Wendy Ward, professor in the School of Academic Studies, and ncLibraries staff Bianca Parisi and Kent Reynolds joined forces with a shared belief in Creative Commons. Together, they wanted to make it possible for more students to be able to access information – like that in course textbooks – for free.
The trio embarked on adapting and customizing an Open Educational Resource (OER) via eCampusOntario for students in Ward’s section of COMM 1140: Essential Communication Skills for Community Services course. Students in the Early Childhood Education program enrolled in Ward’s Fall Term 2018 were the first cohort to access the adapted textbook at no cost.
“I was inspired by a session on OER’s by Rajiv Jhangiani to find a way to incorporate OER’s into my own teaching for the benefit of my students,” said Ward. Jhangiani is considered one of Canada’s leading advocates for greater access and affordability of teaching and learning materials. Ward has been teaching for 15 years and has seen students struggle with the cost of their course textbooks. OER’s are seen as one way to remove the economic barrier to education for students.
In their quest to adapt a textbook for COMM 1140, Ward perused eCampusOntario’s extensive catalogue of texts to find one with potential for her class. eCampusOntario is a non-profit that aims to strengthen Ontario’s post secondary education system by increasing access to online learning. The textbook, Professional Communications: Canadian Edition, authored by J.R. Dingwall, Chuck Labrie, Trecia McLennon and Laura Underwood, fit Ward’s criteria, and was available for adaption, meaning that the team was able to fully customize the text to the needs of her students. The text was licensed by Creative Commons, which is typical for most OER’s.
In 2018, associate dean Beth Bracken gave Ward the go-ahead, and ECE program coordinator Angela Hayes came on board to have her program area pilot the use of the new OER. Peggy French who was seconded from Mohawk College to work with eCampus Ontario assisted Ward, Parisi and Reynolds with the initiative.
Ward brought her expertise on the course content to the project, and Parisi and Reynolds had the technical knowhow to bring the text together. Parisi harnessed the power of Pressbooks and H5P technology to not only tailor the pilot textbook, but incorporate interactive content like quizzes and chapter check-ups. The trio were also able to integrate NC-specific resources for her students, including ncLibraries resources on plagiarism, academic integrity, proper citations, as well as the NC student code of conduct.
“This really is a testament to applied learning,” said Reynolds, who explains that Ward was able to mirror her approach to teaching with the OER of her choice.
Ward has already received positive feedback from her students, in part because they can access the textbook at no cost, but also because they can take digital notes, adjust the font size, and print sections of the book at will. OER’s are nearly the same as published textbooks – the only difference is they’re available online rather than in print. eCampus Ontario gives students the option to receive a printed copy by mail (a fee of $13.30 plus shipping for Ward’s textbook), or print the text at home at no cost.
OER’s are being used in other capacities around NC’s campuses.
Terry Potts in NC’s Workforce Development used an OER textbook for her Dual-Credit Psychology course, customizing the best-suited text available with interactive activities and stylistic changes, and linking to the text directly in Blackboard.
“The students in my classes are high school students who seem to be drawn to non-traditional, online resources,” said Potts. “They are quite digitally savvy and embraced reading a textbook from their computer or cell phone. I think our students are part of the OER generation and as educators we need to join the ‘open’ movement.”
Staff in the Centre for Academic Excellence (CAE) led two significant OER projects over the past three years; the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Open Modules, and the Experiential Learning Toolkit.
“Because they can be adapted to the NC context, we find OERs to be a flexible, cost-effective and accessible sources of information and inspiration,” said Natasha Hannon, associate director, Educational Development.
The CAE also collaborated with Brock University’s Faculty of Education to create a series of five online courses for an undergraduate degree program in Adult Education. The initiative was part of a provincial effort to expand the production, dissemination, and adoption of OER’s.
“The project was successfully awarded a $330,000 competitive eCampus Ontario grant,” explained Dr. Mary Wilson, director, Academic Excellence, who designed and developed a new online OER called Learning by Doing: Postsecondary Experiential Education. The course will be offered for the first time in Winter term 2020.
Ward, Parisi and Reynolds are excited to see momentum building for OER’s at NC and welcome the chance to speak to other faculty about exploring the development of new OER’s. NC staff will attend eCampus Ontario’s annual conference, the Technology + Education Seminar + Showcase (TESS), Nov. 18-19.
