Hi Everyone,

My name is Katelynn Jarrells and I am the Program Head of Human Services at Brightpoint Community College. 

Our OER Goals & Purpose: I am planning to create powerpoints and other materials to transition out HMS 100: Introduction to Human Services to an OER text. 

Our Audience: The majority of the students that come to human services and social work are post-traditional. They are parents, adult learners, and first gen students. They have complex lives and other responsibilities in addition to being students. Their voices are needed in the classroom and profession. Open content will decrease financial barriers to their access to higher education and ensure that the quality of the content they learn is at the highest, most current level possible, while meeting their learning needs. Many of my students can be intimidated by the technological aspects of higher ed, so one of my priorities is to make the course as user friendly as possible. 

Our Team: Just me :)

Existing Resources: opensocialwork.org is an incredible resource and I am planning to create powerpoints, a syllabus, and canvas course based on this text found through Open Social Work - Social Work & Social Welfare: Modern Practice in a Diverse World | OER Commons

New Resources: Syllabus, modules, lesson plans, power points.

Supports Needed: Time, encouragement and motivation!

Our Timeline: 

• Feb 7th - syllabus, modules and canvas page created
• Feb 8th - powerpoints for chs 1 - 3
• Feb 10th - powerpoints for chs 4 - 8
• Feb 13th - powerpoints for chs 9 - 12
• Feb 15th - powerpoints for chs 13 - 16

Hi! I'm Amy Marshman from Brightpoint Community College. My colleagues and I are working on an Art History OER for the first section of the survey course.

I'm currently working on outlines of content that already exists for each unit. 

All available on our OER page: https://vivaopen.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/1653/overview 

Our OER Goals & Purpose: The purpose of this project is to provide a replacement for the art history textbooks currently used in the course History of Art: Prehistoric to Gothic and to provide standardized resources for instructors. This project will utilize available Open Educational Resources (OER), specifically Smarthistory, public use images, and other Creative Commons licensed materials. Materials will be chosen based on their content and accessibility. This will globalize and modernize the content for students, while also making it more accessible. In addition, lecture notes, testing materials, study guides, and PowerPoints will be compiled for instructors. This course redesign will be an important resource for new and veteran instructors of this course since it will address the recent VCCS update to the History of Art, which is a one of the most popular transfer electives in Virginia, to adopt a more global approach to visual art.  

Our Audience: Students 

• Our audience is twofold: it's both the incoming art history students who are taking the introductory art history course and the instructors who are teaching the course. The students need easy-to-read, accessible content that addresses global history while the instructors need the tools to help them teach this material in an accessible way.

Our Team: Dr. Winn, Dr. Nicewinter, Melanie Medina, and Dr. Marshman

Existing Resources: What existing resources can you utilize for your OER Project? You can curate these resources in our Group Folders

• Smarthistory's Reframing Art History OER textbook
• Smarthistory Books
• Other OER textbooks where appropriate
• The MET website 

New Resources: Testbanks, readings, and other assignments will be created by our team. 

Supports Needed: 

• No, we feel prepared to begin our project. We are currently working on a course map, which includes course and module learning outcomes, and a list of artworks. These two documents will be married to then create the course outline.

Our Timeline: 

Hi everyone, I'm Jeff Elkner and I teach at the Arlington Career Center. I dreaming of (and working on) creating an OER curriculum for our entire computer science pathway.

OER Computer Science

Motivation

Arthur C. Clarke's third law states that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic."

In Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton's 2013 Keynote at Pycon, he describes both the declining number and skills of the computer science applicants to the Cambridge University CS program by 2005 relative to a decade earlier, which he attributes to the lack of "hackable" machines available to young learners compared to those available to his generation in the 1980s.

In my 30+ years teaching computer programming to high school students, I have witnessed the phenomenon Upton describes first hand, and only seen it get worse. The computers we issue to students at my school in our one-to-one these days are "locked down", preventing students from learning how to control the device, and the slick, modern operating system through which they interact with the machine is becoming ever more indistinguishable from magic.

For aspiring computer scientists and technologies at the very least, but I would argue for anyone who wishes to possess 21st century literacy, this is not a good situation. If students do not understand the machines which have ever increasing impact on their lives, how are they going to reason about them?

Vision

Given the above movitation, I hope to develop a curriculum for my students with the central goal of demystifying the computer. I want students to leave our program with a deep understanding of what a computer is, what it can and cannot do, and what the implications of its use are for the world we humans are building in the 21st century.

Opportunity

I am fortunate indeed to be in just the right place to work toward the above vision. I teach in a small dual-enrolled program that offers an associate degree in computer science concurrent with a high school diploma.

That means am one of only two instructors who work with cohorts of students over four years through the following sequence of courses:

• Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles
• Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming
• Object-Oriented Programming
• Introduction to Discrete Structures
• Computer Systems
• Data Structures and Analysis of Algorithms

Because we have a small school program with student cohorts, we are in a unique position to be able to design an academic program that is integrated over time, with our overall learning objectives effectively distributed throughout our computer science pathway.

Goal

I want to develop integrated open educational resources for each of the courses in our computer science pathway. By both adapting existing OER materials and creating our own, we can develop learning materials that are high quality, equitably available, and customed taylored to meet the needs of our program.

Resources

Here are the courses and a work in progress list of available resources:

Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles

• CS Principles: Big Ideas in Programming

Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming

• Python for Everybody by Charles Severance (aka "Dr. Chuck")

Object-Oriented Programming

• How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with C++ by Allen B. Downey, Paul Bui, Kuang-Ti Yung, and Jeffrey Elkner

Introduction to Discrete Structures

• Discrete Mathematics: An Open Introduction 3rd Edition by Oscar Levin

Computer Systems

• Altair 8800 Operator's Manual

Data Structures and Analysis of Algorithms

• Data Structures and Information Retrieval in Python by Allen B. Downey

Jeffrey - Your plan to create an OER curriculum for your entire computer science pathway will have tremendous impact. Bravo! Is there a specific part of the curriculum that you hope to work on during the Academy? We suggest people put aside approximately five hours of time for their Academy projects and weekly activities during the three weeks of the program, so thinking small or in "bite sizes" is really ok at this point. 

Yes, I am currently working on the C++ version of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, which is avaialble here:

https://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/cpp/

The git repo for the source is here:

https://codeberg.org/OpenBookProject/thinkcscpp

Thanks!

Jeff

Oh, and just like I do with my students, you can use my commit history to verify that I've been on task ;-)

https://codeberg.org/OpenBookProject/thinkcscpp/commits/branch/main

Amy, thank you for outlining your project plan. I believe you were awarded a VIVA Open Course Grant and I look forward to seeing your final project. Is there something you plan to submit for the Academy related to this project? Perhaps a small portion of the work that you plan to focus on during the next two weeks? 

Hi Sophie,

I've been working on an outline of readings. The biggest problem that I'm having is the copyright limitations. 

AM

Hi, I'm Mark from Liberty University.

Our OER Goals & Purpose: I want to provide updated resources to advocate for OER with faculty.

Our Audience: This project is designed for faculty.  I believe they want a simple explanation of OER and a quick place to find them.

Our Team: At present, I am the only person on the team.

Existing Resources: I plan to use VIVA Open, Open Stax, the Open Textbook Library, and maybe MERLOT.

New Resources: I will need some infographics, charts, a survey software instrument

Supports Needed: I will need a place to put my resources- a Canvas shell, or a library research guide (libguides). 

Our Timeline: 

Spring 2023- gather materials in a pilot area (maybe sciences)?

Summer 2023- develop survey to faculty about OER use

Fall 2023- develop updated research guide about main sources of OER by discipline

Spring 2024- conduct survey and analyze data

Hi Mark - I'm excited to your final project. What do you hope to complete during the Academy to support the final project?

Hi, My name is Charu Mirajkar. I teach Biology and Microbiology for Heath Sciences at Brightpoint Community College. 

OER Goals & Purpose: 

BIO 101, General Biology – 1, is an approved UCGS (Uniform Certificate of General Studies) course of the SCHEV Passport Program. At Brightpoint Community College, we offer this course in a synchronous and in an asynchronous online modality. As this is a lab science class, the distance learner purchases a customized lab kit to complete the lab activities at home. The cost of the lab kit is about $120 / student. To reduce the financial load of a virtual learner, I am thinking of adopting an OER textbook. I am planning to create a full-set of ancillary instructional materials to support the instructors and students. This will include creating chapter PowerPoint slides, formative and summative assessments for each chapter, like homework, quizzes, and tests questions.

Audience:

BIO 101, General Biology – 1, has been a high enrollment course. BIO 101 is a mixed majors lab science class that feeds into several programs like Science AS, Psychology, Health Sciences, etc. It will be a mixed audience of traditional and non-traditional students.

Team:

Just me , right now. As I develop various class materials, I will have my peers review my material. I will also need support of an instructional designer when I build this project into Canvas.

Existing Resources:

I have identified the textbook. https://openstax.org/details/books/biology-2e

New Resources: 

Test banks

Supports Needed:

Collaboration with like minded people. 

Timeline:

• Feb 20th - Edit, remix and rewrite the content of the available resources to align with VCCS course learning objectives as per the Transfer VA initiative.
• March 30^th - powerpoints for chs 1 - 3
• April 30^th - powerpoints for chs 4 - 8
• May 30^th  - powerpoints for chs 9 - 12
• June 30^th - powerpoints for chs 13 - 18

My name is Nasim Khawaja, and I work as Professor of ESL at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) at Annandale Campus. I have joined VIVA Open Skills Academy to learn more about Open Educational Resources (OER).

My audience are my ESL adult students. For almost two years, we have influx of new Afghan refugees in our classrooms at NOVA. I would like to design some English grammar and reading comprehension courses to support their English learning efforts and needs.

I am working alone on this project at this moment.

I am trying to explore some existing resources (such as textbooks, assignments, and worksheets) on the Internet. I have not found anything yet.

The first and foremost thing is time out of my teaching schedule. I plan to explore resources within the next two weeks.

I would like to submit the draft of my project for peer review by February 15, 2023.

Edited because I forgot to introduce myself.... 

Hi! I'm Kellie Aldi - I am chemistry faculty at Germanna Community College. We have tried to keep costs in our chem courses by adopting an OER text and have used largely faculty written labs to avoid the use of a lab textbook, but these labs have lacked coherence and consistency. The labs for CHM111 and CHM112 have recently been overhauled, but our CHM101 labs are also in need of a revamp as well. 

My OER Goals & Purpose – I am trying to develop OER course materials to help keep materials costs low to students. We do not currently use a laboratory textbook, but the set of labs we currently use lacks focus and does not necessarily strongly connect with what is discussed in lecture.  With newly written lab experiments, topics and techniques can be tailored to our course learning objectives and written keeping in mind the equipment available in our labs.

Our Audience – These labs are for CHM101 courses. These students need a little extra guidance with the connection between lecture topics and the hands-on collection and work up of data. Topics more closely connected to everyday activities/phenomena helps students make these connections.

My Team – My OER Project Team consists of me and one of my fellow chemistry faculty members. We both have a hand in writing labs, checking each other’s work for consistency with learning objectives and feasibility of the experiment given the equipment we have available.

Existing Resources – we have a set of hodge-podge labs that have been written by previous faculty. There are some useful components in these labs that we can draw from.

New Resources – I found a set of OER materials for a CHM161/162/163 courses. Some of these materials may be a bit beyond the scope of a CHM101 course, but there are a lot of neat materials with good ideas that can be easily adapted:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9HLBJSmC6v2RmRELVJoZGRNeTQ?resourcekey=0-6thWE6Oi-31yiVrI6PijtQ&usp=share_link

Supports Needed – time… it is very time consuming to write labs and think through all the different aspects of implementing the labs – logistics from the chemistry stock room side, as well as where the likely pitfalls for students might be, and how to make the ease of use as seamless as possible to make it easy for other faculty to adopt these materials.

Our Timeline – I can have a draft of an example lab experiment ready by Feb 15th to illustrate the standardized format that will be used for all lab experiment documents. The use of a standardized format is being used to consistently illustrate the process of scientific investigation. But for the completion of all the labs, it will be by Summer of 2023 for implementation in the Fall 2023 semester.

Hello Everyone,

I’m Stephanie Daniel, and this is my first semester as program head of Early Childhood Education at Reynolds Community College. My goal and purpose are to develop an OER textbook for our CHD146 – Math, Science, and Social Studies for Children course.

My audience are students who work with or desire to work with young children. We have a diverse group of students who work in a field that doesn’t pay a lot, so having courses that doesn’t required them to purchase textbooks is important to me and them.

I have been working on resources for the past four semesters and hope this opportunity will help me put the resources together as a textbook. With that being said, it’s just me.

Existing resources would include handouts, syllabus, and PowerPoint presentations I have created thus far. I also use handouts from the Virginia Department of Education.

My goal is to have the OER Project ready by Feb. 15^th

Our OER Goals & Purpose: I want to learn more about how to better use OER with my students. 

Our Audience: I am designing a poetry workbook to use with the course textbook. I am starting with poetry and I then plan to add diction and drama. 

Our Team: I am presently working alone. 

Existing Resources: I am using prior variation and the course textbook. I don't have anything as of yet that I feel can share with the group folders.   Group Folders

New Resources: None at the moment

Supports Needed: What additional supports do you need to complete your OER Project? Do you need to gather more research and data to inform the design of your OER Project?

Our Timeline: I intend to have a deliverable copy by Monday, Feb. 13.  Your OER Project draft will need to be ready to share during our peer review session on February 15.

My name is Libby McDaniel and I'm a librarian at William & Mary. I'm also an adjunct in the MLIS program at ODU. I teach cataloging and classification.

GOAL: identify OER resources that already exist and incorporate them into my syllabus for Fall 2023. I don't have the time or knowledge to create an entire textbook, but I think I can evaluate materials that already exist and create some new materials.

Audience : future librarians

Team: just me.

Support needed: I'm an adjunct with a day job, so a commercially available textbook (that is pretty good) was definitely  the easiest choice when planning the class. And ODU bought an unlimited user ebook of the text, so there is no cost to students. This course is giving me the extra nudge that I need to explore the OER that are available and create some tools to help students.

New resources: For those of you who are not librarians..... library cataloging has a lot of rules and theory, but students need to practice applying those rules. I think I'd like to create something like an excercise book or workbook of examples that students can use to practice what they are learning. 

Timeline -- Fall 2023

Hi Everyone,

My name is Pearl Adzei-Stonnes, Acquisitions Librarian at Virginia Union University.

OER Goals & Purpose: I plan to develop a course on information literacy for college freshmen. The purpose of the course is to provide training for college freshmen on the use of libraries’ database to find scholarly or peer reviewed journal articles to write their research papers. The course will be part of New Students’ Orientation course which will be taken for credit.

Audience: college freshmen.

Team: Just me

Existing Resources: Library’s database

New Resources: Information literacy course

Supports Needed: constructive criticism

Our Timeline: February 2023

I'm Jenny Horton, Director of the Library at University of Lynchburg.  I want to bring a broader awareness of OER and encourage faculty to use what is available.

OER Goals & Purpose: My project is to bring awareness to campus and find out who might already be using OER that could help me move it forward and expand its reach. I feel like there are pockets, but no true organized plan. The library has a wealth of resources already availble, an audience with the faculty through liaison responsiblities, and a willingness to teach/share/collaborate.

Audience: The faculty of the institution is my audience.  Full-time, adjunct, etc.

Team: I am the only member of the team for now and at some point when I feel organized I will include all librarians and members of the faculty who are willing to lead and assist others.

Existing Resources: There are many resources which exist currently. Luckily, I'm not blazing a trail and there are good resources already available.

New Resources: I want to host learning opportunities for faculty and one of the ways I hope to make the reach broader is to make a video session that can be viewed anytime. At this point, that is the only new resource that is required for my project.

Supports Needed: I will need the support of administration and at least a few faculty representatives.  The key will be finding interested, invested, and willing participants among the faculty to help me make a case to administration, and to keep it moving forward.

Timeline:  The timeline is to find participants and schedule at least one interest workshop before the end of the spring semester.  This would provide time in the summer to determine next steps and have something in place for Fall 2023.

Hi Everyone I am Shannon Steffey and I am the Assistant Director of Educational Services and Research Support at UVA Wise's Library. We are just starting the process of supporting the use of open access resources on our campus.

Our OER Goals & Purpose: Our library wants to develop a program to introduce our campus faculty to Open Educational Resources. We plan to create a LibGuide for online use and conduct workshops to share the benefits of using OERs.

Our Audience: Our audience will be the college’s faculty.

Our Team: We have a small staff so most everyone will contribute in some way to the project. We will have an OER leader to plan the project and assign tasks to the library staff.

Existing Resources: We hope to use several different types of resources including VIVA Open, Open Stacks, Open Textbook Library, and similar resources.

New Resources: The most important “new” that we need to have for a successful project is for the faculty to look at OER with a new, open mind set.

Supports Needed: We need time to work on the project and support from our campus leaders.

Our Timeline: Our timeline is to get the planning phrase started and developed by the February 15 deadline.  The actual work of the project will start in the summer, after classes end. We hope to have some workshops created and dates set for the Fall semester in place and a LibGuide ready to post online by the end of the summer.

Hello All, I"m sorry to be behind on the homework. 

I'm Kathy Clarke. I'm a librarian at James Madison and I'm the liaison attached to our General Education Program. In the past, we have delivered with Information LIteracy Learning outcomes embedded in the first year of our GE program. In 2019, the basic communication course director and I set out to convert that courses textbook into an OER. That has happened: Communication in the Real World. I now need to write an additional chapter for that text that will incorporate both our IL learning outcomes along with the course embedded outcomes. 

Audience: First year communication (basic course) faculty and entering students. 

Team: Just me. Others will assist as we move along. 

Existing Resources: I have created the Madison Research Essentials Toolkit that will serve as a foundation, along with ties to the SLOs for the course itself. 

New Resources: Some assignment design help, which I have internally. Format and layout support. 

Timeline: Want to have it in place by Fall 2023.