Faculty OER Panel 2022

Brad Severa Author

03/24/2022 Added

12 Plays

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Faculty Panel - What do instructors need to know about OER to get started? Kim Carlson, Ph. D. Biology University of Nebraska at Kearney Courtney Hillebrecht, Ph. D. Political Science University of Nebraska-Lincoln Holly Zimmerman, MS, CGC, Assistant Professor College of Allied Health Professions University of Nebraska Medical Center Julie A. Pelton, Ph.D. Sociology & Anthropology University of Nebraska Omaha

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[00:00:00.480]Okay.
[00:00:00.920]I think that looks like just about everyone.
[00:00:03.560]So thank you all for showing up here for day
[00:00:06.880]two of open Edweek and for showing up to this panel.
[00:00:11.480]What do instructors need to know about?
[00:00:13.600]We are to get started.
[00:00:15.920]My name is Craig Finley.
[00:00:16.920]I'm one of the OER community, of practice members,
[00:00:21.240]and I am going to be doing some introductions here today.
[00:00:24.600]So we are joined today
[00:00:27.320]and thank you for coming here
[00:00:30.400]and sharing your experience and your expertize with us.
[00:00:33.800]We have Dr.
[00:00:34.440]Kim Carlson, professor
[00:00:35.680]and co-chair of the Department of Biology at University of Nebraska.
[00:00:39.520]Kearney.
[00:00:40.600]Dr. Courtney Hillebrecht.
[00:00:43.320]Samuel Clark, Law Professor of International Relations.
[00:00:46.600]Director of the First Family Program on Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.
[00:00:50.440]Faculty Coordinator of the William H.
[00:00:53.440]Thompson Learning Community at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:57.320]You do a lot, Courtney
[00:01:01.480]We are
[00:01:01.960]joined by Holly Zimmerman of University of Nebraska Medical Center.
[00:01:05.200]Holly is assistant professor and program director for genetic counseling at UMC
[00:01:09.640]and they certified genetic counselor and Dr.
[00:01:12.400]Julie Pelton, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology
[00:01:15.880]and Anthropology at University of Nebraska, Omaha.
[00:01:19.080]So, again, thank you all for joining us.
[00:01:20.920]Can't wait to hear the discussion that will get going today.
[00:01:25.440]So with that, I'll turn it over to y'all
[00:01:30.080]I guess while I'm starting, I'm Kim Carlson.
[00:01:33.600]I am at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and I have been part of the
[00:01:37.480]are a team here at UNK since
[00:01:40.120]its inception in 2015 when we received a Kelly Grant
[00:01:44.720]from the University of Nebraska system to start having open access.
[00:01:48.640]But we used to call it at the time on this
[00:01:51.880]here at UNK,
[00:01:53.560]we started a very successful program and that has progressed
[00:01:57.400]into the having
[00:02:00.760]we are and doing the course markings
[00:02:05.240]and having a collaboration for this across the campuses.
[00:02:09.880]So I've been active here also with the Midwest Higher Education Consortium on.
[00:02:15.921]And then part of the university Nebraska team for
[00:02:18.521]we are also
[00:02:26.321]Hello, everybody.
[00:02:27.401]I'm Courtney Hillebrecht I am coming from the UNL campus
[00:02:30.961]and I'm a political scientist by training.
[00:02:33.761]And I started working with OER a few years ago now
[00:02:38.201]and it was largely motivated
[00:02:40.841]by my work with the William H.
[00:02:42.601]Thompson Scholars Program.
[00:02:44.521]And being in a classroom teaching a class, both a 200 person section
[00:02:48.601]and a 25 person section, and thinking about
[00:02:52.121]how we could make the experience equitable and engaging for all of our students.
[00:02:56.801]To give you some background, the William H.
[00:02:58.881]Thompson Scholars program serves roughly a thousand students on the UNL campus
[00:03:03.601]and is also active on all the other campuses on our call here.
[00:03:07.441]Approximately 60% give or take of our students are first
[00:03:11.601]generation scholars and 40% identify as students of color.
[00:03:16.281]And while these students receive very generous funding from the Student
[00:03:19.601]Foundation, they also have financial needs
[00:03:22.361]that regularly exceed what they were receiving for the scholarship.
[00:03:26.161]So the cost of purchasing
[00:03:29.081]textbooks was was out of reach for many of our scholars.
[00:03:32.841]Beyond that, as someone who's teaching world politics
[00:03:36.641]and as you all know, the world changes daily,
[00:03:40.041]I was often finding that the textbooks and the materials
[00:03:42.281]that we were using were lagging behind real world events.
[00:03:45.801]And so I made the transition to, oh, we are in part to make our classroom
[00:03:50.761]materials more accessible and equitable for all of our students,
[00:03:54.601]but also to create nimble course content that engages
[00:03:58.241]students through a variety of different media and sources.
[00:04:02.041]And that can be changed as the world changes. Right.
[00:04:04.521]So I can't in good faith teaching
[00:04:07.121]international relations class without teaching this war on Ukraine,
[00:04:09.801]which is not going to be covered in any textbook.
[00:04:13.001]I'll stop there.
[00:04:13.521]And then I'm happy to talk about how we how we made the transition, what's worked
[00:04:17.441]and what I might do differently
[00:04:22.161]Hi, I'm Holly Zimmerman.
[00:04:23.721]I am in the College of Allied Health Professions on the UNMC campus.
[00:04:29.082]And I joined UNMC in November of 2017.
[00:04:33.042]And at the time it was to start our genetic counseling program.
[00:04:36.882]And so I had the opportunity to meet with a lot of great people on UNMC campus.
[00:04:41.002]And one of my meetings was with the library.
[00:04:45.482]And at the time we were trying to set up,
[00:04:49.242]we were starting to make a list of our required books and
[00:04:52.042]starting to think about everything from I started with just asking
[00:04:55.282]about specific journal access that our profession uses a lot.
[00:04:59.122]And in the conversations connected with Allison at UNMC and really learned
[00:05:03.642]more about the open education resources available for students
[00:05:08.882]and so we worked with our very first class
[00:05:11.562]starting in fall of 2019 just from the start of our program.
[00:05:16.202]All of our books, except for one, are available
[00:05:18.922]with unlimited user access, which has been really great.
[00:05:22.242]I thought everybody did this, and so I thought
[00:05:26.562]for our students, kind of no official survey data
[00:05:29.362]to share, but anecdotally have said this has been amazing,
[00:05:32.562]just to not have to lug books back and forth from campus and home
[00:05:36.642]or just to have it always on a laptop are the cost.
[00:05:40.722]Total of books for us can be about $700.
[00:05:44.042]And so that can be a high cost.
[00:05:45.522]So that kind of defer some of those costs.
[00:05:47.842]As Cortney mentioned, The other thing for me as a professor that's been nice
[00:05:52.362]is that I can highlight in the book, I can make comments in the book,
[00:05:56.882]and if that changes the next time I can just undo it.
[00:06:00.962]I have a lot of books from graduate school that just everything is highlighted,
[00:06:04.602]everything was important.
[00:06:05.602]And so just to be able to go back and change,
[00:06:08.242]maybe what points I want to discuss in which class have been really helpful
[00:06:17.442]All right.
[00:06:17.842]And I'm Julie Pelton in sociology and anthropology.
[00:06:22.242]I started here at UNO in 2009,
[00:06:26.682]but I had already sort of started to move to
[00:06:30.522]move away from a traditional textbook
[00:06:32.642]prior to starting here at UNO for a variety
[00:06:37.042]of different pedagogical reasons, including some of the things
[00:06:41.083]that Courtney said in terms of textbooks not being up to date or lagging behind
[00:06:46.043]what students are interested in talking about, but also in terms
[00:06:50.083]of providing a really rigid structure for a course that I didn't always like.
[00:06:53.843]So I had already been experimenting with readers
[00:06:57.403]and using monographs and structuring courses around
[00:07:01.323]less traditional textbooks that I really enjoyed.
[00:07:05.723]I want to say that this was before I would even have heard of something called OER.
[00:07:10.323]So I've had a long term interest in this as an individual.
[00:07:15.363]I have used some traditional textbooks since teaching here at UNO there are
[00:07:19.683]some courses in the student population that I thought needed a textbook.
[00:07:24.043]And so my experience with OER has actually proved me wrong,
[00:07:27.443]which I'm quite happy to have learned that lesson.
[00:07:30.843]I also I'm part of
[00:07:32.403]department, I think, with a culture of understanding the need to help control
[00:07:37.283]textbook costs for students from a social justice perspective.
[00:07:42.363]While
[00:07:44.083]our students are traditionally
[00:07:47.163]sort of working and low income or working class students
[00:07:52.243]We we sort of all have tried to make a shift over time.
[00:07:56.043]Some of our colleagues
[00:07:58.243]made a shift to an open stacks textbook
[00:08:02.323]for our intro sociology classes many years ago.
[00:08:06.643]Recently, I would say the thing that has most sort of propelled
[00:08:10.963]my work in OER has been the resources here on UNO's campus.
[00:08:14.683]So the Office of Digital Learning folks, the grants that come out of that space
[00:08:20.403]are OER specialists and are instructional designers.
[00:08:24.003]And I'll just say that I've been involved in a couple of different projects
[00:08:27.803]and then go back to the group.
[00:08:29.923]So in 2019 I began work on an intro sociology course shell
[00:08:36.163]that we decided should include an earlier textbook
[00:08:41.603]The course
[00:08:42.643]itself was identified as a course which could have expanded
[00:08:47.403]enrollment if we had the ability to create more courses
[00:08:51.883]or more sorry, more sections or larger sections through a shell.
[00:08:56.524]We ultimately ended up going with
[00:08:59.964]something called the Sociology Experiment,
[00:09:01.884]which just happened to come on the market at that same time is in
[00:09:06.124]sort of open access textbook designed by experts in our field
[00:09:10.804]with every chapter within it being written by someone who specializes on the topic.
[00:09:16.284]It mirrors a traditional textbook in sociology, so that was nice.
[00:09:19.924]For our current faculty.
[00:09:22.204]The really great part of this, though, is that it's six
[00:09:26.284]sorry, $16 total or $1 a chapter.
[00:09:29.284]So incredibly affordable with really easy access through a student portal
[00:09:35.204]and instructor portal that has all kinds of ancillary resources for them.
[00:09:40.884]And then we recently were granted a large sum of money
[00:09:46.044]to transfer our entire program to OER So 12 of our faculty members
[00:09:51.844]worked to transform 24 courses, including our core required courses.
[00:09:56.044]So sociology anthropology is the first program on
[00:10:00.244]UNO's campus to offer an OER path to completing the majors.
[00:10:05.524]So those are my primary experiences
[00:10:10.844]If I could add something.
[00:10:12.484]So my major responsibility at UNK is teaching.
[00:10:16.564]So we're primarily undergraduate institution
[00:10:19.084]a little bit different than the other campuses.
[00:10:21.364]And seven, I teach seven classes that I have and of my seven classes,
[00:10:26.764]four of them are OER three of them are OER with lower no cost materials.
[00:10:32.644]The one class my major class is teaching genetics, which those textbooks
[00:10:36.764]can be really expensive and I've taught that class for 19 years.
[00:10:40.564]This is my 38th semester of teaching that class.
[00:10:44.004]And my textbook costs got so expensive this past semester
[00:10:48.684]and they are forcing me to use the new edition of the book
[00:10:51.724]forced me to use their platform, which I did not want to use.
[00:10:54.524]And I was contacted by a company called Skyepack and Skyepack.
[00:10:59.364]What they do is they give the professor a instructional designer to work with.
[00:11:04.644]They work with you.
[00:11:05.804]They took all my notes from class and they converted all my notes into an
[00:11:09.845]OER e book that costs under $40 for all the students
[00:11:15.085]to be able to purchase and it cost me as the professor
[00:11:18.925]absolutely nothing to do except the time it cost me any money.
[00:11:23.845]The students have access to this book for a very long time.
[00:11:27.165]I've been using it this semester as I've been developing it, and
[00:11:31.485]I am going to talk tomorrow in a, in one of the in the speed sessions.
[00:11:36.365]I will have somebody from Skyepack with me to talk about it.
[00:11:39.565]If you've ever been hesitant about having a content heavy class,
[00:11:43.605]be switched over and make your own book for it.
[00:11:47.365]This is the way to go.
[00:11:48.805]It's really easy and it's affordable and the students like it.
[00:11:53.245]I can tell you that usually when you give tests in most classes,
[00:11:56.885]those of you who teach know your grades are like this around that C in the middle.
[00:12:01.885]My first test in genetics haven't had this in 38 semesters went like this
[00:12:06.365]with most of the grades being an A-minus or better which was shocking.
[00:12:09.965]So it does work
[00:12:11.245]and if you want more information on that, I'm happy to talk about that even more
[00:12:33.845]so I don't know Craig if you had questions
[00:12:36.365]sort of lined up for us, but one thing that I think sort of to Kim's point
[00:12:41.285]that might be helpful for us to chat about is what the transition process
[00:12:44.525]look like.
[00:12:45.005]I know when I sat down with the idea of moving away from a textbook,
[00:12:50.485]it was I was pretty trepidatious about the idea of it
[00:12:54.085]so so maybe I'll share a little bit about how I made the transition
[00:12:57.845]and then maybe others can pipe in to.
[00:12:59.965]I know for me, I've other classes that I'm thinking about doing this with and
[00:13:03.885]still, still feel slightly trepidatious, even though I've already done it.
[00:13:07.525]So for me, one of the ways
[00:13:10.365]that I was able to to make it make the change to OER
[00:13:15.805]was deciding on the structure of the class.
[00:13:19.685]So I typically did a week by week type of module that didn't
[00:13:23.086]actually align with the textbooks that are out there in the field.
[00:13:26.526]So I worked with a research assistant to identify a list of readings
[00:13:31.206]and videos for each module and we really sought to find a balance.
[00:13:35.446]And the research assistant was crucial to this process
[00:13:39.326]and it was really helpful in a number of ways.
[00:13:41.486]One that the student
[00:13:42.566]had taken the class of me as an undergrad and TA'ed for as a graduate student.
[00:13:46.326]So she had a really intimate understanding of what
[00:13:49.846]the class was like from both
[00:13:52.926]a students perspective and from the TA.
[00:13:54.726]Because sometimes students, particularly in that 200 person section,
[00:13:57.806]they'll talk to the TA more then they'll talk to me
[00:14:01.806]and then
[00:14:02.406]once we curated a long list, we started cutting
[00:14:05.766]and really putting it together into these different modules.
[00:14:09.286]And each of them is self-contained.
[00:14:11.006]Our campus uses canvas and not sure if the other NU system, OK.
[00:14:15.886]So each unit is self-contained
[00:14:18.126]and it includes a guide to the week with key questions, which the R.A.
[00:14:22.286]wrote
[00:14:24.646]all of the lectures, reading, or all of the readings and the videos.
[00:14:28.446]A place to upload my lectures, which became really important
[00:14:30.846]while we were working remotely during COVID.
[00:14:34.286]The weekly reading quiz and then supplementary exercises.
[00:14:37.646]And so together we work to create this package
[00:14:41.326]and it was a great experience for for me, it was a great experience
[00:14:44.486]for my students, and I like to think it was a good experience for the R.A.
[00:14:47.846]because now she had sort of the opportunity to go
[00:14:51.006]through the process of creating a course, designing course content
[00:14:55.046]and thinking about how we assign readings and work that align
[00:14:59.766]with the course objectives So this was really a team effort.
[00:15:03.646]And in addition to, of course, Brad and the team here at UNL.
[00:15:08.006]So it made it much more feasible than I had originally anticipated when I started
[00:15:17.286]We have a question
[00:15:18.246]here in the chat from Martonia.
[00:15:22.526]What do you perceive to be the benefits of, OER
[00:15:25.166]beyond the low or no cost to students?
[00:15:29.206]Should I see so many benefits from the instructor's perspective?
[00:15:32.006]What are your thoughts
[00:15:41.407]I can maybe get started on sort of my thoughts on that first.
[00:15:44.807]And in terms of from the student perspective,
[00:15:48.527]one of the really important factors for student success
[00:15:52.607]in the class is having access to the materials right away.
[00:15:55.887]And so if you're able to build air into your class from the get go,
[00:16:01.247]students aren't worrying about having to find the money to
[00:16:05.047]to to buy the text, to get the text in enough time
[00:16:09.087]to be able to be reading it as you're proceeding through the class.
[00:16:12.327]So that that's sort of one level above just the basic cost savings for students
[00:16:19.727]For me,
[00:16:20.207]from the perspective of the instructor,
[00:16:23.287]I think the way I have gone OER
[00:16:27.647]which is maybe best characterized as trying to piecemeal pull together
[00:16:32.527]the right content for the learning objectives and for students
[00:16:37.927]and sort of getting the most out of the material has allowed me
[00:16:40.927]to be a lot more flexible and creative than I would have been previously.
[00:16:44.967]So one of the courses that I redesign last year,
[00:16:51.287]I essentially scrapped a book I had been using
[00:16:54.807]and I had gathered some sort of excerpts
[00:16:58.207]from other monographs that I thought were still important, but
[00:17:02.407]based on the topic, based on student interest
[00:17:04.727]in sort of a subject area, I kind of just went out and started exploring
[00:17:09.327]and then it was able to connect students to interviews, to sort of websites
[00:17:14.327]with organizations working on a topic that was relevant to the course,
[00:17:19.847]more audiovisual types
[00:17:21.847]of resources rather than just text.
[00:17:24.927]So I've really valued sort of stepping outside of that box
[00:17:28.887]and looking for more creative resources for students.
[00:17:31.927]That helps me do more interesting things.
[00:17:33.767]And structurally
[00:17:38.647]I'll be happy to jump in working in a field
[00:17:41.047]like genetics that's constantly changing and progressing all the time.
[00:17:45.167]The great thing about doing OER is you can update your materials
[00:17:48.808]instantaneously so you're not stuck with the textbook
[00:17:52.128]for so many years that has outdated material.
[00:17:54.728]You can constantly be on the forefront of your fields and students like that.
[00:17:59.168]What are the other things The benefits that I see
[00:18:01.688]from doing this For example, my so I came at OER two different ways.
[00:18:06.688]I designed a class just to be OER,
[00:18:08.448]which is my genetics of popular culture class.
[00:18:11.128]That's completely OER because we do movies, art,
[00:18:14.368]literature, everything in there.
[00:18:16.048]So I designed it that way.
[00:18:17.088]And then doing this traditional book class this semester is making it, Oh, we are.
[00:18:22.488]What's been great about
[00:18:23.528]that is the instructional designer, I work with who is not a geneticist
[00:18:28.568]When she created this, she made the materials so that a lot of it
[00:18:32.048]that she could understand from a viewpoint that she could understand.
[00:18:35.368]And then I went in and put the technical information in,
[00:18:38.488]but she would pull YouTube videos, all these sorts of things.
[00:18:42.248]And the kids love it.
[00:18:43.288]They love being able to have those videos there.
[00:18:45.848]And I never would have thought of doing that
[00:18:47.848]because I've been using this traditional textbook.
[00:18:50.208]So I think the benefit is, is you can stay at the forefront of your field
[00:18:54.168]and you can also have the opportunity to build in different types
[00:18:58.448]of learning capabilities for the students to use based upon,
[00:19:02.048]you know, what all students learn by because they all learn a
[00:19:05.128]little bit differently
[00:19:09.368]I had a follow
[00:19:10.088]up question for my fellow panelist here.
[00:19:13.848]As this is
[00:19:16.128]newer, I think to think about for UNMC faculty.
[00:19:19.848]And so just curious
[00:19:21.848]if you've had just official or unofficial feedback from students.
[00:19:26.568]I know we talked about grades and that can certainly be an outcome,
[00:19:29.048]but have there been other outcomes that would be helpful for faculty
[00:19:33.848]considering this or not even realizing that this is available
[00:19:38.128]Yeah, so we've been doing this since 20,15.
[00:19:40.448]So we have a lot of student data.
[00:19:42.088]We have gone out, we've interviewed the students and asked them
[00:19:44.848]what they liked about,OER of course number one is the cost.
[00:19:49.408]Number two is they don't have to carry those books around, to be honest with you.
[00:19:52.768]That's what they said.
[00:19:53.528]They're like.
[00:19:54.128]Those books get heavy.
[00:19:55.168]We don't want to carry them around.
[00:19:57.368]They're technology driven.
[00:19:58.688]They've learned in schools
[00:19:59.768]a little bit differently than what I did when I went to school.
[00:20:02.889]They also said they like the fact that everything seems to be real time
[00:20:07.649]and they get information that's up to date.
[00:20:12.049]They felt like their professors were more engaged with them.
[00:20:16.209]And they really liked that aspect also.
[00:20:18.929]Yeah.
[00:20:19.169]So there are a lot of best practices out there
[00:20:21.689]from interviewing the students and finding out
[00:20:24.329]what they have to say to you besides just great.
[00:20:26.609]And their grades, actually.
[00:20:28.449]We've we've done an analysis looking at classes
[00:20:31.009]that were traditionally textbook to those that converted over to, OER and looked
[00:20:36.009]at the grade distributions and the grades are better from the OER classes
[00:20:46.369]from.
[00:20:47.769]I had a question, Courtney, you mentioned.
[00:20:50.649]Yeah.
[00:20:50.929]That when when you were thinking
[00:20:52.809]about starting this project that, you know, you you were
[00:20:56.769]at first hesitant about the idea
[00:20:59.009]of making this big of a switch
[00:21:03.289]At what point
[00:21:04.209]did you feel that hesitancy being addressed?
[00:21:08.089]You know, was it just you started looking at the available resources
[00:21:12.129]and what other people had done?
[00:21:13.209]You thought, okay, I can do this?
[00:21:14.889]Or was it a more gradual process?
[00:21:17.049]Because, you know, that's I think for people working in OER programs
[00:21:22.329]overcoming that understandable initial hesitancy
[00:21:26.089]and and addressing these concerns from faculty,
[00:21:30.609]obviously, who are highly concerned
[00:21:33.129]about their pedagogy and the impact on their students.
[00:21:37.289]That's a thing that everyone's going to deal with and have to address.
[00:21:40.769]So from the perspective of someone
[00:21:44.049]who dealt with that and who obviously overcame it.
[00:21:47.169]Can you expand on that a little bit?
[00:21:50.129]Yeah.
[00:21:50.649]So I think my hesitancy was was sort of twofold.
[00:21:54.369]One was I mean, quite
[00:21:57.409]quite selfishly, how much time is this going to take me right
[00:22:01.929]and I made the move after tenure, but still, you know, lots of demands
[00:22:07.089]on our time and lots of people wanting stuff from from from faculty.
[00:22:11.649]So I was concerned about the amount of time it's going to take to sift through.
[00:22:15.930]I mean, it's both.
[00:22:16.530]It's a good thing, right?
[00:22:17.330]There's a lot of open access resources out there.
[00:22:20.650]In political science
[00:22:21.570]and international relations, but that's also a lot to go through.
[00:22:25.730]Right.
[00:22:26.090]So I was sort of concerned by how do we find the
[00:22:29.250]the golden nuggets in there that we actually want to show our students
[00:22:33.490]have our students engage with, and that meets our learning objectives.
[00:22:36.130]So sifting through
[00:22:37.050]and the time that that would require was probably my first hurdle
[00:22:40.730]and then the second one was what are
[00:22:43.450]what would I be giving up by moving to OER?
[00:22:46.410]And would that affect students learning and their outcomes?
[00:22:49.330]And I quickly overcame
[00:22:51.970]the first one because it was A, fun to sort of go through all these things.
[00:22:55.530]And B, started working with the graduate student.
[00:22:58.130]So that helped the second hurdle.
[00:23:00.250]I also overcame fairly quickly once I started working more closely
[00:23:03.730]with the students in my scholarship community
[00:23:05.530]when it became clear that $40 for a textbook was really hard.
[00:23:09.570]$40 for a textbook of which I only used a quarter or a third or
[00:23:13.850]even a half was just not something that was sustainable.
[00:23:18.050]And again,
[00:23:18.410]our textbooks were cheap compared to what I think
[00:23:20.290]some of you had indicated as the price of a maybe a textbook
[00:23:23.730]in the STEM fields, but it's still money they didn't have.
[00:23:28.050]And more to the
[00:23:28.690]point, I was finding that as the years went on, I was using less
[00:23:32.090]and less of both the textbook and the supplementary materials.
[00:23:35.890]Right. But students were still paying for it.
[00:23:37.930]They didn't get to only pay for a half of the textbook.
[00:23:40.450]Right.
[00:23:41.130]So both the financial exigencies and sort of the equity concerns
[00:23:45.970]really trumped my hesitancy about the the learning objectives piece.
[00:23:51.410]And then the other thing, I think there's real
[00:23:54.010]path dependance, especially in some of our core classes.
[00:23:57.210]So there are maybe three to five textbooks in my field
[00:24:00.250]that almost everyone uses, particularly at Big Ten institutions.
[00:24:04.410]The one that I was using, my advisor wrote.
[00:24:06.730]So I felt like I was obliged to use this book,
[00:24:10.410]but the student's
[00:24:11.170]needs trumped that past dependency at the end.
[00:24:14.170]And honestly, it was fun.
[00:24:15.850]It was fun to put it together
[00:24:18.250]Hopefully that helps Craig
[00:24:22.370]Yes. Thank you.
[00:24:33.371]A follow up question to that.
[00:24:36.011]So moving from a
[00:24:41.771]you know, obviously from the print book,
[00:24:44.171]which the students will have in front of them to the e-text,
[00:24:49.691]which, you know, at least a while in class, unless they have a laptop
[00:24:54.171]or a tablet or you're in a computer classroom,
[00:24:58.291]you know, that material won't be readily referenced.
[00:25:02.931]How did you incorporate that into your learning design?
[00:25:07.491]Um, did you need to do some flip the classroom work?
[00:25:12.691]You know, because that's
[00:25:14.251]a consideration that people are thinking about integrating
[00:25:17.651]these fully online materials into their classes
[00:25:21.171]are going to have to have, you know,
[00:25:24.491]is, is that the any material
[00:25:27.411]if the students are going to be guaranteed to have consumed before the class,
[00:25:31.971]they're going to do so on a computer or by printing it out before class
[00:25:36.091]or else you have to bring some sort of a device to class
[00:25:46.691]Well, I'll be honest.
[00:25:47.771]Most of my students bring something to class I have probably
[00:25:54.091]out of my classroom, I would have probably 5%
[00:25:58.691]or less of my students bring traditional something paper and pencil to class.
[00:26:04.211]They all have a device when they're in class.
[00:26:06.131]So for me, it's never been an issue.
[00:26:09.291]If I wanted them to pull something up, they actually have their technology
[00:26:13.291]right there and readily available
[00:26:18.731]if you don't.
[00:26:20.171]I have taught a class.
[00:26:21.251]I taught a class called
[00:26:21.971]Science Fair, and what we did do is we had it as a flip classroom,
[00:26:25.691]so they would do the readings beforehand before they actually came to class.
[00:26:30.291]But most of those students also came with some sort of technology
[00:26:34.251]when they came to class. Also
[00:26:43.772]I was going to add that I think at the U.N., M.S.
[00:26:46.892]campus, I don't I don't know,
[00:26:49.772]100%, but at least our program does require a device.
[00:26:54.252]And so it similarly, my students are bringing those devices.
[00:26:58.812]I can't speak to all of our courses, but at least for my courses,
[00:27:03.012]it is the expectation that reading was done ahead of time.
[00:27:06.972]If I'm referencing anything in the book, then I have an image of that
[00:27:10.892]or I've pulled up the book to show that chart or to show
[00:27:14.772]we're going to talk through this case example.
[00:27:17.492]And so that's how we've pivoted a little bit.
[00:27:19.692]But our students do have devices
[00:27:25.892]My students almost all have devices as well.
[00:27:27.852]And more to the point, even before I made the transition,
[00:27:30.492]they were telling me that the work that they had to do online, like
[00:27:33.732]take a quiz on canvas they were doing on their phones.
[00:27:36.532]So in fact, this lowered the barrier to participation
[00:27:39.492]because many of them are doing the work,
[00:27:42.612]if not on a computer or on an iPad.
[00:27:45.292]They're probably doing a lot of it on their phone,
[00:27:48.572]and at least they're doing it.
[00:27:50.212]So I'm going to count that as a win
[00:27:58.052]Have you encountered,
[00:28:00.012]though, any any examples of students who were on the wrong side of the
[00:28:04.572]digital divide and were having access and were having problems with access?
[00:28:09.132]Or has that not been an issue at all in any of your experiences?
[00:28:15.252]Yeah, I've had a couple of students who they
[00:28:17.772]they have not been able to afford any sort of technology
[00:28:23.652]and the way that we kind of got around those,
[00:28:25.732]we had an iPad initiative at UNK for a very long time.
[00:28:29.772]And so we had some extra iPads
[00:28:32.852]especially during Covid It was a huge problem.
[00:28:36.252]And so we had extra iPads that we actually checked out
[00:28:38.852]to those students that were left over from that initiative.
[00:28:41.772]So we are very fortunate in that sense that we were able to help the students out
[00:28:45.932]in that way.
[00:28:57.933]Oh, sorry.
[00:28:58.493]Oh, no, I didn't interrupt you.
[00:29:00.333]How is it now?
[00:29:01.773]I was just going to say, I think for us right now, we students do
[00:29:06.453]have the opportunity to still kind of do that traditional by the books.
[00:29:12.453]I think what's hard is if you had somebody that was it was difficult
[00:29:17.853]to get access to the paper books, but there was also a preference for that.
[00:29:22.933]I think we haven't quite gotten there,
[00:29:26.813]but we have had students that are kind of
[00:29:30.413]teaching themselves how to become more comfortable
[00:29:32.453]with technology and computers and reading online
[00:29:42.573]Can you talk a little bit about what
[00:29:44.613]the reaction from your colleagues was as you were going through this?
[00:29:49.453]I know that's going to be different for a lot of you.
[00:29:52.213]So, for example, Julie, in sociology,
[00:29:55.373]this was a department wide effort to create a major.
[00:30:00.333]But I'm I'm curious, you know, even in that case, sort of, you know,
[00:30:04.413]did you experience from your colleagues
[00:30:07.893]any skepticism that you had to overcome
[00:30:11.213]or Julie, in your case, any resistance from anyone
[00:30:15.453]who didn't like the idea of this kind of a major white conversion?
[00:30:20.853]I'm always curious to hear how these sorts of initiatives
[00:30:24.213]are received by teaching colleagues,
[00:30:26.893]you know, because within
[00:30:31.053]a department, you know,
[00:30:31.933]being a social environment,
[00:30:35.293]you know, your interaction with your colleagues is a huge part of
[00:30:39.413]the work culture.
[00:30:40.293]And if we're trying to build an OER culture, then, you know, those
[00:30:44.493]out of classroom conversations
[00:30:47.053]with your peers are huge.
[00:30:52.253]Yeah.
[00:30:52.773]I think that's an important thing to be cognizant of,
[00:30:57.693]of if you as an individual want to start a conversation about a department level
[00:31:02.853]initiative or even sort of an initiative that tackles a large
[00:31:07.734]group of GEN ED courses or something like that.
[00:31:11.014]In, in our case, what we tended to do, which usually is
[00:31:15.694]how our department operates with sort of a people who buy in
[00:31:19.894]and want to be part of the project to part.
[00:31:22.254]So a good chunk of our faculty did have some buy in an interest
[00:31:26.974]in the project for a variety of reasons.
[00:31:31.374]We still do have a couple of faculty who haven't necessarily
[00:31:35.014]moved their courses to OER format
[00:31:38.734]and I think we have an emphasis on sort of individuals
[00:31:43.854]abilities to teach in the way that they would like to.
[00:31:47.974]But I think what we're going to try to do to continue shifting that culture is to
[00:31:53.054]to talk about why OERhelps our students more and to to sort of start to
[00:31:59.254]pare down into the data.
[00:32:00.694]I think we're getting a sense that our OER courses have lower DFW rates
[00:32:05.254]and and better sort of student achievement.
[00:32:09.254]And and we know OER is not the only reason why those courses
[00:32:12.534]might be doing better, but our perspective is to highlight
[00:32:17.214]the successes of a thing rather than to try to
[00:32:21.214]to to sort of
[00:32:23.854]and I know what the right word would be force is coming to me,
[00:32:26.694]but that's not what I mean. Right?
[00:32:28.054]So to try to get everyone to buy it and we take a more positive approach
[00:32:33.934]because that is our department culture
[00:32:46.534]you know, I can say from a campus point of view,
[00:32:49.054]we've had a lot of successful by and we've had some people that have tried
[00:32:52.094]we are for their class and it just did not work well for them
[00:32:55.614]in my department, the biology department, over 90% of our classes are OER.
[00:33:00.574]So we've actually embraced it.
[00:33:03.094]Quite a few faculty
[00:33:04.334]member are now switching and working with Skyepack to put their books online.
[00:33:08.174]After my experience and how easy it was, I don't have a research assistant
[00:33:12.174]I have anybody to help me. My librarian is wonderful
[00:33:15.014]and the librarians are essential in doing this.
[00:33:17.734]And our instructional designers are overwhelmed here and with this company
[00:33:22.055]like I said, it cost me nothing and they have basically take the lead on it.
[00:33:26.255]My job is to edit and approve material,
[00:33:29.815]so we have a bunch of people in my department
[00:33:31.975]who are jumping on the bandwagon for this
[00:33:33.815]and converting their classes over because it has been very, very easy.
[00:33:38.175]One thing that we haven't mentioned that I would like to mention
[00:33:40.815]that's been kind of a little bit of an eye opener to me with OER is
[00:33:44.255]I am the mom of a college sophomore and he goes to school here at UNK
[00:33:49.575]and this semester we went to buy his books
[00:33:53.255]and his general psychology book.
[00:33:55.975]To have a rented used book was $180
[00:34:02.015]So as a parent, I know I appreciate OER
[00:34:05.375]we are in the OER initiatives that go on on the campuses.
[00:34:08.855]We also use this now as a recruiting tool at UNK to get students.
[00:34:14.255]We tell the parents about it, make sure the parents know
[00:34:16.415]that we are in OER campus and that we promote OER on the campus
[00:34:20.655]and how the students can book and find classes that are OER.
[00:34:25.175]So I think that's a very positive that's come out of this initiative.
[00:34:31.135]I was going to add
[00:34:31.895]from the UNMC lens, just knowing there's clinician something that's been helpful
[00:34:37.095]is the same books that can be obviously genetics does change.
[00:34:40.495]I'm with Kim for our field, whether there's some kind of staples
[00:34:46.135]within our field.
[00:34:48.135]And because these books are available for some of our courses for faculty
[00:34:52.895]who are also clinicians, they have access to these books through the library
[00:34:57.695]and have that electronic access.
[00:34:59.135]So they too don't have to lug books maybe to clinic.
[00:35:02.135]And then as we continue to grow as a program,
[00:35:04.695]we only have 1.5 FTE in the college.
[00:35:07.295]So we partner with a lot of things to help teach and as we partner
[00:35:10.895]with faculty outside of UNMC, having that adjunct faculty appointment,
[00:35:16.015]if it includes library access, can also gain access to some of those resources.
[00:35:21.095]And that doesn't just mean,
[00:35:22.375]you know, genetic counseling, but lots of other resources.
[00:35:25.375]So those are just some other kind of similar
[00:35:27.015]to the student recruitment, which we actually were in
[00:35:29.495]an interview season right now.
[00:35:30.895]We just mentioned that two applicants on Monday absolutely mentioned that.
[00:35:35.256]But also as you start to recruit clinicians and professionals to
[00:35:40.056]support your curriculum and your training, it's a really nice incentive
[00:35:48.576]I'll just say here
[00:35:49.536]briefly that I've I felt really supported on the UNL campus,
[00:35:53.496]not only on a sort of practical level
[00:35:56.736]with our instructional design team and our Center for Transformative Teaching
[00:36:00.536]but all the way up to our associate vice chancellor,
[00:36:03.456]who has sort of championed us and been been behind the initiative
[00:36:07.776]largely as a way for inclusive excellence once in our in our pedagogy.
[00:36:13.856]So I felt really supportive I think, you know, one thing
[00:36:17.056]that I do think is clear in our campus is that not everyone wants to do this.
[00:36:21.056]And and I think forcing folks into
[00:36:24.696]OER is probably not the most productive way forward.
[00:36:27.816]But certainly, as we're seeing earlier career scholars and instructors,
[00:36:31.816]they're much more inclined to engage in this process.
[00:36:35.256]That I think I was when I started.
[00:36:37.176]And so I see this as a really promising trend and feel feel rather supported here
[00:36:42.336]at UNL
[00:36:50.576]If I could, I would like to try something.
[00:36:52.576]What if we went through the list
[00:36:55.416]and we could just go going to list on the schedule?
[00:36:59.016]Going through.
[00:36:59.816]Kim, Courtney, Holly, Julie,
[00:37:02.896]if you were approached today
[00:37:05.976]by a faculty member interested in getting involved
[00:37:10.176]with doing your course conversion and asking you for your biggest
[00:37:14.336]experiential take away the thing that you you know, the if I knew then what I know
[00:37:19.936]now, your biggest piece of advice, what would that be?
[00:37:24.576]That's a really great question because I just did this on Friday of
[00:37:28.336]I went spoke at the faculty Senate about OER And then I had a faculty senator
[00:37:32.736]come and ask me that question is like, what what can you tell me?
[00:37:38.056]And my response now is, after working with Skyepack, is,
[00:37:42.216]I wish it were I wish I would have known it was so easy to do
[00:37:46.296]because it really is easy to do to convert a class over
[00:37:50.737]that is traditionally a content heavy course.
[00:37:55.657]That's why I avoid it.
[00:37:56.857]I mean, like I said,
[00:37:57.457]I've been part of this since 2015, and it took me this long to do it.
[00:38:01.257]And I wonder why I waited so long to actually do it.
[00:38:04.657]So that's my biggest takeaway
[00:38:07.937]I think mine also would be do it, give it a try.
[00:38:13.897]I would also say that it doesn't need to be a solitary exercise
[00:38:17.777]this can be a team effort and it's made a whole lot easier
[00:38:22.217]if you can find the support on your campus,
[00:38:25.337]both substantive but also technical to make it happen.
[00:38:29.177]So I think there are definitely the right people in all of our campuses.
[00:38:32.337]So do it, but make it a team effort
[00:38:37.937]I think honestly for our program,
[00:38:39.617]we haven't really even got into the deep end of what's all available.
[00:38:44.417]So it's really it's really great just to hear how everyone
[00:38:47.577]is using these resources.
[00:38:50.457]I didn't I also didn't
[00:38:51.817]appreciate how many people may not realize that this is available to help,
[00:38:56.817]whether it's reduce costs or have it more accessible.
[00:39:00.297]And so I just encourage people to reach out.
[00:39:02.897]Our librarians are amazing.
[00:39:05.617]I think everybody has said that today.
[00:39:06.977]There's a theme here
[00:39:08.897]just to see how this could work for your program
[00:39:11.697]or for your training program, your curriculum,
[00:39:13.737]because I am already even more inspired of thinking of other ways
[00:39:17.977]that this can can really work for our program.
[00:39:24.457]Yeah,
[00:39:24.817]I probably maybe would have three things to say.
[00:39:27.897]The first would be what Holly just said, sort of take advantage of your resources
[00:39:31.657]especially at UNO, between OER programs
[00:39:35.617]at the library and through digital learning.
[00:39:38.497]We have so many opportunities in terms of resources
[00:39:41.497]that are both monetary and human
[00:39:44.737]that we should all take advantage of them.
[00:39:46.777]Apply for a grant before you get started.
[00:39:48.977]Take some some
[00:39:51.457]professional development training courses on it if you can.
[00:39:55.457]The second piece of advice would be to be creative.
[00:39:58.857]As I've already said, that's my theme right Find resources
[00:40:02.538]that match your learning objectives, but be flexible
[00:40:06.978]in terms of finding what really could work and think outside the box.
[00:40:11.698]And then like a word of caution related to that,
[00:40:15.338]in our exploring open access opportunities for that.
[00:40:20.618]Our intro course, we came across a lot of bad
[00:40:23.778]open access textbooks.
[00:40:26.778]So be aware that you might have to do a deep dove
[00:40:29.938]into some of those chapters to make sure that they really cover
[00:40:32.458]content if that's the direction you decide to go
[00:40:35.498]in the way you want them to. And then
[00:40:39.578]thirdly, it doesn't all have to happen at once.
[00:40:42.618]If you've got one module you want to convert to open access, start there.
[00:40:46.938]See what you can do in one semester and then build on that and
[00:40:50.618]the students will appreciate having access to your content in your course,
[00:40:53.898]no matter whether it's the whole course or just part of it.
[00:40:56.898]So I think you have to do what is within your
[00:41:00.338]what is possible for you within the time constraints
[00:41:02.978]you have
[00:41:06.698]Awesome.
[00:41:07.058]Thank you.
[00:41:08.018]And Holly, I just want to say I might be biased,
[00:41:10.458]but I also think librarians are awesome.
[00:41:12.698]So, yeah, agreed.
[00:41:15.658]Um, do we have any, any more questions from the attendees here?
[00:41:21.458]Anything in inputting chat that you want to
[00:41:25.178]are there?
[00:41:25.898]This is from Brad.
[00:41:26.738]Are there are there any faculty incentives beyond grants that could be implemented
[00:41:30.778]to encourage OER?
[00:41:32.458]At UNC.
[00:41:33.938]We've been doing this since 2015.
[00:41:36.098]I keep saying that because we have a program that works obviously very well.
[00:41:40.338]We actually do have grants for faculty to convert their classes to OER.
[00:41:45.698]They get a stipend in the semester that they're working on
[00:41:48.578]or when they finally implement it.
[00:41:50.738]So if you get, if you get on the if you do this and apply
[00:41:54.618]and you get it, you don't get the money until
[00:41:56.498]you actually implemented in the classroom.
[00:41:58.218]And there's a
[00:41:59.498]something you have to do in the beginning and then at the end and you have to ask
[00:42:02.178]for data from students and surveys students and fill out some information.
[00:42:07.418]But we do have that.
[00:42:08.978]We have that for every semester for fall, spring and summer.
[00:42:11.898]So there is a faculty stipend
[00:42:13.659]that they can get at you and for creating a course as we are
[00:42:19.739]I would add to that beyond the grants.
[00:42:22.779]One of the things that I think increasingly we look for
[00:42:25.979]when we're reading promotion and tenure files and merit evaluations
[00:42:30.779]would be sort of innovations in the classroom
[00:42:33.859]and in pedagogy, particularly around issues related to equity and access.
[00:42:38.219]So so I think there are incentives here, but it might be incumbent on on faculty
[00:42:43.339]to be able to make that argument very clear clearly
[00:42:46.579]to their readers about how this type of work
[00:42:50.259]advances institutional goals around equity and access.
[00:42:53.979]But yeah, that's part of how we're going to be evaluating your teaching program
[00:42:57.379]profile
[00:43:21.379]Well,
[00:43:22.219]we still have 15 minutes on the clock here.
[00:43:26.859]If anyone has any more questions to ask.
[00:43:31.619]One thing that I
[00:43:34.339]actually wanted to ask and I've been thinking about this
[00:43:36.539]because I'm having to put some together for the university
[00:43:40.379]communication department who wants me to do a little write up
[00:43:42.219]about what we're doing in the library.
[00:43:43.419]But they wanted to know specifically about
[00:43:47.219]what's your
[00:43:47.579]experience been with student feedback
[00:43:51.019]you know,
[00:43:52.219]has there been positive or negative?
[00:43:55.419]I mean, I'm assuming at least a little bit of both are hopefully
[00:43:58.539]mostly positive, but what's that been like for you?
[00:44:17.579]Well, don't all try to jump in at once.
[00:44:19.059]We're being too polite.
[00:44:19.939]Okay, I'm going to go.
[00:44:22.179]I will say that I have never once had a student tell me that
[00:44:24.859]the Intro to International Relations textbook was good ever.
[00:44:30.340]So let's start like that's our benchmark.
[00:44:33.380]I think student feedback sent me back has been largely positive, particularly
[00:44:37.100]around the variety of materials that I'm able to provide.
[00:44:40.300]Right.
[00:44:40.580]So some might be a chapter from an open
[00:44:44.380]resource, some might be a video,
[00:44:46.540]one might be, you know, a New Yorker article.
[00:44:50.020]And so they like the variety.
[00:44:51.940]I think the biggest
[00:44:54.020]negative feedback point
[00:44:55.300]of negative feedback that I've received is that there's too many pieces.
[00:44:58.300]There's something very clean about reading one textbook chapter.
[00:45:02.260]I think particularly for a student or just transitioning
[00:45:04.500]from high school to college, they kind of like that
[00:45:07.820]read a chapter and that's what you have to read.
[00:45:10.260]So I think we've had to respond to that.
[00:45:13.300]By sometimes streamlining what we're asking them to do.
[00:45:16.820]And maybe that means some pieces get cut out and providing more context about
[00:45:20.660]why we're having them read each of these pieces.
[00:45:24.060]But overall, I would say the feedback has been been far more positive
[00:45:27.820]than any of the feedback I have received about the textbooks that I have been using
[00:45:33.380]I actually have a couple of people that are retaking genetics this semester,
[00:45:38.140]and they they came up to me and told me that this book was so much better.
[00:45:43.900]The other one had so much stuff in it that they just didn't know.
[00:45:47.860]Sometimes they got they get lost in the book.
[00:45:50.420]So what I have now is I have everything separate into modules instead of chapters,
[00:45:54.260]and I never use the book in the right order.
[00:45:56.020]I hated how the books were set up.
[00:45:57.740]And so now everything's in the right order and makes sense to them.
[00:46:01.660]I create my own problems for them to work rather than the book problems
[00:46:05.860]which sometimes were wrong or were overly complicated or extremely confusing.
[00:46:10.100]And these people have told me, they said,
[00:46:11.500]You should have used this book a long time ago.
[00:46:13.260]And I'm like, Thank you, thank you very much.
[00:46:15.020]So I've only heard positive things.
[00:46:17.260]I have I have not heard anything negative
[00:46:24.140]yeah.
[00:46:24.460]I'll echo and emphasize everything that's already been said.
[00:46:28.660]And add
[00:46:30.260]I guess is a little bit more than anecdotal, but
[00:46:33.460]I think it's really important that some students have really appreciated
[00:46:38.100]the alternate formats that you can do when you're not tied to a textbook.
[00:46:42.061]So in one of my classes,
[00:46:44.141]I couldn't find a digital substitution for a book that I require.
[00:46:49.341]I was able to link to an audio book and audible in Google Play,
[00:46:53.741]and those students who are not visual learners who are listen
[00:46:59.501]and understand things better, said that the ability
[00:47:03.101]to access course materials in that way really help them.
[00:47:06.261]So I think you're able to make your course more accessible.
[00:47:09.341]And the students can see that both in terms of how it impacts their learning
[00:47:13.181]and also as
[00:47:15.101]a value of trying to engage in universal design,
[00:47:19.061]even if they don't have that language to use to describe what you're getting at.
[00:47:23.861]The other thing is a lot of the sort of video
[00:47:27.101]content can be
[00:47:30.221]captioned And so those students who prefer reading over hearing appreciate that.
[00:47:35.261]So I've had that kind of accessibility,
[00:47:39.301]universal design based positive feedback
[00:47:49.821]I just mentioned
[00:47:50.621]when we when I first started my introduction is just in chatting
[00:47:55.741]with the students that this has been helpful just in class.
[00:47:59.541]We only have eight students per cohort.
[00:48:01.301]It's not a big not a big class and
[00:48:05.221]an absolutely said yes and said, make sure you tell applicants,
[00:48:10.301]because I think it's something that we just need to make sure sounds like.
[00:48:13.741]Similarly, some campuses have it listed as a,
[00:48:17.381]you know, a particular course has these resources.
[00:48:20.981]But just to really make a statement about our program, having this so us
[00:48:24.941]doing a better job of being more outward facing in what this looks like
[00:48:39.541]looks like we lost.
[00:48:40.781]And so I'm jumping in here
[00:48:47.701]someone in this post
[00:48:48.621]is having a book mandatory
[00:48:53.502]physical.
[00:48:54.422]And no, in none of our classes is having a book mandatory at all.
[00:48:59.742]And if you do it, if you do one of these open access e-books,
[00:49:05.182]that is a book.
[00:49:06.702]But no, you're not required to have a book
[00:49:09.462]for any class
[00:49:16.142]because wondering about I know a lot of
[00:49:19.062]especially like the big courses you know, one of the ones use a lot of the
[00:49:23.662]what they call courseware where there's a lot of stuff
[00:49:25.782]built into the textbook from a publishers is is that kind of material difficult
[00:49:30.902]to find when you're trying to find a way are materials
[00:49:37.782]So I would say no.
[00:49:39.222]And I see other people shaking their head in the same manner
[00:49:43.782]just to go back to the examples for the text
[00:49:46.542]we chose for the intro course,
[00:49:50.342]the creators of that material also created
[00:49:54.062]questions exam questions, discussion questions, open ended questions
[00:49:59.262]and other supplementary material.
[00:50:01.902]They've actually also partnered with Pan Open
[00:50:06.302]in the meantime since we adopted their book.
[00:50:08.862]So there's a lot of
[00:50:12.102]textbook generation that's happened that also includes ancillary materials,
[00:50:17.062]and then there's a lot more now, I think collaboration with organizations
[00:50:21.462]that'll build a whole canvas shell around those
[00:50:25.422]around those free or open access materials.
[00:50:29.102]So I would say there's a lot out there and a lot of the
[00:50:41.982]in the digital version for students and for instructors.
[00:50:45.662]So I think a lot of our instructors,
[00:50:49.182]if they haven't gone to use our core shell, have adopted
[00:50:54.462]a might be glitchy.
[00:50:56.742]Sorry, my I just got an Internet instant unstable notification.
[00:51:00.982]But all I'm saying is that most people have gone to digital textbooks
[00:51:06.342]because they still get
[00:51:08.143]all of the supplementary materials for students and instructors.
[00:51:12.463]For the one that I'm building right now is Skyepack.
[00:51:14.943]They can put all that in there.
[00:51:16.743]They go out and they find it for you.
[00:51:18.343]So that's that's what's great about this.
[00:51:20.423]I don't have to find it.
[00:51:21.583]They go out and find everything. I just have to approve everything.
[00:51:24.343]So with this, what I do,
[00:51:27.423]they do all the work for me and then I just approve it.
[00:51:30.863]But it's out there and it doesn't cost anything.
[00:51:33.223]And it's they have they make sure that it's all legal
[00:51:36.423]and everything for me to use. It's also Skyepack.
[00:51:39.303]make sure that everything is accessible also.
[00:51:42.223]So they take care of all that so me as a faculty member who,
[00:51:46.503]you know, I don't know all that kind of stuff.
[00:51:48.543]I mean, I'm a scientist by training, so they take care of all the legalities
[00:51:52.503]and everything for me
[00:51:53.423]and they find all the sites to find all the supplemental materials.
[00:51:56.583]They make the questions.
[00:51:57.623]So like in my textbook, I have videos embedded in there.
[00:52:01.623]I also they've made questions for the students to answer
[00:52:05.383]and it can go right from campus to the site and back into campus.
[00:52:09.663]So it's canvas.
[00:52:11.303]It communicates with camvas, too. So
[00:52:14.823]it's really a great source
[00:52:18.623]and great.
[00:52:19.743]I think we're about 6 minutes left here.
[00:52:23.583]Courtney has to leave in a bit here because she has a class to teach.
[00:52:27.263]So I'll ask one quick question
[00:52:30.423]kind of for all at Courtney answer first.
[00:52:33.543]If was there anything that really surprised you once
[00:52:36.783]you started doing this that you kind of didn't anticipate
[00:52:40.223]when you got going
[00:52:43.143]Yeah.
[00:52:43.623]I think one of the things that maybe it wasn't that I didn't anticipate,
[00:52:46.863]but that I, I hadn't recognized was
[00:52:52.143]how textbooks are written by a particular audience for a particular audience.
[00:52:57.183]And that audience is not my students.
[00:53:00.263]And I think I was
[00:53:04.703]unaware, shamefully unaware of
[00:53:07.463]of that dynamic before I actually started looking into other content
[00:53:12.063]So so now that's very
[00:53:13.343]clear to me when I go back and look at some of the other materials.
[00:53:16.423]But it's written by and for a particular audience.
[00:53:18.783]And as I said, that's those are not my students
[00:53:22.624]and I apologize.
[00:53:23.344]I do have to go go.
[00:53:24.304]But so it was so nice to be here. Thank you all for joining us
[00:53:26.944]and thanks for sharing so I can learn from all of you.
[00:53:30.064]So it's
[00:53:37.744]anyone else want to reply to that question?
[00:53:42.944]Anything surprise you about we are going to get started on it?
[00:53:45.904]Well, I will say, like I said, this is my 38th time teaching
[00:53:49.584]genetics, introductory genetics, and I think I am having
[00:53:54.064]because I can't remember 38 semesters ago, I think I'm having the most fun
[00:53:57.664]in my career right now.
[00:53:59.104]It's kind of renewed my love of teaching this book.
[00:54:03.464]I've always liked teaching it, but I think I'm having more fun this semester
[00:54:07.744]with the students and going through the material again
[00:54:11.304]and just becoming reacquainted with my, my field and teaching my field.
[00:54:15.424]That's been probably the most surprising to me.
[00:54:24.064]I will just add, we have,
[00:54:26.304]like I mentioned, we haven't gotten fully into it,
[00:54:28.984]but just in our little bit of time, both as a program and using these open
[00:54:33.144]resources, it
[00:54:36.424]just we haven't known any different.
[00:54:38.424]So it's been great and just thinking about new opportunities
[00:54:41.744]that could come our way or that we can create for for future
[00:54:45.024]students to
[00:54:52.904]there was a question
[00:54:53.824]in the Q&A session, how about any regulations regarding any
[00:54:58.224]copyright violations or we are
[00:55:06.184]Well, hopefully that's something
[00:55:07.624]that your instructional designers can help you with.
[00:55:10.664]If you're someone like me who don't who doesn't really know what to look for.
[00:55:14.744]But like I said, working with Skyepack.
[00:55:17.104]they take care of all of that for me.
[00:55:19.024]I don't even have to worry about that.
[00:55:20.544]So if you're somebody like me, that doesn't want to worry about that
[00:55:23.504]and look into that, you might want to team with the company.
[00:55:26.504]As I said, it cost me absolutely nothing to do it.
[00:55:30.264]So you might want a team with somebody.
[00:55:32.104]Otherwise you should have instructional designers on your campus
[00:55:35.105]that hopefully should be able to help you with those questions.
[00:55:41.905]And the librarians, again, they keep coming up.
[00:55:45.265]It's a great resource to check.
[00:55:46.665]I know on our website for this conference, we have a poster sessions.
[00:55:51.425]There's one on there from a UNL
[00:55:52.865]and a librarian that specializes in copyright talking about that.
[00:55:55.905]So that's a good place to check to
[00:56:01.265]yeah.
[00:56:01.585]Librarians are completely instrumental to this process
[00:56:07.145]and to you before we got involved with this
[00:56:10.425]for my one class genetics popular culture, when I was going through things
[00:56:14.145]to get everything all set up, Rochelle Reeves in our library
[00:56:17.585]became my best friend and helped me to make sure that the library
[00:56:22.465]was getting credit for anything that I was putting on my site
[00:56:26.945]and helped me to find so that I wasn't, you know,
[00:56:29.105]breaking the law while I was setting up my class to.
[00:56:31.625]So librarians are uber, uber instrumental in this process.
[00:56:36.665]Get to know your librarians
[00:56:41.945]all right.
[00:56:43.625]Got a bunch of thanks in the chat. So.
[00:56:46.145]Well, I got about a minute or so left here.
[00:56:48.065]I just want to thank everyone on the panel for taking part in this.
[00:56:50.665]It's been a lot of good info for everyone
[00:56:54.025]and hopefully
[00:56:57.065]if you have any questions about any you want to get involved in this,
[00:57:00.145]I'm going to contact for that.
[00:57:01.385]Just let me know.
[00:57:02.105]Brad Severa I'm at bsevera@ Nebraska..edu
[00:57:07.305]All the IT folks are now across the system.
[00:57:09.905]I'll get you in touch with librarians.
[00:57:11.265]I'll get you in touch
[00:57:11.945]with instruction designers, whoever, if you do want to learn more about this.
[00:57:15.425]So thanks Thanks again, everyone.
[00:57:18.185]Have a great day

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Faculty OER Panel 2022

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