Opening Up to OERs: Electronic Original Sourcebook vs. Traditional Textbook in the Introduction to American Government Course

Traditional American Government textbooks are expensive and often unpopular with students. New technologies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) open up the potential for change, but questions of quality are ever present: can OERs really help students learn better, or are they just cheaper? I developed an OER based on original sources and compared student learning outcomes with the OER section to those in a free digital textbook section. While the OER I created did not work as well as I had hoped, I nonetheless developed a redesign of my course and my approach to teaching, which is the true benefit of adopting OERs

Media Coverage of Human Rights in the US and UK: The Violations Still Won’t be Televised (or Published)

This article analyzes American television and American and British print news coverage of human rights using a combination of manual and machine coding. The data reveal that television and print news cover very few human rights stories, that these stories are mostly international and not domestic, that even when human rights are covered, they are not covered in detail, and that human rights issues are more likely to be covered when they are not framed as human rights. This suggests that human rights is simply not a frame that journalists employ, and provides support for government-leading-media theories of newsworthiness

Games, Movies, and Zombies: Making IR Fun for Everyone

Throwing as much fun and pop culture into an international relations class as possible, with the goal of improving student learning (and the likelihood of the course running again). Games proved most effective, while movies were less useful in increasing student learning on international relations

DHUM-74500 - Digital Pedagogy 2

This syllabus is for a course that will focus on opening our digital pedagogy- exploring open educational resources and open pedagogy, along with related opens: open access and open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums). The focus of the course reading will be on the why’s, how’s, and where’s of open educational practices, with a special focus on critical digital pedagogy. By the end of the semester, students will produce a polished proposal for a multimedia-based project in their discipline related to research, pedagogy, or both. The course incorporates hands-on exploration of educational uses of new-media applications and open possibilities. The course will use an open pedagogy approach to teaching and learning, starting with a co-created syllabus wherein students will have significant say in the selection of readings and assignments. We will also be working to share our work openly. All required materials will be openly available online

It’s (Not) in The Reading: American Government Textbooks’ Limited Representation of Historically Marginalized Groups

The Introduction to American Government course, and its textbook, is a nearly universal experience for students in American colleges and universities, but what exactly is being taught in this course? Do the textbooks used in this widely taught course accurately reflect the diversity of populations and experiences in the United States? More specifically, how do textbooks for Introduction to American Government cover historically marginalized groups, if at all? This article builds on previous work by analyzing the representation of individual historically marginalized groups to conduct index search and content analyses on traditionally published and openly licensed (i.e., open educational resources [OER]) textbooks. This study finds that American government textbooks include little coverage of any historically marginalized groups, and that OER textbooks are average in this respect, doing neither better nor worse than their traditionally published counterparts

But What Do The Students Think: Results of the Cross-Campus Zero-Textbook Cost Student Survey

The results of the first cross-campus survey of student opinions on Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses are in: City University of New York (CUNY) students like their ZTC courses, primarily for the cost savings and ease of access. The survey results yield rich data about how positively students feel about their Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses as well as ways to improve the design and delivery of Zero Textbook Cost courses to make them more beneficial for student learning

Worth the Time: Exploring the Faculty Experience of OER Initiatives

Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives, organized efforts to facilitate the adoption of OER, are increasing in popularity throughout the United States as a means of encouraging faculty to teach with these materials. Faculty participate in these initiatives despite other demands on their time and the lack of recognition for OER usage in the tenure and promotion process. To better understand this phenomenon, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with full-time faculty at senior colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY) and thematically analyzed the transcripts. Faculty were interviewed across colleges, teaching disciplines, and tenure status, yet their experiences with OER were remarkably similar. A central theme in the interviews was the strong desire to eliminate the cost burden to students of traditionally published textbooks. Faculty expressed that the support from librarians and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) was essential to teaching with OER. The financial incentive of a stipend was not valuable to faculty in terms of monetary value, however, it did signal institutional investment, which was considered critical. Faculty identified student engagement and access to learning resources as the driving factor in teaching with OER. Faculty enjoyed teaching with these materials despite lacking strong departmental support and despite feeling disconnected from OER as a community. Faculty felt that the benefits of OER to their students made it worth the extra time and additional workload, even given the lack of real recognition or compensation for these efforts by their institutions. Institutions looking to encourage OER adoption can learn from this study that course releases and revised tenure-and-promotion guidelines may be more beneficial than stipends in convincing faculty to embark on an OER journey

Getting Tenure Without Losing Your Mind: How to make the OER work you’re already doing count

Finding ways to recognize OER in the tenure and promotion process has long been a goal for open education advocates. The tenure and promotion process shows what is valued by an institution and is key to the sustainability of open education. To highlight the ways that folks have been successful in this process, the Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success (DOERS3) collaborative solicited case studies of their experiences. In this presentation, two faculty members at the City University of New York will discuss how they included OER in their portfolios. Stacy Katz, Open Resources Librarian-STEM liaison, is a library faculty member at a senior college and achieved early promotion to Associate Professor. Shawna M. Brandle is a full Professor and political science faculty member at a community college. By sharing their experiences, they hope to help faculty, staff, and administrators see how OER work can align with the tenure and promotion process