Open SUNY COTE NOTE: OER Practical Examples

COTE NOTE

The Center for Online Teaching Excellence

What I know about OER Practical Examples Rhianna Rogers

I would like to share what I know about OER Practical Examples

I am trained as both an anthropologicalarchaeologist and historian, specializing in Mesoamerica and native cultures of the United States. I received a certificate in Ethnic Studies, a B.A. in Social Sciences (Anthropology Major and History Minor), an M.A. in History, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies (Anthropology Major and History Minor) from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. I am a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) with over eight years of field and museum experience. I have worked in both academic and public archaeology as well as in historic preservation and museum studies. My interests have taken me to various geographic locations to conduct research, including the South and Northeastern United States, Mexico, Ecuador, and Spain.

In Part II of this presentation, we will be working through some practical examples in more of an interactive workshop format. We will revisit the PIE approach as well as discuss my own approach, which I refer to as the DAURAS approach (i.e., development, application, use, reuse, assessment, and sharing) in order to discuss how these frameworks can be used during the creation and/or implementation process of OERs. By the end of this presentation, you should have some practical examples for the effective incorporation of OERs in college course environments.

I currently a member of the MA in Liberal Studies Core Faculty and a tenure track faculty member/mentor at SUNY ESC-Niagara Frontier Center where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in Cultural Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Social Sciences. Additionally, I was the founding Faculty Adviser for the NFC Student ClubCARES (College Achievement Requires Engaged Students).

What I did

“It is my hope that each person reviewing and/or hearing this presentation will recognize the usefulness of said resources and create new ways to increase their viability in our progressively digitized college environment.

”

What is it While it is too much to hope that all hearing this presentation will embrace the OERs into their course development processes, it is my hope that each person reviewing and/or hearing this presentation will recognize the usefulness of said resources and create new ways to increase their viability in our progressively digitized college environment.

How it works One of the things that I have found with expanding the PIE approach into the DAURAUS approach has been the freedom it has provided me to use and reuse information. Expanding the steps from 3 to 6 also allows for more oversight and vetting. Many of the current OER Educational models do not provide this level of freedom.

Whenever I create or reuse an OER, I always review the context for the resource, why it was created and/or what it is currently needed, what is its purpose, and how it can meet the needs in a particular course or course assignment. Practically speaking, if you approach OERs like a research project, (i.e., view it as an academic theme you which to contextualize), you can better vet the OER in order to determine if, in fact, it does match your own assignment goals and interests.

How I did it One of the best examples for illustrating effective implementation comes from the collaborative the IRB Photosynth project conducted by ESC Faculty Instructional Technologist and part-time Niagara University faculty member Nathan Whitley-Grassi and I in AY 2011-2012. As part of this project, we developed a collaborative OER assignment for students in order to observe the effectiveness of integrated technologies and projectbased learning at the college level. In the Fall and Spring terms, students in my Artifacts and Cultures of the Americas class and students in his Forensic Anthropology class constructed 3D models of artifacts using images, called synths, and posted them in a group space in the Microsoft platform, Photosynth. This project combined mini-lectures, the use of online Web software (blogger and Angel), digital cameras and cross-college collaborative learning. All students were provided a copy of the Photosynth lesson plan, project objectives and goals, matrix-based and open-ended survey questions. Throughout the process, students were asked to complete assignments, fill out surveys, and provide

The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence

August 7, 2014 • Volume 1 • Issue 5

COTE NOTE Staff The COTE Community Team: Alexandra M. Pickett, Associate Director, Open SUNY; Martie Dixon, Assistant Academic Dean, Distance Learning & Alternate Programs, Erie Community College; Patricia Aceves, Director of the Faculty Center in Teaching, Learning & Technology, Stony Brook University; Lisa Dubuc, Coordinator of Electronic Learning, Niagara County Community College; Christine Kroll, Assistant Dean for Online Education, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo; Deborah Spiro, Assistant Vice President for Distance Education, Nassau Community College; Erin Maney, Senior Instructional Designer, Open SUNY; Lisa Raposo, Assistant Director, SUNY Center for Professional Development This publication is produced by the Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence under the SUNY Office of the Provost.

Contact/Questions State University Plaza Albany, New York 12246 ContactCOTE@suny.edu

How to Submit Material This publication is produced in conjunction with the COTE “Fellow Chat” speaker series. Please submit a proposal at http://bit.ly/COTEproposal for consideration.

Visit http://commons.suny.edu/cote for more information.

To join COTE, visit http://bit.ly/joinCOTE

feedback. Findings suggest that students successfully engaged in this OER-based project and really enjoyed this project.

Why I did it As we continue to move into a more digitized and globalized age, finding new and innovative ways to engage students across cultural and global lines is crucial. Using, sharing, and reusing OERs is one way to contribute to this practice.

What happened when I did it Many students said that their learning experience was greatly enhanced by the use of OERs. I have found that student continue to as questions about the subjects I teach and request that I send them additional OERs even after their courses are done.

What I learned Based on the success I have had with OERs, I fully believe that they can enhance the college learning experience. I believe that the sharing of such information builds on the underlying principles of the OER movement. Sharing enhances existing OER communities and is one way to development a more concrete educational paradigm for this research area.

Developing and maintaining OER communities is essential to the success and development of quality OERs.

How others can use it Below, I provide a summation of the DAURAS model that created to expand on the PIE model, originally developed by Newby, T.J., Lehman, J.D., & Russel, J.D., 2000.

STEP 1: DEVELOP: Develop an outline, approach, and/or lesson plan that incorporates the learner’s knowledge, the assignment guidelines, and associated outcomes, from basic to advanced.

STEP 2: APPLICATION: Create an action plan so learners will understand when, where, what and how they will learn and what the objectives of the lesson plan are so they can anticipate what they will learn.

STEP 3: USE: Review existing OERs and join online communities to understand effective and ineffective strategies for OER creation, implementation, and use.

STEP 4: RE-USE: Properly cite approaches and resources reused from other OERs. STEP 5: ASSESSMENT: During and after the learning activity, evaluate how students performed and assess how effective the OER was in meeting your predetermined learning goals and objectives. This will allow for future improvements and/or enhancements in later courses.

STEP 6: SHARING: Provide opportunities for sharing your OER with the larger OER community.

References D’Antoni, S. (2008). Open educational resources: The way forward. http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/bitstream/10609/7163/1/ Antoni_OERTheWayForward_2008_eng.pdf Rogers, R. (2012). Using Open Resources to Your Advantage: How to Effectively Incorporate OERs into College Assignments. All About Mentoring, Issue 44: Winter 2013-24, a SUNY Empire State College Publication.

The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence

https://www.academia.edu/7308246/Using_Open_Resources_to_ Your_Advantage_How_to_Effectively_Incorporate_OERs_into_College_ Assignments This publication is disseminated under the creative commons license AttributionNoncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

August 7, 2014 • Volume 1 • Issue 5