Next steps for advancing my OER work

by Megan Simmons 2 years, 8 months ago

Please share what specific next steps you plan to take to advance your OER work by replying below.

Next steps for the OERTX Team include:

  • Offering more upcoming Academies... Stay Tuned!

  • Moving Texas Forward Grant Program launching soon

  • OER Fest with OpenStax in February

Session recording and practice activities are available here: OER Core Elements Academy Resources

Rene Jones 2 years, 8 months ago

I am setting up an appointment with my department's embedded Librarian. We are going to talk about curating information, books, documents, readings, etc.. for our English Department in order to make it easier for the entire department to move to OERs. I have already spoken to two other people in my department who wish to work with me on this project. So I have that done also. My two friends and I have been discussing the rubrics that were shared in our group here and we are working on our own rubric design to use with the things that we find.

Mandy Palmer 2 years, 8 months ago

Hi, Rene,

It sounds like you are on the right track; I have found our librarians to be an invaluable resource when looking for and working on OERs.  Good luck in your departmental move to OERs!

-Mandy Palmer

Rene Jones 2 years, 7 months ago

I have met with two of our librarians now and we are going to create a repository for our English Department! I have two colleagues who are going to be working with us to go over the material. We are in the process of creating our own rubric(s) to use for Composition, Research, Tech Writing, Itro to Literature, and Mythology. We are all so excited to be doing this. I filled the Chair of my Department in on what we are doing, yesterday. He was excited as well. As we get things moving, the librarians will help me with convincing the rest of the department to get on board with digital texts!!!

Donnie Kirk 2 years, 8 months ago

Greetings All, 

Donnie Kirk from Vernon College. Our librarian Marian Grona has assembled Research Guides for many of the academic disciplines within the college. An example is my Public Speaking Research Guide. Currently, the guide only contains resources that are avalable via our library. However, with what I have learned throughout our sessions, OER content could be linked to these Research Guides.    

With that, I lead a QEP workshop for faculty whereby in one session, participating faculty are encouraged to review library resources within their discipline and subsequently make requests for additional materials to be added by our librarian. Due to my participation in this OER academy, I will expand the library resources QEP unit to include a search for OER content--using OER resources I have been made aware of here. In response, any accumulated OER resources can be added to the appropriate Research Guide.  

Thanks for the awareness shared within this academy!

Cheers!

Donnie Kirk

Cheers.

Donnie Kirk 

Susan Whitmer 2 years, 8 months ago

The most rewarding project I've worked on this year was compiling OERs for a graduate-level Art History class. I plan to share my experience with the Art faculty during part of my 30-minute library presentation at their Fall 2021 Art Faculty Orientation.

Specific steps to advance OER work: Outline for Art Faculty OER Orientation

1. Describe faculty-librarian OER collaboration 

2. Demonstrate Google Sheet, Art History Weekly Assignments which lists OERs on the topic of Art World Hegemony in art history, art education, and studio art

3. Discuss where to locate OERs for art history, art education, and studio art

The university offered a stipend to faculty for creating courses with no-cost materials. I will demonstrate my enthusiasm for partnering with Art faculty to increase participation in creating OER courses.

 

Keith Elphick 2 years, 8 months ago

Hey All:

Since I have been engaged with Quality Matters rubrics over the last year and a half, I’m going to attempt combine my new knowledge of QM rubric criteria with a potential OER resource. For example, since a major focus of mine over the last year has been accessibility and design, I will reach out to my college’s QM contact about choosing an effective, accessible, and student centered OER resource for students.

I’ve found that some resources, when linked in Canvas, will not open on all browsers or mobile devices. While I could never read a textbook on a mobile device, I see many students study course materials on their phones while on the go. I’ve even had a few students type formal responses on their phones. This is not the best learning strategy but seems to be a reality today. These are amazing changes in a relatively short span of time.

Even more amazing is this piece of information from Graham Kendall: “The latest iPhone’s processor is estimated to run at about 2490 MHz. Apple do not advertise the processing speed, but others have calculated it. This means that the iPhone in your pocket has over 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed man on the moon 50 years ago.” If anybody would have told an astronaut in 1972 that our phones would have such capabilities, he or she might have thought the iphone was from space. However, perhaps not. NASA may have been very much aware of the technology to come.

Source Link: https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2019/07/02/your_mobile_phone_vs_apollo_11s_guidance_computer_111026.html

Going forward, I am planning to reach out to our campus librarian and accessibility office. I know our campus librarians have many e-text and OER resources, but I have not had the time to talk with them about such important resources. Accessibility staff will also surely provide some helpful information. Before the fall semester begins and all spare time disappears, I will reach out to both offices.

Apart from meeting with campus staff, I’m going to continue comparing OER resources side-by-side. One of the most beneficial aspects of using OER resources is the instructor freedom. The instructor is not locked into one or two textbooks. For example, in my colleague’s Anthropology course, she has students reading materials from five different OER resources. This flexibility is immensely important, for it can resolve the issue of textbook bias, and provides students with a diversity of perspectives on a given topic.

See everyone soon.

Beatrix Perez 2 years, 8 months ago

I will be working with a colleague who has developed OER content and is in the process of earning her Creative Commons Certification. She is helping me develope OER for a class I will teach in Spring. Well will be disgning OER for a Minority Studies class. We have a shell that is ready for us to begin our work. 

Ryan Litsey 2 years, 8 months ago

We are currently working on a number of steps:

1. Open Stax Institutional Partner Program

2. Hiring a new OER dedicated Librarian

3. Adding OER markings into the Course Registration system

Audrey Lundahl 2 years, 8 months ago

I will continue to meet with a core group of instructors throughout the fall to discuss and provide support for using OERs and OER-enabled pedagogy. As a group, I hope we can provide peer support and spread awareness of OER pedagogy. We will start by presenting at our universities anual symposium in August. 

Alexander (Sasha) Rodriguez 2 years, 8 months ago

My institution is part of a bigger system that has developed a task force for promoting OER, but we are almost at square one with any sort of development or implementation.  That does not mean that I have not been plotting and planning for that past 3-4 years for something.

To advance my OER program, here are my major steps I will take in the coming academic year:

1.  Identify who and who does not know what OER is within the faculty.  Those who have self-identified have told me that they know of others who are curious or know what OER is, but because they do not sense an overwhelming presence or support and are afraid to speak up.  I will find them!

2.  Identify who are the OER allies on campus.  This includes going beyond the faculty and checking with upper administration.  Luckily, in Texas, OER has garnered a nice wave of support from as far up as the Texas Legislation.  Once (1) and (2) are identified, then I will develop a decent foundation for any initiative or interest.

3.  Develop an OER handbook.  Include a rubric for development, organization, and share this with the other librarians who are liaison for other schools.  

4.  Advertise the services that we can provide to assist in OER usage and development.

Baby steps, but significant ones.  Trust me, this frightens me but the challenge is intoxicating. 

Sarah Northam 2 years, 8 months ago

Sasha, I really like the idea of an OER handbook.  Once of the things I am working on developing is an OER reference interview for to make it easier for our librarians who are working with faculty on OER. 

Jennifer Crispin 2 years, 8 months ago

I have reached out to an OER expert at my college and will be taking the courses the college requires for people who want to work with OER more. I also want to find and develop resources for information / media / news literacy. I hope to be able to be a part of OER initiatives at my college in the future.

Mandy Palmer 2 years, 8 months ago

The next steps I plan to take to advance my OER/OEP work are:

-publish my English 2311 Technical Writing course, either in whole or in pieces, to the Canvas Commons = I built this course based entirely on OER, I have taught it for two semesters now, and I'm ready to share what I've built with others = estimated completion date is before Fall 2021

-begin compiling resources for my Humanities 1301 course into one, comprehensive resource = I've been using a "quilt" of various OERs (one main etext with various other ancillary texts/resources/links); it's time for me to compile all of these into one, more readily-accessible resource that can exist and be accessed outside of our LMS = estimated completion date is before Spring 2021

-same as above, but for my English 1301 course = estimated completion date is before (or during) Spring 2021

-complete the OER Commons Certificate for Educators = completion date is before Spring 2021

*-participate in the Open Educational Resources (OER) Teaching and Learning Study being conducted by ATD = Summer 2021

 

*edited to add on 7/16/21

Mahzad Iranpour 2 years, 8 months ago

I still need to do more research and find resources for my classes.I am planning to participate in a pilot OER course in the Fall semester which I am very excited about. I am sure I will have a better idea about OER after we are done with the course.

Teresa Wallace 2 years, 8 months ago

I plan to meet with the other two coworkers who took this class and have a think tank on where we can go from here.

 

Lauraine Paul 2 years, 8 months ago

Greetings all..

Laura from Clarendon College. I want to review the information we've learned and apply it to my classroom. As Faculty Senate President and Program Coordinator. I want to have a good grasp. I plan on sharing with both local administrators and faculty. I will be attending other OER seminars. Thank you. 

Marilyn Ibey 2 years, 8 months ago

After speaking to the librarian at SAC, I would like to speak to other OER contacts at SAC and also my department head and colleagues to determine best practices of utilization of OER resources for science courses such as Biol 1308. I also need to investigate the SAC libraryguide for OER resources more thoroughly.  It seemed to me initially, that OER is more geared to English and History concerns rather than STEM concerns, so I need to explore OER more thoroughly for relevant science materials for my class.

Beth Bailey 2 years, 8 months ago

Review the courses for which I am responsible and use my evaluation criteria to see if there are new and additional sources I can add to my courses. 

Explore addition OER sites (curation).

Sharla Jones 2 years, 8 months ago

Specific next steps I plan to take to advance my OER work. 

  1. Read, review, and Research materials on the San Antonio College OER site.  I didn’t know we had one, and with a quick look, I noticed that it has extensive resources that I will check out.   https://www.alamo.edu/sac/academics/teaching-and-learning/faculty-oer-resources/
  2. Review how to adopt OER. https://www.alamo.edu/sac/academics/teaching-and-learning/faculty-oer-resources/adopt-oer/

  3. Contact campus librarian to find out if we have courses with OER markings in the Course Registration system.
  4. Share what I learn with faculty in meetings to consider using OER instead of having students purchase books.
  5. Form a committee to evaluate possible OER materials that address our SLOs.
  6. Create OER material from my handouts, and see what happens.
Justin Hill 2 years, 8 months ago

Well, I'd like to present some of the OER materials I found for Math for Liberal Arts/Contemporary Mathematics and especially College Algebra to my Department Head.  We just went through a change in Pearson platforms so it'd be a long sell, but I think our faculty would like several of the books, especially the College Algebra books.  Not having an online platform for HW will also make it a long sell, as our Community College District is really pushing online accessability.  So I might need to identify a complementary HW resource.  But otherwise, as long as our teachers are good with going back to old-school grading, and our students can handle recieving PDF assignments, printing them out, working them, scanning them back into Canvas, etc. then it could work......

W. Y. Chan 2 years, 8 months ago

I am planning to use some OER materials to teach my Elementary Statistical Methods class this fall. Currently, I am researching suitable resources. One of my goals is to use OER materials to help students’ engagement and class discussion. I would share my learning OER experience with my colleagues.

Sarah Northam 2 years, 8 months ago

Next steps: 

I would like to lead effots to establish an OER/Affordability task force on our campus responsible for leading efforts but also assesing OER activities on campus. I would also like to start an OER Incentive program for our faculty to encourage the use and development of OER.   These both might be slow moving goals because they rely on outstide factors but I have a Dean who is supportive of OER. 

I also want to work with more of our academic programs/classes to implement OER.  

Kimberly Gay 2 years, 8 months ago

 Next Steps: advance your OER work 

I plan to work to show case the collaboration with librarians and faculty on OER resources that uses the ACRL standards to apply to the OER textbook criteria:

The Importance of OER Course Design and The Rule of Thirds of eLearning as an online instructor I am inviting to this learning component to infuse the importance of the Quality Matters Rubric and Application. I want to create best practices in OER teaching and learning content.

 As an online instructor who also teaches library information literacy skills, the Association of College & Research Libraries (Links to an external site.) >> https://www.ala.org/acrl/ (Links to an external site.) adhere to a Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Standards (Links to an external site.) >> https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework (Links to an external site.) .  These standards are set as a rubric and assessment guide to the whos, whats, hows, whys, whens to help govern the library teaching components for reference librarians. (This Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework) grows out of a belief that information literacy as an educational reform movement will realize its potential only through a richer, more complex set of core ideas. During the fifteen years since the publication of the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,1 academic librarians and their partners in higher education associations have developed learning outcomes, tools, and resources that some institutions have deployed to infuse information literacy concepts and skills into their curricula, ACRL 2020.) The objectives of QM do have profound notice to assessing student engagement in pedagogy.  The course I have taught online and face2face - College of Nursing Pre-Nursing Library Research Seminars teaching module objectives are measurable through the ACRL framework and the QM Standards. The ACRL framework outlines six (6) standards:

  • Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
  • Information Creation as a Process
  • Information Has Value
  • Research as Inquiry
  • Scholarship as Conversation
  • Searching as Strategic Exploration

These standards are measurable due to the local assessments I apply to the classes whereas I give post and pre-test, library research quiz and I ask for teaching and learning feedback in a reference instruction survey that is taken by all the students and faculty in the class.  Since the library reference instruction classes are not credit-bearing classes they are not institutionally mandated but the ACRL framework is mandated by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) committee COC (Links to an external site.) who works in reaffirmation of colleges and universities. The academic library is evaluated in SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.8.1; 3.8.2; 3.8.3.  >> http://web20kmg.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/123666489/daugherty_SACSCOC.pdf (Links to an external site.)

 

Ryan Litsey 2 years, 8 months ago

We have a new OER Librarian beginning next week. My goal is to onboard this perosn and begin the hardwork of OER at our institution.

Patrice Parsons 2 years, 8 months ago

When I first heard of OER (Openstax) back in 2013, I must admit my attraction was mostly towards the FREE resource for financially challenged students. I was also tired of the limited ability to edit textbooks and the monopoly that publishers had on the dissemination of knowledge. Openstax did most of the work for us regarding content and we did not truly appreciate what I have come to know as the 5Rs of OER. While I have made a number of videos, presentations and assessments for my Life Science classes and should be well versed in collaboration as a research scientist, I have not been active in this area of REDISTRIBUTING. Mostly I have been concerned that I might violate a copyright with an image or content that I am using under the “fair use” umbrella. I have also been concerned that my resources are not appropriate for other instructors. Therefore I have not been an active participant which is what is needed to grow OER. It is the sharing part that matters most.

So I am intending to rekindle the efforts of OER adoption at my college. I intend to get help from the Katie Willeford at UTA. I think that the framework that she provided for the institution’s adoption and continued support would be valuable to us. I have reached out to our director of teaching and learning and our librarians with some ideas from this OER academy already. And I am looking forward to interacting with them in person this fall. We basically have “stuck our heads in the sand” the past year and a half with so many changes to our delivery of content. As a result we have not advanced the OER engagement and awareness at the institution.

I am truly delighted to have had a chance to see so many other instructors and educators in Texas looking forward and thinking how we make the education process not only more affordable but more “alive” and personal. The posts and comments from others inspire and humble me to try harder and take the chances, to “dream big”. I will begin working on a laboratory manual for General Biology and I will share the resources found on OERTX with my colleagues. Perhaps the director of teaching & learning and I can partner to develop a seminar or simply a presentation regarding what is available within some of the core disciplines. He was trying to develop an OER degree similar to what Charles Cook spoke of for Austin Community College. I hope that we are given the support to pursue this as well. Thank you for the ideas and inspiration. Patrice

 

Jennifer Crispin 2 years, 7 months ago

I've been holding myself back with many of the same concerns you express here! I am so glad I took this course because now I realize how important it is to just get started.

Gwen Henderson 2 years, 8 months ago

I plan to look at the available OER resources for my liaison areas and work with our OER librarian to better undestand how to create OER materials. Our university will be focusing more on OER in the future and this class has given me the basics to move forward and share with other librarians. 

Qin Fang 2 years, 8 months ago

Here is my plan on the next step to advance my OER work:

  • Further explore OER resources and learn more about the adoption and creation of OER.
  • Add links to OER resources on our eLearning web site.
  • Inform our Instructional Designer team to discuss OER resources with faculty when work with them in distance learning course development.
  • Suggest to the OER Coordinator and Center for Teaching and Learning on hosting a an OER session.
  • Suggest the coordination among the eLearning team, the librarians and current OER users to form OER task force at our university to advocate the awareness, the adoption and creation of OER.
Phil Jensen 2 years, 8 months ago

Next steps for advancing my work in OER include:

  • Continue sharing and advocating for OER adoption with my liaison departments, as well as, to my librarian colleagues.

  • More specifically, help our art department, which has received a grant, with their OER text project.

  • Create and curate my college's LibGuides with OER, as well as, with our proprietary database materials.

Best to everyone out there!

-Phil Jensen

Shane DeHorney 2 years, 8 months ago

My next steps for advancing my OER work:

I am working with a Psychology instructor to develop OER materials for a class she teaches. We plan to create some instructional materials for her online class. 

Additionally, I am also developing OER materials for a college success course for a fully online mode. 

Laura Pool 2 years, 8 months ago

My next steps I plan to take to advance my OER work is to help a faculty with a linking issue to an OER textbook.

There is a history faculty that has just started trying to us OER in her courses and is having trouble

figuring out how to link an allowed OER textbook for students within an Honorlock proctored exam and has been on LiveChat with them twice. She has been whitelisting the textbook all along. With recent new releases from Honorlock, instructors are supposed to be able to add a link to the textbook and can't find instructions on that.

George Swindell 2 years, 7 months ago

I think my next steps are going to be making connections with other faculty and begin remixing and authoring new texts for the courses that I teach.  I am currently on the look out for a Intro to Stats book that utilizes google sheets or some other open and free analysis tool.

Andrés Padilla-Oviedo 2 years, 7 months ago

My next steps for the OERTX Team include:

  • Share the great information provided in the Academy with the Instructional Team
  • Use the resources to create professional development opportunities at our institution
  • Attend the OER Fest with OpenStax in February

 

Sulaman Pashah 2 years, 7 months ago

The workshop was very useful to know about OER resources and practices.

The next step is to explore additional OER resources related to Mechanical Engineering to adopt them for the courses I teach.

The final step would be to contribute some of my developed course materials into an OER.

Waneta Hebert 2 years, 7 months ago

As I'm learning more and more about OER, I want to share what I'm learning. I have two firm next steps: First, I want to complete the Texas Learn OER online training that was shared in one of the sessions. Second, a colleague and I are presenting at AECT this November about using OER for all types of instruction. Beyond that, I may explore spending more time in the creation of OER.

Pamela Rogers 2 years, 7 months ago

First, determine if there are (are not) OER resources for my courses. If not, then start developing my own.

Second, determine the campus' OER supporters and share the information/resources from this course with my colleagues. 

Lastly, continue to learn about OER and how it can be integrated into the curriculum. 

Part of our strategic plan is to reduce the cost of higher education and OER looks like a good place to start from the faculty/staff perspective as we generally have control over classroom materials. 

Susan McClellan 2 years, 7 months ago

I am a librarian. In preparation for the coming fall semester, our library has been getting requests from instructors for OER resources. I plan to work with my fellow librarians and identify resources for classes making requests. We want to encourage faculty to come to us for assistance and collaborate with any department that is already using OER resources. I would also like to see the library used as a repository for any OER developed by the instructors.

Yokabet Gedeon 2 years, 7 months ago

My next plan is to:

  1. Continue to implement and develop OER materials into my courses using the tools and information provided by the academy
  2. Collaborate with the OER expert in the implementation and development of the OER materials
  3. Advocate the use of OER with my colleagues, my department, my division and my college
Lauraine Paul 2 years, 7 months ago

Next step to advancing my OER work are as follows:

1. attend more Academies. (This has been great! Thank you for putting this on.)

2. I would like to participate in the Texas Forward Grant Program or other grant programs. I have realized that in order to be a front runner at my institution, I will need to do alot of "footwork" to make it happen. I converted Psychology and Sociology classes to OER in 2017. The institution did not quite understand OER nor willing to accept it. How horrible it may sound, I a grateful for COVID shutdown because it forced the hand of the college to electronically expand. Now the insitution is more in favor of OER. So I will continue to push forward.

3. Continue training and educating OER within our insitution. 

4. In the far future, I would like to add to the OER collection from my curriculum. 

 

I loved this academy and the networking opportunity. I like looking at how others are creating opportunities. Thank you for this opportunity! Great job all. Keep on sharing.

Cassandra Silva 2 years, 7 months ago

One thing that I have reailzed is that I need to familiarize myself on Copyright Laws and Fair Use Policies. OER has the potential to open the doors for so many students if we just use it correctly. As an Instructional Designer, I know that I need to be 100% ready to know how to assist faculty in pulling away from publisher materials and into the OER world.

I know that I can sell them on the idea and concept, but I need to be more familiar in all of the types of copyright info. There are plenty of handouts out there and they currently live on my desktop, but I want to be able to commit to memory and feel confident that I am correctly identifying the materials.

To accomplish this, I plan on enrolling in more academies such as this one. I will actively seek out online and LinkedIn Learning materials to help asssit in this.

Arlene Ramirez 2 years, 7 months ago

I learned quite a bit in this program, and I am attaching the presentation I will be doing at the AECT conference in November with @Waneta Hebert (also in this course).  Here is the link to the full abstract.  Having taken part in this course will help us develop the actual presentation with more robust material and resources for those attending.  I will post feedback when we return!

https://members.aect.org/events/review/PropResultsAA2x.asp?propid=1872758&AllAcademdicCode=1872758

Moving forward, I am adding more open-source material and contributing more to the available sites to give back for using what others have provided. 

 

Thank you!!

Arlene Ramirez

Michael Massaro 2 years, 7 months ago

Our library will be focusing on more & more EOR materials, so this was very useful to further my understanding of what the possibilities of what OERs can be. Despite incorporating them into the reference department, like including OERs in our LibGuides, I will also contact other departments of the library, such as the digital commons, and discuss with them the best ways to incorporate more OERs.

Melissa Gonzalez 2 years, 5 months ago

My next step is to simply find one resource from which I can draw something to put into my existing courses.

June Levitt 2 years, 4 months ago

I hope the future Texas grant program includes various disciplines out of the core curriculum.  If the grant extends to the allied health professional fields including speech-language pathology, please let me know. 

Kristen Becker 2 years, 4 months ago

I am hoping to use what I have learned to create OER materials in collaboration with other faculty members for our Library  Collection Development course that can be shared with adjunct faculty members to ensure common curriculum components are taught acrosss all sections.

Denise Arellano 2 years, 4 months ago

At present, my role is to support instructors, so I will keep practicing OER search so that I can assist when asked. Use of OERs is a topic we discuss regularly, so I like to be able to follow what the more advanced folks are saying and translate for those who know less than I do about the lingo. I also still teach in my original field on occasion, so I always keep a folder with resources I can use in my own courses. I have never been comfortable sharing the resources I have created for my students, so perhaps that should be my next 'uncomfortable task.' 

Sara Ishii 2 years, 4 months ago

Hi Everyone,

I really enjoyed authoring a resource that myself and others could use in creating a lecture for Women in the Visual Art or Art & Social Justice type courses.  My next step would be to work on converting other research or past course lectures into similar style resources so that I can add more lessons to my new OER resource.

Mark Gottschalk 2 years, 4 months ago

Next steps for Me at SPC are

  1. Continue to identify and learn from existing OER supporters on campus such as Dr. Warnick who spoke to us this week!
  2. Continue to help faculty learn and identify how to use OER in their courses
  3. Branch out and get to know more folks in the greater Texas OER community!
Rosemary Mendez 2 years, 4 months ago

I am speaking to several full-time and part-time faculty in my department about options to implement OER. I am also planning to meet with a librarian at the community college where I teach to find out what is available and what we need to do to move forward with the OER process.   

Scarlet Estlack 2 years, 4 months ago

Hello all,

I definitely learned a lot from this academy. Thank you to all who worked on it!

I completed a lab over angiosperm seed anatomy. It is based upon a lab that I do here at Clarendon College. Other instructors had accidentally found some of my illustrations for botany doing web searches and contacted me to find out more and/or to get complete lab materials for me. Therefore, I knew that there was an interest in the OER lab I published here to complete the "homework" section of the 3rd week of our academy.

I plan to wait on the feedback and/or remixing of this lab. If it gets some interaction (and maybe postiive feedback) I would consider publishing additional labs for freshmen college-level biology courses.

Kimberley Cox 2 years, 4 months ago

I have met with my chair and colleague about what OER sources we can begin to evaluate to attach to our Texas Government course PDC.  Our college wants to offer OER's as much as possible so we will have a lot of support if we can find the right materials.  Texas Government materials are not numerous but it looks like we will be using an OER in 2022 at some point. 

Holly Towns 2 years, 3 months ago

My plan is to take what I have learned from OER and apply it to a new themed IRW course I am designing for the spring. 

Jessica and I also plan to apply for an OER grant to help develop and implement OER in our LLC division on campus. 

I am also looking forward to authoring and remixing lessons for IRW and composition to publish. I created a mini-lesson using the Somebody, Wanted, But, So , Then method to summarize. It has been very effective in my IRW courses to help students create an effective summary.

Enjoy,

Holly

Jessica Zbeida 2 years, 3 months ago

Hello, everyone! This has been such a rewarding experience, and I'm looking forward to using and creating a lot more OER resources in the future.

In the near term, I plan to work with my colleague, Holly Towns, to develop OER resources for an English 1301+ (Plus) course so students don't have to pay for a textbook. We also want to develop resources for our INRW (Integrated Reading & Writing) courses and to collaborate with colleagues in other disciplines to incorporate materials that are authentic and that help students develop the academic literacy skils they need to succeed in higher ed (and life). We hope to apply for a grant for these programs next year.

In addition, I also hope to form an OER community group for my institution. Several faculty are already using OER, but so far no one has created a faculty group online for our institution. I hope to create that group and invite other faculty to participate by sharing resources. It seems like a great opportunity to collaborate with community colleges regionally and nationally to share what works (and what doesn't). Really optimistic about that part :)

Last, I hope to participate in more of the OER conferences and training opportunities in the future. It's such a fun group, and the commitment to student success is inspiring. Go team!

Thanks everyone!

Jessica Zbeida

Leslie Childress 2 years, 3 months ago

The next steps I plan to take to advance my OER work are:

  • Continue to review the OER evaluation rubrics and identify a rubric or combine rubrics for use at my institution.
  • Work with department chairs to identify OER resources that faculty are using to further build out our institution's hub on OERTX.
  • Identify faculty who would be willing to contribute to our hub on OERTX.
  • Work towards the integration of OERTX into our LMS.
  • Spread the word within our institution of OERTX and the resources available to faculty for use.
Amy San Antonio 2 years, 3 months ago

I plan to work with the Scholarly Communications Librarian on campus to share resources and information regarding OER. As part of the electronic Course Reserves Team, I want to make sure the bookstore is making OER resources clear, so that students do not purchase the print version if they do not actually want it (I noticed some this Fall made that information confusing). This involves educating students, as well as faculty, about OER. 

Sherry Ransdell 2 years, 3 months ago

Next steps to advance my OER work:

  • Find the faculty OER champions for the College; enlist their help in speaking with other faculty.
  • Look for opportunities to inform more students about OER. 
  • Hold info gathering sessions with department chairs and faculty to identify the support they need to identify, adapt, and create OER.
  • Continue to explore OER evaluation rubrics with the goal to develop an evaluation rubric at my institution.
  • Integrate OERTX into our Blackboard LMS.
  • Find opportunities to engage OER community in my local and state levels. 
Daniel Flores 2 years, 3 months ago

Hello!

I am very excited to move forward to create new OERs for my university. Our Center for Teaching and Learning Director has already announced his intention to offer a workshop for our faculty about OERs. I feel like I am getting ahead of the curve with this Academy training and experience. I have already talked with our classical Greek professor about converting his notes into an OER. As of last week, our VPAA has agreed to write a letter of support for this project. Thank you so much for getting me ready to contribute OERs.

Dan  

Michael Grillo 2 years, 3 months ago

My first attempts at using OER were frustrating, as I probably tried to take on too much too quickly. Moving forward, I plan to start small and take an incrementalist approach to it. As Dean Hendrix noted in his talk, we can incporate a little at a time, as opposed to moving the entire course to OER in one fell swoop. Given the lack of quality resources in my field, I'm thinking I may have to author my own resources. This will require to me consult with librarians and other experts to make sure that I follow best practices and such. 

Jamie Miranda 2 years, 3 months ago

I plan to complete the Texas Learn OER course and create more of my own materials for all my courses. I will also be working with others in my department to set up a repository for course materials and assignments for Developmental English and Co-requisite courses. 

Cathy Garcia 2 years, 3 months ago

I spent a good portion of my summer learning about OER. The administration team is open to OER, but we haven't made any major headway in making it happen. We have pockets of faculty willing, but not whole departments. So we struggle. I am currently converting all of the professional concept courses into using OER only. It doesn't make a dent hardly, but it's a start. Eager and still pushing!!

Cathy Garcia 2 years, 3 months ago

Plan:

Educate peers on OER.

Ask for collaboration from other departments.

Re-approach librarian about OER support.

Re-meet with Dean.

Karen Cunningham 2 years, 3 months ago

For my next steps for advancing my OER work, I plan on re-writing my current courses. I would like to stop using a textbook and write my own course. This involves research and evaluation of current OER materials.

Geneva Tesh 2 years, 2 months ago

I plan to complete the OER certification program at my institution, deliver a presentation about the availabilty of OER materials at the next NISOD conference, and begin publishing my own OER materials on Creative Commons.

Duncan Hasell 2 years, 2 months ago

Thanks for a great introduction to OER. I plan to advocate to fellow faculty and administration expanding the use of OER at Houston Community College. I am also interested in developing OER assignments and exercises that will allow students to collaborate online. I am thinking about ways to use OER to develop more EDI. Perhaps, we could faciltate students designing  their own textbook/handbook for use in future courses that they could add to after the completion of my course.

 

Pauline Ward 2 years, 2 months ago

I will continue to seek out OER resources for my classroom. I will also independently and collaboratively use the open author tool to add more resources to this site.

Edmund Cueva 2 years, 2 months ago

Sorry about this last-minute submission. Life got in the way. I am part of the OER group at my university and plan to take more OER workshops through our Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. I have also applied for a summer 2022 grant to convert one of my courses into a fully online OER course. Hopefully, it will be funded, but competition is fierce.

Thank you for this great experience!

Happy New Year!

Sarah Wainscott 2 years, 2 months ago

I had good (I think) success with a self-developed OER for my graduate course this fall, and plan to spend some time this semester doing revisions of the product this Spring before posting it to the repository. I am getting feedback from students and colleagues as well as support from our university's library. I am trying to remember "it doesn't have to be perfect", and am using my review criteria.

I am more dependent on the text for my undergrads, so thinking about how to make a transition there, and have joined an OER group at my university.

Christy Gipson 2 years, 2 months ago

My next steps for advancing my OER work are to evaluate the OER that I currently utilize in one of my courses using the evaluation tools we utilized during this training.  I would then like to brainstorm with colleagues teaching the course to discuss how we might utilize OER in place of a course textbook.  I teach Community Health Nursing and am also looking forward to reviewing the Mental and Health and Community Concepts that will be published through CVTC in fall 2022. Open RN | CVTC

Brenda Cantu 2 years, 1 month ago

I think my next step for advancing My OER work is to:

1. Have all my librarinas take this course or one similer to it

2. Have a more hand on approceh when it comes to OER

2. Work on creating an embebbed Librarian ship with english and reseaarch classes

3. work on creating a collabortion with faculty to create/ find OER content to use in their OER classes. ( Moving a way from purchsing modules or software)

4. work on looking into Grant Programs

5. Continue to work on OER Professional Developmnt of Library Staff

 

I would consider starting small working with one or two faculty meember first seeing that we have 4 campuses and onlt one librarian at each brance campus an 2  at the main library.