Faculty Interview David Mabie-UNL

Brad Severa Author

10/06/2022 Added

7 Plays

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OER Seed Grant interview with David Mabie

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[00:00:05.450]Well, it was kind of a happenstance.
[00:00:08.160]We had already been considering moving forward
[00:00:10.540]with it before we were aware of the grant being available
[00:00:13.670]and then we were looking at trying to change
[00:00:18.160]what topics we were teaching,
[00:00:19.500]we were reevaluating because there's many majors
[00:00:22.710]that show up in my class,
[00:00:24.100]and just asking the question of what do they need to know.
[00:00:28.310]We were already in that process and thought,
[00:00:31.590]why don't we find a better textbook
[00:00:32.940]that we could use.
[00:00:35.040]We had been looking at some other physics courses.
[00:00:37.490]What topics and textbooks they were using
[00:00:40.800]and came across this open source textbook and thought,
[00:00:43.970]hey, let's look at it.
[00:00:45.640]When we found out that it was completely free
[00:00:47.690]and available it was sort of the question of why not
[00:00:50.280]adapt to it because historically what I found is that
[00:00:54.890]the course specifically, there's never gonna be
[00:00:59.230]a textbook that meets its needs.
[00:01:01.410]And so we were always gonna have that challenge,
[00:01:04.620]whether I used a expensive textbook
[00:01:06.650]that's brand new or an open source textbook, and so.
[00:01:09.880]That was really the main I guess
[00:01:13.230]building of the thought of why we ended up
[00:01:16.700]choosing a book, but from there it was,
[00:01:21.470]this is what's in the student's best interest.
[00:01:23.890]Education is getting more expensive
[00:01:25.650]and if we can help in our own little way, we wanted to.
[00:01:34.300]I've mentioned this a few times
[00:01:36.096]to a few different people but it was really easy.
[00:01:40.370]Ultimately, physics is physics
[00:01:42.250]and it doesn't change a lot from book to book,
[00:01:44.860]and so all we really had to do
[00:01:47.240]was look at what are we currently teaching in the class,
[00:01:50.340]and what sections in the new textbook
[00:01:53.130]are being covered in that.
[00:01:55.220]And so from there it wasn't too challenging.
[00:01:58.130]The adaption of new content
[00:02:00.830]and creating ag and life science-focused examples
[00:02:04.260]is something that I'm always
[00:02:05.970]trying to develop in the class as it is.
[00:02:09.250]It was really painless.
[00:02:11.510]It only took me maybe about a week
[00:02:14.080]to really adjust the content and just say,
[00:02:17.180]this is the sections in this new book.
[00:02:19.750]They're a little out of order from what I would like,
[00:02:22.340]but we can just reference the specific sections
[00:02:25.640]and it hasn't seemed to be much of a problem for students.
[00:02:32.330]The only comment I've really had,
[00:02:34.690]and this was primarily just through reading
[00:02:36.680]end of semester evals was
[00:02:38.950]thank you for a free book.
[00:02:41.820]Beyond that, there's some slight nuances
[00:02:44.960]between the equations that we had been using,
[00:02:47.610]like the verbiage basically with it
[00:02:49.310]verse what the new textbook uses,
[00:02:51.040]and that just requires some adaption,
[00:02:53.370]but I haven't really had any negative feedback from students
[00:02:57.510]on that end, whether it's because they don't notice
[00:03:00.380]or because it's just something beyond
[00:03:02.410]where they would be confused with it.
[00:03:04.920]Really the primary response I've just received is
[00:03:09.690]that they were happy they didn't have to spend $100
[00:03:12.140]on a textbook.
[00:03:17.860]In regard to the OER material specifically, no.
[00:03:23.420]I mean, basically like I kinda mentioned
[00:03:26.710]in the first question, we're never gonna find
[00:03:29.910]an agricultural and life sciences-focused physics book
[00:03:32.930]that's appropriate at a 100 level.
[00:03:35.790]And so we've had to always adapt
[00:03:38.840]from whatever textbook we were using.
[00:03:41.200]And so it wasn't unexpected.
[00:03:43.410]I am used to it by this point
[00:03:45.950]and was fully aware of that being the challenge
[00:03:49.130]as we went into the new book.
[00:03:51.850]We're gonna keep using the same textbook.
[00:03:53.620]We're developing a supplemental manual.
[00:03:56.160]I guess that might be the biggest shift
[00:03:57.740]is the old textbook, we had a giant booklet
[00:04:01.450]of practice problems for students
[00:04:03.400]that they could use if they wanted to,
[00:04:04.980]and we wanted to shift away from using that
[00:04:08.030]now that we switched textbooks.
[00:04:09.650]And so we're building one ourselves.
[00:04:11.400]But that was an expectation of the problem
[00:04:15.410]when we were going into it.
[00:04:16.600]So it hasn't really been surprising.
[00:04:22.360]Well, being in engineering, the primary
[00:04:26.600]people I've discussed this with
[00:04:28.000]are other engineering faculty.
[00:04:30.120]The challenge that I think a lot of them look at
[00:04:33.770]is it would be really daunting to try and adapt
[00:04:36.230]using engineering textbooks.
[00:04:38.490]And I can see where they're coming from with that
[00:04:40.620]because there aren't exactly
[00:04:42.140]OER resources sitting around for it.
[00:04:44.780]However, the commentary that I've tried to share
[00:04:49.180]or the thought that I've primarily had is that
[00:04:51.830]if it's in the students' best interests we should do it.
[00:04:54.900]That we are able to provide them
[00:04:58.820]a cheaper resource that has the same quality,
[00:05:03.150]then there's no reason not to move forward with it.
[00:05:07.640]Practically, I imagine that every course
[00:05:10.270]is a little different in that regard
[00:05:11.700]and finding good resources that are open source is
[00:05:15.730]different levels of challenge,
[00:05:17.220]but if it's a common topic
[00:05:19.370]or something that a lot of students would have access
[00:05:22.810]to a free resource, then I don't believe
[00:05:25.900]there's any reason not to try and move forward with that.
[00:05:35.196]Nothing really comes to mind.
[00:05:37.010]I think maybe the biggest surprise was
[00:05:40.020]how few students were generally
[00:05:41.550]even opening their books before,
[00:05:43.720]whether they purchased them or not,
[00:05:46.582]and the main thing I've noticed is that I think
[00:05:49.180]for a math-based course like our physics class,
[00:05:54.160]that the students are mostly trying to just learn
[00:05:58.120]from lecture and avoid opening their books all together
[00:06:00.900]if they can, and so trying to be more intentional,
[00:06:04.380]using the book and using the resources that the book has,
[00:06:09.200]whether it's just from problems or examples,
[00:06:12.000]or just the specific section explanations
[00:06:16.790]are something that I'd like to try and incorporate
[00:06:18.900]a little bit more, but I think that's probably been
[00:06:22.130]the biggest surprise is,
[00:06:24.220]and I don't know if that's true in other classes.
[00:06:27.170]The other classes I teach, I don't imagine students
[00:06:29.530]would survive without opening their textbooks.
[00:06:32.330]But I'd imagine that there's plenty of classes
[00:06:35.940]where that's probably true.
[00:06:42.402]They're not different.
[00:06:44.090]We were using Maple T.A. to do all of our math assignments
[00:06:48.300]and quizzes and things,
[00:06:50.280]and that's been the same content.
[00:06:51.960]All I had to do was some slight rearrangement
[00:06:54.100]of specific problems to meet the new textbook.
[00:06:56.820]The exams and online exams
[00:07:01.740]have been entirely self-created,
[00:07:04.140]and so nothing really changed in that regard.
[00:07:06.700]One of the main reasons why I moved to that system
[00:07:09.490]was that when we used to assign books problems
[00:07:12.700]and other types of assessments that the students
[00:07:15.850]could find in the existing textbook,
[00:07:18.400]things like Chegg were constant impediments,
[00:07:21.850]and we were always sort of fighting with copying
[00:07:24.520]because of that.
[00:07:25.910]And so when we moved to the Maple T.A. system
[00:07:28.120]it was basically a preventative measure
[00:07:30.390]from allowing them to ever copy each other.
[00:07:32.820]That they had to learn the process
[00:07:34.250]to be able to solve the questions.
[00:07:36.930]Nothing has really seemed to change much
[00:07:38.960]from the new OER version verse the past version.
[00:07:47.680]I really haven't noticed changes.
[00:07:50.280]Our prior assessments are mastery-based,
[00:07:54.170]and so students are allowed to keep attempting
[00:07:56.910]the assignments until they achieve their desired grade.
[00:08:02.390]The class averages on those are pretty much static
[00:08:05.020]across terms because I would say something like
[00:08:08.210]90% of students are going to keep working on it
[00:08:10.660]until they get 100s on it.
[00:08:12.870]The exam averages have been within the margin of error
[00:08:16.980]that I've noticed from previous terms
[00:08:18.470]and so I haven't really seen a substantial difference
[00:08:20.890]in grades, positively or negatively.
[00:08:27.660]Pretty much the main one is that
[00:08:29.780]all of these gen ed physics books
[00:08:32.660]are going to have slightly different terminology.
[00:08:36.298]A good example that I keep encountering
[00:08:37.940]is that say the variables that they use for velocity
[00:08:41.260]are gonna have some different subscripts,
[00:08:43.720]and because we had built an entirely online course,
[00:08:46.380]I had to go back and start rebuilding
[00:08:48.570]some of those lecture videos,
[00:08:50.810]primarily just to be consistent
[00:08:52.440]with the new book terminology.
[00:08:54.440]That's more on my end than other challenges.
[00:08:57.170]I honestly have not found it to be remotely difficult
[00:09:00.690]to adjust and adapt and I've been happy
[00:09:03.730]that we have this new book that works for students
[00:09:08.231]and I can just say hey, here's your textbook
[00:09:09.710]on the first day of class.
[00:09:10.910]You don't have to spend any money.
[00:09:13.510]I know they appreciate that.
[00:09:15.320]Whether they like the book or not,
[00:09:17.362]I haven't really gotten good feedback on.
[00:09:20.100]I know they appreciate the small level of cost savings
[00:09:23.100]that we can provide.
[00:09:27.810]Nothing's really changed.
[00:09:29.160]It's pretty much been the same course otherwise.
[00:09:32.360]The new supplemental book, as that comes out,
[00:09:36.890]we will probably adapt a little bit
[00:09:39.020]to trying to use that more specifically.
[00:09:41.540]Primarily through the purpose of providing it
[00:09:44.560]to the students, recommending that they work through
[00:09:47.380]certain practice problems in it,
[00:09:48.910]maybe incorporating some of those things
[00:09:50.720]into our assessments.
[00:09:52.240]But beyond that, nothing has changed.
[00:09:58.830]Do it.
[00:10:01.500]I don't really have much else to say beyond it.
[00:10:03.500]It was extremely easy.
[00:10:06.070]At least for my class it wasn't anything cumbersome.
[00:10:10.040]It's things that I've been trying to work on
[00:10:12.180]and engaged in ever since I started teaching the course.
[00:10:15.830]It was just a different textbook
[00:10:17.180]and physics is pretty much physics across
[00:10:19.770]most of these textbooks, it doesn't change much and so,
[00:10:23.050]at least entry-level gen ed physics,
[00:10:25.070]and the reality for me was that it did not take
[00:10:29.940]very much time at all to adapt
[00:10:31.470]and to convert, and that's a good thing.
[00:10:34.290]It's basically been the same learning environment
[00:10:37.130]for students, it hasn't been worse,
[00:10:38.900]and that we'll continue to keep working
[00:10:41.660]with this open book and hopefully
[00:10:43.680]continue to make it better.
[00:10:45.550]I know one of the things that we're interested
[00:10:47.150]in doing is that there's several other ag physics classes
[00:10:51.230]at other universities, in other schools
[00:10:53.410]that we know through a lot of different avenues,
[00:10:56.710]one of them being our professional society
[00:10:58.630]and I'm looking to try and share some of the process
[00:11:02.590]and resources with them if we can.
[00:11:05.360]Hopefully there's more wider interest
[00:11:07.350]in adaptation in that.
[00:11:09.679]But beyond that it's been a really easy, good process
[00:11:13.240]and I've been trying to recommend it to anybody
[00:11:16.300]that I think would find use of it in their classes.
[00:11:24.050]I would just think intentionally about
[00:11:26.410]what is the course, are there resources out there,
[00:11:29.350]that there are plenty of avenues
[00:11:31.190]and people to help you find them.
[00:11:33.720]We found it just kind of by happenstance
[00:11:35.900]looking at other syllabi from other classes
[00:11:39.000]that were similar to ours.
[00:11:41.980]It's been very clear over the last year
[00:11:44.490]that there are tons of open resources,
[00:11:47.100]and that if you just look for them
[00:11:48.510]you'll probably find what you want.
[00:11:51.060]Even for classes that you wouldn't think
[00:11:53.150]you could do it for,
[00:11:55.140]there's always opportunity to try and be creative.
[00:11:59.520]You don't have to be religiously stuck
[00:12:03.340]to some specific textbook
[00:12:04.830]that you may have been using for several years.
[00:12:08.920]I think that was the biggest takeaway I had was,
[00:12:11.610]I know this book though, I don't want to switch out of it.
[00:12:14.170]But at the end of the day,
[00:12:15.730]it was what was best for students
[00:12:17.330]and it was helpful for us to accept moving on
[00:12:20.720]to a new textbook and hopefully it's worked out well and
[00:12:25.800]I believe the students have at least appreciated
[00:12:28.420]that we're trying.

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Faculty Interview David Mabie-UNL

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