As students, I think we all had moments when we questioned the point of certain assignments. They might’ve been simple ones—posters, diagrams, or short stories meant to be completed quickly, graded, and never discussed again. You may have even told yourself that you didn’t have
Two of the most important developments in education over the past 10 years are (1) the emergence of digital tools that allow faculty to assign students new and interesting learning activities and (2) the proliferation of open educational resources (OER) to broaden access to
I find that the terminology used in textbooks in my discipline of applied behavior analysis (ABA) tends to lack any cultural context or descriptors that might connect today’s student to the text in a meaningful way. Textbooks are written by academics and so represent an
The use of open educational resources (OER) is growing in education as they save money for the students and facilitate instructor manipulation of the resource. Nevertheless, some teachers are reluctant to use OER because they have difficulty locating and evaluating sources or like their fundamental
Open educational resources (OER) are gaining traction as a way to address the high cost of textbooks and students’ subsequent reluctance to purchase them. But there are still relatively few OER textbooks in many subject areas, possibly due to the lack of incentive for producing
Open education resources (OER) are gathering more and more interest in higher education as the high cost of textbooks has led a significant percentage of students to simply forgo textbook purchases (Reddon, 2011). OER provide a free alternative to expensive textbooks. But the number of
Many faculty and institutions are turning to open educational resources (OER) to lower costs to students and improve instruction. While much has been written about the search, evaluation, and selection process for OERs, the need to produce a coherent and engaging design for OER delivery
It is no secret that the cost of textbooks has skyrocketed over the past years, with students spending on average around a thousand dollars a year on textbooks (Meyer, 2016). It should thus come as no surprise that the majority of students have opted out
I have taught undergraduate students for nearly 35 years. In the past decade, I have seen an increasing number of students who don’t buy the textbook or, if they do, rarely read it. Many of my non-native English students struggle to understand discipline-specific terminology and
Most institutions provide instructional design teams to support faculty in creating online courses. At my institution, each department has an assigned instructional designer, and most faculty members consider designers to be an indispensable part of the course development process. The same cannot be said for
Magna Publications © 2023 All rights reserved
As students, I think we all had moments when we questioned the point of certain assignments. They might’ve been simple ones—posters, diagrams, or short stories meant to be completed quickly, graded, and never discussed again. You may have even told yourself that you didn’t have to try as hard because they were just busywork that only your instructor would read.
As a full-time general education lecturer, these are the types of assignments I have tried to move away from. I want to design my courses around assignments that excite my students and help them grow. When I began experimenting with open educational resources (OER), I was able to design assignments that promoted a higher level of intrinsic motivation in my students. While the ability to engage students is one of my favorite qualities of OER, they present a host of advantages for both students and educators.
OER are educational materials—everything from single lessons to entire textbooks—that are free for educators and students to use, customize, and share. Because OER are openly licensed, educators can easily tailor these resources to the structure of a course and their students’ needs and interests.
One of the biggest advantages of OER is the flexibility to give students more autonomy. For example, I teach general education science, so my students create Google Sites with science lessons for other nonscience majors. They get to choose the topics they are interested in and the content they will feature on their sites; this means the content is usually timely and relevant to them in some way. Then the students’ sites become the de facto textbook for the following semester’s cohort. Students find the sites more engaging than any textbook I’ve ever used—and they appreciate not having to pay $250 for a book.
We call this type of project a renewable assignment because it’s nondisposable: the student’s product lives on after the course ends, and if the student has openly licensed it, anyone can freely use, edit, and expand on it. This project was attractive to me because I used to ask students to create posters to present their work to the class. We would have a great discussion, then all the posters would end up in the trash. Renewable assignments like websites can benefit students and the public long after the class ends. Because these sites are public facing and on topics students find interesting, students are motivated to make them the best they can possibly be.
It's tremendously satisfying to see my students enjoy what they’re learning and engage with the subject material. I truly look forward to seeing what my students come up with and getting to know them as I review their assignments. I’m proud of the sites they develop and love showing off the high-quality science research a class of nonscience majors can produce. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, renewable assignments have been a powerful tool to get students excited about learning again.
Another benefit of OER and renewable assignments is that they allow students and educators to include diverse viewpoints and make interdisciplinary connections. On her climate change site, for example, one of my students included information about how some Latin Americans have been displaced due to environmental extremes and how that translates to a social justice issue. This past spring, I assigned a new series of case studies that all focused on issues of equity in science, and OER will allow students to pull from a variety of sources to paint a more complete picture.
On a personal note, this OER project saved me from burnout after 10 years as an adjunct. It gave me direction and allowed me to find my place in academia. It enabled me to join a vibrant community of educators and network with instructors across the country. Change can be daunting, but shifting to OER or renewable assignments doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Educators can start with making a single assignment openly sharable and build from there. Many websites—most notably MERLOT, OER Commons, and OpenStax—offer OER and examples of renewable assignments, so educators should explore what’s out there and determine what could benefit their students. OER changed my career trajectory for the better, so I would challenge every educator to try them and see the difference these resources can make in their lives and in their classrooms.
Heather Miceli, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow with the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). She spent 15 years teaching general education science courses in the Northeast. She earned her doctorate in education from the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.
