Why OER? Diane Duffin-UNK
Brad Severa
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05/16/2023
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Why faculty use OER for their course, from the 2023 Faculty Appreciation Event.
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- [00:00:00.180]Hello, my name is Diane Duffin.
- [00:00:02.580]I'm a professor of political science at UNK,
- [00:00:05.070]and I've used open educational resources
- [00:00:07.320]to teach Introduction to American Politics
- [00:00:09.630]for about 15 years now.
- [00:00:11.760]In these few minutes,
- [00:00:12.660]I'll explain why I prefer OER for this course,
- [00:00:15.510]and some of the lessons I've learned from doing so.
- [00:00:18.330]First, why I use open educational resources.
- [00:00:21.930]In my experience, students look at textbooks
- [00:00:24.690]as a compendium of facts and right answers
- [00:00:27.570]that they need to memorize.
- [00:00:29.130]It's like the voice of God speaking to them
- [00:00:31.140]from the discipline.
- [00:00:32.910]They don't see textbooks as presenting a point of view
- [00:00:35.790]that they can question or critique
- [00:00:37.590]or agree or disagree with.
- [00:00:40.230]So instead of building the course around that voice of God,
- [00:00:43.080]I select readings from a variety of sources,
- [00:00:45.450]articles, reports, book chapters, primary documents.
- [00:00:49.680]I look for materials that expose students
- [00:00:51.810]to the big questions and theories and debates
- [00:00:54.810]that drive both the construction of political,
- [00:00:57.330]the construction of knowledge in political science
- [00:00:59.580]and politics in the real world.
- [00:01:02.130]This realtime application makes abstract theories
- [00:01:04.950]more concrete and gives students theoretical tools
- [00:01:07.860]to make sense of the world they see.
- [00:01:10.140]And in grappling with these questions
- [00:01:11.880]and theories and debates, students still have to learn
- [00:01:14.550]the basic facts as with a textbook.
- [00:01:17.070]But in shifting the focus
- [00:01:18.330]from memorizing facts to analyzing author's arguments,
- [00:01:22.320]they also learn to attach meaning to the facts
- [00:01:25.020]to see how different facts support different arguments
- [00:01:27.510]and how consistent patterns of argument form value systems.
- [00:01:31.410]It's that reasoning and critical thinking
- [00:01:33.390]that I most want them to take away from the course,
- [00:01:35.880]and that just seems to work better
- [00:01:37.170]when the course is not structured around a textbook
- [00:01:39.810]and the students are not focused on memorizing.
- [00:01:43.230]A couple of lessons I've learned along the way.
- [00:01:45.420]First, this is absolutely more work for the professor.
- [00:01:50.280]It takes time to search and select readings.
- [00:01:53.430]I've also found that the literature and the discipline
- [00:01:55.470]can be more advanced
- [00:01:56.610]than many introductory students can comprehend.
- [00:01:59.550]So I have to choose carefully,
- [00:02:01.050]and sometimes I have to provide additional supports.
- [00:02:03.840]The kinds of materials I assign
- [00:02:05.370]don't come with study guides and vocabulary lists,
- [00:02:08.040]so I make my own.
- [00:02:09.210]That's just how it is.
- [00:02:11.340]The second big lesson I've learned,
- [00:02:12.570]and this one's a positive,
- [00:02:14.130]the content of the course is so much more flexible.
- [00:02:17.460]While I always cover the basic topics
- [00:02:19.020]for a standard intro American course,
- [00:02:21.030]the OER format makes it easy to plug in new material
- [00:02:24.540]when new topics rise on the public agenda.
- [00:02:27.120]For example, banning books from public and school libraries
- [00:02:30.510]is having a moment in American politics right now.
- [00:02:33.480]So this semester I found some material
- [00:02:35.430]on the discourse surrounding book bans,
- [00:02:37.740]and worked it into my standard lesson
- [00:02:39.300]on the First Amendment and freedom of speech.
- [00:02:42.030]In this way, the course undergoes continues renewal
- [00:02:44.910]allowing me to stay fresh with parts of the discipline
- [00:02:47.430]I probably wouldn't read otherwise.
- [00:02:49.350]So that's good for me.
- [00:02:51.180]More important, though, I like to think
- [00:02:52.890]I'm making the course more relevant to students.
- [00:02:55.200]And so far, no student has asked me
- [00:02:57.360]to stop doing it this way and adopt a textbook.
- [00:03:00.540]They like saving money and they seem to like engaging
- [00:03:02.940]with course material in thoughtful ways.
- [00:03:05.670]So that's my story.
- [00:03:06.630]If you'd like to know more, feel free to reach me
- [00:03:08.550]through the Political Science Department at UNK.
- [00:03:10.860]Thanks for your time.
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