshop that I did for faculty instructors had, pretty good participation and good feedback as well. And through the email as we sent out to the entire community, yeah, some have written back saying, "Oh, I didn't know, about this. I didn't know about OER". [00:10:04] And yes, starting to, build a bit more awareness there. [00:10:09] Alan Levine: The range of interest is it more in like finding the right open textbook to use? How much interest is there in the SMU faculty in actually creating or modifying OER? [00:10:26] Melody Chin: Oh right now it's more in finding resources. Creating and modifying it's been a bit difficult to get them to take that on board, simply because of lack of incentives. [00:10:35] Here in Singapore, there are no funds for financial incentives or grants. And in terms of the tenure and promotion recognition system, we don't have OER recognized under that yet. I like to say yet. So in terms of creation, there hasn't been lots of uptake. There are some. There are some, yeah. and yeah, so I am still working on that. [00:11:02] Alan Levine: Have you had any subjects or classes that you were asked to help find the OER that were a particular challenge to find an open textbook? Or is that part of the some of the challenge of your role as being able to do that detective work? [00:11:18] Melody Chin: Yeah, it's been tough. Especially some of the classes that's been based on local context, 'cause one of the university priorities is Growth in Asia. Some courses have been based very much on Asian topics, Asian economies. For those sort of local based courses, it's been a little bit more difficult to find relevant OER. [00:11:39] But at the same time, I've constantly been reminding instructors that's the beautiful thing about OER. You can customize the case studies, customize the examples that you have for our local context. [00:11:53] But I enjoy the hunt. I think I enjoy looking for relevant resources. [00:11:59] Alan Levine: Can you share some of your favorite like strategies for finding OER when you're handed one of those cases that you have to really dig in and try to look for something? Where do you go first? [00:12:10] Melody Chin: I have to say I start with MERLOT and then I spread out from there, yeah, through the different sources. Open Textbook Library and that. And after a while you see a few duplicates, but then, the challenge is also finding the latest version to make sure I'm not using a superseded version. [00:12:32] Alan Levine: Obviously if they're adopting an existing textbook-- you mentioned developing the particular case studies or activities-- do you give guidance there with the faculty in helping them shape it or is that on them to adapt it and find out how to use it with their students? [00:12:49] Melody Chin: It's more on them at the moment because it's just me and one other person in the library is supporting OER. So hopefully that will grow in the future. But, it's just constantly making sure they are aware that they can modify, even if it's only just a small part of it with the examples. Or they can, fill the gap and create their own OER from scratch. The Role of Libraries in OER --- [00:13:14] Alan Levine: It's so obvious, especially in the past number of years that libraries are such an important catalyst, to use the word of your award in OER. Why are libraries have that influence and just thinking that I just did another podcast recording with representative of the library world with the Council for Australiasian University Libraries who also won in 2024. [00:13:37] It's obvious that librarians have a strong role, but why do you think that is? What's special about libraries? [00:13:44] Melody Chin: Definitely I think librarians are key advocates in OER. We've come a long way from the times we were seen as gatekeepers of printed books when everything was physical. And now that information is readily available online and the self-generated content, I feel like librarian roles have evolved beyond finding information, to imparting skills to students and the community that they should critically evaluate and assess the information that they find. [00:14:15] Being in the space of education, librarians have developed quite close relationships with our faculty instructors. And we are seen as trusted partners in recommending sources, which includes, OER as well, and in starting the conversation on OER with them. Librarians, we also do have some expertise in making resources, discoverable and there's definitely more potential in making OER visible to our own communities as well. [00:14:47] Yeah, and just our position in the university as well, because we work with other departments. We are well placed to be a bridge between IT, teaching and learning centers when we want initiatives to move forward. [00:15:01] Alan Levine: I always felt like there's such excitement I remember when you would ask librarian for help with a research thing and just they were so excited about joining you in that search. And, I sometimes marveled, when I advised some students their reluctance to go talk to librarians. In fact, I made it a mandatory thing. You have to talk to the research librarians. That they will change the world of your research! [00:15:26] Melody Chin: I guess librarians really like the neutral space in terms of we don't grade their work, so that's safe to come and talk to us. [00:15:34] Alan Levine: Not that I can ask you to generalize about Singapore or the region, but you did mention the importance of tailoring some of those courses to the economics of Asia, et cetera. Can you characterize or say anything that, that you think is unique or special about education in Singapore, compared to, say, other parts of the world? [00:15:57] Melody Chin: Singapore or Southeast Asia in general? I suppose Southeast Asia in general, we are a very diverse area covering many different languages. So we really are a group of countries. The teaching and language of instruction may not necessarily be in English. The interest group members that we polled in one of our group meetings, roughly half, stated that they didn't teach in English. [00:16:25] So I think that's something unique about our education here in the Southeast Asian region in general. [00:16:34] Alan Levine: And so tell us more since you brought up, and I wanna ask about it, about-- did I say ASEAN University Network, that you're part of? Melody's Involvement in ASEAN University Network --- [00:16:40] Alan Levine: How did you get involved and what do you do with that network of professionals in open education? [00:16:48] Melody Chin: Maybe I might start first with explaining a bit about the network 'cause it can get a bit confusing. So the ASEAN University Network, the AUN, is the sort of broader umbrella network to promote collaboration amongst higher education institutions and drive local talents. [00:17:05] So the AUN actually has a few sub-thematic networks, lower down. So there's the Technology Enhanced Personalized Learning Network, which I've had the pleasure of being part of as well. And of course, the AUNILO Network, which is the thematic network, especially for libraries. So that's where I've been involved, where there's a bit more growing interest in OER. [00:17:30] How I got involved? My first experience with AUNILO was when I was invited to teach a half day workshop on OER and developing OER plans in Indonesia. So I was still very new back then, but I'm glad I took on the challenge. And there were attendees from the different ASEAN countries. One of the first questions someone asked was whether they could print OERs and put them on the shelves. [00:17:56] And, it dawned on me that each of these libraries faced such different circumstances. And, us all being here in one place from different countries, coming together to ask questions about OER, was something that we could take further. And that was just the beginning. [00:18:13] The interest group wasn't set up till a couple of years later. But I feel like the seeds of that, the ideas of that sort of started from that one experience, with the [00:18:25] Alan Levine: And so what kind of things are you involved with now with the network? What, what's, what sort of activities are you involved with? [00:18:33] Melody Chin: Oh, okay. currently we have webinars, discussions, very informal, conversations. The idea was not to be, a formal group. It's more of a community of practice, to, yeah, share knowledge, share best practices. So basically, yeah, what's the. To establish a community of practice around, open education, OER, mainly for librarians and library professionals, in. [00:19:05] Alan Levine: Okay. So when, you got the word that you got this award for being a catalyst, obviously it felt good, but did the word "catalyst" strike you in an odd or interesting way? What did you think of that? [00:19:16] Melody Chin: I feel my initial reaction, I feel like it did because Catalyst, I hope I got the definition right by me starting something. So I feel like it did reflect me because in starting something beyond SMU as well, in the region, that I feel was needed 'cause now we have a nice little community. [00:19:41] I felt, yeah, it was quite befitting. [00:19:44] Alan Levine: Oh yeah. I saw the nomination when it came in and it definitely is, says "this is a catalyst." It used to be an award for, I think it was for like, support, staff. And that just didn't feel like enough to reflect the work that you do. That's why we chose a new word for it. [00:20:05] And local reaction? People, obviously, they were very proud. What happened when your colleagues found out about this? [00:20:13] Melody Chin: Oh yeah, they were thrilled. They were very proud to have someone from a university in our country represented there as well. And my family, I did mention this before, but my family was finally asking me what OER was and I was thinking, I've been doing this for many years and no one's ever asked me before. [00:20:35] So that was, really great. And it's interesting, it's an individual award, but all the efforts was team based as well at SMU, even in running the interest group, it's not by myself. We have colleagues that help and yeah, it really should be a shared award. [00:20:57] Alan Levine: So what's the best way to explain open education to your family? How do you approach that? [00:21:02] Melody Chin: Yes. I guess it's opening education and making it accessible to all, removing barriers to education. That's in my own words, if it makes sense. [00:21:15] Alan Levine: That's good. who could argue against that? Current Challenges and Future Prospects --- [00:21:18] Alan Levine: In terms of things that are currently on your work plate now, what's really exciting or challenging to you? [00:21:25] Melody Chin: What's challenging for me now with the interest group particularly is maintaining momentum because we meet several times a year online. But then creating that same momentum synchronously as well, trying to make sure we're still here even though we are not meeting. That is I find one of our biggest challenges. [00:21:51] Setting up the group was one thing, but maintaining the momentum is another. And internally at SMU, we're also looking at targeting OER, more specific targeting rather than blanket, suggesting to faculty, "Hey, these are some OERs you might want to look at." We're starting to look at it at a course level, which is taking a little bit more time. [00:22:15] So that's a challenge, but an exciting one that we are starting this year. [00:22:20] Alan Levine: Like in terms of that, if a student takes a particular course that it will have OER in it and that will be designed as part of what the course includes? Is that the level that you're taking? [00:22:33] Melody Chin: Currently not in the course design process yet, but more in existing courses, starting small and saying, "Hey, you're using this book, but there is this other book with a couple of chapters that are relevant," yeah. [00:22:52] Alan Levine: When students at SMU, when they're registering for classes, do they know that it's a class that uses OER or do they find out when they get the course material? How's that communicated to students? [00:23:04] Melody Chin: Currently, there's no way for them to know 'cause the courses aren't marked or anything like that. [00:23:09] So yeah, they really wouldn't know. And currently there's not too many courses, not as much as we'd like, using OER as well. So adoption's also been a bit difficult. Because we haven't got the broad scale adoption there, the courses aren't marked in any way. [00:23:30] The library is there providing resources, [00:23:33] Alan Levine: Just because it's of high interest in many parts of the world, what are you hearing about or the university talk about Artificial Intelligence? Is that something that is talked about a lot or just like people just staying tuned to what's going on? Or where's the perspective on AI in your world? [00:23:54] Melody Chin: It's talked about quite a lot and I think it's infiltrated most of our processes and as well as what we teach. So I think AI is definitely very much a part of what we are doing now in terms of especially teaching students to evaluate information. The outputs from what AI generates is again another type of information that we as librarians, will be teaching them to evaluate. [00:24:20] And relating to OER I suppose there's definitely some exciting potential there in terms of translations, being to translate OERs. So I don't know how that will work yet or if it's even feasible. [00:24:34] Alan Levine: So I, hear a little bit of excitement, like possibility, not necessarily dread. Oh, my god, Things are changing... [00:24:40] Melody Chin: There's always going to be a bits of both, I'd say, but more on the excitement side. [00:24:46] But there's been a lot of, changes. [00:24:48] Alan Levine: You're very wise. [00:24:49] Outside of work, what's an activity that you do that really brings you joy like you like doing when you're not working? [00:24:57] Melody Chin: Oh, I really like to read. I know it's really stereotypical for a librarian to, to like to read, but I do really enjoy reading, all sorts of books, historical fiction, thrillers. [00:25:10] Alan Levine: No, that's a wonderful thing. Conclusion and Final Thoughts --- [00:25:12] Alan Levine: Again, it's been great to talk to you again and get to share your story with our audience. [00:25:17] Any, words of encouragement you can say for people. thinking about if they might win an award this year, like. yeah, I know you didn't know about it last year until you found out about it. [00:25:27] But, what does awards mean in general. For this field that we're in? [00:25:34] Melody Chin: I suppose the awards provide recognition for what you do. And I've never expected to win the award even after being shortlisted because there's so many others doing great stuff. But then, looking back incrementally, you start to realize all that you might have done and that might have amounted to something as well. [00:25:58] Alan Levine: Fantastic. Thank you again, Melody, for taking time. And, I have to apologize that it's late at night for you and that's very kind to you to stay up on your evening hours. [00:26:10] It is been wonderful talking to you. And, just wish you further success and more things that you catalyze in the Asia region. [00:26:20] Melody Chin: I hope so. Thank you so much, Alan. It's been a really great pleasure talking to you tonight. [00:26:25] Alan Levine: Thank you, listeners who are tuning in this episode of OEGlobal Voices. It's the podcast that we do here from Open Education Global. And for each episode, I find a different musical track, that I select from the Free music Archive 'cause that's all Creative Commons licensed music. [00:26:45] And you know what, for this one, I went there in two minutes, I found a perfect track called Catalyst by an artist named Anemoia, and it's licensed under, Creative Commons Attribution, non-commercial Share Alike, and you'll find this episode and the music at our site, voices.oeglobal.org. And you can follow up a conversation with us in our OEG Connect space or wherever you interact with us in social media. [00:27:11] And anybody listening who wanna share your open education work, or suggest a future guest, please let us know. I think you can find us pretty easily. And again, I get the biggest treat 'cause I get to be part of every conversation here and get to meet people like Melody. [00:27:25] And I'm sure we'll, stay connected in the future. And thank you again, Melody. [00:27:31] Melody Chin: Thank you, Alan. [00:27:32]