A Beginner's Guide to Information Literacy

A Beginner's Guide to Information Literacy covers the ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy frame by frame, using casual language and real world examples. Use this click-through text-based resource to understand the Framework as a whole or to work on understanding a particular Frame. Reflection questions are included for the casual learner or for anyone incorporating Information Literacy conversations into a classroom or workshop.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Emily Metcalf

The UDL Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Material Type: Reading

Author: CAST

The Case for OER Stewardship – The CARE Framework

The creation, curation, and widespread use of open educational resources (OER) is making a significant difference in democratizing access to a high-quality education. From a burgeoning movement launched over 15 years ago, to a growing field, to national and global impact, teachers and learners in increasing numbers are participating in and benefiting from a process driven by the collaborative development and sharing of educational materials that are freely available for anyone to use, unrestricted by traditional copyright. If the field of OER is to continue on its trajectory from a nascent movement to the mainstream of education, it is incumbent on OER advocates and stakeholders—including educators, librarians, instructional technologists, and content developers—to address how we might sustainably scale the movement over time and across diverse contexts, while still staying true to the values of openness that attracted so many to OER in the first place. It is for that reason, we developed and are pleased to introduce the CARE Framework. Its purpose is to both support and make more explicit the valuable work that is being done and needs to be done in building a sustainable open education ecosystem.

Material Type: Primary Source

Authors: C. Edward Watson, Douglas Levin, Lisa Petrides

Appreciative Advising

As the conceptual framework for advising practices at Texarkana College, Appreciative Advising has contributed to TC becoming a recognized leader in graduation rates in the state of Texas. Best practices associated with Appreciative Advising have also influenced the development and implementation of Guided Pathways practices and documents at the college. DELIVERY FORMAT: The program has a hybrid format. PROGRAM SCALE: Large-scale (reaches more than 25 percent of its intended target population) APPROXIMATE PARTICIPANTS SERVED IN 2021-22: 1830 HOW TO ENROLL: All stakeholders have access to this program. As such, there is no enrollment process EVALUATION STATUS: No data related to outcomes have been collected from this program DEPARTMENT(S) OVERSEEING PROGRAM: Office of Enrollment CONTACT FOR MORE INFO: Dr. Dixon Boyles at dixon.boyles@texarkanacollege.edu or 903-823-3192

Material Type: Student Success: Student-facing

First Year Focus: Developing Academic and Co-Curricular Student Support Structures to Improve First Year Outcomes

MCC’s Title V grant project, First Year Focus: Developing Academic and Co-Curricular Student Support Structures to Improve First Year Outcomes puts into place innovative support structures designed to create enriching academic opportunities that foster success for MCC’s diverse student population. These activities include restructuring the first year experience to address student resilience, integrating and building academic support structures to promote persistence, and cultivating student engagement and inclusiveness across campus. The project is (1) restructuring the Learning Frameworks courses and curriculum to better address student resilience through cohort reorganization, the integration of cultural competency, career planning, and financial literacy into all Learning Frameworks (LF) courses, and bringing the College’s Peer Leadership Initiative (PLI) to scale as part of the LF course, (2) enhancing academic support structures by centralizing academic support into a cohesive Learning Commons, implementing SI for developmental education and gateway courses, and language support for ELL students, (3) better engaging students, including Hispanic and low-income students at the beginning of their academic careers, increasing Spanish language engagement from orientation to graduation, and compelling student programming for Hispanic and low- income MCC students. DELIVERY FORMAT: The program has a hybrid format. PROGRAM SCALE: Large-scale (reaches more than 25 percent of its intended target population) APPROXIMATE PARTICIPANTS SERVED IN 2021-22: 3575 HOW TO ENROLL: All stakeholders have access to this program. As such, there is no enrollment process EVALUATION STATUS: Data related to program outcomes are currently being internally and externally collected DEPARTMENT(S) OVERSEEING PROGRAM: President's Office CONTACT FOR MORE INFO: Paula Barfield Unger at punger@mclennan.edu or 254-299-8494

Material Type: Student Success: Student-facing

Boolean Operators

Description: This short animated video illustrates how to use Boolean operators to define the parameters of an Internet search.

Material Type: Module

Author: Sal Chavez

Finding Library Database Sources for an Assignment

This lesson goes over using library databases to find sources for a paper in a general education freshman or sophomore level class. In the activities in this lesson, the student will find one resource, create a search log, and develop a basic understanding of the process of searching library databases.The sample search is for a paper on music education in a teacher education class.

Material Type: Lesson

Author: Jennifer Crispin

Generating Ideas for Writing - English 1301

This resource explains the writing process steps and many prewriting strategies to help students come up with ideas for their college writing assignments. The resource was remixed from several other creative commons resources. It can be used as a textbook chapter for students to read and view the videos or as a prewriting assignment. It can also serve as an instructor resource to provide lecture notes and videos or in-class prewriting exercises.This resource was created to align to the English 1301 Student Learning Objective (SLO) "Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution" as the initial idea-generation step of that process, and it also aligns to the English 1301 SLO "Demonstrate knowledge of individual writing processes," as it begins with explaining the writing process steps.  

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lecture Notes, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Textbook

Author: Joy Pasini

Evaluating Your Writing

This short animated video offers tips on how to evaluate your writing during the revision process.

Material Type: Module

Author: Sal Chavez

Avoiding Plagiarism

Description: This short animated video defines plagiarism and provides rules for avoiding plagiarism.

Material Type: Module

Author: Sal Chavez

The Writing Process

Have you ever received a writing assignment, thought “this won’t take long” and then stayed up all night writing the night before your assignment was due because it ended up taking a lot longer than you thought it would? If you have, you’re not alone. Many beginning writers struggle to plan well when it comes to a writing assignment, and this results in writing that is just not as good as it could be. When you wait until the last minute and fail to engage in a good writing process, you’re not doing your best work—even if you did “get all A’s in high school” as a procrastinator. In this step-by-step support area, you will find everything you need to know about writing a paper from start to finish.

Material Type: Module

English 1301 (Comp. I) - Rhetoric and the Workplace

This resource is an assignment for English 1301 (Composition 1) focused on the role of rhetoric in workplace writing. For this assignment, students prepare a job application packet consisting of a resume and cover letter. To do this, students must find an actual job advertisement posted online (or a job description) to include with their assignment. Students use their knowledge of the rhetorical situation and models of appropriate workplace writing (available from most college and university Career Centers, as well as from the Purdue OWL and UNC Writing Center websites online) to prepare an application packet tailored to the position they want. This assignment provides students with an opportunity to apply what they've learned in class toward a concrete, meaningful goal, and most students respond positively to it.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment

Author: Jessica Zbeida

Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction

Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction, edited by Beth L. Hewett and Kevin Eric DePew, with associate editors Elif Guler and Robbin Zeff Warner, addresses the questions and decisions that administrators and instructors most need to consider when developing online writing programs and courses. Written by experts in the field (members of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Committee for Effective Practices in OWI and other experts and stakeholders), the contributors to this collection explain the foundations of the recently published (2013) A Position Statement of Principles and Examples Effective Practices for OWI and provide illustrative practical applications. To that end, in every chapter, the authors address issues of inclusive and accessible writing instruction (based upon physical and mental disability, linguistic ability, and socioeconomic challenges) in technology enhanced settings.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Beth Hewett, Kevin DePew

Designing for Open Pedagogy

Please join the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) for a free and open webinar on Designing for Open Pedagogy. Open Pedagogy was first introduced by Lumen Learning co-founder David Wiley, as a way to capture how the use of OER can change educational practices. He relates that using OER in the same way as traditional textbooks is like driving an airplane down the road – it is missing out on what open can provide for student and teacher collaboration, engagement, and learning.

Material Type: Lesson

Authors: Michael Elmore, Suzanne Wakim

Open Pedagogy Approaches: Faculty, Library, and Student Collaborations

The entire spirit of this book project reflects the editors’ shared belief in the power of an open and inclusive community, of learning, and of collaboration toward innovation. From the outset, the editors knew that this book would be an open project in its own right. It had to be published openly (to practice what we preach), and it would serve as an opportunity to learn the process of creating an open book from start to finish, including, for example, developing review criteria that would ensure rigor, diversity, inclusion, and ingenuity while drawing from the open community to involve both novice and expert OP practitioners both as authors and readers.

Material Type: Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Textbook

Authors: Alexis Clifton, Kimberly Davies Hoffman

Brief Introduction to Creative Commons Licenses and OERs

A five-minute video tutorial on Creative Commons Licenses, the five “R’s”, and where to find Open Educational Resources.

Material Type: Module

Author: Phil Jensen

Equity Through OER Rubric

​The Equity Through OER Rubric is a comprehensive self-assessment tool, designed to guide students, faculty, administrators and other academic practitioners and leaders in not only better understanding, but also acting on the equity dimensions of OER. The rubric is organized by categories, aligned with roles and functions for higher education institutions, units and practitioners. Its overarching goal is to enable users to integrate OER in equitable ways across higher education leading to quality and equitable student access, outcomes and success.

Material Type: Assessment

Author: Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success (DOERS3)

ACC Learn OER

ACC Learn OER is a series of self-paced online learning modules designed specifically for Austin Community College faculty and staff. The first nine modules will serve as an introduction to open educational resources (OER) and as an opportunity for further exploration and discovery of open education practices. The tenth module serves as a final assessment of learning. Throughout the modules there are opportunities to test ones knowledge and further explore a concept. The modules allow one to learn at their own pace. While one can follow the modules in any order, it is recommended to start with Module 1 and progress through in order.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Carrie Gits, Jack O'Grady