As numerous studies and articles abound regarding the anagogical efficacy and learner-centricity of Open Educational Resources (OER), designers and faculty at Colorado Technical University (CTU) have embraced the idea of creating high-quality OER through our Beyond the Book guides. Learn how CTU develops, maintains, and evaluates this popular tool.
Open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly championed in the realm of higher education throughout the past decade. As numerous studies and articles abound regarding the anagogical efficacy and learner-centricity of these research tools, designers and faculty alike at Colorado Tech have embraced the idea of creating high-quality OER through our Beyond the Book guides. BtB, as they are affectionately monikered, have become standout stars in several of our courses.
At our university, we serve many students from non-traditional backgrounds and situations. The price of textbooks is a very real hindrance for much of our student population. To not only reduce prices for students but also to promote more engagement in the course overall, we have begun designing repositories of materials - collections of Creative Commons materials as well as multimedia resources - items which provide relevant information and multiple modes of delivery to generate interest across learning styles. Through our tracking procedures, we have found that students in these courses are indeed utilizing the guides, and we feel that bundling a variety of resources in this way is a useful tool that program designers and course developers can incorporate into online classes to promote engagement and facilitation of learning. We will also explore aesthetic methods of packaging resources to promote creativity and inspire authentic student interest.
In this conference presentation, University Librarian Jenna Obee, Business Program Director Dr. Melissa Williams, and Lead Faculty Dr. Carrie Wandler will showcase a series of CTUs Beyond the Book guides - including the process of choosing/designing materials, implications of replacing course texts, and impacts of these guides on student engagement in select online classrooms. The presentation will provide details on our process for creating these guides. We will discuss how we determine which classes need a guide and when OER is the right choice, as well as how best to curate resources to meet emerging need and maximize the student experience. We will also explore the technological aspects of building, revising and maintaining the guide. The audience will then work in small groups to determine their first steps in creating a similar product. A support website is available to attendees during and after the presentation.
Learning Outcomes:
· Participants will be able to:
o Identify opportunities for integrating OERs into the classroom
o Develop talking points for introducing OER to faculty and students for stronger buy-in
o Prepare a series of first steps to take back to their institutions