OEG Voices 092: Melody Chin on OEAward as a Catalyst

Into this last month of 2025 we continue catching up with winners of the 2024 Open Education Awards for Excellence (that’s how much excellence is out there). In this episode recorded August 11, 2025 we hear the voice and open education perspectives of Melody Chin, Senior Librarian at Singapore Management University (SMU).

Recognized with an Individual OEAward as a Catalyst, Melody shares the state of open education resources and practices at SMU and it’s impact in Singapore and beyond, through her activities and fostering of openness regionally with the ASEAN University Network. Listen in to learn more about Melody’s interests and motivations for being an open catalyst.

In the OEGlobal Voices podcast studio with guest Melody Chin (left) and host Alan Levine (right).

Episode 92 TranscriptDownload

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In This Episode

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Exploring Open Education and Librarianship with Melody Chin

Join us on OE Global Voices as we dive into a fascinating conversation with Melody Chin from the Singapore Management University. Recognized with an Open Education Award for Excellence as a Catalyst in 2024, Melody shares her journey from her early educational experiences in Singapore and Sydney to her pivotal role in advocating Open Educational Resources (OER). Discover how Melody’s passion for education and libraries has driven her efforts to make OER more accessible and impactful, both at SMU and across Southeast Asia. Melody also discusses the evolving role of librarians in the digital age, challenges in promoting OER, and the importance of building communities of practice across the region.

• 00:00 Intro Music and Highlight Quote
• 01:10 Welcome to OE Global Voices Podcast
• 01:23 Meet Melody Chin: Award-Winning Open Educator
• 02:31 Melody’s Background and Journey
• 06:52 Discovering Open Educational Resources (OER)
• 08:30 Challenges and Strategies in OER Adoption
• 13:14 The Role of Libraries in OER
• 16:40 Melody’s Involvement in ASEAN University Network
• 21:18 Current Challenges and Future Prospects
• 25:12 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

(end of AI generated show notes)

Additional Links and Quotes for Episode 92

• 2024 Open Education for Excellent award as a Catalyst (OEGlobal)
• Why I Enjoy Working at the SMU Libraries as a Senior Librarian in Instruction & Learning (Singapore Management University blog)
• Singapore Management University (SMU)
  • Growth in Asia (SMU Research area)
  • SMU Library
    • Open Educational Resources (Research Guide)
  • Centre for Teaching Excellence
  • SMU Open Courses
• ASEAN University Network (AUN)
  • Libraries of ASEAN University Network (AUNILO)
  • MERLOT: How ASEAN Universities Can Scale Up Faculty Development Faster, More Effectively, and More Affordably (AUN-TEPL Workplan Seminar 2023)
• Overview of Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) (Singapore Ministry of Education)

…especially [for] some of the classes that’ are based on local context, because 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.

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.

Melody Chin on making OER relevant

Listen to more from our episodes recorded with Open Education Awards for Excellence winners.

Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called  Catalyst by Anemoia that is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).