Using a platform of your choice, find at least one OER that you would like to incorporate in your assignment and include a link to it.
1) Write a few sentences explaining how you might incorporate this resource into your assignment. It could be a source of information, a template, a guide, a tool to help with creating/revising/remixing etc. Or something else!
2) Include, specifically, how this resource can be reused, revised, or remixed.
3) What license does this OER have and how will it affect your use of it?
Please answer by Sunday, 7/31
There is a website whose URL is https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/oer/math which has a great deal om material for mathematics as well as other disciplines that use mathematics (social sciences and “hard sciences” such as biology and chemistry). This is the Iowa State University Library site. What I like about it is that it is well organized from general introductions to OER and into specific disciplines (e.g., Philosophy, engineering, psychology, et,).
For my own area (mathematics) I could use this site for my Math 106Quantitative reasoning course as a replacement book for what I use now and include examples from the book that deals with problem solving among other areas of quantitative reasoning (spatial reasoning, modeling, and algebraic reasoning), To quote from the web site, “this text is intended to support courses that bridge the divide between mathematics typically encountered in U.S. high school curricula and the practical problems that natural resource students might engage with in their disciplinary coursework and professional internships.” There are other mathematics books such as Linear Algebra, Calculus, and Discrete structures available.
The books are copywrite however there is a guide for authoring open textbooks and editing open textbooks for use in your course. The material is voluminous and is very extensive, but it seems each book is able to be altered and utilized on a case-by-case basis. This would be for all the disciplines covered by this site
I thought I had posted assignment 2 but I could not call it up, so I am redoing it. I utilized URL https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/oer/math This website offers a wealth of OER content from general to subject specific. That is from social sciences to “hard” sciences and humanities and mathematics.
for my own needs they offer a book on quantitative reasoning that would fit my Mat 106 course very well. That is, it covers problem solving, algebraic and numerical reasoning and modeling. The book has some very good practice problems that could be utilized in my class and the students’ answers could be used for structured walkthroughs to gage their understanding and utilization of the material.
There are other books in various math areas such as Calculus, discrete structures and Algebra. This is also true for the other disciplines that is, there is more than one book for the discipline.
The books are copywritten, however there is a section on the website that talks about creating ad modifying OER textbooks so that issue would need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
I’ll be talking a bit more about copyright in our third synchronous session, but it sounds like you’ve thought through the issues pretty carefully already.
One of the lectures I teach in my Stress Management class is systematic relaxation and anxiety reduction through the practice of autogenic training. In the lecture, students can read the steps used in A.G., beginning with finding a comfortable position in a quiet darkened place, loosening up clothing, and beginning controlled breathing while systematically working through the different areas of the body (ie, “my right arm is heavy; it is completely calm”), and then adding mental imagery. Students were encouraged to do the step-by-step exercise and then write up their mental imagery for extra credit.
I’d already been toying with the idea of vamping this exercise up, by making a video of a moving Zen-like scene with my voice superimposed, slowly giving the step-by-step prompts, in the hopes that more students would actually do the exercise at home. Through this assignment #2 I am starting to think in grander thoughts – using OER to help facilitate this. Perhaps making small groups of students to band together to develop parts of the AG exercise themselves, adding their own music, imagery, and voicing. If it goes well, future students can remix and revise, adding their own flavor and vibe.
I had no idea how to do this (I’m a Baby Boomer – the students are surely more tech savvy than I am), so I peeked at the other groups to get some ideas. Mengia in Group C, I think, mentioned the idea of producing a podcast, and was good enough to give the URL that would link over to a number of free podcast platforms. I have heard the word podcast before but had never explored it (if interested, the URL Mengia gave is https://themeisle.com/blog/best-free-podcast-hosting/). I perused the podcast platforms and thought that this could actually work, and I look forward to exploring this more in the weeks to come.
The licensing for this OER, though, made my head swim. It seemed to use the free platform, I must agree to sign my life away and those of my students too. I’m sure I’m exaggerating, but it is my first time entering this arena and I feel intimidated (or just plain dated?). This is literally my first toe dip into OER, and the stage where I am at right now. However it is clear to me that OER is the next pathway to enhanced and expanded learning for our students. The technology is here to facilitate it. When I was a kid in grade school all we had was boring textbooks to memorize, and I was a terrible student. I think I would have thrived in a classroom with OER learning. In the case of getting skilled in autogenic training, learning by showcasing one’s innovation and talent through podcast creation is certainly superior to just reading the step-by-step guidelines in a textbook.
We can talk about this during our one-on-one zoom session, but in the meantime, please have a look at this podcast library which was built on the CUNY Manifest site, on which you can use Creative Commons licensing, rather than the Spotify license:
https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/queer-and-trans-prison-voices
I would like to include a few OER resources from OER Commons along with a playlist of Youtube videos (among a much more extensive list of resources and platforms to explore). I would use these resources along with the already free materials we have created (powerpoints, videos, pdf texts) to clarify concepts for the students. I would use these to create weekly knowledge checks in the recitation portion through either a graded assessment, worksheet, journal entry, or discussion board post. I, also, aim to have the students create a working course glossary that the students link videos and images to and of course revise over time; however, I’m not sure what the best platform is for this more extensive assignment.
The OER commons links that I found useful were pretty numerous:
This is a source of information I could remix: https://www.ck12.org/book/human-biology—reproduction/
Unfinished course outline with links acts as both a template and source of information: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5yVyCq9_Nq-cmlCcGFMNVpzRk0?resourcekey=0-kcB2Omt98KsQxLrYFP6C4w
Source of Information (supplemental)- Khan Academy videos (one of the many follows): https://www.khanacademy.org/science/high-school-biology/hs-human-body-systems/hs-the-reproductive-system/v/welcome-to-the-reproductive-system
I will focus on the Khan Academy videos that will be used as a supplemental source of information that can be linked into the glossary or used for a collective study guide.
The license of all Khan Academy lessons seems to be “Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)” meaning my students can share and remix as long as they properly cite usage which I would ensure. It is non-commercial meaning we would not use it for monetary gain as is the purpose of OERs. Lastly, it is “share alike” meaning that the created student glossary or study guide would also be CC BY-NC-SA.
(Sorry for the lateness of this post. I have been working on updating the course curriculum, and I was uncertain how extensive or complete this was expected to be.)
The OER that I am going to include in my assignment is an adapted textbook titled Abnormal Psychology, which is a work originally produced and distributed under a CC license in 2014 by OpenStax. It can be found at: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/abnormal-psychology-simple-book-publishing/view
I plan to use this textbook as the main reading resource for my course, although I am going to skip over some of the beginning chapters, with the bulk of the course reading coming from chapter 3. After looking over the text somewhat thoroughly, I think the content of the textbook is strong and that it’s a good fit for a 200-level course. I like that the information presented is narrowed to the most pertinent topics and therefore more appealing and less overwhelming for students. However, on the other hand, I also see some content areas that are missing or lacking or that could be further elucidated with examples or better examples. That said, this textbook could be reused by future students as is, or it could be revised by updating definitions, research, and examples.
The textbook Abnormal Psychology by elearning@delta.edu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. After some researching, I was able to confirm that the attribution license allows me to copy, distribute, display, perform, and remix, the text if I give appropriate credit to the source; the share alike portion of the license dictates that I can only distribute the remixed textbook under the same creative commons attribution license, keeping the textbook an OER.